Ryan Larkin Scores 1st Career Big Block Win at the Valley of Speed
By Rodney Rescott
Saturday May 24, 2008
The Memorial Weekend spectacular at the legendary High Banks at Lebanon Valley was full of action packed excitement as a first time Modified winner sat in the Sayers Auto Wrecking & Chatham Printing victory lane.
The second generation driver started the 30 lap feature event in the second row behind the early leader Dave McFeeters aboard his #27D. The field sorted itself out early, as the field stayed clean and green for almost the first dozen laps.
Marred back in traffic was the #74 of defending track champ J.R. Heffner, along with the legendary #115 of Kenny Tremont Jr. Tremont started in the 14th spot and charged to the front along with Heffner, Bachetti, and the #60 of Brian Berger.
On lap 11 the caution flew for the leader McFeeters, as heavy contact with the outside wall in turn 2 dropped him from the top spot. On the restart, the new leader was Ryan Larkin’s #39. Larkin took charge of the field and pulled out to a solid lead over the #98 of Eddie Marshall and Tremont.
Caution slowed the field once again on lap 17 with the #21J of Jeff Trombley making contact with the wall, forcing him pitside. On the restart, Larkin once again charged out front with Marshall and Tremont still in tow with the #77F of Mark Flach Jr. charging into 4th spot.
The caution once again came out on lap 19 with the #14 of Lorne Browe spinning in treacherous turn 2 to slow the field for one last time. Once the green flew, there was no stopping the #39 of Larkin, as he crossed the finish for his first Big Block Modified win of his career.
Following Larkin across the line was Marshall, followed by Flach, Tremont, and Steve Hough. Larkin’s win puts him in the books as only the 10th father and son to reach victory lane in the modified division (Larkin, Correlis, Marshall, Flach(2), Alberti, Ricci, Johnson, Sheldon, and the Blake).
Also on tap for the first time in 2008 were the Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Super Series 20 lap feature event. With only two cautions to slow the field, the #171 of Tom Faxon, stole the show, holding off the late race charges of Matt Quinn, Andy Bachetti, Tremont and defending champ J.R. Heffner.
The Sportsman completed their 20 lap feature event in fine style as the #83 of Chad Pierce took control of the feature early, but was slowed by a scary accident in turn 2 as the #11A of Kyle Armstrong turned the wrong way and made heavy contact with the outside wall and bouncing back into traffic collecting the #117 of Jason Tompkins and a few others.
At the restart, Pierce once again took the point, and charge away to a solid lead over thee rest of the field. But a hard charging Danny Sanchez, powered his #63 through the field to take over the 3rd spot by lap 2, and settled in to keep the leaders in touch.
The race stayed clean and green through the rest of the feature, even as the #63 gathered steam and began pressuring the top spot. Coming out of turn four with just two laps left, the #83 of Pierce ran out of rracing room and tagged the outside boiler plate, dropping him out of the top spot, and giving th #63 the lead, and subsequent win.
And the finish it was Sanchez taking his first win in 2008, followed across the line by Kolby Schroder, Chris Tryon, the “Speed Racer” Chris Kokosa, and Pierce held on for 5th.
The last of the feature events on the night was the Pro Stock 20 lap feature. That feature was also marred by a first lap incident that gathered several cars including both the #324 of Jason Casey, and the #322 of Jay Casey.
The #49 of Henry Warner took of to a relatively comfortable lead for a number of laps until lap 5 when the #78 of Paul LaRochelle charged on by to take over the top spot. As thee laps wore on pressure was building with the #24 of Robbie Speed, the #8 of Jay Corbin, and the #17 of Nick Hilt.
But LaRochelle was not to be denied, even in the later laps as Speed and Corbin were dicing for the top spot before Speed suffered a blown motor and dropped from competition. Corbin just didn’t have enough to cleanly get by before the checkers flew, as Paul LaRochelle took the win with Corbin right on his rear bumper.
Defending Champ Kevin Arnold charged to finish 3rd, followed by Hall of Famer Jim Langenback, and Rick Dempsey to round out the top 5.
The Limited Pro Stocks saw Scott Kilmer charge to his second win of 08, followed by Jery Helms Jr, Jay Kreutziger, Jery Helms Sr and Tim Sayers.
Pure Stock winners were: John Chapmann (PS1), Jesse Murphy (PS2), and Captain Kirk Stanaway (PS3).
Earthworm Equipment, Waste Management, and Curtis Hill Modular Homes will present the program for next Saturday May 31st, with all classes in action and a special 4, 6, and 8 cylinder Demo Derby!
Also you want to mark your calendars as the famous World of Outlaws invade the Valley of Speed on Sunday July 20th. Tickets for the standing room only show for reserved seating are on sale now. Also you are not gonna want to miss the return of the Eve of Destruction coming Tuesday June 24th! There will be plenty of “non-conventional” racing action for everyone to enjoy!
For more information on any of these events, or to get a copy of the entire Lebanon Valley Speedway schedule, visit our website at www.LebanonValley.com, or call the speedway offices during normal business hours at (518) 794-9606, or (518) 794-9965.
Saturday May 24, 2008 - Sayers Auto Wrecking & Chatham Printing Modified Results (30 Laps) - 1) Ryan Larkin, 2) Eddie Marshall, 3) Mark Flach Jr, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr, 5) Steve Hough, 6) J. R. Heffner, 7) Guy Sheldon, 8) Andy Bachetti, 9) Keith Flach, 10) Wayne Jelley, 11) Rich Salisbury, 12) Hector Stratton, 13) Dave McFeeters, 14) Brian Berger, 15) Bill Singer, 16) Paul Gilardi, 17) J. C. Flach, 18) Kyle Sheldon, 19) John Hewitt, 20) Mike King, 21) Lorne Browe, 22) John Ruchel, 23) Jeff Sukup, 24) Skippy Fox, 25) Jeff Trombley, 26) Matt Quinn 27) Donnie Ackner
Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Modified series Results (24 Laps) - 1) Tom Faxon, 2) Matt Quinn, 3) Andy Bachitti 4) Kenny Tremont Jr 5) J. R. Heffner 6) Steve Hough, 7) Mark Pullen, 8) Danny Burl, 9) Ray Hoard Jr, 10) J. C. Flach, 11) Ernie Palmer, 12) Ted Teal, 13) John Hotchkiss, 14) Kale Groff, 15) Rich Salisbury, 16) Alan Houghtaling
Sportsman Results (20 Laps) - 1) Danny Sanchez, 2) Kolby Schroder, 3) Chris Tryon, 4) Chris Kokosa, 5) Chad Pierce, 6) Kory Sandstedt, 7) Jeff Watson, 8) Josh Gaylord, 9) Brian Sandsteedt, 10) Alan Houghtaling, 11) Wayne Keyes, 12) Bobby Knipe, 13) Neal Stratton, 14) Kyle Hoffman, 15) Ed Harkin, 16) Kale Groff, 17) Kim LaVoy, 18) Frank Harper, 19) Alex Bell, 20) Jeff Kelly, 21) Kevin Winters, 22) Paul Knox, 23) R. J. Daley, 24) Kyle Armstrong, 25) Jason Tompkins, 26) Mike Pinke, 27) Kevin Petrucci, 28) Kevin Lynch
Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) - 1) Paul LaRochelle, 2) Jay Corbin, 3) Kevin Arnold, 4) Jim Langenback, 5) Rick Dempsey, 6) Nick Hilt, 7) Kyle Hosier, 8) Crews, Chris 9) Henry Warner, 10) Jay Casey, 11) Victor Hopkins, 12) Brian Keough, 13) Jeff Kelmel, 14) Rob Maxon, 15) Jon Routhier, 16) Jason Casey, 17) Robbie Speed, 18) Matt Shadic
Limited Pro Stock Results (10 Laps) - 1) Scott Kilmer, 2) Jery Helms Jr, 3) Jay Kreutziger Jr, 4) Jery Helms Sr, 5) Tim Sayers, 6) Kennedy, Dale 7) Dave Stickles, 8) George Miles Jr, 9) Frank Twing, DNS John Santolin
Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) - 1) John Chapmann, 2) Lynn Wesley, 3) Rich Roger, 4) Jay Martin, 5) Harding, Paul 6) Doug Olds, 7) John Devine 8) Arsenault, Chad 9) Cord Becker, 10) Rob Partridge Jr, 11) Harold Tarantino, 12) Dave Fachini, 13) Niles, Tim 14) Herring, Dan 15) Karl Castagna, 16) Lloyd Tomlin, 17) Chenail, Joe 18) Mike Estes
Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) - 1) Jesse Murphy, 2) Mark Webb, 3) Howard Madsen, 4) Jim Fachini, 5) Lenny Fields, 6) Paul Engwer, 7) Jeff Kreutziger, 8) Brian Vandenburgh, 9) Ron Hoyt Jr, 10) Anthony Daley, 11) John Quigey, 12) Dan Olds, 13) Joe Walcott, 14) Jeff Wilbur DNS Scott Adams
Pure Stock #3 Results (8 Laps) - 1) Kirk Stanaway, 2) Mike Eichstedt, 3) Pete Wiegand, 4) Al Relyea, 5) Phil Wood, 6) Johnny Lane, 7) Ray Hall Jr, 8) Randy Meyers, 9) Tom Harkins, 10) Ed Hatch, 11) Ray Hall Sr, 12) Dave Houser, 13) Lou Ganzar, 14) Bob Palmer, DQ Jay Casey
“ Lebanon Valley Speedway – 56th Season of fun for the Whole Family!”