Hearn rolls to second straight victory

It may have taken Brett Hearn and the 4-Star Racing Team a few weeks to figure out their new Teo Pro car, but now that they have, they’re almost unbeatable.

Hearn charged from his 17th starting spot, took the lead on lap 25 and outran defending track champion Ken Tremont Jr. and Dave Camara to record his second straight win in Friday night’s 358-modified feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

For Hearn, it was his 86th career modified win at The Great Race Place.

“I think that we might have it figured out now,” Hearn said. “The track was a little bit different tonight, as it was a little choppy, but I think that there was a better bottom line than there was last week.”

Don Mattison and John Proctor started the feature on the front row, with Mattison taking the early lead in a feature that saw numerous lead charges. Proctor tried to get around the outside of Mattison in turn four on the fifth lap, but Mattison was up to the challenge and held on to the lead.

On the next lap, Proctor switched lanes and got by Mattison for the lead, but Mattison fought back and regained the lead on lap seven.

The first of only two cautions came out on lap 15 when Jeff Trombley broke something in the front end of his car, and went off the track in turn four. On the restart, Mattison slid high in turn four, giving Proctor a lane to get by.

Camara, who had started ninth, was running third on lap 17 when he got into the inside wall in turn four with his left front tire. No damage was done and Camara continued on, while Hearn was now in the top five after getting by Mike Ronca.

Mattison and Proctor continued their great battle, with Mattison again taking over the lead on lap 20 on the outside of turn four.

The final yellow came out on lap 22 for Jack Johnson, who came to a stop in turn four. On the restart, Hearn got by both Camara and Proctor for the second position and on the inside of turn four, with only 10 laps to go, Hearn was the new leader.

Tremont got by Camara for third on lap 26 and one lap later, he also got by Mattison. But Tremont would have to settle for second, as Hearn took the win by a half straightaway.

Following Hearn and Tremont across the finish line were Camara, Mike Perrotte, Ronca, Mattison, Proctor, Matt DeLorenzo who started last after getting a flat tire while leading his heat race, Elmo Reckner, and Jim Cottrell.

“We have a good combination here with the Teo car, the 4-Star team and a Pat Morrison engine,” Hearn said. “This is a new car for us this year, and it is a total team effort, as the 4-Star team has some of their ideas in the car and the body was made at my shop with some new ideas in it, as well. Nothing crazy, but it is a collective effort between all of us. They sold the 5-year-old car that I was using up to this year, so that I couldn’t fall back on it.”

“We just have to get a little bit better,” Tremont said. “You can never get through traffic fast enough, but we just have to keep things lit and move forward, but some weeks that is easier to do than others.”

“It is about time,” Camara said. “It was a good night for us, but we still have to make a couple of more changes to our PMC car to make the package complete, even though we were light years ahead of where we were last week.

Albany-Saratoga is a racy place, and you have to be a race car driver to race here.”

Mike Ketchum led flag-to-flag in the sportsman feature to take his first win of the season. He was followed by Mike Tholin, Chris Busta, Joe Santoro, Mark Kislowski, Rich Ronca, Kory Sandstedt, Josh

Hohenforst, David Manny and Matt Depew.

Lori Langevin took the lead on lap 10 of the 25-lap pro-street stock feature and went on to her second straight win. Completing the top five were Ed Thompson, Bernie Companion, Kim Duell and Greg McGill.

The 50-lap budget sportsman feature was won by Ricky Quick with Frank Hoard III, Cullen Howe, Kris Bradbury and Scott Duell making up the remainder of the top five.