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MALTA May 30th 2024 – If Demetrios Drellos was looking for a little confidence booster, he certainly got it Friday night.
Drellos, the defending modified champion at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, made his way to victory lane for the first time this season, holding off Peter Britten and Marc Johnson in the wild 35-lap NAPA Modifieds feature that had more twists and turns than a John Grisham novel.
In becoming the seventh different modified winner in as many weeks at the historic Malta track, Drellos walked off with $4,000, through sponsorship from John Ray & Sons Fuel and Dean’s Electrical Services.
“I really needed this. I was a little down in the dumps today,” said Drellos in victory lane after the win. “I haven’t been driving the way I want to. But my wife, my dad and my mom stuck with me, and this is a morale booster for all of us.”
Just for the record, if Britten had been able to stick the landing on an incredible move in the closing laps, Drellos would have had another disappointing night.
But let’s back up a bit and set the scene.
On lap 20, Jeremy Pitts got under leader Don Ronca in turn four. The two made hard contact, with Ronca ending up against the fourth turn wall, and Pitts taking the lead.
Fast forward to lap 21, when Drellos, who had started 12th, slipped between Derek Bornt and Justin Stone coming out of the fourth turn, moving from fourth to second.
Pitts was still leading on lap 31 when sparks suddenly shot out of the rear of his car. Drellos was on the inside going into the second turn, with the about-to-be-lapped car of Tommy D’Angelo right in front of him. But just as Pitts’ engine let go, Drellos pulled to the right, missed the rear of D’Angelo’s car, as well as the front of Pitts’ machine, and had the lead.
“I almost messed up there,” said Drellos.
But the caution brought out by Pitts’ engine failure put Britten next to Drellos, with Johnson third, for the restart. Drellos had been finding traction in the middle of the track all night, and Johnson loves the inside. And the last place Britten wanted to be was on the outside.
As the trio went into the third turn, Britten saw a gap between Drellos and Johnson and mashed the gas, making it three-wide going through three. But Drellos crossed back over in front of Britten in the fourth turn to maintain the lead at the white flag and one lap later, had his first win of the season.
“I had to give it a go,” said Britten with a smile after the race. “A gap was there, so I took a run at it. The car wasn’t set up to run the cushion, so I had to take what I could get.”
“This is huge,” said Drellos. “We’ve been in a rut and this will really help get out of it.”
Johnson, who started 18th, crossed the finish line third, with Bornt fourth, his best modified finish ever at Albany-Saratoga. Jack Speshock completed the top five.
Joey Scarborough recorded his second win of the season in the 25-lap Greg’s Towing Sportsman Special. Just when it looked Craig Wholey was on cruise control, a caution with five laps to go put Scarborough next to Wholey on the front row, and Scarborough easily grabbed the lead on the restart. Wholey had to settle for second, with Daryl Nutting third.
When Brandon Emigh took the white flag in the 25-lap pro stock feature, he was running fourth. But he then got a huge break and came away with his third win of the season. On the last lap, Shane Henderson had the lead, with Caden Dumblewski and Jason Casey breathing down his neck. Going into the second turn, Dumblewski tried to squeeze under Henderson, but the two made contact, spun out and collected Casey. Emigh took a hard right to avoid the mishap and came out with the lead.
He then had to survive a one-lap dash, beating Pete Stefanski and Kyle Hoard to the finish line.
Rob Yetman won the Four States Enterprises Dash for Cash to collect a $200 bonus. Emigh had the lead in that race, but went into the fourth turn too hot on the final lap, and spun around.
Tanner Coon became the first repeat winner in the limited sportsman division, outrunning Nick Brundige and Chase Zimmer in the 20-lap feature to collect the top prize of $500, courtesy of Gary and Patricia Van Alstyne.
Jason Meltz borrowed his dad’s car and posted his first win on the year in the 20-lap street stock feature, which paid $500 to win through sponsorship by Ghent Wood Products, which is also one of the primary sponsors on Meltz’s father’s car.
Mark Burch had the lead for the first six laps of the street stock feature, but Meltz used a restart on lap seven to get the lead and he then had to hold off a late charge from Chris Stalker, who was looking for his second straight win. PJ Cram Jr. crossed the finish line third.
Adam Montville led all 15 laps to win the four-cylinder feature. Kyle Lanfear finished second overall and extended his winning streak to four races in the single-cam division.
NAPA MODIFIEDS; DEMETRIOS DRELLOS, Peter Britten, Marc Johnson, Derek Bornt, Jack Speshock, Kolby Schroder, Neil Stratton, Jack Lehner, Ryan McCartney, Jessey Mueller, Rich Scagliotta, Justin Stone, Mike Mahaney, Robert Bublak Jr., Matt DeLorenzo, Brendan Darrah, James Meehan, Todd Ryan, Josh Masterson, David Schilling. CG Morey, Chris Bisson, Eric Mack, Tommy D’Angelo, Jeremy Pitts, Don Ronca, Scott Huber, Brian Calabrese, Ryan Stortino, Ronnie Johnson, Rich Ronca.
IDEAL EXCAVATING SPORTSMAN: JOEY SCARBOROUGH, Craig Wholey, Daryl Nutting, Tim Hartman Jr., Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, Mike Coffey Jr., Dylan Madsen, Chris Jakubiak, Tyler Rapp, Cody Bleau, Scott Duell, Brendon Gibbons, Tyler LaPlante, Chris Crane Jr., Alex Bell, Zach Buff, Dan Grignon, Dylan Grogan, Jon Miller, Mike Ballestero, Travis Witbeck, Ron Delease Jr., Nick Giardini, Mike Benson, Mike Jeske, Pat Jones, Taylor Wason, Dave Baranowski Jr.
SARATOGA MASONRY SUPPLY PRO STOCKS: BRANDON EMIGH, Pete Stefanski, Kyle Hoard, Jay Casey, Jordan Modiano, Kim Duell, Slater Baker, Rich Crane, Phil Difiglio, Jason Casey, Shane Henderson, Caden Dumblewski, Luke Horning, Pete Vila, Mike Hill, Jaxson Ryan, Rob Yetman, Beau Ballard, Chucky Dumblewski.
HAUN WELDING LIMITED SPORTSMAN: TANNER COON, Nick Brundige, Chase Zimmer, James Galarneau, Matthew Gebo, John Santolin, Mike Baker, Jordan Hill, Dakota Green, Nick Auspelmyer, Mike Block, Sara Arnold, Nick Arnold, David Zelker, Cordell Younger, Damon Anderson, Maclain Campbell, Sloan Cherko, Randy Ryan, Dan Odell, Lucas Duncan, Dan Seguin, Noah Carlo, Alex Smith, Chad Gregory.
CORNELL’S AUTO PARTS STREET STOCKS: JASON MELTZ, Chris Stalker, PJ Cram Jr., Mark Burch, Jimmy Duncan, Matt Mosher, Andrew Fitzgerald, Damian Ward, Dan Madigan, Josh Filarecki, Mark Leslie, Jason Barrett, Josh Hemming, Al Relyea, Chris Murray, Ray Pierre Jr., Mike Duggan, Derek Van Veghten, Tim MacFarland.
GREG’S TOWING FOUR-CYLINDERS: ADAM MONTVILLE, Kyle Lanfear, David Frame, Brittany Ladd, Chris Danylieko, Andrew Palmer, Dave LaBarge, Ben Ladd, Anthony Johnson, Lucas Condon.
