Tremont wins “The Big One” at Albany-Saratoga


MALTA - There's something about 100-lap races at Albany-Saratoga Speedway that brings out the best in Ken Tremont Jr.

Taking advantage of a front-row starting position and opting to stick with his GoodYear track tires when many teams switched horses in midstream, Tremont walked off with $5,600 Friday night as he easily won the 100-lap “The Big One” for 358 modifieds at Albany-Saratoga.

Tremont has won three of the last four 100-lappers at the historic Malta track, with Friday night's win pushing his career total at Albany-Saratoga to 44. His extra-distance hot streak started with a win in the CVRA.com 100 on Aug. 5, 2005, and he also won the 100-lapper that kicked off the 2006 campaign. He finished second to Brett Hearn in last year's CVRA.com 100, losing the lead coming out of the fourth turn on the final lap, and simply dominated Friday night's “The Big One,” never letting lapped traffic become a problem. When he hit the finish line, he was nearly five seconds ahead of Matt DeLorenzo, who also opted to stick with the GoodYears.

CVRA promoter Bruce Richards decided to run an open-tire rule for “The Big One,” and combined with the $5,000 payout, which was kicked up to $5,600 because of sponsor bonuses, the field drew many outsiders, including Billy Decker, Pat Ward, Danny Johnson, Stew Friesen and Vic Coffey, creating a Friday night all-star field for a total of 35 358 modifieds.

But Tremont's knowledge of the track and his starting position made all the difference in the world. Following the completion of the heats, starting positions were drawn for the top 20 spots in the feature. Tremont, drawing late, picked the pole, and the capacity crowd knew it was going to see some great racing, because Friesen, Hearn, Danny Johnson, Matt Sheppard and Ronnie Johnson were in rows eight, nine and 10.

Tremont and DeLorenzo kept the crowd entertained with some incredible side-by-side racing, with DeLorenzo keeping the BBL Construction-sponsored small block hooked up as high as he could go. They were just noses apart for the first 15 laps, with Tremont getting the lead on lap 16.

Ward, who looked incredibly strong all night, took the No. 2 position away from DeLorenzo on lap 20, but DeLorenzo had a line he liked, got back into the runner-up spot on lap 32 and then used lapped traffic to catch Tremont at the midway point of the race.

DeLorenzo moved back out front on lap 50, but the battle was far from over, as Tremont only needed seven more laps to return to the front.

A caution on lap 74 gave the challengers one more shot at Tremont, but he just blew the field away when the green fell again, and was almost five seconds ahead of DeLorenzo when he hit the checkered flag.

“Matt was running the top of the speedway, so the bottom was the best place for me,” said Tremont in victory lane. “When you are out front, you have the luxury of seeing the lapped traffic, but you never know who may be behind you, so you just have to keep passing as many cars as you can.”

Jack Johnson, who started sixth and was never far away from the lead group, finished third, with Hearn fourth and Ronnie Johnson fifth.

Ward, who looked like he was on his way to a top-five finish, flattened his left front tire after contact with the inside wall with just a couple of laps left in the feature, dropping him to eighth in the final running order.

Albany-Saratoga regular Marc Johnson, who started 26th in the 30-car field after qualifying through the B main, ran a great race to finish ninth.

Like Tremont, Chris Busta parlayed a good starting position into his second straight victory in the25-lap sportsman feature. Busta started on the outside pole, went right to the lead and finished with a 1.352-second advantage over Mike Tholin, who started sixth and finished in the top-five for the third straight week.

Dustin Delaney finished third, with Whitey Slavin fourth and Rich Ronca fifth.

Dan Madigan passed defending track champion Lori Cary with five laps to go and went on to record his first win of the season in the 25-lap pro-street stock feature. Cary and Kim Duell, who shared the front row, swapped the lead on three occasions in the first 10 laps, but Madigan, who started sixth, was up to third by lap eight, passed Duell for the No. 2 spot on lap 14 and then took the lead with four to go.

Cary finished second, followed by Jeff Washburn, Bernie Companion and Duell.

John Filarecki got his first win of the year in the 20-lap limited feature, snapping Jim Monroe Jr.'s two-race winning streak. Monroe passed John Morris Jr. on the final lap to grab the second-place points, and finished right on Filarecki's rear bumper.

Mini-stocks were also in action on a busy Friday, with Phil DeFiglio coming away with his first victory of the year.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway will return to action on May 18 with Full Throttle Friday. All divisions, including the budget sportsmen, will be in action.

MODIFIEDS (100 LAPS): KEN TREMONT JR., Matt DeLorenzo, Jack Johnson, Brett Hearn, Ronnie Johnson, Billy Decker, Matt Sheppard, Pat Ward, Marc Johnson, Stewart Friesen, Jeff Trombley, Vince Quenneville Jr., Frank Hoard Sr., Jimmy Davis, Don Ackner, Vic Coffey, Keith Flach, Jimmy Cottrell, Tim Hartman, Don Mattison, Don Ronca, Gene Munger, Paul Kinney, Todd Stone, Danny Johnson, Don Scarborough, Elmo Reckner, Mike Ronca, A.J. Romano, Mike Perrotte.

MODIFIED B MAIN: ELMO RECKNER, Mike Perrotte, Marc Johnson, Don Mattison, Jimmy Cottrell, Tony Kawalchuk, Chris Vernold, Ken McGuire, Jimmy Becker, Tom Faxon, Vince Quenneville Jr.

SPORTSMAN: CHRIS BUSTA, Mike Tholin, Dustin Delaney, Whitey Slavin, Rich Ronca, Rob Langevin, Chris Johnson, Kory Sandstedt, Brian Holbritter, Matt Depew, Scott Duell, David Peek, Dave Baranowski, Dave Constantino, Jack Gentile, Josh Hohenforst, Stan Lemiesz, Pep Corradi, Dave DePaulo, Dick Bisson, Joe Santoro, Mark Kislowski, Mike Ketchum.

SPORTSMAN B MAIN: DAVE DEPAULO, Stan Lemiesz, Joe Santoro, Neal Erickson, Dick Bisson, Jack Gentile, John Willis, Tyler Curtis, Corey Gilligan, Skip Shippee, Adam Tranka, Dan Carlton, Cass Bennett, Mike Pinke, Nick Anatriello, Justin Barber.

PRO-STREET STOCKS: DAN MADIGAN, Lori Cary, Jeff Washburn, Bernie Companion, Kim Duell, Vince Santoro, Bill Smith IV, Charles Towslee, Dan Eastman, Greg McGill, Pete Broderson, Kevin VanChance, Darrell Carl, Cale Kneer, Jim Monroe, Jimmy Eaton, Jeremy Pitts, Mike Paquin, Matt Anatriello, Jesse Edwards, Frank Twing.

LIMITEDS: JOHN FILARECKI, Jim Monroe Jr., John Morris Jr., Curtis Condon, Dan Petronis, Jeff Monroe, Mike Ostrander, Ken Conroy, D.J. Brundige, Rich Burke, Dave Emigh, Mark Burch, Steve Holcomb, Brandon Emigh, Ben Durie, Paul Mulrain, Bill Burlingame, Anthony Marro, Dave Billings, Amanda Clemens, Mike Duclos, Brian Ashline, Nick Lussier.

MINI-STOCKS: PHIL DEFIGLIO (6), Travis Tromans (4), Brette Osgood (4), Tim Anagnos (6), Jason Dickson (4), John Baldwin (4), Jason Rheome (4), Ryan Veitch (4), Rennie Noradki (6), Ray Galusha (6), Ryan Petchel (4), Michelle Catone (4), Dan Lorenc (6), Mike Cranston (4), John Russo, Jim Anagnos (6), Ted Fitzgerald (4), Shane Marks (4), Dan Older Jr. (4).