~ By Tom Boggie

When Josh Coonradt was standing in victory lane at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday after winning the final pro stock feature of the regular season, I asked him if he was disappointed because he didn’t successfully defend his title at Malta.

He just smiled.

“When I started the season, I wasn’t even thinking about points,” he said. “I just wanted to win as many races as possible. Some people don’t even win one. Our first goal every year is to get that one win.”

He did way better than that. His win on Friday night was his third of the season at Albany-Saratoga. He also had three wins at Devil’s Bowl, where he won the four-race pro stock championship series. He also found his way to victory lane at Airborne Speedway and Utica-Rome in the pandemic-shortened season.

Coonradt’s battle with Luke Horning for the Albany-Saratoga championship came down to the final night of the season. They went into the final points race dead even, and nearly came out that way. Horning notched his fourth win of the season and Coonradt finished second, giving Horning the crown by four points.

“Finishing second to Luke is nothing to be ashamed of,” said Coonradt. Coonradt inherited his love for racing from his grandfather Harry. Josh’s father, Darryle, also raced, but was killed in a car accident on his way home from the Albany-Saratoga Spededway banquet in 1988, when Josh was just a year old.

Growing up, Josh and Harry used to spend every weekend at the races, traveling from Albany-Saratoga to Fonda to Devil’s Bowl. Josh spent many years working on his grandfather’s cars before finally getting behind the wheel of a limited (then the Champlain Valley Racing Association version of a street stock) in 2006.

It took Josh six years before he finally found his way to victory lane. His first win at Albany-Saratoga came in 2011, in the Renegade division during the second year of the asphalt experiment at the Malta track. Coonradt won six races that year, but lost the track championship to Frank Monroe.

After getting back on the dirt fulltime, Coonradt had the best season of his career in 2016, finishing with 22 victories, including winning 14 of 15 features at Fonda Speedway.

When he won the pro stock championship at Albany-Saratoga in 2019, Coonradt had the number 00X on the side of his car. This year, he switched to 70X, a tribute both to his father and his grandfather.

Coonradt, who also had four runner-up finishes at Albany-Saratoga this year, will be back in 2021, looking for another championship trophy to add to his collection. If the opportunity arose, he might consider moving up, but he’s just as happy running in the competitive full-fendered division at Albany-Saratoga.

“Money and sponsorship issues are the two things that keep us from moving up,” he said. “If the right opportunity came along, yeah, I’d think about it. But I’m having fun in these cars and we’re in contention every week, so there’s no rush to move up.”

WE’LL MISS YOU, BOB
The racing world lost a great friend when Bob James died last Sunday, a victim of cancer.

Bob, who was known simply as Bobco to everyone because of his videography business, had been shooting races at area tracks for over 30 years, and was one of the best in the business. As someone who went to the races to report on what I saw rather than enjoy what I was looking at, I always envied Bob’s pure passion for racing. That love led him to being a car owner, as well as a prominent member of the New York State Stock Car Association, and he thought nothing of sitting up until dawn to produce a CD after a night at the races.

Like so many others, Bob was taken from Earth much too young. We’ll miss you, Bob.

AROUND THE TRACKS
Heading out to Canandaigua last Saturday for the 74-lap Gerald Haers Memorial turned out to be a wise decision for some of Albany-Saratoga’s regulars.

Ronnie Johnson finished third, which paid $2,500, and also earned bonuses for winning his heat ($500) and sitting on the pole for the feature ($333). Rocky Warner was fourth in the Jason Simmons No. 98T, winning $2,000, and also picked up $400 for finishing second in the modified dash. Jack Lehner was fifth, which paid $1,700, picked up $250 for the Hard Charger Award and also got a $200 bonus from Bicknell Racing Products for making the longest haul to the race.

Demetrios Drellos recorded his fourth consecutive sportsman/modified victory at Devil’s Bowl last weekend, but had to wait a couple of days to enjoy the win. Following the feature, Justin Comes put up $500 to protest Drellos’ engine. The engine was confiscated, and taken to Hunt’s Machine in Schenectady on Monday, where it was found to be a perfectly legal 602.

Albany-Saratoga limited sportsman champion Bryce Breault made his first visit ever to the Bowl last weekend, and finished fourth in the limited sportsman feature, after starting 15th.

Congratulations to Tanner Warner for posting his first career win in last Friday’s limited sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga. Warner, one of Rocky’s sons, drives for the Zilles family and will turn 18 on Sunday. He began the season racing a pro stock at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park before getting behind the wheel of the Zilles ride.

In last week’s column, I gave Andrew Buff credit for three straight victories during the previous weekend. But as it turns out, his win at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh was negated when he was disqualified for failing tech after the race. That gave the victory, which was worth $2,500, to Connor Cleveland. But Buff came right back and won last Friday’s sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga.

Bobby Hackel IV was also in victory lane last weekend, winning the 602 crate feature at Fonda Speedway in the season finale. If it hadn’t been for that crate motor, Hackel IV would have had a miserable season, as he struggled with motor issues at both Albany-Saratoga and Lebanon Valley. Anthony Perrego won the modified feature at Fonda, holding off Stewart Friesen and denying Friesen a perfect record. He finished the year with eight wins and a second in nine races at the Montgomery County track.

Max McLaughlin, the son of Hall of Famer Mike “Magic Shoes” McLaughlin, has picked up a ride in one of the Sweetners Plus cars for the DIRTcar OktoberFAST. The six-race series will kick off at Albany-Saratoga on Tuesday, Oct. 6.