~ By Tom Boggie

The three men I admired most.
The father, the son and the holy ghost.
They caught the last train for the coast.
The day the music died.

I know just how Don McLean felt when he wrote the classic “American Pie.” With Dave Lape’s passing on Wednesday, the three men I admired most are gone.

Lou Lazzaro, Jack Johnson, Dave Lape. The father, the son and the holy ghost. The three pillars of the foundation of Fonda Speedway, the Track of Champions.

They didn’t share one tragic night, as Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson did on a stormy night in Iowa in 1959. The Monk died first, on May 1, 2000, after suffering a stroke at the speedway. Jumpin’ Jack lost a long battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or what is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, on April 1, 2021. Dave died Wednesday of cancer, after battling a couple of other debilitating illnesses for several years. He was 75.

I spent a lot of Saturday nights at Fonda Speedway, watching those three do battle. There was a camaraderie in those days that is now long gone. Race teams would drive up the dragstrip, unload their cars and tools from the trailers, and take the trailers back out into what now is the pit area. Each team had its own spot. Lape’s was at the west end of the drag strip, up on the rise. No one hid behind plastic strips in enclosed toters in those days. It was more like a picnic, with lawn chairs and coolers, and, oh yeah, racing. I spent a lot of time on that little hill, with Dave, his wife Jackie, crew chief Jeff Carter and the rest of the Lape gang.

Lape’s accomplishments are legendary, from his days of following the fledgling DIRT circuit and winning the overall championship in 1977, driving a Tobias chassis for good friend Don Knapfel; to his 99 career wins and seven championships at Fonda; to tying Jumpin’ Jack’s record of 12 wins on his way to securing his only championship at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in 1982; to his chassis building success; to promoting races with the late Andy Fusco, my high school classmate and one of Lape’s best friends, under the LAPCO banner.

The 1992 season was especially memorable for Dave, who is the only driver to win races at Fonda Speedway in five different decades. Not only did he win his second straight modified title at Fonda that year, but on Aug. 9, Jackie gave birth to a daughter, Jessica Ann. Jackie brought Jessica up on the famed checkerboard square when Lape wrapped up the title on Aug. 22.

He never stopped chasing that elusive 100th career win at Fonda, finally retiring following the 2013 season, which was his 50th year in racing, to bring his Hall of Fame career to an end.

Forget the 191 career wins and all those track championships. Dave Lape’s biggest accomplishment was that he was a good man.

In 1991, I wrote a story about Dave for “Trackside” magazine. Here’s a short excerpt.

“It’s hard to tell if Dave Lape has mellowed because he’s never been exuberant. On the nights when things have gone bad, when he’s been ready to explode, the only giveaway was a nervous habit of rubbing an eyebrow.

“He’s never danced on the roof of a car, and certainly never will. It’s important to be a humble winner as well as a gracious loser.

“No one ever talks about role models in racing, but it wouldn’t hurt some of today’s younger drivers to copy Dave Lape’s style.”

The music has died, and I’m really going to miss Dave.

CHAMPIONS NIGHT

I keep telling Matt DeLorenzo that he should retire. After wrapping up his first modified championship ever at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday, he’s got nothing left to prove. Running the same car on Fridays at Albany-Saratoga and on Saturdays at Fonda, where he chalked up his fourth title, he pulled off an unimaginable sweep.

He had planned to compete on a hit-and-miss basis in 2022, leaving him time to hit the road and follow the softball careers of his daughters, Toni and Bella, with his wife Jessica on the weekends. But then things changed.

“Halfway through the season, when I was leading the points,” he said when asked when he made the decision to concentrate on racing instead of softball. “We were running the same car both nights and it was a lot of work, so we all sat down and talked about it and figured out what would be best for the kids. In the old days, the car was the priority. Not now.”

DeLorenzo admitted that running the same car was a big challenge, especially because there were very few nights off. Albany-Saratoga canceled one night of racing, on May 27, because of an unfavorable forecast, and Fonda had 18 consecutive nights of racing after canceling its season opener on April 16.

“At times, it was brutal,” he said. “I would sleep in the hauler at the shop and get up in the morning and start washing the car, then Mike (his brother and crew chief) would roll in around 10 and we’d start changing the car over. But when we were winning and leading the points, it made things a lot easier.”

“There were times I just wanted to say the heck with it,” interjected Mike. “I hate running for points. But I really wanted to win both titles.”

DeLorenzo finished with a 63-point lead over Peter Britten in the race for the title at Malta. That’s the biggest margin of victory in the modified division since Ken Tremont Jr. finished 69 points ahead of Brett Hearn in 2015.

Tim Hartman Jr. dominated the sportsman division on his way to his record-setting fourth track championship, finishing 119 points ahead of Andrew Buff. But winning the title was far from easy, according to Hartman Jr.

“It’s hard here,” he said after finishing fifth in last Friday night’s feature. “There are 30 to 40 cars every week and probably 15 guys who are capable of winning.”

Two weeks ago, he picked up his third win of the season, which was the 75th victory of his career.

“Seventy-five wins is a great honor, but it also means I’m the old guy in the division,” he said. “I’ve been here longer than anyone else in the division.”

Chad Jeseo joined the list of champions last Friday, locking up his third career title at Malta in the pro stock division, despite finishing second to longtime rival Luke Horning. Jeseo’s quest for the title became easier when Jason Casey, who began the night with a two-point lead, spun out on lap 10 after being hit from behind by Phil Defiglio. Casey had to go to the rear of the field and only managed to get back up to eighth.

“We only won five this year, but to come here and race against these guys every week is hard,” said Jeseo. “Hats off to the pro stock field here.”

WHAT’S ON TAP

Can anyone tell me the last time the winner of a pro stock feature took home more than the modified winner at Albany-Saratoga Speedway?

That’s going to happen Friday night, when Jordan Modiano of Modiano Motorsports presents the Drive for Autism Awareness to raise funds for the Autism Society Greater Hudson Region and @BringOnTheSpectrum. As of Thursday morning, the winner’s share for the pro stock feature, which will be 34 laps, was up to $3,305 while the modified winner will receive $3,000.

Modiano has recruited most of the top pro stock drivers from the area, and some outsiders, as well, to take part, so it should be a heck of a show.

AROUND THE TRACKS

When was the last time the Mr. Dirt Track USA race got shuffled to the bottom of this column? Andy Bachetti took home the top prize of $25,500 last Saturday, winning a game of tire management. Britten started on the pole and led a good portion of the race until falling back to fifth and then blowing a tire. The top three finishers were all Lebanon Valley regulars, as Keith Flach and Brett Haas followed Bachetti across the finish line.

Tremont Jr. proved he’s not over the hill yet, taking the top prize of $10,000 in the Vermont 200 at Devil’s Bowl on Sunday. He was driving a car owned by good friend John St. Germain Jr.

Tremont told Devil’s Bowl officials after the race that the deal just came together a week ago. The car Tremont drove was a 2019 PMC chassis and had the only torsion bar setup in the field. Tremont hadn’t put a car other than his father’s 115 into victory lane since 2000, which is the last year he drove his cousin Dennis’ small block. “Of all the races I’ve won … this is the one I wanted the last few years,” he said after the victory.

Brian Calabrese finished second to Tremont after waging a crowd-pleasing duel with true sportsman driver Michael Wagner Fitzgerald. According to Devil’s Bowl officials, they exchanged the lead 17 times before Tremont got the lead on lap 176. Fitzgerald, who finished 16th after taking two trips off the racing surface late in the race, led 115 laps and picked up $3,200 in lap money, while Calabrese earned $1,700 for leading 60 laps. A total of 86 602 sportsman pulled into the pits to take a shot at the $10,000 prize.

Stewart Friesen also had a big payday over the weekend, picking up $25,000 for winning the New Yorker 50 at Utica-Rome. Demetrios Drellos, who had engine problems at Albany-Saratoga again on Friday and left without starting the feature, finished third on Sunday.

My condolences also go out to the family of Kevin Wright, who died last week at the age of 65. Wright held a number of positions at Lebanon Valley Speedway, from scorer to handicapper to handling public relations and marketing, and the affable big man made a lot more friends than he did enemies in the pits at the Valley.

Congratulations to Andrew Buff, who finished second in the sportsman feature at Fulton Speedway last Saturday and wrapped up the track championship in the process. In 14 starts at Fulton this season, he had three wins and 10 top-five finishes.

Glen Ridge Motorsports Park will crown its champions on Sunday. In the race for the 602 sportsman title, Buff leads his younger brother Justin by 16 points.