News Director 
Column By: RAY ROGERS / RPW – MALTA, NY – On Tuesday, I once again ventured outside of the Mohawk Valley and hitched a ride to the Albany-Saratoga Speedway for the Short Track Super Series, “Stampede at Toga.”
Now I am not a big fan of horse racing but I do love the horsepower of the Big Blocks. With 49 Modifieds in the stables and another 39 King of Dirt Sportsman, it was setting up to be a good one for sure.
After a few sets of hot laps that saw Ryan Godown and Scott Duell each set fast times, Modified heat races rolled away. The Short Track Super Series heats went to Rick Laubach, Matt Sheppard, Ryan Jordan, Matt Delorenzo and Jeremy Wilder. Sportsman heats were won by Rocky Warner, Joey Scarborough, Connor Cleveland and Chad Edwards.
Consolation races were then on the track with Billy Decker, Demetrios Drellos, and Jeremy Smith winning the Modified versions while Brian Pessolano and Jim Morgan did so in Sportsman.
Matt Sheppard had the luck of the ‘draw’ on his side as he started on the outside of the front row and wasted no time jumping out to an early lead. Sheppard seemed to once again be in a league of his own, dominating the “Stampede at ‘Toga.” Billy Decker started 16th and worked his way to second, but just didn’t enough to track down Sheppard.
Matt Delorenzeo had a great run in his Recovery Sports Grill 3D, finishing a solid third. Brett Hearn came from the 8th starting spot to take home fourth place and Ryan Godown rounded out the top 5.
“The car was good all night and it really made my job easy,” Sheppard told me after the race. “We are rolling good now. It will be great if we can carry it right on thru September, October and November.”
With 27 wins on the season, I would say ‘Super Matt’ is rolling along just fine.
The King of Dirt Sportsman then took over the speedway for 30-laps and Rocky Warner continued his quest to be crowned King, taking the checkers again Tuesday night and collecting win #19 on the season.
Tim Hartman Jr. was second with Chad Edwards third, Connor Cleveland fourth and JaMike Sowle rounding out the top five.
I wasn’t able to track down “the Flying Squirrel” after the race. He must have been hiding the 1,000 nuts he just scored. However, I was able to talk to Jake Spraker, Rockys car owner.
“We were fast tonight” he said. “We were real fast.”
Then, he looked at me and said, “We were freakin’ fast.”
Mr. Spraker was very pleased with his team’s performance.
As we headed back toward the Mohawk Valley, my friends Scott, Henry and I were all thinking the same thing, ‘what a great night.’ Can’t wait ’til Saturday to get back to the track (Fonda Speedway, my Saturday night home) for another great night at the races.
