~ By Tom Boggie

It’s no wonder Albany-Saratoga Speedway is called “The Great Race Place.”

The names may change, but the excitement is always there.

A couple of decades ago, fans watched Jack Johnson, C.D. Coville and Dave Lape battle for supremacy. Then they were treated to the exploits of Ken Tremont Jr., Brett Hearn and whoever was racing for third.

Last Friday, three drivers who have never won a modified feature put on another great show. Justin Stone, Brian Calabrese and Brendan Darrah certainly aren’t household names outside of the Capital Region and eastern Vermont, but they helped Malta live up to its reputation.

By now, everyone knows that Stone, who will be a father for the first time in September, came away with his first career modified win.

Stone had already put his name in the Albany-Saratoga record books when he won a sportsman feature on April 30, 2021, joining his father Todd (modifieds) and grandfather Gardner (late models) as feature winners at the historic Malta track.

But now, he’s got a modified win. And you can bet there will be more to follow.

After the win, Stone talked about his early days at Albany-Saratoga.

“I used to come here with my father and my grandfather,” he said. “I wasn’t old enough to get into the pits, so they would drop me off out front and I’d go in and sit in the first turn bleachers. Then they’d pick me up after the races.”

Ever since Stone moved up to the modified division, his father has been preaching about staying patient.

“This sport is definitely humbling,” Justin Stone said. “There are a lot of ups and downs. But my father kept telling me, it’s not your time yet. I guess tonight was our time.”

I congratulated Todd on the win as Justin was being pushed into victory lane and he had an ear-to-ear smile. “As a father, you want your child to succeed,” he said. “We had a lot of chances last year. But you have to take the bads with the goods.”

Stone had some anxious moments during the race when he was battling with Calabrese for the No. 2 spot. On a couple of occasions, Stone hit a rough spot that had developed between the third and fourth turns, nearly upsetting the balance of his modified.

“The track had a different character tonight,” Stone said. “I bounced pretty hard in three a couple of times.”

There was also a scary moment after the race. “When I went across the scales, the car died,” he said. “I knew I had fuel left, so I don’t know what it was.”

No big deal. His crew pushed him into victory lane.

Calabrese took the lead away from Darrah on lap 16, and Stone moved into second seven laps later. But restarts kept slowing Calabrese’s momentum, eventually allowing Stone to get the lead for good.

“I didn’t want to start counting laps,” said Calabrese of the restarts. “I just kept telling myself, I’m not there yet. I’m not there yet.”

Calabrese admitted he was disappointed with second place. “Yeah, it sucks,” he said. But then he added, with a smile, “But the $1,000 will be nice.”

When I went into the pits after the races, I looked for Calabrese, but no one was around his trailer. I found him in Darrah’s pits, talking to his competitor.

“I was congratulating him,” said Calabrese. “It was fun racing with him.”

Darrah is only in his second full season in a modified, but you wouldn’t know it from watching him last Friday. He started on the pole, got the lead, lost the lead to Kris Vernold and then got the lead back when Vernold had something break going down the backstretch a couple of laps later. Darrah, Calabrese and Stone made up the top three on that restart, and they put on a heck of a show the rest of the way.

MORE FROM MALTA

Al Relyea’s wreck on lap 18 of the street stock feature, the last race of the night, was one of the most spectacular wrecks I’ve seen at Malta. Heading into the first turn, PJ Cram Jr. was on the outside and Relyea was on the inside. Either something broke in Relyea’s car or the throttle stuck, because he never made the turn, sailing off the racing surface and slamming into the trees, resulting in a huge orange fireball coming out of the engine compartment. I watched the replay a couple of times, and Relyea and Cram never touched going into the turn.

While I was walking around in the pits prior to racing, I checked the pit board and saw a notice that Mike Mahaney had been put on probation for the rest of the 2025 season for an on-track incident on May 30. That was the night Mahaney was involved in a hard hit with Marc Johnson in the third turn. Mahaney had gotten out of his car to assess his damage. It looks like Albany-Saratoga and DIRTcar are going to be a little stricter about drivers getting out of their cars under red or yellow flag conditions. I won’t be surprised if there is another notice this Friday stating that Jordan Hill has been put on probation. She got out of her car after the 13-car pileup on the first lap of last Friday’s limited sportsman feature, and even went across the track to check out the damage on James Galarneau’s car.

Peter Britten’s brother Kevin made his Malta debut last Friday, driving Rich Scagliotta’s car. He was forced to run the consy, and missed qualifying by one position.

It was good to see Jimmy Duncan wheel the KFC-sponsored pro stock into victory lane for the first time last Friday. Duncan began racing in 1989 and was a consistent winner in the street stock division before moving up to pro stocks.

With the Sprint Cars of New England (ScoNE) making their first appearance ever last Friday, there were 154 cars signed into the pits.

This Friday night’s card at Malta will include the third leg of the DiCarlo’s Auto Body 358 Shootout Series. Felix Roy is 2-for-2 in the series so far.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Wow. A full weekend of racing. Going back to last Friday, Stewart Friesen had a win at Utica-Rome, a second at Fonda, another second (behind Mat Williamson) in the Slate Valley 67 at Devil’s Bowl Sunday and a win at Fonda in a mid-week show on Wednesday. He’ll return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Friday at Pocono.

Zach Buff was awarded the sportsman win at Airborne Park last Thursday, after finishing third. The top two finishers, Donovan Lussier and Vince Quenneville, were disqualified for fuel issues. Because last Thursday’s sportsman race was a DIRTcar series event, competitors had to use VP racing fuel. But both Lussier and Quenneville had pump gas, which is legal at Airborne on a normal night. Buff also won last Sunday’s sportsman feature at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park.

Also at Airborne, Williamson won the 75-lap DIRTcar 358 Series race, which paid $5,000 to win. Mahaney charged to third, after starting 25^th. Not a bad couple of days for Williamson; $5,000 at Plattsburgh, $7,567 at Devil’s Bowl on Sunday.

Scagliotta’s car got a workout last weekend. After Kevin Britten drove it Friday, Peter Britten put it in victory lane at Land of Legends (boy, I really hate that name. Can’t we just stick to Canandaigua?) on Saturday after he had motor problems in his own car early in the night.

I know it’s early in the season, but I can already sense an Andy Bachetti runaway in the race for the big block modified championship at Lebanon Valley. Bachetti picked up his second win of the year last Saturday, and he finished third in the only other feature that has been run. No other driver has three straight top-five finishes so far.

Lebanon Valley was scheduled to run the Mr. Dirt Track USA Super DIRTcar Series race, which was rained out last year, on Thursday night. But early on Thursday morning, the track posted on Facebook that DIRTcar had canceled the race. “After extensive monitoring of the weather, DIRT has decided it would be in the best interest for both drivers and fans to cancel the … event.” That race was scheduled to pay $15,500 to win and carried a guaranteed starting spot in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 at Oswego in October.

Hey, how about Otto Sitterly? Sitterly, who began his racing career in the old GT division at Albany-Saratoga, won last Saturday’s Jim Shampine Memorial supermodified race at Oswego, earning a total of $5,022. That marked the ninth time that Sitterly has won the Shampine Memorial race.