News Director 
Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / STRATTON RACING – BENNINGTON, VT – The Stratton Racing Team is showing speed and progress at their Friday night home track.
Neil Stratton, driver of the Big Boy’s Toys No.87, opened the evening with a stacked heat race at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, NY.
“It was tough,” he said. “We started sixth and ended up sixth. There wasn’t a lot of passing but we were right on everyone. It was a stacked heat.”
Neil’s sixth-place finish had him just missing the handicap, so he rolled off on the outside of the eighth row for the main event.
“The car was good,” he added. “We were able to follow some guys up through the field. It’s fun when you have a car your confident in and can run it wherever you want. It’s tough to get by the good guys though. I could real them in but passing them is another story.”
Neil has been showing strong results with three consecutive top-ten finishes.
“We’re there,” he said. “We just have to get a few more. The car has been fast all year. We just haven’t had any luck so that’s my only turn around so that’s good.”
Neil’s seventh-place finish Friday night moved him into the top ten in point standings. After a rough start to the season, Neil sits ninth in points, just 42 points outside of the top-five.
Hector, driver of the Zero Gravity no.87ZG machine, started his night off on a good note by pulling away with his heat race win from his second-place starting spot.
Hector’s heat race win lined him up on the pole for the main event.
“The car was really good in the heat race and the first half of the feature,” said Hector. “We led the first eleven laps of the feature and were pulling away, but a caution came out. After the caution the car just got worse. We weren’t able to regroup after that and fell back to eleventh.”
With less than a handful of races on the new machine, Hector and the team are slowly but surely making progress and moving up the ladder each week.
The team will once again be kicking their weekend off at Albany-Saratoga Speedway this Friday night. Both Hector and Neil will be making a special appearance at Devils Bowl Speedway this Sunday for a special small block modified event showcasing twin 20’s. Both Stratton’s are excited to make their return to Devils Bowl. Hector is one of the all-time winningest driver at Devils Bowl and Neil’s last victory came at the fast ½ banked clay oval.
