The 4th Turn: August 22, 2024
~ By Tom Boggie
It isn’t exactly Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, but watching Kim Duell and Rob Yetman battle for supremacy in the pro stock division at Albany-Saratoga Speedway is getting pretty entertaining.
Yetman regained the King of the Hill position last Friday night, coming away with his 31st career victory at the historic Malta track, leaving Duell one rung below on the ladder.
Yetman is arguably the best pro stock driver to ever come out of the Capital Region. He’s a five-time pro stock champion at Super DIRT Week, and in addition to being back on top of the all-time win list at Albany-Saratoga, is also the winningest pro stock driver in the history of Lebanon Valley Speedway, with 50 victories and six track championships.
The battle for bragging rights at Albany-Saratoga began in 2009, the year that Yetman recorded the first three wins of his career at Malta. By that time, Duell had already been to victory lane at Albany-Saratoga on seven occasions, putting Yetman in a rather deep hole.
Duell remained at Albany-Saratoga in 2010, when former promoter Bruce Richards decided to switch the track over asphalt, and added three more wins to his list that season, giving him a 13-3 advantage over Yetman.
But Duell’s big lead was wiped out in the course of the 2012 and 2013 seasons, when Yetman piled up a total of 13 wins (including eight in 2013, when he also won his first track championship.) By the end of the 2013 season, Yetman had a 16-14 advantage.
Yetman either retained his lead or was tied with Duell at the end of the next seven seasons, but Yetman had a 3-1 advantage in wins in 2022 to once again sit at the top of the heap.
In 2023, Yetman didn’t race at Malta, and the consensus was that he had finally gone into retirement. So when Duell picked up his third win of 2023 on Aug. 18, the top spot on the all-time win list was his.
Which brings us to 2024, with Yetman back running a full schedule. Yetman drove to his 29th career win on April 26 to pull even, Duell went back in front with his 30th victory on May 24, Yetman matched that number on June 21st and last Friday, again went to the top of the list.
“This one is for Joe (car owner Joe Lazzaro),” said Yetman in victory lane after his win. “He put this together for me.
“I was done. I was going to be on the boat every weekend. But now we’ve also got Steve Hart helping in the garage, and that frees me up a little bit.”
Yetman was following Pete Stefanski during the middle stages of the 25-lap feature last Friday, and knew he had to do something different if he was going to get to victory lane.
“I was following Pete and not getting anywhere on the bottom,” said Yetman. “I saw them water the track before the feature, so I took it to the outside and just mashed it and it worked.”
MORE FROM MALTA
Demetrios Drellos is quick to admit he doesn’t like a dry, slick track. It just doesn’t fit his driving style. So he was obviously glad that a drenching rain last Thursday made the surface at Malta just the way he liked it.
“The track was exceptional,” he said after coming away with his first victory since May 31. “The cushion wasn’t a killer, and the bottom wasn’t super-dominant. It was all a matter of positioning and tire conservation.”
While Drellos normally likes to run the top, that was where Jessey Mueller was running last Friday and Drellos was content to let him have that lane.
“I was nervous running the top,” Drellos said. “I’ve lost so many races in the last year and a half by running the top.”
A restart on lap 27 was the break Drellos needed to get by Mueller. Mueller’s strategy had been to restart on the bottom, charge out of the fourth turn, drift to the top and keep the lead coming out of the second turn. It worked on a restart on lap 26, but he couldn’t repeat the move on lap 27.
“I didn’t get as good a launch on the second restart,” he said after the race. “It took too long to get wound up. If I had gotten wound up coming out of two, he never would have gotten by me.”
Garrett Poland had a rough night. He was battling with Ronnie Johnson in the third modified heat when he blew his motor coming out of the second turn.
Jeremy Pitts returned to Albany-Saratoga last Friday, his first appearance at the track since blowing the motor in his modified in June. He came away with a tenth place finish.
Peter Britten, who finished third, padded his modified point lead over Marc Johnson to 36 points.
Congratulations to 13-year-old Connor Crane for recording his first career sportsman win last Friday. His older brother, Chris Jr., joined him in victory lane for the milestone win. “I didn’t know how far back second place was, so I just tried to ease it around,” said Connor Crane.
AROUND THE TRACKS
Andy Bachetti swept both the big block and small block modified features at Lebanon Valley Speedway last Saturday and is still in the hunt for the big block point championship. Because the Mr. Dirt Track USA race on Aug. 31 will only offer show-up points to the Valley regulars, the big block point race will end this Saturday. Bachetti, who debuted a new modified last Saturday, is just seven points behind Brett Haas.
I have a bone to pick here. Bachetti has also won nine of the 10 small block features this season. I remember when Ken Tremont Jr. won six of the first eight small block races in 2016. He had to add 50 pounds to his car. Why didn’t Bachetti have to carry extra weight?
Tim Hartman Jr. picked up his 13th straight sportsman win last Saturday and if I’m right, that ties the track record set by Claude Hoard in 1980.
Justin Stone, who’s still looking for his first big block win at Albany-Saratoga, won last Thursday night’s 358 modified feature at Airborne Park, while A.J. Munger, the son of former CVRA modified driver Gene Munger (another one of my old Super Dirt Week drinking buddies) recorded the first sportsman/modified win of his career last Saturday at Devil’s Bowl.
The C.J. Richards Memorial, run at the Bowl last Sunday, ended in controversy. Canadian driver Cedric Gauvreau dominated the race and earned the top prize of $5,000, but track owner and promoter Mike Bruno ordered Gauvreau to pull his motor after the race. The next day, the motor was taken to Hunt’s Machine (a DIRTcar approved engine shop) and some irregularities were found during testing. Bruno called DIRTcar NE Series director Dean Reynolds and they agreed that the heads on the motor had to be pulled. Gauvreau’s team refused to pull the heads, and as a result, Gauvreau was disqualified, giving the win in the C.J. Richards Memorial to Zach Sobotka. Bruno posted a very long and thorough explanation about the incident on the Dirt Track Digest forum.
Bruno suspended Gauvreau from racing at both Devil’s Bowl and Airborne Park for one year, and on Wednesday, DIRTcar also suspended Gauvreau “from all DIRTcar tracks and events for one year, effective Aug. 19.”
Mat Williamson won Tuesday night’s Summer Nationals at Ransomville, leading all 75 laps for his sixth Super DIRTcar Series win of the season. Matt Sheppard finished second (his right rear tire went flat in victory lane), Stewart Friesen was third and Jack Lehner was fourth, his best finish ever at Ransomville.
Write down Nov. 30 on your calendar. That’s the date of the annual “Racing Memories” program at the Saratoga Automobile Museum. Event coordinator Ron Hedger has put together a special segment recalling the NASCAR asphalt era at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Speakers will include Brian Ross, Nick Ronca, Phil Spiak and Jack Halloran. “We don’t really know if the speedway will close in 2025, after some 50 years of racing, as was announced this summer, but it seems high time to look back on the early days with drivers whose careers started there,” Hedger said.
I went out to the Nassau Sportsman Club for NESCOT’s annual steak bake last Sunday (kudos to the crew that does the cooking. The food they put out for lunch and dinner is skillfully prepared) and at one time during the afternoon, Tommy Corellis, Denny Soltis and Mike King were huddled together and engaged in deep conversation. Can you imagine the stories they can tell?
College football starts this weekend. Can hockey be far behind?
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