LaVoy Makes History at the High Banks; Bachetti and Tremont Dominate

Saturday August 6, 2006 - by: Rodney Rescott

New Lebanon, NY:  Mother Natural finally cooperated to allow for a full night of racing action at the Valley of Speed.  A capacity crowd witnessed history as Kim LaVoy became the first Female "Open Wheel" Racer to take the checkers at the Valley.  Andy Bachetti continued his dominance in the Benjamin Moore Paints 358's, and Tremont once again, kicked it up a notch, to take his 3rd for 2006.

Saxton Signs and Taconic DSL ratcheted up the excitement at the Valley of Speed, and that just what it was, a lot of speed.  The corners were a little slick, but the straights were fast; making for some very racy conditions.  And everyone took advantage as the night got cooler; the track just kept getting faster, and faster.  The Modifieds' scheduled 30-lap feature took to the speedway with john Alberti's number 473, and the 518 of Kyle Sheldon on the front row.

The racing was hot and heavy right from the start, as Guy Sheldon, aboard his #42 Connecticut Express powered out the 6th starting spot to take over the top spot by lap 2.  The field was slowed on lap four for contact with Lorne Browe's #14 and Eddie Marshall's #98 in turn 2, both were able to continue.  Then a few laps later, the 87X of Paul Gilardi lost control of his ride is turn 1 running in the 6th position, causing evasive action by the rest of the field.  Several cars were left with no choice but to make contact with each other.   Ronnie Dwyer, Steve Hough, Gilardi, and Donnie Corellis were unable to continue.  By the time the filed got back to green flag racing, Tremont had made his way through the field and was sitting in the catbird seat, right on the rear deck of Sheldon.

A shoot out between the two was beginning to set up, but something in the top end of the #42 went away as Sheldon slowed out of contention on lap 12.  That's all Tremont needed, as the S&S Asphalt, Fane Concrete #115 put on the afterburners and set sail for the checkers.  Rookie Mark Flach Jr. made an impressive run from the 9th starting spot to finish 2nd in his #77F.  Andy Bachetti marched into the 3rd spot, while the #55 Thoma Tire PMC of Mike King "survived" to finish 4th, losing a motor on the last lap.  Tim Dwyer hung on to finish 5th in his #1A, rounding out the top 5.

The huge crowd on hand also got to witness a history making event that just took a little while to happen.  The 20 lap Sportsman feature took to the Valley of Speed with Derek Schibi and Kim LaVoy at the head of the class.  But the field wasn't getting much racing done, with two red flags before the third lap, kept the field held back.  The first red flew just after the first lap, as several cars got together in the treturous turn 1, causing several cars to create a 'parking lot' on the inside of the speedway.  Most were able to continue except for the #12 of Brian Sandstedt, who ended up on his roof.  As the field came to green again, the racing started getting dicey up front.  As the field exited turn 2, contact between the #39 of Larkin and the #12Y of Schibi caused Larkin to turn in front of the field cause a huge melee.  Several more cars were gathered in this one as well, but this time several would be unable to continue.  Wayne Keyes, Chad Pierce, Chris Tryon, weren't able to continue, whereas Larkin and several others made it through without much damage.

Once the field settled down, they all realized that the #3 of LaVoy was out front, and was checking out.  The #68 of Art Collins made a bid to get to LaVoy, but later spun with something breaking in the right rear.  Then Chris Kokosa made a charge from his 21st starting spot all the way to second, only to loose his breaking entering the treturous turn 1, stuffing his Kokosa Fuels #00 into the boilerplate.  Frankie Harper then made a bid for the top spot, but bobbled causing K.C. Goewey to move into the runner up spot.  Goewey challenged the #3 for several laps, but LaVoy was too strong. Kim LaVoy drove to checkers as the crowd rose to their feet and cheered for a well deserved win.  LaVoy, the first female open Wheel racer to reach victory lane in the one of the three top divisions at Lebanon Valley, took the checkers followed by Goewey's #O2 Solutions, 3rd was Frankie Harper's #25.  Fourth across the line was the #80 of Kory Sandstedt, and fifth was the #63 of Danny Sanchez.

The Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Super Series was on the card for their 24 lap feature event. The field took the green, with Kory Gurney taking the top spot, and began to pull away.  But the field came to a grinding halt as contact between the #12B of Denny Young, #32Q of Quinn, and the #45J of Wayne Jelley, causing Jelley's car to become airborne into the outside wall at the end of the front stretch, tumbling a few times, but making hard contact with the steel boiler plate.  A red flag ensued for several minutes, but Jelley climbed from his battered PMC under his own power, but a little sore.

The field returned to green with gurney out front.  But soon was going to be hounded by the usual suspects.  The first was the #32Q of mighty Matt Quinn.   Quinn took the top spot and began to pull away.  But Tremont and Bachetti were slicing and dicing through the field to get to Quinn before he left the zip code.  To their luck, the field was slowed once again for caution as contact left the #94 of Ray Hoard was delegated pit side with damage.

That put the Berkshire Bullet of Andy Bachetti in the tire tracks of the #32Q.  But the Old Forge Powersports #4 was hooked up to the bottom groove, and soon Quinn hand to settle for runner up, and Bachetti crossed the checkers first, his 3rd win of 2006.  Quinn crossed the line second, followed by J.R. Heffner, Kenny Tremont, and Donnie Corellis rounding out the top five.

Jason Casey held of the late race challenge from Mike Middleton to take his first career 20 lap Pro Stock victory!  Behind the #324 was Middleton's #38, followed by Chris Crews, Rob Langevin, and Kevin Arnold completing the top 5.  Brian Keough picked up his 3rd win of '06 in the 10 lap Limited Pro Stocks.  Keough was followed by George Miles, Jerry Helms, Jim Keough, and Dirk LaPierre.

The PureStocks were the 'opening act' of the night's program, and as usual, plenty of exciting racing. PureStock #1 was captured by Tom Harkins.  PS#2 was won by the #93 of Jay Casey.  PureStock #3 saw the Wiley One, Pete Wiegand capture his 7th victory this year, while in PS#4 Jesse Murphy captured his 4th win of '06.

Everyone at Lebanon Valley would like to wish Fox23 Sports intern Trevor Gavin Good Luck!  He will heading back to college to complete his degree, then hopefully return to the Capital District, and to local racing!  We give him 2 thumbs up and an A+ for all his hard work during his internship!

Next Saturday Night is gonna be a "don't miss this one" event, as Aladco and Triple Nickel present Kiddie Ride Night!  A huge fan favorite as the little ones get to be just like their favorite dirt track stars, and ride aboard the race cars around the famed Valley of Speed with  their favorite drivers.   Gates open at 5pm, ride set to begin around 5:30pm.

For more information or ticket info, 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 August 5, 2006 - Saxton Signs/ Taconic DSL

Modified Results (30 Laps) -  1 Kenny Tremont, 2 Mark Flach Jr, 3 Andy Bachetti, 4 Mike King, 5 Tim Dwyer, 6 Wayne Jelley, 7 J. R. Heffner, 8 Keith Flach, 9 Hector Stratton, 10 Eddie Marshall, 11 Russ Reckner, 12 John Hewitt, 13 Brian Berger, 14 Donnie Ackner, 15 John Alberti, 16 Kyle Sheldon, 17 John Ruchel, 18 Lorne Browe, 19 Mark Pullen, 20 Dave Leckonby, 21 Wayne Figler, 22 Skippy Fox, 23 Don Mattison, 24 Dave McFeeters, 25 Guy Sheldon, 26 Donnie Corellis, 27 Paul Gilardi, 28 Steve Hough, 29 Ron Dwyer, 30 Dan Humes, 31 Matt Quinn, 32 Denny Soltis

Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Modified Super Series Results (24 Laps) - 1 Andy Bachetti, 2 Matt Quinn, 3 J. R. Heffner, 4 Kenny Tremont Jr, 5 Donnie Corellis, 6 Kory Gurney, 7 Ted Teal, 8 Roy Bridge, 9 Alan Houghtaling, 10 Tom Faxon, 11 Ryan Larkin, 12 Sean Gallivan, 13 Mark Pullen, 14 Danny Burl, 15 Ray Hoard, 16 Dave Leckonby, 17 Keith Flach, 18 Rich Salsbury, 19 Denny Young Jr, 20 Wayne Jelley, 21 John Hotchkiss

Sportsman Main Results (20 Laps) - 1 Kim LaVoy, 2 KC Goewey, 3 Frank Harper, 4 Kory Sandstedt, 5 Danny Sanchez, 6 Ryan Larkin, 7 Kyle Hoffman, 8 Carmon Carnibucci, 9 Don Miller, 10 Jeff Watson, 11 Neil Stratton, 12 Kevin Lynch, 13 Bob Bouchard, 14 Daryl Hulbert, 15 Joe Mabb Jr, 16 Derek Schibi, 17 Art Collins, 18 Alan Houghtaling, 19 Ed Harkin, 20 Chris Kokosa, 21 Brian Sandstedt, 22 Chris Tryon, 23 Rob Barilie, 24 Chad Pierce, 25 Wayne Keyes

Pro Stock Main Results (20 Laps) - 1 Jason Casey, 2 Mike Middleton, 3 Chris Crews, 4 Rob Langevin, 5 Kevin Arnold, 6 Victor Hopkins, 7 Jay Casey, 8 Jay Corbin, 9 Dave Blanchard, 10 Rob Yetman, 11 Don Carlson, 12 Rick Dempsey, 13 Paul LaRochelle, 14 Larry Megan, 15 Jeff Kelmel, 16 Tim Emmonds, 17 Ed Bachand, 18 Jon Routhier, 19 Hugh Page 20 Rick Spencer, 21 Mike Stebbins, 22 Lori Cary, 23 Dwayne Quennville, 24 Rich Crane

Limited Pro Stock Results (10 Laps) - 1 Brian Keough, 2 George Miles Jr, 3 Jerry Helms Sr, 4 Jim Keough, 5 Dirk Lapierre, 6 Dale Kennedy, 7 Frankie Twing, 8 Nick Hilt, 9 Justin Herron, 10 John Santolin, 11 Kevin Winters, 12 Rob Maxon

Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Tom Harkins, 2 Jeff Douglass, 3 Jay Kreutziger Jr, 4 Lou Ganczar, 5 Ed Hatch, 6 Joe Walcott, 7 Robert Hammell, 8 Chris Keller, 9 Wuggie Burdick, 10 Tim Sayers, 11 Dan Olds, 12 John Quiqley, 13 Kirk Stanaway, 14 Billy Bulson

Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Jay Casey, 2 Karl Castagna, 3 Dave Stickles, 4 Rich Douglass, 5 Don Coon, 6 Richard Rogers, 7 Jerry Helms Jr, 8 Joe Chenail, 9 Lynn Wesley, 10 David Bink, 11 Tony Arcolleo, 12 Mike Arnold, 13 Johnny Lane

Pure Stock #3 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Pete Weigand, 2 Al Relyea, 3 Matt Humes, 4 John Chapman, 5 Brian Houghtaling, 6 Ray Hall Sr, 7 Bob Palmer, 8 Steve Kahler Jr, 9 Larry Ball, 10 Steve Hatch, 11 Mike Eichstedt, 12 Chrissy Hilt, 13 Dave Streibel, 14 Shannon McDermott

Pure Stock #4 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Jesse Murphy, 2 Jim Fachini, 3 Ryan Coon, 4 Richard Puff, 5 Nick Regis, 6 Gary VanDenberg, 7 Anthony Madalla, 8 Lloyd Tomlin, 9 Windy Winters, 10 Doug Olds, 11 Chip Martin, 12 Dave Houser, 13 Mark Stevens