RJ Finishes A Tough Week With Victory At Albany-Saratoga

Column By: LAURIE FALLIS / RPW – MALTA, NY – After parting ways with Jake Spraker’s racing stables earlier in the week, things could not have ended any better for Ronnie Johnson Friday night at The Great Race Place, the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

Johnson took his own Small Block Modified #2RJ from the 16th starting position and made a last lap pass on the inside of Jeremy Wilder to bring home the victory for his team and fans.

In the 40-lap 358-Modified feature on Suicide Prevention Awareness Night, bringing the field to the green was Demetrios Drellos and Neil Stratton with Stratton jumping into the lead.

Caution came out on lap 5 which bunched up the field. Stratton resumed as the leader with Don Ronca moving into second and Wilder in tow. Along witht he 22J was Marc Johnson and MattyD, Matt Delorenzo, fourth and fifth.

There was another caution just passed the halfway point which now saw Johnson entering into the fifth position. The battle was heating up for the top spot between Stratton and Wilder as RJ was on the way, moving to third.

Jessey Mueller had moved up to fourth with multi-time track champion Kenny Tremont showing he wanted to be in the mix of things.

A lap 25 caution came out for Delorenzo as contact between him and Bobby Varin in turns 3 and 4 ended the night for the 3D. Matty showed his displeasure, however, before heading pitside.

On the restart, it was Wilder taking over the lead as he powered his way to the front, opening the lead up until a caution on lap 38 bunched the field back up once again.

Now it was a two-lap shootout. With double file restarts, the drivers took the green and headed into turn one dicing for position. Stratton tried to make a move to get back into things but ended up spinning and bringing out the caution for the final time, taking him out of a solid finish.

As the cars went back to green, it was Wilder Johnson, Tremont, Marc Johnson and Jessey Mueller your top 5. The 22J went to the top side and Ronnie went to the bottom. They exited turn two side-by-side. Contact was made going down the backstretch with Ronnie having a slight lead going into turn 3. He powered through the rest of the way and went on to claim the victory.

“I went into the race with a relaxing ‘no pressure feeling,” Johnson said after the race.

It sure seemed to work as the Duanesburg, NY driver raced to a very gratifying win from deep in the pack.

Wilder was second followed by Marc Johson, Tremont and Drellos.

With big money on the line for the King of Dirt’s Northeast Crate Nationals 100-lap Sportsman title event, there were plenty of cars in the field as 63 machines took time in qualifying. It was surely setting up to be a shootout.

Setting fastest time was Connor Cleveland. Being a big money race, every car took to the scales after their trials.

Sportsman qualifier #1 had 17 cars start in a 15-lap race with Tim Hartman #22 getting the victory. Qualifier #2 had 19 cars start with the #173 of Adam Pierson running away with the win. Qualifier #3 had 16 cars and the Tommy Spencer-owned #37 of Chad Edwards was victorious.

The consolation races had 19 in one and 20 in other with Rob Maxon and Jeff Watson winning. Watson is in the top 5 in the KOD series points.

The feature had Jeremy Pitts and Dave Schilling on the front row. It was Schilling in the 1-800-GOT-JUNK #20 taking the lead, Track champ Rocky Warner started in eighth position and was into fifth in no time. By lap 10, he moved into third and drove to second one lap later before taking over the lead on lap 12.

On lap 35 the caution flew with Warner, Schilling, Hartman, Pitts and Cleveland in the top 5. Cleveland’s good run would come to an end with a flat tire sending him pitside shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, it was all Rocky Warner up front.

David Constantino made contact with Cleveland as the #09 entered the track with a new tire. That ended the night for the driver of the #7.

Caution flew on lap 80 caution and on the restart, Hartman moved into second. However, he began to backslide and fell back to fifth.

Jamike Sowle brought out the caution on lap 82 and on the restart, Chad Edwards made a big move and overtook the leader Rocky Warner. Warner came back and the two dueled it out side-by-side for a number of circuits until Rocky showed why he is the 2017 track champ. He went on to claim the Victory and the big winners check.

Dave Marcucilli made his way up to the runner-up position with Pitts, Schilling and Edwards rounding out the top 5.

A side note: The motor in Warner’s car was protested after the race and was taken out to be torn down at a machine shop in Schenectady. It will be checked after being torn down two weeks in-a-row at Malta.

Pro stock drivers also were running at the track as well in a 50-lap feature of their own. Chuck Dumblewski and Dan Madigan brought the field of full fenders to the green with Dumblewski taking the top spot. However, that wasn’t for long as Madigan took the lead away with Nick Stone riding in third.

Dumblewski took the lead back Stone hot on his trail. Luke Horning got into the mix behind him with the #5 of Norm Loubier running in the top 5. Loubier would come out in first as he and Nick Stone were in heavy traffic racing side-by-side.

On lap 33, Horning spun while in the fourth position and went to the pits with flat tire. He returned but had to start at the rear of the field.

The #14 of Kim Duell made his presence known as he had himself sitting in fifth. He powered his way to third after making a late race charge.

The caution flew again on lap 39 with Loubier as your leader followed by Stone, Duell, Dumblewski and the #324 of Jason Casey.

Stone made good use of the restart and took over the top spot on the high side. Once he had the lead, he moved down to the bottom to protect and never looked back, taking wins in back-to-back races.

Coming in second with a great run was Loubier followed by Duell, Dumblewski and Casey.

A happy Stone said in victory lane that he didn’t think he would have caught Loubier.

“He was super fast on the bottom,” he said. “That’s why I knew when I got the lead I had to get to the bottom and block him.”

Each and every feature had fans on their edge of their seats as there was plenty of action on the track. Best racing this fan has seen in a while. Hats off to the drivers that makes this sport the best.

GOOD LUCK to all the drivers finishing the year strong.

See you all at the races, and please, everyone, be safe in your travels.

Friday, September 08, 2017 – Malta, NY – Fire and Rescue Night Present Tom Clothier Trucking Suicide Prevention Awareness 358 Small Block Modified Results (40 Laps) – 1) Ronnie Johnson, 2) Jeremy Wilder, 3) Marc Johnson, 4) Ken Tremont Jr, 5) Demetrios Drellos, 6) Jessey Mueller, 7) Bobby Varin, 8) Elmo Reckner, 9) Rocky Warner, 10) Jimmy Cottrell, 11) Jack Lehner, 12) Don Ronca, 13) Brian Gleason, 14) Ricky Davis, 15) Nick Lussier, 16) Dillon Steuer, 17) Brett Haas, 18) Neil Stratton, 19) Jeff Rockefeller, 20) Matt Delorenzo, 21) C.G. Morey, 22) Jason Herrington, 23) Rich Ronca, 24) Matt Depew

The King of Dirt Series Northeast Crate Nationals Sportsman Unofficial Results (100 Laps) – 1) Rocky Warner, 2) Dave Marcuccilli, 3) Jeremy Pitts, 4) David Schilling, 5) Chad Edwards, 6) Tim Hartman Jr, 7) Brian Pessalano, 8) Josh Sunn, 9) Jeff Watson, 10) Adam Pierson, 11) Adam Leslie, 12) Kevin Chaffee, 13) James Meehan, 14) Hunter Bates, 15) Chris Johnson, 16) Mike Coffey, 17) Daryl Nutting, 18) Jason Gray, 19) Mike Ostrander, 20) Jim Morgan, 21) Rob Maxon, 22) Connor Cleveland, 23) Pat Jones, 24) Jamike Sowle, 25) Scott Duell, 26) Dave Constantino, 27) Will Shields, 28) Andrew Buff, 29) Michael Sabia, 30) Justin Barber,

DNQ) Anthony Alger, DNQ) Lem Atkins, DNQ) William August, DNQ) Dave Baranowski, DNQ) Scott Bennett, DNQ) Floyd Billington, DNQ) Travis Billington, DNQ) Mike Block, DNQ) Reggie Bonner, DNQ) Robert Bublak, DNQ) Justin Buff, DNQ) Jesse Edwards, DNQ) Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, DNQ) Nick Fretto, DNQ) Ron George Jr, DNQ) Ryan Heath, DNQ) Stephen Kneer, DNQ) Jon Miller, DNQ) Josh Neal, DNQ) Joe Orlando, DNQ) Mike Parodi, DNQ) Paolo Pascarella, DNQ) Fred Proctor, DNQ) Ron Proctor, DNQ) Christopher Ronca, DNQ) Dan Santabarbara, DNQ) Justin Severance, DNQ) Justin Smith, DNQ) Jack Speshock, DNQ) Lou Torres, DNQ) Montgomery Tremont, DNQ) Jacob Volpi

The Sowle Trailer Repair Pro Stock Showdown Results (50 Laps) – 1) Nick Stone, 2) Norm Loubier, 3) Kim Duell, 4) Chuck Dumblewski, 5) Jason Casey, 6) Jason Corbin, 7) Jason Meltz, 8) Ivan Joslin, 9) Luke Horning, 10) Byron Wescott, 11) Josh Coonradt, 12) Kenny Martin, 13) Dave Depaulo, 14) Nick Arnold, 15) Dean Charbonneau, 16) Dan Madigan 17) Ed Bishop, 18) Ernie Greenier, 19) Scott Govertson, 20) Tom O’Connor, 21) Jay Casey, 22) Justin Knight, 23) Chris Wemple, 24) David Emigh, 25) Darrell Older, 26) Brandon Emigh, 27) Dan Older, 28) Bill Smith, 29) Brandon Gray, 30) Ron Delease Jr.