MALTA, N.Y. — Mike Mahaney and Adam Pierson engaged in a crowd-thrilling battle Friday night at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway before Pierson finally prevailed in the $4,000 to win DIRTcar modified feature.
The 35-lap finale had excitement at both ends, as outside front row starter Matt DePew slapped the wall at the flagstand on the initial start, with his mount then shooting across traffic into the tires at the end of the inside concrete wall in turn one. The resulting melee left an even dozen cars on top of each other and in various states of disrepair, though most would return after an extended red to separate the cars, then a long yellow to allow teams to make repairs.
Mahaney, who narrowly missed the melee, had lined up fifth but was the leader on the restart with Ronnie Johnson alongside. They battled briefly before Johnson fell into the clutches of defending track champion Matt DeLorenzo as Mahaney edged away on the high side.
When the next yellow flew for another frontstretch scramble with seven laps in the books, Pierson was fifth after lining up in the eighth row, so it was evident that the battle up front was going to get even tougher.
After the top four ran side by side and swapped positions back and forth through the early teens, the infield-hugging Pierson finally got to second just before halfway and on lap 18 he managed to get even with the rim-riding Mahaney as they hit turn three. He hung even until they hit turn two, then edged ahead, though the battle was not over.
Two more yellows, including one with but one lap remaining, gave Mahaney two more chances to try to drive back around Pearson but while he could get even off the banking, Pearson always edged ahead after a couple of laps and they finished that way with DeLorenzo third ahead of Ronnie Johnson and Marc Johnson.
The “soon to retire” Kenny Tremont Jr., who was involved in the initial crash, drove all the way from the tail to sixth after a quick pit visit with Brian Calabrese, Jack Lehner, point leader Demetrious Drellos and Mike Trautschild trailing.
“I got a lucky break at the beginning,” declared Pearson. “I slowed up, dove right, saw a hole and got through with nobody hitting me from behind. We went winless last year so three wins this year is great. I’ve run here four years now and the seat time helps. There’s a little lip on the clay just before the inside concrete so when I feel that I turn away a little and this car is really fast down there.”
“Adam is a great racer,” opined Mahaney. “We put on a good clean show and although I could get him in three and four, he was way better in one and two. I really wanted that money, because it drops off a lot from first to second, but the outside went away and he was really dialed in on the bottom.”
DeLorenzo, who closed the point gap on Drellos, said “the track got really weird, it kept changing. Everybody was so even it was hard to pass and then Adam kept getting better and better on the bottom. I thought I had Mike a couple of times but it didn’t quite work out.”
In Pro Stock action, Kim Duell drove from deep in the field to run down Shane Henderson and become the division’s all-time leading winner with 29, displacing Rob Yetman. Jay Casey was third with Jay Corbin fourth.