MALTA - Like a good baseball player, Todd Ryan had a three-hit night Friday at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. First, he hit the wall. Then, he hit Brett Hearn. Finally, he hit the finish line.
Long after fireworks lit up the sky over the speedway, Ryan and Hearn provided the grand finale, with Ryan breaking a two-year winless streak. Hearn, who was looking for his third straight win, came out of the middle of the pack and caught Ryan just as starter Bob Bigelow waved the white flag. As the two cars came out of the second turn, Hearn was side-by-side with Ryan, but Bigelow then hit the yellow lights, as the lapped car of Kenny Aanonsen had spun off the backstretch.
That set up one of the wildest finishes ever seen at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. As the green and white flag waved at the same time, Ryan tried to get a jump going into the first turn, but Hearn stayed right with him, and ducked low coming out of two, pulling even. Ryan’s Northway Funding car and Hearn’s Brioschi small block were door-to-door heading down the backstretch, and that’s the way they hit the third turn. Coming out of four, Hearn tried to move up to block, pushing Ryan over the cushion. Ryan bounced off the wall, careened into Hearn’s car and the two came across the finish line with sparks flying. Ryan hit the finish line first, and the automatic scoring had him with a margin of victory of 0.081 seconds, the blink of an eye.
Hearn had so much fun, he got out of his car laughing. “He was either going into the grandstands, or get the checkered flag,” he said. The win was Ryan’s first at Albany-Saratoga since Aug, 28, 1998.
Gene Munger, back in the Richardsdale Farms car after three weeks driving Dave Camara’s backup modified, started on the pole and the fresh motor in the No. 75 was humming, as Munger went right to the front and opened up a huge lead. Munger held the lead until a caution on the 13th lap, when Don Mattison, who had been running second, suffered a flat right rear tire.
The top was the quick way around the track, and given the outside on the restart, Ryan, who had started third, went right to the front. Hearn became a factor in the final eight laps of the race. After running in the fifth position from laps 13 to 24, the Sussex, N.J. driver started his charge. He finally made his way past Jim Ryan on lap 25 to take over fourth, and two laps later, dropped J.R. Heffner a position. Hearn then rocketed past Munger coming out of the fourth turn on lap 31 to move into second, setting up the crowd-pleasing final lap dash to the checkered flag.
Munger finished third, his best finish of the season, while Heffner was fourth and Ryan finished fifth. Completing the top 10 were Mike Ronca, Ken Tremont Jr., Matt DeLorenzo, Don Scarborough and Ron Dwyer.
Defending track champion Tom Proctor recorded his first win of the season in the 20-lap sportsman feature, holding off a strong challenge from John Bellinger, who has become a consistent threat at the speedway. In the last three weeks, Bellinger, driving the John Kollar small block, has a win, a third and a second. Jim Becker turned in another strong performance to finish third.
Fred Little led almost flag-to-flag to win the special 40-lap open pro-stock race, getting his second win of the season. But even though he led 39 laps, he never had time to relax, as Hollywood Joe Santoro stuck right with him. Santoro did pull into the lead, by about a half-a-length, on lap 36, but Little got the advantage back the next time around and got the win.
Mike Ostrander outran Glen Evans and Grant Rice to win the hobby stock feature while W. Jon Smith (six-cylinder) and Jason Duncan (four-cylinder) won the cruiser features.
Albany-Saratoga Speedway will be back in action with a regular show Friday night. There will also be a four-cylinder demolition derby at the end of the night’s racing.
MODIFIED FINISH: TODD RYAN, Brett Hearn, Gene Munger, J.R. Heffner, Jim Ryan, Mike Ronca, Ken Tremont Jr., Matt DeLorenzo, Don Scarborough, Ron Dwyer, Don Ackner, Dave Camara, Jack Cottrell, Vince Quenneville Jr., Tim Laduc, Scott Noel, Frank Hoard Sr., Ron Proctor, Ken Aanonsen, Wayne Jelley, Brian McKenzie, Don Mattison, Mike Perrotte.
SPORTSMAN: TOM PROCTOR, John Bellinger, Jim Becker, Mike Ballestero, Gary Gates, Rich Ronca, John Harrison, Tim Hartman, Dick Bisson, Jack Gentile, Paul Cinincione, Tony Ballestero, Derrick McGrew, Frank Hoard Jr., Rick Davis, Elmo Reckner, Gerry Conroy, Jake Zak, Tim Adair, Brent LaCoste, Stan Lemiesz, Bob Matthews, Randy Salisbury, Keith Nichols.
PRO-STOCKS: FRED LITTLE, Joe Santoro, Rick French, Mike Fritz, Butch Irwin, Carl Vladyka, Steve Burega, Dan Madigan, Jay Resch, Luke Klob, Mike Bradley, Bob Schmidt, Mike Paquin, Jeff Sukup, Bill Smith, Jeff Patrick, Ed Pieniazek, Jon Trudeau, Randy Brownell, Charlie Koenig, Tom O’Connor, Matt Anatriello, Bubby Henke, Bob Gile, Chris Maxon, Adam Tranka.
HOBBY STOCKS: MIKE OSTRANDER, Glen Evans, Grant Rice, Ken Towne, Don Daniels, Mike Tholin, Curt Condon, Dan Daniels, Adam Stoddard, Chuck Knowlton, John Morris Jr., Lori Cary, Jon Coon, Jim Monroe, Vince Santoro, Mike Traylor, Dave Daniels, Gary Michaud.
FOUR-CYLINDER CRUISERS: JASON DUNCAN, Kevin Van Chance, Jon Atwell, Chuck Gauthier, Jim Monroe, Mitch Gries, Bill Lehman, John Richter, Dan Uber, Mike Burdo, Joe Naccarato, Mike Minick, Mike Carmen, Elmer Montville.
SIX-CYLINDER CRUISERS: W. JON SMITH, Chris Busta, Dave Kennedy, Ron Earfrato, Foster Ribseman, Tim Pelech.