MALTA, N.Y — Mike Mahaney had a good night at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway Friday.
First, a sixth-place finish in the DIRTcar big block modified feature locked up his second track championship. Then a stirring drive in the 358 modified finale yielded his third win in that division to ice the cake.
Equally happy was Jack Speshock, who claimed his first big block win of the season in impressive fashion to highlight Mangino Chevy/GMC’s night at the races, delighting the Mangino family of which he is a member.
Polesitter Brian Calabrese seemed headed to his first Albany-Saratoga win early on, as he led the fourth-starting Speshock and Ronnie Johnson, up from seventh, at halfway. Johnson then dropped Speshock a spot in the early 20s but lap 28 saw the leaders hit lapped traffic and the outlook changed.
Speshock charged back by Johnson with three laps remaining, then blew by Calabrese the next time around to get the lead with a slide job into turn three.
With Calabrese giving up his momentum, Matt DeLorenzo shot by as well to claim second ahead of Calabese, Ronnie Johnson and championship contender Marc Johnson.
Mahaney led the second five, which included Felix Roy, David Schilling, Justin Stone and Ronca.
“I couldn’t give up after giving one away on the last lap a few weeks ago,” summed up Speshock. “They reworked the track before our feature and it worked out great for me. When Ronnie got by me, I hit the frontstretch wall and slowed down. But I told myself to refocus and get my head back in the game. It worked, because I started running the top, got to second, and caught Calabrese with a full head of steam when he slid up a little. I was ready to go out on my boat on Fridays instead of racing but this will keep me going.”
“I just had to find the right spot to make my move,” added DeLorenzo. “I was trying to dial in my brakes and made it worse but I finally got it right. Ronca held me up for a while or I might have had something for Jack there at the end.”
Mahaney’s score in the small block finale came at the expense of Ronnie Johnson, who got around early leader Felix Roy on a lap four restart and ran out to a solid lead while Roy and Mahaney dueled behind him.
A lap 13 yellow then brought Johnson back to Roy and Mahaney, with the latter throwing a big slider on the Canadian to take second as they hit turn three following the restart.
By lap 20 Mahaney was alongside Johnson through turns three and four, then dove inside him to take the lead as they hit turn one. Johnson made a strong run on the white flag lap but was still a car length behind at the stripe.
Roy was third to seal the 358 division title with DeLorenzo fourth ahead of Bobby Hackel IV, Mike Coffey and Peter Britten.
“I knew I had to get Roy quick,” declared Mahaney. “Getting to second was key because I knew I couldn’t race both of them at once. Ronnie was running lower, which let me move up and get momentum and when he lost bite and slipped up, it let me turn in under him.
“What a night! In the big-block race, I started next to Marc Johnson and knew I had to keep him in sight because he was second in points. He was a little faster but I stuck right with him because I really wanted the championship to mark the year my son was born. George, Julie and Charlie Huttig give me great cars and that’s the secret to success.”
Elliot Lussier edged Nick Brundige and Chris Jakubiak in the Sportsman feature while Brandon Emigh bested Caden Dumblewski and Shane Henderson in the Pro Stock finale. Pete Stefanski was fifth, sealing the division title after a season of driving five hours across New York from the Buffalo area every week.
