MALTA - Tim Laduc finally got the victory that has been eluding him all season Friday night, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Dave Camara from securing his second straight modified point championship at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
Laduc, a second-year modified driver who has been right on Camara’s heels in the modified point race all year, won Friday night’s 50-lap, double-point, season-ending Fall Championships race at Albany-Saratoga, but Camara won his second straight track title with a fourth place finish. By recording his first career win at the historic Malta track, Laduc became the 17th different driver to win a modified feature this season. The only two-time winners were Camara and Brett Hearn.
The 50-lap modified feature, part of the season-ending Molson 100, was run in two segments, but not by choice. After a multi-car pileup in the fourth turn on a restart on the 19th lap left only nine of the original field of 22 cars on the track, promoter Bruce Richards opted to send the modifieds back to the pits for repairs, and ran the 50-lap sportsman feature before the modifieds came back out to finish their race.
Don Mattison started on the pole, but had a short night, as something let go in his modified on the first lap, bringing out the first yellow. Jason Becker took the lead on the restart, but Ron Proctor, behind the wheel of the Ron White-owned 27, then stuck the nose on his car down low in the second turn on the fifth lap to get the lead. Laduc took advantage of a loophole in the rules to start sixth, and was second, behind Proctor, after just seven laps.
Although Laduc had three top-five finishes,including two seconds, in his last three starts, and should have been handicapped near the rear of the qualified cars, Albany-Saratoga has a rule that no feature winner can start any better than sixth. Because the field included at least a dozen cars that had already won features, Laduc started ahead of them all, sitting sixth on the grid.
Things got interesting on the 19th lap, when Scott Noel hit the 115 of Lance Harting, lost his left front wheel and slammed into the inside barrier at the south end of the front straightaway. The incident capped a rough night for Noel, who spun out during hot laps prior to the feature, taking a big hit from Randy Hotaling. On the subsequent restart, Brian McKenzie, who was fourth, got sideways in the fourth turn, causing the cars behind him to jam up. Ten cars were involved, Frank Hoard Sr. did a slow role, and the cars of Andy Romano and Mike Perrotte were too damaged to continue.
When the cars were brought back out to finish their feature, Laduc again set his sights on Proctor, and finally got the lead on the 25th lap. Laduc quickly opened up a big lead, leaving Proctor and Don Ackner to battle for second, with Camara and Gene Munger having their own little battle for fourth.
Laduc had a 1.2 second margin of victory over Ackner, who had taken over second on lap 32, at the finish. The win was worth $2,000 to Laduc. Jack Cottrell got by Camara on lap 46, dropping Camara to fourth. But he earned enough points to win the title by 19. Gene Munger finished fifth, with Proctor sixth, Jim Ryan seventh, Harting eighth, Mike Ronca ninth and Frank Hoard Sr. 10th.
The 50-lap sportsman feature was run much cleaner than the modifieds, with Jason Herrington picking up his second win of the season. Mike Ballestero, who had to qualify through the consolation race, charged back to finish fifth and win the track title. It was only fitting that Herrington got the win, which was worth $700, because he had announced before the feature that any money he earned would be donated to the 911 Firefighters of New York Relief Fund.
For a while, it looked like David Peek was going to come away with his first career victory, as Peek got the lead on lap six and was in control of the race. But Herrington, who had started seventh, used a restart on lap 21 to pull even with Peek, and then got the lead for good on lap 22. Peek never backed off, using lapped traffic to keep pressure on Herrington, but Herrington never bobbled, and came away with the victory.
Tim Hartman made a late-race charge to take second away from Peek. Jimmy Becker was fourth and Ballestero finished fifth.
The 20-lap pro-street stock feature was one of the most competitive races of the night, as Dan Madigan came from his 13th starting position to nip Matt Anatriello for the victory. Anatriello, who had started fourth, got the lead on lap nine and missed a lot of good racing behind him, where Bob Smith, Terry Stacy and Madigan were running most of the track three-wide.
Madigan finally moved into the second spot on lap 14, and was making a run on Anatriello when the yellow came out on lap 17. Madigan used the restart to get the lead, and then beat Anatriello to the checkered flag. Smith was third, followed by Jeff Sukup and Joe Santoro. The fifth-place finish allowed Santoro to win his first pro-street stock track championship.
Mike Tholin wrapped up his hobby stock track championship in style, capping the tight point race with his first victory of the season. And the finish was almost too close to call, as Tholin beat Mike Ostrander to the finish line by .010 seconds, about the width of a front bumper.
The hobby B main featured a wild wreck, as Henry Moffat got sideways at the end of the back straightaway and then snap-rolled his car nine times before it finally came to a rest in the infield. But Moffat walked away from the wreck unharmed.
W. Jon Smith won the six-cylinder cruiser feature, and Mike Carmen outran the field in the four-cylinder division. Track championships went to Chris Busta (six-cylinder) and Jon Atwell (four-cylinder).
Albany-Saratoga Speedway will be dark until Saturday, Oct. 6, when it returns to action with its annual Octoberfest. The open competition show will include a 50-lap feature for pro-stocks, paying $500 to win, a 30-lap hobby stock feature, cruisers and a 100-lap enduro. Home track rules will apply for all divisions, as any driver can bring his car just the way he runs it at his regular track, and be legal for Octoberfest. Racing will begin at 2 p.m.
MODIFIED: TIM LADUC, Don Ackner, Jack Cottrell, Dave Camara, Gene Munger, Ron Proctor, Jim Ryan, Lance Harting, Mike Ronca, Frank Hoard Sr., Ron Dwyer, Brian McKenzie, Jason Becker, John Kollar, Todd Ryan, Mike Perrotte, Scott Noel, Andy Romano, Vince Quenneville Jr., Randy Hotaling, Matt DeLorenzo, Don Mattison.
SPORTSMAN: JASON HERRINGTON, Tim Hartman, David Peek, Jimmy Becker, Mike Ballestero, Kim Duell, Jack Gentile, Rich Ronca, Tony Ballestero, Neil Erickson, Derrick McGrew, Stan Lemiesz, Mike Mason, Keith Nichols, Tigger Matthews, Ray Martindale, Paul Cirincione, Bill Bushee, Ricky Davis, Mike Boomhower, Jack Swinton, Frank Hoard Jr., Dick Bisson, Jimmy Davis, Randy Salisbury.
PRO-STREET STOCKS: DAN MADIGAN, Matt Anatriello, Bob Smith, Jeff Sukup, Joe Santoro, Mike Fritz, Terry Stacy, Fred Little, Steve Burega, Charlie Koenig, Adam Tranka, Ed Pieniazek, Jeremy Pitts, Tigger Driscoll, Randy Brownell, Brian Holbritter, Dave Uline, Mike Paquin, Chris Maxon, Jason Brownell, Carl Vladyka, Dean Charbonneau.
HOBBY STOCKS: MIKE THOLIN, Mike Ostrander, Lori Cary, Jim Monroe, John Donnelly, Fred Harris, Chris Reckner, Larry King, Adam Stoddard, John Morris Jr., Curtis Condon, Vince Santoro, John Filarecki, Don Daniels, Brad Breel, Dave Daniels, No. 12, Dan Daniels.
SIX-CYLINDER CRUISERS: W. JON SMITH, Jeff Monroe, Chris Busta, Tim Pelech, Foster Ribseman, Luke MacIsaac, John Quintana, Steve Breault, David Kennedy.
FOUR-CYLINDER CRUISERS: MIKE CARMAN, Jason Duncan, Chuck Gauthier, Kevin Connors, Bill Lehman, Jim Monroe, Jon Atwell, Elmer Montville, Joe Naccarato, Ben Ladd, Mitch Gries, Amanda Clemon, Mike Minick, Kevin Van Chance.