Bachetti
Puts the Final Touches on First Big Block Crown,
Saturday September 2, 2006
- By: Rodney Rescott
West Lebanon, NY:
All across the state of New York, and western New England, all outdoor activity
came to a screeching halt due to hurricane, or what was left of him, Ernesto,
but not at the Valley of Speed. With the speedway nestled among the
surrounding Berkshire Mountains, the only weather that affected the speedway
was the wind. As the Valley faithful got a full night of racing action
that included double features for the Modifieds, and final points night for the
Mods, as well as the 358's, and Sportsman.
As the crowd settled in to
the seats, then grab something to hold on to, as the action picked up just as
quickly as the winds did. The first Modified 30 lap feature event was
presented by Waste Management took only one lap to completely rearrange the
point's championship battle. Ron Dwyer and John Alberti brought the field
to the green. As the field got to turn 3, that's where the trouble began
as the 45H of Don Maddison was struggling with handling problems causing the
field to get bunched up coming off turn 4. As the faster cars caught the
bunches pack, they went 3 and 4 wide down the front stretch, and that was not
going to work to get into turn one, as the field began to pile up. When
all was said and done, the red flag flew due to the track being completely
blocks with 12 cars involved, including points leader Bachetti.
Also involved in the turn
one incident was point contenders J.R. Heffner, Kenny Tremont, Wayne Jelley,
Eddie Marshall, in addition to Hector Stratton, Steve Hough, Russ
Reckner, Guy Sheldon, Paul Gilardi, Donnie Ackner, Brian Berger, Wayne Figler
and John Ruchel. Jelley was unable to continue along with Figler, and
Marshall. Everyone else returned to the race, but suffering some damage
was the #4 Albreada Waste of Bachetti, going several laps down to the field.
Once the race restarted,
Ron Dwyer charged to the front of the field, and that's where he would remain
for about 20 laps. That's when point contender Donnie Corellis came
a-calling; he wanted the top spot to put pressure on Bachetti for the point
title. On lap 22, is when it all unfolded, as Corellis got a good run on
the #88d, and was on his way by when the #88d leaned on the #21 of Corellis
trying to protect the lead. That in turn caused hard contact between the
two, sending Dwyer hard in the inside jersey barrier. Corellis was then
penalized for rough driving, and was relegated to the rear of the field.
That handed the reigns
over to the #1A of Tim Dwyer. And that is all he needed, as the cruise
control was set, and finally getting to the checkers. Dwyer took his 1st of 2006; following Dwyer was Lorne Browe,
Tremont, Mike King, and John Hewitt.
The Modifieds then return
later on in the night for the CARQUEST $3,000.00 to win presented by Gable Auto
Stores and Pepsi-Cola. Luckily the filed made in through without any
major incidents, but there was certainly no lack of drama. Keith Flach
and Ronnie Dwyer, driving Matt Quinn's #20, brought the field to the
green. Back through the field, the battered cars of those suffering
damage in the first event looked like round two of a demo derby. Bachetti's
car was so damaged, like Dwyer's; he too had to go to a backup of his own.
Corellis , too, suffered
damage to his primary car in the heat races after making hard contact with the
outside wall in turn 3 after jumping the wheel of John Alberti's #473.
Corellis entered the 2nd feature driving his 358 #21. After several
cautions for spinning cars, debris, and the occasional wall contact, the field
seemed pretty well intake, except for the drama that unfolded around lap
26. The #4 backup of Andy Bachetti suddenly lost power, and headed pit
side handing an opportunity for the rest of the contenders to take the point
title. But it was just not the cards, as the checkers flew, Hector
Stratton powered to his first victory of '06, followed by the hard charging J.R.
Heffner. 3rd across the line was Marshall, Sheldon, and Wayne Jelley.
But as a result of
Bachetti's 18th place finish, and the Corellis' 12th place finish, that handed
the crown to the Albreada Waste #4 of Andy Bachetti by just a mere 24 points.
With all that excitement,
there was still enough time to finish up the point chase in two more
divisions. Next up was the Sportsman title chase, where the #22 of Jeff
Watson had a skimp lead going into the night's event. The 20 lap feature
came to the green with Wayne Keyes and Earl Thitchener at the helm. For the first few laps, the #92 of
Thitchener held the top spot, only to hand in over to a very hard charging #00
of Chris Kokosa, who was vying for his bid to be point champ. Once the
Kokosa Fuels #00 was out front, the rest of the filed was racing for 2nd place.
Deep in the field, once
again the point leader was struggling. Including a trip down pit road,
and a restart from the back of the field, the #22 of Watson was just not going
to be denied. He drove to a 9th place finish, clinching the point's
crown.
Kokosa took the checkers,
followed by Don Miller, Chris Tryon, Ryan Larkin and Danny Sanchez. But
the spotlight was on the #22 of Watson with a 54 point win over K.C. Goewey.
The Benjamin Moore Paints
358 title was also up for grabs, this time, all the contenders made it through
the whole race without incident. At the drop of the green, the #30 of
Mark Pullen took the helm, but was to be short lived, as the #171 of Tommy
Faxon, charged to the top spot by lap 5. But the 24 lap feature was about
10 laps too long for Faxon, as the #4 Four Star TEO of Brett Hearn charged from
his 20th starting spot, to take the lead, and check out on the field. At
the checkers, Hearn crossed the line first, 2nd was Faxon. Ray Hoard
finished 3rd, followed by Matt Quinn and Kenny Tremont.
By virtue of his 6th
place finish, Bachetti and his Old Forge Powersports #4 captures the 2006
Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Super Series Point Title.
Also on tap was the Pro
Stocks, as Mike Middleton took advantage of some late race contact between the
#96 of Rob Langevin, and the #165 of Ed Bachand, taking his first win of
2006. Following Middleton was Jason Casey, Paul LaRochelle, Chris Crews,
and Kevin Arnold rounding out the top five.
The Limited Pro Stocks saw
George miles return to victory lane followed by Nick Hilt, Brian Keough, John
Santolin, and Kevin Winters.
The Pure Stocks were also
sprinkled in to the schedule of events. And the winners were: PS# 1
Lou Ganczar, PS#2 Larry Ball, PS#3 Pete Wiegand, (his 10th for '06), and PS#4
Howard Madsen.
With the Three major point
titles decided, that only means it's time for the Coor's 200 Weekend, and the
Race of Kings. Lebanon Valley Speedway is set to open it's gates for this
season ending extravaganza beginning Friday September 8th with Sportsman, Pro
Stocks, Limited Pro Stocks, Pure Stocks, and 4 cylinders. Then, come
Saturday, it's the 50 lap Race of Kings for the 358's, then the Coor's National
200 for the Modifieds.Get your tickets now as they are going fast. Don't
forget the Weekend Pass will be in effect, for just $32! If your planning
on camping the entire weekend, get there early to reserve your spot, as some
have already begun to get their spots.
For more information, or to
get tickets, visit our website at www.LebanonValley.com,
or contact the Speedway Offices at (518)-794-9606, or (518) 794-9965 during
normal business hours.
Results: Saturday
September 02, 2006 –
Waste Management Rained
Out Modified Results from 08/19/06 (30 Laps) - 1 Tim Dwyer 2 Lorne Browe, 3
Kenny Tremont, 4 Mike King, 5 John Hewitt, 6 J. R. Heffner, 7 Mark Flach Jr, 8
John Alberti, 9 Kyle Sheldon, 10 Dave McFeeters, 11 John Ruchel, 12 Donnie
Corellis, 13 Don Mattison, 14 Skippy Fox, 15 Guy Sheldon, 16 Brian Berger, 17
Andy Bachetti, 18 Ron Dwyer, 19 Hector Stratton, 20 Paul Gilardi, 21 Russ
Reckner, 22 Dave Leckonby, 23 Mark Pullen, 24 Steve Hough, 25 Wayne Jelley, 26
Eddie Marshall, 27 Donnie Ackner, 28 Keith Flach, 29 Wayne Figler
Gable Auto Stores, Pepsi
Cola Present the CARQUEST Auto Parts Modified Special Results (30 Laps) - 1
Hector Stratton, 2 J. R. Heffner, 3 Eddie Marshall, 4 Guy Sheldon, 5 Wayne
Jelley, 6 Kenny Tremont, 7 Keith Flach, 8 Dave Leckonby, 9 Lorne Browe, 10 Mark
Flach Jr, 11 John Hewitt, 12 Donnie Corellis, 13 John Ruchel, 14 Donnie Ackner,
15 Kyle Sheldon, 16 Don Mattison, 17 Skippy Fox, 18 Andy Bachetti, 19 Dave
McFeeters, 20 Mike King, 21 Brian Berger, 22 Wayne Figler, 23 John Alberti, 24
Ron Dwyer, 25 Russ Reckner, 26 Bobby Varin, 27 Tim Dwyer, 28 Steve Hough, 29
Matt Quinn
Benjamin Moore Paints 358
Modified Super Series Results (24 Laps) - 1 Brett Hearn, 2 Tom Faxon, 3 Ray
Hoard, 4 Matt Quinn, 5 Kenny Tremont Jr, 6 Andy Bachetti, 7 Alan Houghtaling, 8
Donnie Corellis, 9 J. R. Heffner, 10 Ted Teal, 11 Keith Flach, 12 Kory Gurney,
13 Buddy Henke, 14 Roy Bridge, 15 Alex Sommers, 16 Ryan Stortini, 17 Mark
Pullen, 18 Danny Burl, 19 Sean Gallivan, 20 Rich Salisbury
Sportsman Results (20 Laps)
- 1 Chris Kokosa, 2 Don Miller, 3 Chris Tryon, 4 Ryan Larkin, 5 Danny Sanchez,
6 Kyle Hoffman, 7 Alan Houghtaling, 8 Neil Stratton, 9 Jeff Watson, 10 Brian
Sandstedt, 11 KC Goewey, 12 Kevin Lynch, 13 Frank Harper, 14 Wayne Keyes, 15
Bill Singer, 16 Butch Lyons, 17 Chad Pierce, 18 Jason Tompkins, 19 Brian
Houghtaling, 20 Gus Kamburelis, 21 Jerry Hunt, 22 Rob Yetman, 23 Carmon
Carnibucci, 24 Kory Sandstedt, 25 Ed Harkin, 26 Kim Lavoy, 27 Joe Mabb Jr
Pro Stock Results (20
Laps) - 1 Mike Middleton, 2 Jason Casey, 3 Paul LaRochelle, 4 Chris Crews, 5
Kevin Arnold, 6 Jon Routhier, 7 Don Carlson, 8 Jay Corbin, 9 Victor Hopkins, 10
Rob Yetman, 11 Rick Spencer, 12 Don Collins, 13 Ed Bachand, 14 Rob Langevin, 15
Jay Casey, 16 Hugh Page
Limited Pro Stock Results
(10 Laps) - 1 George Miles Jr, 2 Nick Hilt, 3 Brian Keough, 4 John Santolin, 5
Kevin Winters, 6 Justin Herron, 7 Jim Keough, 8 Dale Kennedy, 9 Jim Fachini, 10
Gary Ashley, 11 Frankie Twing
Pure Stock #1 Results (8
Laps) - 1 Lou Ganczar, 2 Joe Walcott, 3 Jay Pappin, 4 Joe Chenail, 5 Doug Olds,
6 Chris Keller, 7 Lynn Wesley, 8 Jay Casey, 9 Jay Kreutziger Jr, 10 Gary
VanDenberg
Pure Stock #2 Results (8
Laps) - 1 Larry Ball, 2 Jeff Douglass, 3 Paul Engwer, 4 Nick Regis, 5 Scott
Kilmer, 6 Dave Houser, 7 Steve Hatch, 8 Karl Castagna, 9 Don Coon, 10 Steve
Beckwith, 11 Mike Fachini
Pure Stock #3 Results (8
Laps) - 1,Pete Wiegand, 2 Al Relyea, 3 Tom Harkins, 4 Matt Humes, 5 Bob Palmer,
6 John Chapman, 7 Ray Hall Sr, 8 Dave Stickles, 9 Dave Streibel, 10 Mike Eichstedt,
11 Shannon McDermott, 12 Chrissy Hilt
Pure Stock #4 Results (8
Laps) - 1,Howard Madsen, 2 Ryan Coon, 3 Steve Kahler Jr, 4 Ed Hatch, 5 Rich
Douglass, 6 John Quiqley, 7 Richard Rogers, 8 Dave Fachini Jr, 9 Sean Tomlin,
10 Jerry Helms Jr, 11 Kirk Stanaway, 12 Gil Twing Sr