MALTA, N.Y. — Brian Calabrese won hIs first Albany-Saratoga Speedway DIRTcar modified feature while Empire Super Sprint veteran Danny Varin notched his first win of the season Friday night. Both wins came on a jet black, super slick surface where finesse was king.
Polesitter Dylan Grogan led the big block feature early on with Jack Speshock in his shadow but Calabrese, who lined up fifth, got to third by lap five and made it a three-way battle. The race’s only yellow on lap 11 tightened the field up, with Calabrese disposing of Speshock on the restart and going to work on rookie Grogan for the lead.
Grogan looked like a sure winner, holding off Calabrese lap after lap, until a lapped car squeezed him into the infield on the frontstretch on lap 27, allowing Calabrese to scoot around the outside of both of them.
Matt DeLorenzo had advanced from tenth to third at that point and began pressuring Grogan for second, finally putting him away with six to go. But he had nothing for the inspired Calabrese, who led DeLorenzo, Grogan, Speshock and another rookie, Andrew Buff, to the checkers. Mike Mahaney snared passing honors with a run from 16th to sixth while Jack Lehner, Jeremy Pitts, Marc Johnson and Peter Britten rounded out the top ten.
“I’ve had bad luck the past two weeks but this made up for it,” declared Calabrese. “I tried to be patient and it went my way. It’s been a hard battle getting from the Crate Sportsman to a big block win.”
Varin’s score came after a crowd pleasing, back and forth battle that saw the lead pack three and four wide at times on the highly technical surface.
Polesitter Dylan Swiernik had Jason Barney and Matt Tanner alongside when he hit turn one on the initial break with Varin right behind him. At the flagstand, Swiernik had the lead with Tanner and Varin on his tail and they ran that way through lap seven, when Kyle Smith went around to draw the first of three yellows.
Tanner then blasted around the top of the three-eighths-mile oval to take command off turn four following the restart. He ran out to a solid lead as Swiernik and Varin swapped second back and forth until the second caution for a stalled car on lap 16.
Much to Tanner’s surprise, Swiernik took the lead back on the restart, but he got it back three laps later by dropping to the middle and sneaking under the leader off turn four. This put the top three under the proverbial blanket but a scuffle at the other end saw Swiernik go around, ending his night.
Tanner prevailed on the restart but he got another surprise when Varin sailed around him off turn four following the restart and snared his first win in only his third start of the season. Tanner was a close second with Jordan Poirier a rapidly closing third ahead of Barney and Jordan Thomas. Shawn Donath, Zach Sobotka, Chad Phelps, Billy VanInwegen and Jeff Trombley rounded out the top ten.
“I ended up second after that jumble with Swiernik and that let me fire off on the outside for the restart,” tipped Varin. “I’ve been struggling on these new tires and it’s nice to know we can still win. This wasn’t a typical Malta surface and it was a tough race but I finally got him.”
“I thought I had it won,” declared Tanner. “I didn’t think anyone could get around the outside of me but Danny did it.”
As for Poirier, he opined that “the track was slick but fun to drive on. The problem was that everybody was running the same speed and it was really hard to pass anyone.”
Nick Brundige won the Sportsman feature with Rich Crane home first in the Pro Stocks.
