~ By Tom Boggie

Okay, I just counted and discovered that I filled 25 pages of a standard stenographer’s notebook with notes and quotes from Malta Massive Weekend.

Here are some of the highlights.

I’m sure a lot of people, drivers and fans alike, left Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Saturday night with some lasting memories, but Malta Massive Weekend 2024 is sure to be a topic of conversation for years to come for the Crane family.

To begin with, the Crane brothers, Chris Jr. and Connor, finished first and second in the DIRTcar Sportsman Championship race on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, the OTHER set of Crane brothers, Rich and Chris Sr., finished second and fourth in the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race, with Rich battling with winner Beau Ballard right down to the final inches of the feature.

If my records are accurate, the last time brothers finished first and second in a feature at Malta was on July 5, 1991, when Don Ronca won the modified feature and his brother Mike was second.

Back to the Cranes. Chris Jr., who turned 16 this summer, picked up his second win of the season last weekend and said after the race that he was helped by watching a video prior to the race.

“Before the race, I was in the pits, sitting on my right front tire, watching last year’s race, and saw how Andrew Buff got to the front by pounding the outside,” Crane Jr. said. “I was on the outside (in the sixth position) and thought I’d try it. I saw a couple of guys hitting the hole in one, so I just went higher than everyone else.”

The car that he had to pass to get the lead on lap 20 was driven by his little brother, who had started third.

“It was bittersweet,” said Crane Jr., “because I had to pass him to get the win. Ever since he got into the big car, we’ve talked about battling one-two (on a regular Friday night), but to do it on Malta Massive Weekend, with all the DIRTcar guys here, it shows just how good our program has been this year.”

Even though Connor would have loved to beat his big brother, he was more than happy with what he revealed was a nice consolation prize.

“My dad said if one of us won, we’d go to Super DIRT Week,” he said. “I guess we’re going to Super DIRT Week.”

Rich Crane did all he could to get to victory lane Saturday night in the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race, but had to settle for second, just 0.016 seconds behind Ballard.

“I guess we’re going to hear it from the kids now,” Rich Crane joked in victory lane.

“Beau was definitely better on the long runs,” he added. “But to finish second to Beau, I’ll take it. What a great weekend. The track was awesome and we had a lot of fun.”

Crane had one final shot at Ballard, when Shawn Perez Sr. brought out a caution with two laps to go in the 30-lap feature.

“I knew on the restart that I had to find some bite on the outside,” said Crane. He and Ballard were side-by-side going down the backstretch and stayed that way for the final lap and a half, resulting in the photo finish.

“The last two laps showed just how competitive it is here,” said Ballard, who won his first pro stock championship at Malta in 2024. “This is the first time I’ve raced this car here and I love it when you have to drive the car. When it’s black like this, that’s my kind of track.”

Mat Williamson won the 100-lap Super DIRTcar Series race, giving him a sweep of the SDS races at Malta this year. Williamson also finished third in the 50-lap DIRTcar 358 Series race on Friday night, which he actually thought was a good omen.

“We never really fired,” Williamson had said on Friday night. “We were not good from the drop of the green flag. At the end, I was just running where I had to run. But in the past, when we’ve run good on Friday nights, we’ve sucked on Saturday. Hopefully, it goes the other way this time.”

It certainly did, and Williamson then got one of the biggest cheers of the weekend from the packed house during his victory lane speech on Saturday.

“This was one of the best races I’ve ever been in. It’s awesome coming to Malta,” he said. “You guys have a great track here. I hope it never gets shut down. It should be a historical landmark.”

Demetrios Drellos appeared to be on his way to his second Malta Massive Weekend win until Larry Wight brought out a caution on lap 83, wiping out Drellos’ comfortable lead. Two laps later, Drellos and Matt Sheppard made contact going through the second turn and Williamson dove through the hole they created to get the lead.

Following Williamson and Sheppard across the finish line was Tim Sears Jr., who raced with a left front flat for the second half of the 100-lap race after making contact with the inside Jersey barrier.

“It was like driving a dump truck going into the corners,” said Sears Jr., who also set fast time during time trials “Once I figured out how to drive it a little differently, it wasn’t so bad.

“We unloaded with a good car,” he added. “To finish on the podium with these guys is a good night.”

SEEN AND HEARD AT MALTA MASSIVE

Bill August was the first casualty of the long weekend, hitting the wall during the 358 hot laps on Friday night.

Flagger Rich Petersen came down from the flagstand Saturday night to autograph a fan’s shirt.

Sears Jr. wasn’t the only one who finished a race with a flat tire. Billy Dunn finished second in the second 358 heat race on Friday night with the left front tire hanging off the rim.

If there was a hard luck award, it had to go to Brian Pessolano. He had a qualifying position in the first 358 LCQ Friday night when he lost power on the final lap.

Sportsman division champion Tim Hartman Jr. was never in contention in the sportsman feature on Friday night after hitting that hole in the first turn and dropping from fourth to eighth early in the 35-lapper. He had to settle for seventh.

Peter Britten was also a victim of that hole. During the third 358 heat race, he hit the hole on the second lap and raced at the rear of the field for the rest of the qualifier, finishing sixth. He came back and finished second in one of the LCQs, which put put him 24th in the starting grid for the feature. He battled back to a 13^th-place finish.

Jack Lehner earned the hard charger award in the SDS race. He failed to qualify in both his heat and an LCQ, and had to take a provisional, starting 26^th. But he made up for the frustrating night with a ninth-place finish.

Nick Brundige, the 2024 limited sportsman champion at Malta, did double duty during the weekend. He made his debut in the open sportsman division Friday, finishing 19^th, and came back on Saturday to finish third in the limited sportsman feature.

A.J. Albreada, who has been running slingshots this season, moved up to a limited sportsman Saturday, behind the wheel of a Scott Zenniker car, and finished 11^th in the feature.

Wow, talk about a bad omen. During the limited sportsman hot laps on Saturday, Colton Emigh spun between the third and fourth turns and was then hit broadside by Dan Odell, who came up on the incident too quickly. Later in the night, the limited sportsman feature got the checkered flag after just 32 laps (of the scheduled 35) because of a plethora of caution flags.

Marc Johnson continued his run of top-five finishes in the Malta Massive Weekend 358 race, finishing fifth (he had finished second, third, third and third in the four previous races), but he was back in the pits after just 52 laps of the SDS race on Saturday after making hard contact with another car in the fourth turn and sliding into the grass in front of the billboards. He officially finished 25^th.

Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett sang the “Star Spangled Banner” on Saturday (Becca Sweet handled both the Canadian and Australian national anthems) and also put up $125 bonuses to the winners of the LCQs.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Tim Laduc finished eighth last Saturday night to wrap up his third sportsman/modified championship in the last four years at Devil’s Bowl. Laduc, who won his first modified title at the Bowl in 2000 (his rookie season) finished with a two-point lead over Vince Quenneville Jr. Laduc will receive a $5,000 bonus for winning the title.

Fire Swamp finished the year at the Bowl the same way he started, in victory lane, bookending the racing season.

Scott Towslee, who spent a lot of Friday nights racing at Malta, won the limited sportsman feature. That was his fourth win of the season at the Bowl and also gave him the limited sportsman crown.

This week’s Super DIRTcar Series races at Atomic Speedway in Ohio were canceled because of the weather, giving everyone a week off before they head to Oswego for Super DIRT Week.

In closing (oh, did I forget to tell you this is the final 4^th Turn column of the season?), I’d like to bid a fond farewell to Jo Ann Davies, “la grande dame” of Northeast modified dirt track racing. Jo Ann, who was sitting in her reserved chair in the old VIP tower last weekend at Malta, is moving to North Carolina to be closer to her son Brian, his wife Amber and their new baby daughter. I can’t tell you when I first crossed paths with Jo Ann and her husband Don, who passed away last year after a courageous battle with cancer, or when we became friends, but I’ll tell you, I’m darn glad we did. Godspeed, Jo Ann. I’m going to miss you.