MALTA, N.Y. — First Canadian Jordan Poirier claimed the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints feature, then Demetrious “The Greek Streak” Drellos wheeled his modified like a sprint car to take the DIRTcar modified finale Friday night at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
Drellos used some attention-grabbing slide jobs to work his way through the lead pack, finally putting Jack Lehner away with two to go in the 35-lap finale.
Adam Pearson was a strong third ahead of Marc Johnson and early leader Rich Ronca, with a fast-closing Kenny Tremont Jr leading a second five that included Don Ronca, Matt DeLorenzo, Keith Flach and Mike Mahaney.
Kris Vernold led early on off the pole but fourth starting Rich Ronca grabbed the lead away on lap five and was still in command at halfway. But Lehner, who started seventh, was second and coming fast in the inside groove and after edging under the rim riding Ronca foot by foot in each corner, he took command at the flag stand on lap 23.
A caution on lap 25 put Lehner, Ronca, Pearson and Drellos, who had lined up alongside Lehner, together for the restart and they went every which way on the green, swapping positions back and forth multiple times each lap.
Drellos first few slide jobs cost him, as he’d go too high and loose a position or two, but after a few tries he perfected his dives, using the middle to get by Ronca and Pierson, then driving around the infield hugging Lehner for the lead coming to two to go.
“That was the most fun I‘ve had in my entire career,” Drellos told the crowd amidst a shower of boos. “I can’t believe we got that one. The car was perfect and I could put it anywhere on the track. I found a lot of speed in the middle. After the sprint cars changed the track surface, that slide job line worked fine.”
“I should have had that one,” assessed Lehner. “But I got trapped by a lapped car and it cost me. Demetrious does what he has to do to win, but at least we’re competitive now with our new car.”
As for Pearson, he said “We made some really good changes before the feature, putting on a harder right rear with less stagger. We were good on the bottom but still, I was surprised to see we were third when that last caution flew and they set the order. I had no idea where we were. Drellos made some wild moves there but he gave me room and all in all, it was a good race.”
Local favorite Danny Varin drew the pole for the ESS finale but it took a while to establish a lead, with the yellow flying twice before a lap could be recorded. But once order was restored, Varin jumped out to a comfortable lead over Davey Franek and Poirier and caught the tailenders on lap eight.
A third yellow two circuits later brought him back to the field but his pursuers ran side by side on the restart and Varin slipped away again. But lap 13 saw Justin Wright take a wild ride off the backstretch with Poirier, who by then had displaced Franek from second, making a run on Varin on the green. He got even a couple of times in the turns, but Varin used his momentum off the top to regain the lead each time. But finally, on lap 20, Poirier threw a big slider on Varin as they hit turn three and he came off four with the lead.
Not to be outdone, Varin waited a lap, then threw a big slider on Poirier to regain the lead in turn one, only to have the Canadian take it right back at the other end.
With two to go, the duo caught the backmarkers and Poirier was home free.
Franek was third ahead of Shawn Donath, Dylan Swiernik, Paulie Colagiovanni, Scott Holcomb, Chuck Hebing, Matt Tanner and Jason Barney.
In supporting class action, Dan Madigan ended a 15-year drought with a Street Stock win while Chuckie Dumblewski notched his second Pro Stock win in as many weeks, besting Shane Henderson, Rich Crane, Luke Horning and Rob Yetman in a crash marred event.