MALTA, N.Y. — DIRTcar modified star Jack Lehner and Empire Super Sprints kingpin Danny Varin shared the spotlight Friday night at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
Lehner notched a convincing victory over point leader Peter Britten and Varin prevailing over Matt Tanner, who caught fire late in the A-main and shot through the top five.
Ronnie Johnson, who has been struggling for most of the season, looked strong early on, moving from third to the lead in two laps and holding on through a pair of early restarts. But ninth-starting James Meehan had advanced to runner-up by the second restart and worked by Johnson just before yet another caution on lap 10.
By then, Lehner had charged from 16th on the grid to third and shot down Johnson on the restart. Britten, up from 18th, followed Lehner by Johnson and the duo began working on Meehan for the lead.
Another caution just before halfway let Lehner get alongside the leader in turn one, then gradually edge around him down the backstretch and take command as they hit the frontstretch. From there, all he had to do was ride out the laps.
“At the beginning of the night, the track was really slippery,” said Lehner after his third win of the season. “We were only so-so last week, so we threw some things at the car and hit it really good. Once we got the lead, we just had to finish it off with no mistakes. When you have a good car, it makes winning look easy.”
Behind Lehner, Britten and Marc Johnson were fighting each other for third while trying to dispose of Meehan, with Britten finally getting under him just after halfway with Marc Johnson following in his wake.
Back-to-back cautions for debris spread around the track brought Lehner back to the field but when green returned he drove away again, hugging the infield all the way around.
At the stripe, he was trailed by Britten, Marc Johnson, Robert Bublak Jr. and Matt DeLorenzo. David Schilling was sixth ahead of 27th starting Mike Mahaney, Brian Calabrese, Ronnie Johnson and Meehan.
“I got close once but Jack had the better car tonight,” offered Britten. “We only had a second-place car tonight. It helped starting in the teens instead of deep in the 20’s like the last few weeks but we need to win one again soon.”
“Marc Johnson, on the other hand, said “we were really bad and we were lucky to get a third. We went the wrong way on the setup, then Schilling came across my nose once and I got my thumb caught in the steering wheel. I think it’s broken because it hurts like hell.”
Outside front row starter Shawn Donath blew around polesitter Emily VanInwegan off turn two when the ESS finale went green and looked to be on his way to an easy win.
But 11 laps in he slowed, drawing a yellow, and went pitside. This put Jordan Poirier in command with Davie Franek second ahead of Billy VanInwegan and Varin.
The return to green saw VanInwegan go low to grab second as they hit turn one only to have Varin go even lower off turn two and pass both Franek and VanInwegan.
He then threw a big slider at the fleet Canadian the next time around and got the lead only to have Poirier cross him and take it right back. One lap later, Varin changed lines and drove around the leader off turn two and that was the end of the ballgame, as he ran and hid over the last dozen laps.
For the last five laps, the crowd forgot about Varin and focused on Tanner, who wasn’t even in the top five with ten to go. But suddenly he began mowing the competition down one after another and by the white flag was second and seemingly faster than the leader.
They checkered that way, with Poirier third ahead of Jason Barney and Franek. Billy VanInwegan led the second five, which included Jordan Thomas, Chad Miller, Emily VanInwegan and Josh Pieniazek.
“It was a phenomenal racetrack,” declared Varin, who started seventh. “You had to have your elbows up to run the cushion, which was really treacherous. I wanted to go faster but I also didn’t want to hit it wrong and throw the win away. I’ve almost won a bunch here before and something like that always happened.”
“We were bad at first but I kept plugging away and then Jason Barney showed me a new line and I got going,” explained Tanner. “This is my third second place in a row and it’s getting old but Danny was really fast tonight.”
Poirier was also disappointed, saying, “I was too good early on, then I got loose in the middle of the race and by the end we couldn’t do anything.”