News Director 
Story By: TOM BOGGIE / ALBANY-SARATOGA SPEEDWAY – MALTA, NY – It’s obvious that Rob Yetman still knows how to win the big ones.
Yetman dominated the pro stock division at Super DIRT Week a decade ago, chalking up five straight wins, both at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse and at Oswego, from 2013-1017.
But he pocketed the biggest check of his career Friday night, winning the 49-lap Upstate Chevy Dealers Autism Awareness Night feature that highlighted the racing card at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
The victory in the third annual Autism Awareness race, which is organized by pro stock driver Jordan Modiano, was worth $10,000 plus lap money to Yetman, who took the lead for good on lap 37 and then outran the Duell Family Racing team of Scott Duell, who finished second, and Scott’s father Kim, who crossed the finish line third, after starting on the pole.
The way that Kim Duell earned the pole was unusual, When the top 12 drivers appeared in front of the grandstand for the redraw, fans were allowed to bid during an auction for the pole position, with the winning bid going to the Autism Acceptance charity. The bidding quickly reached $1,000, but ended abruptly when someone put up $7,000 to put Duell on the pole.
Duell jumped right into the lead, but that was short-lived, as Chris Stalker, who raced pro stocks at Lebanon Valley Speedway this season while campaigning a street stock at Malta, took the high line out of the fourth turn to move into the No. 1 spot.
The feature was continually disrupted by yellow flags, as it seemed like three or four laps was a long green-flag run. Throughout the cautions, Stalker, Kim Duell, Rich Crane and Yetman, who started ninth, were running in a four-car pack.
But the complexion of the race changed on a restart on lap 29. On the restart, Crane got into Stalker between turns three and four, with Stalker spinning around. That gave the lead back to Kim Duell, put Yetman into second and put both Stalker and Crane at the rear of the field.
After that restart, Scott Duell, who had started seventh but who got shuffled back early in the race, took his usual line on the extreme outside of the track, and began to close ground on the two leaders.
Yetman took the lead for the first time on lap 31, swinging around the outside of Kim Duell in the fourth turn, but as they crossed the finish line, they switched lanes, with Duell going to the inside. Coming out of the fourth turn, they banged sidebars, and Kim Duell had the lead back at the start-finish line.
But Yetman wasn’t gong to give up and six laps later, got a big run coming out of the second turn and pulled in front of Kim Duell again, this time for good.
The final 10 laps of the feature saw Yetman maintain his advantage, with the father and son team running side-by-side. Scott finally worked his way around his father with four laps to go, but by then, it was too late.
“This is pretty awesome, to run this many laps and get 10 grand,” said Yetman after celebrating on the roof on his Joe Lazzaro-owned car. “I wouldn’t say this is better than Super DIRT Week, but it ranks right up there.”
“I exploded the right front shock with about 10 laps to go,” said Kim Duell. “I knew something was wrong.”
“That was a blast,” said Scott Duell, who earned $5,000 for his runner-up performance. “I haven’t raced that hard in one of these for 15 years, but it felt like I never left.”
UPSTATE CHEVY DEALERS AUTISM AWARENESS PRO STOCKS: ROB YETMAN, Scott Duell, Kim Duell, Kyle Hoard, Beau Ballard, Luke Horning, Chris Crane Sr., Chris Stalker, Shane Henderson, Ian Bressette, Rich Crane, Slater Baker, AJ Walters, Jimmy Duncan, Dean Charbonneau, Jason Casey, Chris Wemple, Nick Stone, Caden Dumblewski, Chad Jeseo, Pete Stefanski, Jordan Modiano, Kenny Gates, Mike Hill, Shane Playford, Chucky Dumblewski, Andy Graves, Phil DeFiglio, Bret Belden, Jay Fitzgerald, Brandon Emigh, Eric Jean-Louis.
