MALTA, N.Y. — Newcomer Mike Mahaney notched his first Albany-Saratoga Speedway DIRTcar modified win Friday night, sharing the spotlight with Jonathan Preston, who scored a runaway win in the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprint feature.
Mahaney’s win wasn’t as easy. He advanced to second from seventh by lap 12, then caught front row starter Don Matteson at halfway of the 35 lapper and blew by with Bobby Hackel III in tow.
By the time Hackel disposed of Mattison in the early 20’s and went after Mahaney, the Huttig No. 35 was out to a big lead and seemed home free.
Then Jack Lehner and Hackel got together in turn four with two to go and Huttig had company up front and lots of it. Matt DeLorenzo, Ronnie Johnson, Keith Flach, up from dead last, and Brett Hearn were in hot pursuit when the green flew again. But a two-car spin on the restart brought a single file lineup for the next try and Mahaney drove away from those dueling behind him.
“I wasn’t happy when they drew that restart, because I figured I had a good lead,” offered Mahaney. “I was worried that somebody would bomb the top and get around me, so I was glad it went yellow again right away and we went to single file for the next try.
“We were lucky to get this one, as the track had more moisture in it than usual for the sprint cars and with all the grip I had in the car, we got to bounding around pretty good in the turns in the early laps.”
DeLorenzo was second with Flach third, Johnson fourth and Hearn fifth.
For Preston, who won his first Empire Super Sprint A-main earlier this season, the moisture was just right. He lined up third and had passed Jason Barney and was drawing in on leader Billy VanInwegen when the red flew for a turn two melee that saw Kelly Hebing take an easy flip and land on her side.
Preston couldn’t get alongside the leader right after the restart but he built up momentum on the far outside and on lap eight was even at the flagstand before taking the lead off turn two and sailing off into the night.
Behind Preston, Chuck Hebing and Davie Franek had moved into the lead pack from the third and fourth rows with Franek having the best run to stand third behind Preston and VanInwegen when a car spun to draw another yellow on lap 15.
With many expecting Franek to challenge for the lead on the restart, he instead picked his front wheels at the chalk line and went backwards to put Barney back in the lead trio. They finished that way, with Paulie Colagiovanni fourth ahead of Shawn Donath, 11th starting Danny Varin, Hebing, Steve Poirier and Justin Poirier.
“I had a lot of close calls,” said Preston. “I was flat out, that’s all she has. I was so tired I had my head over against the seat but we made it.”
Steve Poirier won the dash with Chad Miller taking B main honors.