Story By: TOM BOGGIE / ALBANY-SARATOGA SPEEDWAY – MALTA, NY – A lot of late nights in the garage paid off for Jack Speshock Friday night at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
After getting caught up in a multi-car wreck on the second lap of the NAPA Modifieds feature the previous week, Speshock bounced back to chalk up his first win of the season in the 35-lap modified feature on Friday. Speshock picked up a perfect time to get his second career victory, as Friday night’s feature paid $3,000 to win.
“This is very satisfying,” said Speshock in victory lane. “After last week, we worked all week to get this thing back together.
“Right rear tire, axle, tube, oil pump, all kinds of crap,” he added, as he rattled off the damaged parts that had to replaced. “We worked on it until 9:30 last night and didn’t scale it until today.”
Although Speshock started 12th in the bulky 28-car feature field, he was really firing on the restarts, and there were plenty of them early on.
The race had to be red-flagged on the initial lap, when one of the mid-pack cars didn’t fire, creating an accordian effect. CG Morey became wedged under the rear bumper of Justin Stone near the first turn, while the front end of Marc Johnson’s car was jammed under the rear end of Ronnie Johnson modified in turn four.
Ryan Stortini, who started on the pole, set the early pace, but gave up the lead to Ryan McCartney on a restart on lap six. Speshock, who was hugging the inside, had moved up to third by that time and when another yellow came out on lap eight, he used that restart to take over the No. 2 position.
McCartney was keeping his momentum built up while running the top and for a while, it looked like Speshock was just going to keep chasing McCartney. But on lap 23, Speshock got a big run coming out of the fourth turn and had the lead for good at the completion of lap 24.
Matt DeLorenzo, who had started 16th, had used both the top and the bottom to work his way through traffic, and on lap 31, finally worked his way around McCartney for second. But by that time, Speshock was long gone.
“I didn’t think I was going to catch him,” Speshock admitted, talking about chasing McCartney. “But I just stayed low and just tried to hit my marks.”
Following Speshock and DeLorenzo across the finish line were Jack Lehner, who started 18th; Mike Mahaney; and McCartney.
Pat Jones started on the outside pole and led flag-to-flag to win the 25-lap sportsman feature, which paid $1,000 to win through sponsorship from Crane’s Outdoor Power Equipment. Zach Buff, who started eighth, moved into the runner-up spot on lap eight, but that’s where he stayed, despite using the entire track in an attempt to catch Jones. The victory was the first of the season for Jones.
Brandon Emigh drove to his second win of the year in the 25-lap pro stock feature, which also paid $1,000 to win, thanks to Crane’s Outdoor Power Equipment. Emigh snatched the lead away from Rob Yetman on lap nine and survived a couple of late restarts to get the win. Yetman crossed the finish line second, but failed post-race tech and was disqualified. That moved Luke Horning to second, with Kim Duell third, Chucky Dumblewski fourth and Kyle Hoard fifth.
Dumblewski also won the Four States Enterprises Dash for Cash, earning a $200 bonus.
Dakota Green won the 20-lap limited sportsman feature, which paid $500 to win, courtesy of Gary and Patricia Van Alstyne. Green had missed out on a victory the previous week, when he lost power on the final lap when he was leading the feature. But on Friday night, he outran James Galarneau and Chase Zimmer to get the victory.
Chris Stalker came away with his first win of the year in the wild 20-lap street stock feature. Mark “Rowdy” Burch looked strong in the first half of the race, but pulled into the pits while the field was under caution on lap 15, giving the lead to Damian Ward.
Stalker got the lead with two to go, but then had to wait out a red flag for Mike Duggan, who went up and over in the front straightaway after the leaders had taken the white flag. Stalker then won the one-lap shootout over defending division champion Jimmy Duncan, who had started 13th, and John Filarecki.
David Frame won the 15-lap four-cylinder feature, while John Mason finished third overall and had the first single-cam car across the finish line.
(All results are unofficial pending further review)
NAPA MODIFIEDS: JACK SPESHOCK, Matt DeLorenzo, Jack Lehner, Mike Mahaney, Ryan McCartney, Marc Johnson, Peter Britten, Kolby Schroder, Don Ronca, Billy Pauch Jr., Demetrios Drellos, Robert Bublak Jr., Scott Huber, CG Morey, Ryan Stortini, Josh Masterson, Neil Stratton, David Schilling, Erik Mack, Matt Depew, Justin Stone, Brian Calabrese, Ronnie Johnson, Derek Bornt, Jeremy Pitts, Jessey Mueller, Brendan Darrah, Adam Pierson.
IDEAL EXCAVATING SPORTSMAN: PAT JONES, Zach Buff, Travis Witbeck, Tim Hartman Jr., Cody Ochs, Dylan Madsen, Mike Benson, Scott Bennett, Mike Coffey Jr., Chris Jakubiak, Joey Scarborough, Bryce Breault, Derrick McGrew Jr., Chris Crane Jr., David Baranowski Jr., Connor Crane, Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, Scott Duell, Cody Bleau, Daryl Nutting, Nick Lussier, Dylan Grogan, Ron Delease, Brendon Gibbons, Jeff Washburn, Dan Grignon.
SARATOGA MASONRY SUPPLY PRO STOCKS: BRANDON EMIGH, Luke Horning, Kim Duell, Chucky Dumblewski, Kyle Hoard, Shane Henderson, Jaxson Ryan, Jay Casey, Jay Corbin, Slater Baker, Jordan Modiano, Beau Ballard, Devon Camenga, Jay Fitzgerald, Dean Charbonneau, Eric Jean Louis, Jimmy Eaton, Rich Crane, Jason Casey, Mike Hill, Pete Defiglio. DQ: Rob Yetman
HAUN WELDING LIMITED SPORTSMAN: DAKOTA GREEN, James Galarneau, Chase Zimmer, Jordan Hill, Nick Brundige, Dan Seguin, Tanner Coon, Chad Gregory, Nick Auspelmyer, Nick Arnold, David Zelker, Mike Baker, John Santolin, Cordell Younger, Mike Block, Lucas Duncan, Steve Burch, Alex Smith, Sloan Cherko, Owen Lewis, Dan Odell, Sara Arnold, Damon Anderson.
CORNELL’S AUTO PARTS STREET STOCKS: CHRIS STALKER, Jimmy Duncan, John Filarecki, Damian Ward, Nick Napoli (subbing for PJ Cram Jr.), Dan Madigan, Jeff Meltz, Matt Mosher, Mark Lester, Ray Pierre Jr., Josh Hemming, Dan Buell, Derek Van Veghten, Mike Duggan, Mark Burch.
GREG’S TOWING FOUR-CYLINDERS: DAVID FRAME, Josh Ramsey, John Mason (first single-cam finisher), Kyle Lanfear, Dave LaBarge, Ben Ladd, Tom Hill, Brittany Ladd, Ashlynn Ramsey. Andrew Palmer. Jeremiah Pero, Micah Grant, Adam Montville.