MALTA, N.Y. – Rocky Warner has been knocking on the door to Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s victory lane and Friday night, he finally got in.
It wasn’t easy, as a high flying Bobby Hackel IV led most of the 32-lap Stan the Man memorial feature run in honor of promoter Lyle DeVore’s late father.
Warner only led one lap of the crash marred event, but that was all he needed to claim the $3,200 winner’s share of the increased purse. Hackel was a disappointed second ahead of a hard charging Kenny Tremont Jr., up from 15th, with Jack Lehner and Keith Flach completing the top five.
The carnage began on the first lap, as Peter Britten jumped a rear wheel on Mike Mahaney’s mount, sending the Australian into a series of flips that sent him out to the trees off the backstretch. Mahaney was also out of action with a broken rear-end housing.
Once the field returned to action, the fourth starting Hackel swept around Don Ronca for the lead and ran out to a straightaway lead as the eighth starting Warner and Tremont fought their way forward. Hackel tagged a lapped car at the flag stand on lap 11, with no damage, but lost his lead when a car stalled on lap 13 to draw another yellow.
The green brought yet another melee, with sixth running Marc Johnson catching an implement tire on the inside of turn one and getting locked with another car. When they broke loose, Johnson was launched out of the infield into the middle of the pack, sending cars everywhere.
When the dust had settled, six other cars, including Johnson’s brother Chris, who was making his modified debut, were in the pile with Marc on his roof.
Once order was restored, Warner and Tremont began dueling for third, with the former getting a good run off turn two on lap 25 that got him away from Tremont and past Ronca for second. He then chewed up Hackel’s lead in short order, getting even at the flag with two to go and taking command the next time around.
“That was awesome!” declared Warner. “I was good on top but I had too much gear to run up there for the whole race. We had planned on running the bottom, so I went back down there and it worked.”
Point leader Matt DeLorenzo was sixth ahead of Ronca, Brett Hearn, Jackie Brown Jr and last week’s winner Ronnie Johnson.
Michael Fitzgerald won the Sportsman feature, besting Chris Ronca and a fast-closing Connor Cleveleand.