Heffner Visits Victory Lane; Corellis Takes 358's
Saturday July 15, 2006 - By: Rodney Rescott
West Lebanon, NY: There were no fireworks on the schedule for the night's
program, but there sure were fireworks on the track, as Rifenburg Construction
presented the action along with the Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Super Series.
It took nearly 9 weeks, or almost half the season for J.R. Heffner to drive to
victory lane, but it took a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck to
finally break through in 2006.
The 30 lap Rifenburg Construction Modified feature event took to the Valley of
Speed, with Denny Soltis and Russ Reckner at the helm. At the drop of the
green, Reckner charged out front, but Reckner was gonna get a chance to stretch
it out as a multi-car pile up brought out the first caution in turns 3 and
4. When the mess was cleaned up, and most cars back on track, the
green dropped again, this time, the caution waited till lap two, when several
more cars got bobbled up, causing a few more repairs. By lap 4, the race
was finally under way, and this time Reckner took his Hough Motors #34R to the
lead, then to another zip code.
Nothing was going to slow this kid down on his way to his first modified win of
his career, except for another caution flag; and there was. The first was
for the #99m of Jeremy Matthies, and then a lap later; Denny Soltis' ride
finally lost steam and was forced pit side. That made for a 4 lap shoot
out for the win. Sitting back in 2nd, was Heffner, who quietly march his
way into the runner-up spot. And at the drop of the green, he began the
challenge. The ACS Express tried high, and low, but Reckner was holding
strong. Finally, with two to go, slight contact going into three caused
Reckner to check up, allowing for the A. Callarusso and Sons #74 to the bottom,
and past Reckner for the lead. At the checkers, Heffner took his first
for 2006, followed by a strong run for Reckner. Keith Flach's #43 ran an
impressive 3rd, followed by another rookie, Mark Flach Jr's #77F. Andy
Bachetti charged through the field after spending several caution flag laps in
the pits with damage to capture a well deserved 5th place finish.
The Benjamin Moore 358 Super Series had their 24 lap feature earlier in the
evening, and the action was just as interesting. Kory Gurney and Mark
Pullen brought the field to the start. It didn't take long for the sparks
to fly, and the field scrambled to vie for positions. As the field
charged down the backstretch, contact with the #32 of Quinn and the #1 of Sean
Gallivan, caused the field to check up; as several cars spun to avoid
contact. Buddy Henke's #24H suffered the most damage, and was out of the
event. After that clean up, the green fell again, but multiple contact
with several cars caused the #30 of Pullen suffer severe damage, relegating him
pit side for the night. But the race belonged to the Rifenburg #21 of
Donnie Corellis, who got to the front first, and checked out. He led the
last 13 laps and took his first win in the 358's for '06. J.R Heffner
took home second place honors, while Andy Bachetti marches to a 3rd place
run. Forth place was captured by Roy Bridge, and Matt Quinn rallied back
to finish 5th.
The Pro Stocks had their excitement as the show came to a brief halt on lap 8
as part time driver Adam Haas lost control of his #55 after contact with the
outside wall in turn 3, and rode the wall all the way around into turn 4 on two
wheels. But his ride wasn't over, as he took down a support pole, causing
the car to flip several times, finally coming to a rest on its roof at the head
of the front stretch. After several seconds, the car burst into flames,
but Haas was already making his exit from the car, and he got out safely with
just minor bruises. The race continued, Rob Yetman had already procured
the lead, and just set sail with the cruise control on to take his 6th victory
of 2006. Jay Corbin battled his way to 2nd, 3rd was Rob Langevin, 4th
across the line was Paul LaRochelle, with an excellent run to fifth place for
the #243 of Victor Hopkins.
The Sportsman division had their share of excitement as well as a lap 1
incident in treturous turn 3 had the field come to a standstill as the #9 of Ed
Harkin wedged his front end into the door window of the #16 of Kyle
Hoffman. After several minutes to get the two separated, the field was
back under way. But this night belonged to the #39 of Ryan Larkin who
took his first win of the year, and the 7th different winner in '06. Jeff
Watson took 2nd, as Frankie Harper charged to take 3rd. 4th across the
line was K.C. Goewey, followed by the #00 of Chris Kokosa.
The Limited Pro Stocks were captured by George Miles, taking his 5th win of the
year. The Pure Stocks also had an action packed night of racing.
Nearly 45 cars took to the speedway, the winners were: PS# 1-Robert
Hammell (1st win), PS# 2-Lynn Wesley (1st win), PS# 3-Pete Wiegand (6th win),
and PS# 4-Dave Streibel (3rd win).
The Outlaws are coming to the High banks of Lebanon Valley. Sunday July
23rd, the World of Outlaws will take over the Valley of Speed and try and take
over as the King of the Valley. Tickets are going fast, so get your
reserved seats now, while they last!
On Saturday July 22nd, it's GE Plastics and Snap-On Tools night with a special
Autograph Night, and a $3,000.00 to win Modified feature event. Bring the
campers and make an entire weekend out it with tons of racing actions.
Get your tickets now.
For more information and tickets, visit our website at www.LebanonValley.com, or call the
Speedway Offices at (518) 794-9606, or (518) 794-9965 during normal business
hours.
Saturday July 15, 2006 - RIFENBURG Construction
Modified Results (30 Laps) - 1 J. R. Heffner, 2 Russ Reckner, 3 Keith
Flach, 4 Mark Flach Jr, 5 Andy Bachetti, 6 Donnie Corellis, 7 Wayne Jelley, 8
Paul Gilardi, 9 Steve Hough, 10 Eddie Marshall, 11 Lorne Browe, 12 Tim Dwyer,
13 John Hewitt, 14 Don Mattison, 15 John Ruchel, 16 Hector Stratton, 17 Wayne
Figler, 18 Charlie Humes, 19 Kenny Tremont, 20 Denny Soltis, 21 Donnie Ackner,
22 Jeremy Matthies, 23 Mark Pullen, 24 Ron Dwyer, 25 Guy Sheldon, 26 Mike King,
27 Matt Quinn, 28 Brian Berger, 29 Kyle Sheldon, 30 Skippy Fox, 31 Dave
McFeeters, 32 John Alberti
Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Modified Super Series Results (24 Laps) - 1 Donnie
Corellis, 2 J. R. Heffner, 3 Andy Bachetti, 4 Roy Bridge, 5 Matt Quinn, 6 Keith
Flach, 7 Ray Hoard, 8 Ryan Larkin, 9 Kenny Tremont Jr, 10 Wayne Jelley, 11 Tom
Faxon, 12 Kory Gurney, 13 Sean Gallivan, 14 Ted Teal, 15 Denny Young Jr, 16 Jim
Van Anden, 17 Earl Thitchener, 18 Alan Houghtaling, 19 Rich Salisbury, 20 Mark
Pullen, 21 Buddy Henke
Sportsman Main Results (20 Laps) - 1 Ryan Larkin 2 Jeff Watson, 3 Frank Harper,
4 KC Goewey, 5 Chris Kokosa, 6 Chris Tryon, 7 Kevin Lynch, 8 Ed Harkin, 9 Chad
Pierce, 10 Alan Houghtaling, 11 Brian Sandstedt, 12 Carmon Carnibucci, 13 Kory
Sandstedt, 14 Rob Barilie, 15 Daryl Hulbert, 16 Bob Bouchard, 17 Neil Stratton,
18 Wayne Keyes, 19 Kim LaVoy, 20 Danny Sanchez, 21 Joe Mabb Jr, 22 Derek Schibi,
23 Earl Thitchener, 24 Don Miller, 25 Kyle Hoffman
Pro Stock Main Results (20 Laps) - 1 Rob Yetman, 2 Jay Corbin, 3 Rob Langevin,
4 Paul LaRochelle, 5 Victor Hopkins, 6 Bob Duzlak, 7 Mike Middleton, 8 Chris
Crews, 9 Dwayne Quennville, 10 Don Collins, 11 Jon Routhier, 12 Adam Haas, 13
Rick Dempsey, 14 Lori Cary, 15 Jeff Kelmel, 16 Don Carlson, 17 Jason Casey, 18
Kevin Arnold
Limited Pro Stock Results (10 Laps) - 1 George Miles Jr, 2 John Santolin, 3
Nick Hilt, 4 Brian Keough, 5 Justin Herron, 6 Jerry Helms Sr, 7 Dan Hartgraves,
8 Jim Keough, 9 Frankie Twing
Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Robert Hammell, 2 Jay Casey, 3 Jay
Kreutziger Jr, 4 Ed Hatch, 5 Wuggie Burdick, 6 Don Coon, 7 Dave Houser, 8 Joe
Walcott, 9 John Quiqley, DNS Scott VanDenberg
Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Lynn Wesley, 2 Rich Douglass, 3 Gary
VanDenberg, 4 Steve Hatch, 5 Joe Chenail, 6 Anthony Madalla, 7 Chris Keller, 8
Karl Castagna, 9 Mike Arnold, 10 Richard Rogers
Pure Stock #3 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Pete Wiegand, 2 Matt Humes, 3 Shannon
McDermott, 4 Bob Palmer, 5 Larry Ball, 6 Mike Eichstedt, 7 Al Relyea, 8 John
Chapman, 9 Chrissy Hilt, 10 Kevin Winters, 11 Nick Regis, 12 Tom Harkins, 13
Jesse Murphy
Pure Stock #4 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Dave Streibel, 2 Lou Ganczar, 3 Ray Hall Sr,
4 Steve Kahler Jr, 5 Dave Stickles, 6 Jim Fachini, 7 Jerry Helms Jr, 8 Ron Hoyt
Jr, 9 Tim Sayers, 10 Ryan Coon, 11 Kirk Stanaway