Dave Constantino Takes His Cyclone Chassis to Albany-Saratoga Speedway Victory Lane
Story and Photos By: MATT NOLES / RACERSGUIDE.COM
MALTA, NY- June 3, 2017- There’s something to be said for home-school engineering.
Where some take the well-traveled path to well-known chassis manufacturers, others take the proverbial path less-traveled and rely on youthful exuberance and testicular fortitude instead. For all intents and purposes, sportsman competitor Dave Constantino is the latter of the two.
In what will go down as one of the more hectic, fun and downright exciting sportsman features in recent memory at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, New York, Constantino drove his home-built Cyclone Chassis from the 11th starting position to the lead in epic and nerve-wracking fashion to take a much-needed and hard sought after victory on Friday night.
“That was a lot fun,” said Constantino in victory lane. “We’ve been working really hard on this car and we made some changes this week and we got some other guys going pretty good too and I’m really excited about what we have going on right now.”
Constantino, along with partner-in-crime Kyle Hoffman, is one of the founding members of DKM Fabrication and Cyclone Chassis’. To be able to not only build your own car – and do so in a manner conducive to being competitive – and reach victory lane at one of the most storied venues in the northeast is nothing short of vindication.
“Those last five laps were hectic,” He continued. “I saw David getting really tight on corner exit and I knew that as long as we didn’t get a caution and we could get to lapped-traffic, I would be able to get him. I was just waiting and counting those laps down and hoping that we weren’t going to get a caution.”
For the driver of the West-End Towing and Repair sponsored entry, a caution would have hurt his chances at victory lane more than anything. With the top of the speedway being as fast as it was and the bottom lane being the exact opposite, his only chance was to be in the right place at the right time as the leader reached the back of the field.
“The bottom was so slick and the top was so fast, it was hard to get away from it,” Constantino explained. “We were just in the right place at the right time with the right car. Everything just worked out great for us tonight.”
Constantino, who has seen victory lane numerous times at the Malta, New York speed-plant over the course of his career, was more than a little ecstatic at ending an uncharacteristically long dry spell on Friday night.
“This was the first win I’ve gotten here in a long time,” He remarked. “This was a very hard-earned win. We got really close last year and we almost got a win on the last lap but it didn’t happen so this win, this one is big.”
To the casual observer, one race car is the same as the next. However, for those that have followed the inevitable development and subsequent improvement of Constantino’s Cyclone Chassis over the years, they have seen a dramatic change for the better and if the evidence is any indication, the driver of the No. 7 is just getting started.
“We’ve been doing a lot of testing and the biggest difference really is that we quit our jobs,” Constantino stated. “We [Kyle Hoffman and Dave Constantino] work full-time at DKM now and that’s been the biggest difference; we’re not doing the work at 3 in-the-morning after we work at our day jobs. Racing is our day job now.”
If the recent results are any indication, there may be more improvements and more wins coming quickly for the second-generation driver. “We’ve been doing a lot of testing the last couple weeks,” Constantino concluded. “The results are coming and they’re only going to get better. Stew [Friesen] has been such a huge help giving us feedback and he has such a great feel for the car, we’re really excited about everything right now. After the day I had today and the week I had this week, this is great.”
Matt Noles is a contributing writer for Racer’s Guide and Dirt Track Digest. He currently resides in Sprakers, New York and can be reached via e-mail at matt_noles@yahoo.com.
