MALTA, N.Y. — Matt DeLorenzo has been flirting with Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s victory lane for a few weeks and Friday night he got it all together, notching a lucrative win in the “Stan Da Man” DIRTcar Modified feature.
The night’s magic number was 32, based on promoter Lyle DeVore’s late father Stan’s love of ’32 Fords, and it paid off for DeLorenzo, who notched a $320 heat win before edging a hard charging Kenny Tremont for the $3,200 feature score.
Mike Mahaney, who lined up a row behind Tremont in 14th, was a very tight third with Marc Johnson, who shadowed Mahaney throughout the event fourth ahead of point leader Anthony Perrego, who turned in another impressive run from 18th on the grid.
Polesitter James Meehan looked like he might get his first win early on, blasting off from the pole and building a solid lead over Don Ronca and DeLorenzo. With the others in the lead pack running the outside, Tremont hugged the infield and picked off cars one by one to show third behind Meehan and DeLorenzo at the halfway point, with the order then scrambled on lap 21 when Meehan slipped over the turn one banking and last a handful of positions.
DeLorenzo held a turn lead over Tremont when the race’s first yellow flew on lap 27 for Kris Vernold’s trip off turn one.
By that time Meehan had fought his way back to third and looked he’d challenge for the lead again on the restart. Instead, his car began billowing smoke just as the green flew, triggering another yellow.
The next try saw DeLorenzo scoot away from Tremont on the green, with the latter going high in turn one and allowing Keith Flach to scoot to second. But C.B. Morey stalled right away and on the next try, Tremont held second and began running down inside of the rim riding DeLorenzo.
They dueled to the finish as Mahaney used the high line to get around Flach while bottom line king Johnson and Perrego got by as well to set the top five.
“I wasn’t very good on top for the first five or six laps so I ran the bottom,” said DeLorenzo. “But there was a bunch of cars there, so I went back to the top and it was great. Once I got the lead, I just tried not to jump the cushion like I usually do. The restarts were tough, but I figured if I could get back to the top I could hold Kenny off and it worked out OK.”
“I would have liked to be able to run the top but I was no good up there,” added Tremont. “I could run the bottom OK, but it slowed me down just enough that I couldn’t overcome Matt’s momentum off the top. And I knew if I ran any harder, I’d slip up and get in trouble!”
In support class action, Kaleb Shepard edged Jimmy Duncan in the Street Stock feature while Chris Jakubiak bested Joe Venditti in the Limited Sportsman. Chad Jeseo ran down race long leader Kim Deuel to claim the Pro Stock finale with Jason Casey a close third.