WEEDSPORT, N.Y. — One of the keys to being in contention for a Super DIRTcar Series title is a fast start.
That’s exactly what Jack Lehner did by finishing fourth in the season opener at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
It was the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., driver’s best finish at his home track, one he said was a morale booster heading into the next series event at Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 17.
“Albany-Saratoga is one of the tracks I don’t run well at for whatever reason when the Series is in town,” Lehner said. “Being that it was my home track and going against those cars, it’s a great way to start the year. We were fourth, but I definitely felt like we could’ve been third and that we were running [Stewart Friesen] down. I didn’t get a chance to see [Mat Williamson] or [Matt Delorenzo] on the racetrack, but lap-time-wise, I felt like we would’ve been able to give them a hard time.
“It boils down to I could’ve done a better job in [qualifying], which put us a little further back. But if that’s the kind of things we need to hone in on, that’s fine.”
Lehner was also the hard charger in the 61-lap feature, moving up 10 spots after starting 14th. However, it didn’t look like he’d be moving forward at the beginning. He said it took him about 20 laps to get going. But when he did, his Albany-Saratoga experience started to pay off.
“From racing at Albany-Saratoga a lot, you know how the track progresses from the start to the end,” Lehner said. “My car was tight early, but I knew being a little tight early was going to be really good in the middle of the race once we burned a little fuel and the track burnt off a bit. Usually, at that time, guys are usually starting to struggle a bit that started good at the beginning of the Feature.
“All that considered, I’ve done this long enough now that once I realized what kind of race car we had in the first lap or two, and the track we had, I had a feeling we were going to be pretty darn good at the end, and we were.”
That rise to the front of the field did come with challenges, though. Once Lehner got into sixth, he passed 10-time series champion Matt Sheppard to break into the top five on Lap 38. But with a yellow flag coming out before that lap was completed, his pass didn’t count.
It was a struggle that Lehner said may have kept him from contending with Williamson and Delorenzo at the end.
“[Sheppard] started ahead of me, and I got stuck behind him for a while in sixth because obviously, he’s really good, and he’s hard to pass,” Lehner said. “I think if I could’ve gotten to fire fifth with 20 to go, who knows, maybe we could’ve gotten further up there. But once I got racing with Sheppard and Drellos, Sheppard was on the inside, and Drellos was on the outside, I was kind of stuck. I was starting to get a little frustrated because I had a better race car, and both lanes were blocked. But once we got to lap traffic with the 17, they started moving around and that’s what gave me my opening to get by the nine car and the 98H.”
With his fourth-place finish, Lehner is confident he’ll be able to carry that momentum into the Spring Shootout at Cornwall next month. And with two consecutive top fives in points-paying events, Lehner said he knows the team is trending in the right direction.
“Those guys are really good all the time, so to be able to drive by them like we did and run them other guys down like we were, it means that we were really good,” Lehner said. “We were doing some things right. This is the toughest sport there is in my mind, and can be confusing and challenging in ways, but to come out there and feel like we’re on the same playing field or have a bit of a leg up definitely feels good.”
