Johnson & Mahaney Open Albany-Saratoga Points Season With Wins

When the final checkered flag waved on the night a pair of drivers would share the spotlight as the winners of the nights entertaining headliners.

Those drivers are two-time DIRTcar Modified track champion Marc Johnson and last year’s DIRTcar Modified titlist Mike Mahaney.

Johnson and Mike Mahaney led the DIRTcar Modified field to the green flag with Johnson leading the first lap over Mahaney, Brian Calabrese, Jack Lehner and Justin Stone. Matt Delorenzo, who nearly won the Super DIRTcar Series 61^st Season Opener event one week earlier, moved past Stone for fifth soon after.

The race for the third position started to heat up by lap six and within two more laps it was a three-car dance between Lehner, Calabrese and Delorenzo. By lap ten Lehner had left the Calabrese/Delorenzo battle. Delorenzo would take over fourth on lap 12.

By lap 15 Johnson held about a ten-car length advantage over second place Mahaney as Lehner closed in from third. Soon there after the top three entered slower traffic which allowed Lehner to close the gap between himself and Mahaney to about three car lengths.

On lap 22 Johnson got trapped behind the slower cars of Derek Borndt and C.G. Morey. It took Johnson a couple of laps to clear the duo. As the lap counter clicked off lap 25, Delorenzo had reeled him Lehner. The Cropseyville, New York driver took over the spot on lap 25.

With five laps to go Johnson again entered a gaggle of slower traffic. Delorenzo took a look to the inside of Mahaney for second and the duo battled for the runner up position while closing on Johnson. With two laps to go the top five were under a blanket, battling for the win.

Johnson would hold on for the win over Mahaney, Delorenzo, Lehner and Calabrese. The heats races were won by Jack Lehner, Matt Delorenzo and Mike Mahaney. The Four States Enterprises Dash was won by Lehner. A total of 23 drivers entered the event.

Mike Mahaney won the 25-lap season opener for the DIRTcar 358 Modified division. Neil Stratton and Mahaney led the field to the green with Vermont’s Stratton pacing the field early on. Mahaney held down the second spot with Chris Curtis third. Within a couple of laps Curtis would be all over Mahaney for the runner up position however he could not find a way by.

Stratton, using the top side of the oval left the bottom groove open for Mahaney who took full advantage on lap seven and took over the lead. Curtis and defending DIRTcar 358 Modified Track Champion Felix Roy closed in on Stratton and by lap ten had moved past. Roy wasted no time and took over second from Curtis at the same time.

As the race closed in on half way, Mahaney was mired deep in slower traffic. This allowed Roy to close in and the remainder of the top five to put on a show for the fans.

The caution flag waved for the first time on lap 15 when Ryan Health was the unfortunate meat in the sandwich between Stratton and Curtis. Heath would find himself over the turn one banking.

The restart would see Mahaney and Roy come to the green side by side with Mahaney holding the lead, followed by a new battle between Roy and Marc Johnson. Johnson took over the position on lap 16 and set his sights on Mahaney.

In the end Johnson could not catch the Adirondack Auto number 35 of Mahaney. Johnson had to settle for second with Roy third, Stratton fourth and Curtis fifth. With 29 DIRTcar 358 Modifieds in attendance, a trio of heat races were run with the checkered flags falling to Mahaney, Marc Johnson and Peter Britten.

With the win, Mahaney picked up the Big Red 1 Checkered Flag Challenge, worth $251. The Big Red 1 Checkered Flag Challenge is presented by the Herrington and Peckham families in honor of the late Jason Herrington and is awarded to a driver if they win both their heat race and the DIRTcar 358 Modified feature.

Chris Crane, Jr. won the 25-lap DIRTcar Sportsman feature event. Craig Wholey and Mike Ballestero brought the 28-car DIRTcar Sportsman field to the green with Wholey leading the field. Connecticut’s Chris Crane, Jr. moved into the second position with Ballestero third. Taylor Watson moved past the 36-time feature winner for third on lap seven.

With Wholey and Crane running the low side, Crane moved up top and began to pressure Wholey for the top spot. While Crane challenged for the lead Wasson and Ballestero battled for the third position.

As the leaders ran nose to tail, Wason closed quickly on the top side. The trio entered slower traffic on lap 16 giving the advantage to Wason. On lap 18 Crane nosed under Wholey entering turn two as Wason pulled alongside.

As the trio moved through traffic Wholey regained the lead. The caution flag waved on lap 20 when Scott Bennett, Jr. spun on the frontstretch. While under yellow Wason headed to the pit area leaving Wholey and Crane to battle on the restart. When he returned, Wason was sent pit side for his role in the Bennett spin.

Wholey commanded the top spot on the restart with Crane and Cole Hentschel following. Zach Buff came to a stop on the outside of turn two, on lap 23 bringing out the caution flag.

When racing resumed Crane took the lead as Tim Hartman, Jr. moved into the top three. In the end Crane would hold on for the win over Hartman, Hentschel, Wholey and Connor Crane. Heat races for the 36-car field were won by Wholey, Floyd Billington, Bodie Marks and Cody Ochs. The consolation event was won by Scott Bennett, Jr.

Brandon Emigh won the 25-lap DIRTcar Pro Stock feature event. Emigh jumped out to the early lead in the 25-lap feature event. Emigh, using his Twister Chassis, quickly opened up a multiple car length advantage over second place Chuck Dumblewski. Last week’s feature winner Kim Duell moved into the final podium position on lap 15 and set his sights on the distant leading duo of Emigh and Dumblewski.

With five laps to go Dumblewski began to pressure Emigh for the top spot. Duel meanwhile cut the lead in half with three laps to go and then after being slowed by a lapped car, Duel closed to withing two car lengths of the Amsterdam veteran racer.

In the end though no one had anything for Emigh as he picked up the win over Dumblewski, Duell, Kyle Hoard and Jaxson Ryan. Duell and Emigh won the eight-lap heat races.

Kyle Smith won the 20-lap Limited Sportsman feature. Walter Cook took the early lead in the 20 lap Limited Sportsman feature event. Cook led the first ten laps with being challenged before Nick Arnold slowed on the front stretch, bringing out the caution flag.

When racing resumed Cook held the lead with Alex Smith pressuring him from second. The yellow lights came on again on lap 14 when James Galarneau came to a stop in turn four.

Smith took the lead on the restart with Cook falling to second and Colten Emigh third. Smith led the rest of the way to bring home the win over William Lussier, Jr., Emigh, Mike Parodi and Derrik Emigh. Heat races for the 26-car field were won by Cook, Sloan Cherko and Smith.

Tyler Irwin won the Street Stock feature event. The 20-lap event would see Jeff Meltz and Irwin bring the 15-car field to the green flag following a caution for Damian Ward on the initial attempt. Before a lap could be complete Shane Weatherington made contact with Meltz, sending the Ghent, New York racer around in front of the field. He would continue on however Vermont’s Andrew Fitzgerald was not so fortunate and went back to the pit area on the hook.

When racing finally got underway Irwin would hold the top spot with Chris Murray very close in second. Murry took over the top spot from Irwin on a lap three restart and led the next lap before the yellow flag waved again. Murray held the lead on the restart before Irwin regained the top spot on lap six.

This time, once out front no one could catch Irwin. The Plattsburgh, New York driver picked up the win over Murray, Jeff Meltz, Josh Bussino and Ward.

Josh Reome was the overall DIRTcar Four Cylinder feature event winner. Reome, a Dual Cam driver, was followed across the line by Ben Ladd (Single Cam), Jeremy Brownell (Dual Cam), Robert Garney (Single Cam) and Chris Danylyiko (Dual Cam).

The Albany-Saratoga Speedway returns to action on Friday, May 1^st with all weekly divisions in action plus the DIRTcar Four Cylinders. Pit gates open at 3pm, grandstand gates open at 5pm with hot laps rolling off at 6pm. Racing is set to begin at 7pm.

For more information on the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, please find us on our social media pages and our website – albany-saratogaspeedway.com.

Full Albany-Saratoga Speedway Results

DIRTcar Modified Feature (35 Laps): 1. 3J-Marc Johnson[1]; 2. 35-Mike Mahaney[2]; 3. 3D-Matt Delorenzo[5]; 4. 2L-Jack Lehner[6]; 5. 21C-Brian Calabrese[4]; 6. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[10]; 7. 15X-Justin Stone[3]; 8. 21A-Peter Britten[12]; 9. 87-Neil Stratton[9]; 10. ONE-Felix Roy[8]; 11. 27-Jeremy Pitts[15]; 12. 7-Don Ronca[7]; 13. 1-Rich Ronca[13]; 14. 14B-Brendan Darrah[17]; 15. 8-Rich Scagliotta[16]; 16. 92B-Andrew Buff[21]; 17. 4B-Derek Bornt[20]; 18. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[18]; 19. 14-CG Morey[14]; 20. 11X-Josh Masterson[23]; 21. 34-Dylan Grogan[22]; 22. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[19]; 23. 19R-Todd Ryan[11]

DIRTcar 358 Modified Feature (25 Laps): 1. 35-Mike Mahaney[2]; 2. 3J-Marc Johnson[6]; 3. ONE-Felix Roy[5]; 4. 87-Neil Stratton[1]; 5. 35C-Chris Curtis[3]; 6. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[8]; 7. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV[7]; 8. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[10]; 9. 19-Jessey Mueller[25]; 10. 21A-Peter Britten[4]; 11. 89-Dylan Madsen[16]; 12. 15X-Justin Stone[19]; 13. 98H-Walter J Hammond[11]; 14. 54-Tim LaDuc[14]; 15. 49-Chris Jakubiak[9]; 16. 75-AJ Munger[15]; 17. 3G-Brian Gleason[23]; 18. 11X-Josh Masterson[12]; 19. 92B-Andrew Buff[21]; 20. B24-Brendan Gibbons[20]; 21. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[13]; 22. 06-Mike Coffey[22]; 23. M2-Todd Morey[18]; 24. 72-Ray Hall Jr[27]; 25. 316-Dave Zelker[24]; 26. 14-Nick Perez[28]; 27. 36-Brian Whittemore[17]; 28. 6R-Ryan Heath[26]; 29. 19L-Owen Lewis[29]

DIRTcar Pro Stock Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2-Brandon Emigh[2]; 2. 07-Chucky Dumblewski[4]; 3. 14-Kim Duell[5]; 4. 76-Kyle Hoard[6]; 5. 04-Jaxson Ryan[1]; 6. 711-Rich Crane[3]; 7. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[8]; 8. 14X-Scott Duell[13]; 9. 9-Shane Henderson[7]; 10. 4M-Jordan Modiano[10]; 11. 73-Bastien Caron[11]; 12. 112-Chris Wemple[9]; 13. 57-Charles Mcspirit[12]

DIRTcar Sportsman Feature (25 Laps): 1. 711C-Chris Crane Jr[5]; 2. 22-Tim Hartman Jr[13]; 3. 3-Cole Hentschel[3]; 4. 98-Craig Wholey[1]; 5. 711X-Connor Crane[9]; 6. 27M-Michael Ballestero[2]; 7. 02-Cody Ochs[8]; 8. 33M-Bodie Marks[4]; 9. 23G-Chad Gregory[15]; 10. 916-Nick Brundige[11]; 11. 112-Dave Baranowski[20]; 12. 30-Floyd Billington[7]; 13. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[17]; 14. 26M-Derrick Mcgrew Jr[23]; 15. 33B-Mike Bensen[14]; 16. 667-Andrew Cormie[16]; 17. 2W-Brent Warren[10]; 18. 4-Elliott Lussier[27]; 19. 313-Cam Van Zandt[28]; 20. 29V-Joe Venditti[19]; 21. 12-Johnathan Miller[24]; 22. 92-Tanner Coon[22]; 23. 42D-Daniel Grignon[18]; 24. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[26]; 25. 01-Zach Buff[21]; 26. 1-Scott Bennett Jr[25]; 27. 18-Jeff Wasburn[12]; 28. 07W-Taylor Wason[6]

Street Stock Feature (20 Laps): 1. 54T-Tyler Irwin[2]; 2. 7-Chris Murray[8]; 3. 5X-Jeff Meltz[1]; 4. 2X-Josh Bussino[9]; 5. 32-Damian Ward[6]; 6. 11-Josh Hemming[11]; 7. 81-Dana Carter[10]; 8. 88M-Jake Middleton[5]; 9. 96-Derek Van Veghten[13]; 10. 76B-Mark Burch[12]; 11. 92-Mike Duggan[4]; 12. (DNS) 54-Shane Wetherington; 13. (DNS) 5VT-Andrew Fitzgerald; 14. (DNS) 369-Dave Cook; 15. (DNS) 11S-Rocco Szemplisnski

Limited Sportsman Feature (20 Laps): 1. 99S-Alex Smith[6]; 2. 25JR-William Lussier Jr[8]; 3. 9X-Colten Emigh[4]; 4. 30-Mike Parodi[16]; 5. 2E-Derrik Emigh[5]; 6. 117-Cordell Younger[14]; 7. 42-Zach Delaney[23]; 8. 395-Craig Coons[20]; 9. 25-Sarah Arnold[18]; 10. 19X-Kyle Lanfear[3]; 11. 771-Lucas Duncan[15]; 12. 723-Eric Dingman[22]; 13. 74J-Jaden Pierce[26]; 14. 24-Kirsten Swartz[7]; 15. 17-mark lindblade[24]; 16. 8-Devon Palmer[11]; 17. 10-Sloan Cherko[2]; 18. 9JB-Bryan Jones[25]; 19. 14N-Noah Carlo[19]; 20. 47-Walter Cook[1]; 21. 02B-Michael Baker[10]; 22. 6-John Santolin[12]; 23. 1I-Dan Odell[13]; 24. 9J-James Galarneau[17]; 25. 1A-Nick Arnold[9]; 26. (DNS) 119-Will Palmer

DIRTcar 4 Cylinder Feature (15 Laps): 1. 129D-Josh Reome[2]; 2. 38S-Ben Ladd[1]; 3. 79D-Jeremy Brownell[7]; 4. 88S-Robert Garney[9]; 5. 191D-chris j Danylyiko[6]; 6. 771D-Makenzie Esterby[8]; 7. 56S-Lindell Condon[4]; 8. 23D-Lucas Condon[5]; 9. 66S-Daniel Joubert[3]; 10. (DNS) 9D-David Frame