RPW Exclusive: “Behind The Mic” with Toby LaGrange
RPW EXCLUSIVE COLUMN: Toby LaGrange / RACEPROWEEKLY – MALTA, NY – The first truly full weekend of racing here in the Capital District is officially in the books and what a weekend it was. The results show crowd favorites, rookies and division diehards all reaching victory lane between the northern most and western most Capital District tracks.
As your reading this you likely already know who won in each division and where your favorite driver placed, so let’s take a look as some tidbits that I put together from the tower (and from behind the mic) at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway and Glen Ridge Motorsports Park.
Oh, and before I go any further…if you haven’t put four together out of a pair of twos yet, I am back penning a “whenever” column for Race Pro Weekly. No worries, you will still hear me as the voice of The Ridge every Sunday night and doing the announcing through hot laps at Albany-Saratoga on Friday nights. Once I hand the microphone over to newly inducted NYSSCA Hall of Fame member Dan Martin following hot laps on Friday night, I go into tidbit gathering and learning mode.
You see, even though I have 267 events under my belt as an announcer and over a dozen years, an announcer keeps learning. Getting the chance to be back alongside Dan on Fridays has presented an opportunity for me to watch, listen and learn some things from one of the best.
This, unfortunately is something that some young voices fail to understand, accept and take advantage of. There is something else that some young voices fail to understand…announcing is about the show and how it looks, sounds and is remembered. It’s not about you.
Getting back to the tidbit side of things, the weekend started on Route 9 Friday evening with a dandy of a weekly program.
The night started with a heart felt tribute to the late Dick Hicks of HiCo Fabrication. Check out the social media pages of Albany-Saratoga to see that tribute…it was very well done by everyone involved.
One of those fan favorites that I mentioned ended up in victory lane Friday night – Ronnie Johnson.
My old announcing partner and NYSCCA Hall of Famer Jim King famously would say, “R.J. is on the wayyyy” whenever the third-generation driver would make a charge.
That line very much held true on Friday night as Johnson brought home his first feature event win of the young season. The win was his 38th of his DIRTcar Modified career at The Great Race Place and 45th overall. He also won seven times in the Sportsman division in 1997.
Mickle’s Automotive is a long-time supporter of Johnson and that continues in 2026. The Mickle’s sponsored cars of Johnson and rookie Dylan Grogran made up the front row in the second DIRTcar Modified heat race. Johnson won the heat while Grogan finished fifth. Grogan, of Raymertown, New York finished 17th in the 35-lap feature.
Another third-generation driver, Justin Stone had a rough night. The Middlebury, Vermont racer suffered a left front flat tire in third DIRTcar Modified heat race. He limped home to a seventh-place finish. After starting 21st in the feature, he finished 22nd.
Keeping with the “generation driver” theme, all three DIRTcar Modified heat race winners were at least a second-generation driver. In addition to Johnson, heat winners were Andrew Buff and Felix Roy. You could also take it a step further and add Neil Stratton to the list. Hector’s son was the fastest in hot laps and finished seventh in the feature.
In the DIRTcar Sportsman division, the field was 36 cars strong on Friday night.
Michael Wagner-Fitzgerald had a great night at the track. The 24-year-old out of Gansevoort, New York won his heat race and then beat opening day winner Joey Scarborough (yes, another of those “generation drivers”), for the win.
Scarborough (no relation to Johnny the Jet), won the Four States Enterprises Dash.
Rookie Sportsman campaigner Chad Gregory was not in action Friday night. Instead, he had Travis Whitbeck as a substitute driver. All points would be awarded to Gregory.
Connecticut’s Connor Crane made the feature event by winning the Last Chance Qualifier…or consolation event if you will. Crane, whose older brother Chris won last week’s 25-lap feature event, made the winning pass coming out of turn four as the duo took the white flag. The 14-year-old finished 14th after starting 25th. His 17-year-old brother finished 7th after stating 20th.
In DIRTcar Pro Stock action, the Crane brothers’ uncle, Rich, won the 25-lap feature event.
One week ago, South Glens Falls, New York’s Alex Smith was sitting in the Limited Sportsman divisions victory lane at Albany-Saratoga, this week however his luck took a turn in the opposite direction. After finishing seventh in the third heat race, Smith rolled off from the 21st starting position in the 20-lap feature event. He was involved in a wreck on lap 13 and was able to continue. However, another wreck on lap 18 ended his evening. The 24-year-old finished 19th.
Over at The Ridge on Sunday night Lance Willix and Zach Buff showed just why they are championship winning drivers in their divisions.
Willix, of Theresa, New York was the 2024 DIRTcar 358 Modified Track Champion at The Ridge while Buff is the reigning and two-time DIRTcar Sportsman titlist (2024/2025).
The win for Willix was his 15th in the DIRTcar 358 Modified division at the track, which puts him on top of the track’s divisional winners list. Buff’s win was his 19th in DIRTcar Sportsman competition at The Ridge. He sits third on the all-time list just three wins shy of his older brother – four-time DIRTcar Sportsman champion Andrew Buff.
Speaking of the older of the Buff brothers, Andrew finished second in the second DIRTcar 358 Modified heat race and fourth in the 35-lap DIRTcar 358 Modified feature event.
Defending and two-time DIRTcar 358 Modified Track Champion (and yes, another “generation driver”) Jordan McCreadie won the second heat race and finished just ahead of third place Brian Calabrese in the feature event.
Ten-year-old Preston Trautschold won his first Limited Sportsman feature event at The Ridge. The defending Junior Slingshot Track Champion led wire to wire to claim his second win of the weekend. The Roscoe, New York driver also won the night before at the Afton Motorsports Park. Be sure to check out the race highlight video on Race Pro Weekly courtesy of The Cushion and yours truly.
Both nights of racing were completed in about three hours. A big kudos to track management at each track for pushing the show along on two less than ideal weather-related nights of racing.
Before we land the plane on this edition of Behind The Mic, at the end of each column I am going to try and remember a name from racings past here in the Capital District.
Today we remember Bobby Stewart.
Stewart, out of Amsterdam, was the Fonda Speedway’s first feature winner in what we today call a Modified. Stewart’s historic first win came on August 22nd, 1914. He won the ten-lap feature that kicked off the afternoon’s event and then the 20-lap finale. He went on to win two more times during that inaugural, ten race 1914 season.
While no track champion was crowned, or at least none were found by the late Andy Fusco in the old newspapers, Stewart likely would be the champion on the heels of six podium finishes in the ten events.
I found it fitting that my first actual column in quite a while here on Race Pro Weekly will end with a driver who drove a Chalmers Motorcar Company machine…and his name is Bobby.
If you know…you know.
Stay safe everyone and support those that support racing.
