Hearn Rules Malta
MALTA - In the early part of the 20th Century, carnivals and country fairs featured boxing matches, in which some big stud would get in the ring and take on the best pugilists in the community. Inevitably, the big stud would kick the crap out of the locals.
That’s the same thing Brett Hearn is doing at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Every Friday night, one of the best drivers on the Champlain Valley Racing Association takes his best shot at Hearn, and gets knocked down to size.
On Friday night, Dave Camara played the role of the challenger, but he became just another victim, as Hearn drove to his 10th victory of the season in the 35-lap 358-modified feature at the historic Malta track.
Hearn is having an unbelievable season at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, as he’s won 10 races in 11 stops at the track. The victory on Friday night was the 599th of his career, and came just hours before San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds became just the fourth player in major league history to hit 600 home runs.
If Camara can’t beat Hearn after starting on the pole, who is going to knock off the Jet? Hearn started 16th in Friday night’s field, giving Camara a lot of room to work with. But there was an omen that it wasn’t going to be Camara’s night almost from the outset. He got into lapped traffic quickly, and after just six laps, made contact with the lapped car of Jeff Betit, nearly ending his night before the engine even got warmed up.
Camara was so fast early in the race that he turned a lap of 17.191 seconds on lap two, one of the fastest times at the speedway this season. Hearn broke into the top 10 after just 12 laps, and Camara’s huge lead was negated on lap 13, when Don Ackner lost a wheel, bringing out the caution.
The next couple of laps featured some great racing between Ronnie Johnson and Scott Noel, who did their best to keep Hearn behind them, but very few drivers have been able to hold off the Madsen Motorsports small block at any time this season.
Once Hearn got by Johnson and Noel, he went after the second-place car of Mike Ronca, and grabbed the No. 2 position on lap 17. He then tracked down Camara, who was running a higher line on the speedway, and on lap 27, Hearn pushed the Brioschi-sponsored small block into the lead.
That forced Camara to settle for second, his best finish of the season at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. By winning his 10th race of the year, Hearn pulled to within two of the track record for single-season wins (12), set by Jack Johnson in 1981 and matched by Dave Lape in 1982.
Following Hearn and Camara across the finish line were Ronca, Johnson and Gene Munger. The rest of the top 10 consisted of Jack Cottrell, Noel, Tim Laduc, Randy Hotaling and Todd Ryan.
Mike Ballestero, locked in a battle for the sportsman point championship, drove to his second win of the season in the 20-lap feature in that division. Joe Conroy, still looking for his first career victory, came off the front row and led 10 laps before giving way to current point leader Tim Hartman, who had started ninth.
But Ballestero, who had already been passed once by Hartman, never backed off and grabbed the lead away from Hartman on lap 15 before going on to a comfortable victory, winning by 1.737 seconds. Hartman came across the finish line second, followed by Conroy, who had one of his best nights ever, John Bellinger and Dick Bisson.
Hollywood Joe Santoro got his sixth win of the season in the 20-lap pro-street stock feature. After starting seventh, Santoro was running second after just four laps and stalked leader Mike Fritz before taking the lead on lap 13. From there, Fritz was forced to watch the rear bumper of the Santoro car for the remainder of the feature. Brian Holbritter finished third, with Don Daniels fourth and Dean Charbonneau fifth.
Roy Fifield just nosed out Chris Busta to win the 15-lap hobby stock feature. Fifield notched his fifth win of the season, but the final margin of victory was just 0.072 seconds, about the width of a front bumper. The Daniels boys, Dave and Dan, finished third and fourth, respectively, while Bill Smith came across the finish line fifth.
Cruiser features were won by Elmer Montville (six-cylinder) and Keith Guilder (four-cylinder) while John Knighton won the 50-lap enduro.
MODIFIEDS: BRETT HEARN, Dave Camara, Mike Ronca, Ronnie Johnson, Gene Munger, Jack Cottrell, Scott Noel, Tim Laduc, Randy Hotaling, Todd Ryan, Frank Hoard Sr., Mike Perrotte, Ken Tremont Jr., Matt DeLorenzo, Ron Proctor, Don Mattison, Jimmy Becker, Chuck Higley, Ron Dwyer, Bob Savoie, Jeff Betit, Tim Clemons, Don Ronca, John Kollar, Don Ackner. DQ: Frank Hoard Jr.
SPORTSMAN: MIKE BALLESTERO, Tim Hartman, Joe Conroy, John Bellinger, Dick Bisson, Derrick McGrew, Ricky Davis, Jack Gentile, Jack Swinton, Robert King, Erik Mack, Tom Proctor, Neal Erickson, Tony Ballestero, Jason Herrington, Mike Boomhower, Doug Sheely, Bill Cody, Keith Nichols, Mike Catone, Gary Gates, Ken Anatriello, Jimmy Cottrell, Ray Martindale.
PRO-STREET STOCKS: JOE SANTORO, Mike Fritz, Brian Holbritter, Don Daniels, Dean Charbonneau, Carl Vladyka, Bob Schmidt, Ed Pieniazek Jr., Chris Maxon, Dan Madigan, Fred Little, Mike Paquin, Scott Duell, C.J. Brooks, Charlie Koenig, Bill Earlton, Mike Traylor, Dave Uline, Adam Tranka, Terry Stacy, Dave Shippee, Matt Anatriello, Steve Burega, Vince Santoro, Jay Fitzgerald, Jason Brownell.
HOBBY STOCKS: ROY FIFIELD, Chris Busta, Dave Daniels, Don Daniels, Bill Smith, Jim Monroe, Jeff Monroe, John Filarecki, Curtis Condon, Lori Cary, Kevin Sawyer, John Laviolette, Mike Ostrander, Brian Westcott, Gary Michaud, Mike Tholin, Fred Backes III, Eric Sbregea.
SIX-CYLINDER CRUISERS: ELMER MONTVILLE, David Kennedy, Keith Wright, Brian Myers, Butch Ryan, Matt Thomas, Keith Keller, Peter Pelech, Luke MacIsaac, Jason Pelton, Arthur Howe, Amanda Clemens, Foster Ribsamen, Dan Uber, Jon Atwell, Richard Mrzyglod.
FOUR-CYLINDER CRUISERS: KEITH GUILDER, Matt Corbiel, Kevin Connors, Jeffrey Krouse, Mike Minick, Stan Durie, Joe Ladd, Mike Dow, Bill Lehman, Jim Monroe, Pete Jeske, Jason Duncan, Emerson Ostrander, Mike Mrzyglod, Ed Sousie, Robert Ross.