Tremont Scores 1st Round Win of King of the Track, Armstrong Finally Gets 1st
Saturday July 19, 2008
By: Rodney Rescott

Not even the rains cold hold back the Valley of Speed for a full night of action packed racing that included the 1st leg of the King of the Track plus a special fireworks display.
 
Rifenburg Construction’s 50th Anniversary celebration at the Valley of Speed began as many nights this year at the high banks; with rain drops. And after a 2 hour delay, a few stick ball games, and a slip in the mud or two, the track was ready again for racing.
 
Once the track was ready, so were the Big Block Modifieds for their 30 lap feature event. As the emerald silk flew, the King Fish, Mike King took control of the pack in his familiar #55K. Steve Hough in his #34H began hounding King, searching for a fast way around.
 
Caution flew often throughout the event, the first of which was on lap 7 when the #45 of Wayne Jelley blew a right rear tire in turn 2, and with a narrow track, the cars began collecting behind him that included the #24S of Rich Salisbury, the #27 of Dave McFeeters, the #14 of Lorne Browe, and the #87X of Paul Gilardi. After a short red flag to clear the track, the field was once again under control of the King Fish.

And just as they left off, Hough was ounce again right in King’s tire tracks. Further back in the field, the big guns where trying to make their way through the field but the track making it difficult to make their charge. Andy Bachetti, Kenny Tremont Jr, and J.R. Heffner were picking off what they could to get to the front.
 
The caution flew a few more times for minor incidents, that only helped King stay out front. But that all came to a crashing halt as the #55K carried too much speed through turn 3 on the 24th lap and spun in front of the field, collecting Hough and the #87 of Hector Stratton. And as luck would have it, the renumbered #50T of Kenny Tremont Jr. was making his move around the high side, had free sailing around the incident, and took over the lead.
 
Tremont, driving the #50T was renumbered in celebration of Rifenburg Construction’s 50th Anniversary, took control, and checked out on the field. Even a late race challenge by Heffner wasn’t going to deny Tremont his 2nd win of ’08, and the 1st leg of the 4 race King of the Track.
 
Following Tremont over the line was Andy Bachetti, J.R. Heffner, Jeff Trombley, and Guy Sheldon with a strong top 5 finish.
 
Next on the delayed schedule was a Special 8 lap Rifenburg Modified Construction Clash for a cool $1,000 payoff. The invitation only shoot out included Tremont, Bachetti, Heffner, Eddie Marshall, Mark Flach, and Kyle Sheldon aboard his father‘s #42. Marshal and Sheldon made contact on the first lap, sending Sheldon pitside. At the end of the 1st 4 lap dash, Bachetti was out front, but after a draw for inverting the field, only the top two had to flip, putting Eddie Marshall out front.
 
That’s all Marshall needed, Bachetti didn’t have enough to get by, giving Marshall the win, and the extra $1,000 in the Rifenburg Modified Construction Clash.
 
Also on tap for the racing faithful was the Sportsman division 20 lap feature event. The #11A of Kyle Armstrong got out front, and stayed there. Even with multiple cautions, that included a 7 car incident on the 3rd restart that included the #83 of Chad Pierce, the #16 of Kyle Hoffman, the #5 of Chris Tryon, the #122 of Wayne Keys, the #00 of Chris Kokosa, the #22 of Jeff Watson, and the #87 of Neil Stratton.
 
After that mess was cleared, Armstrong was still out front with the #250 of Alan Houghtaling hot on his heals. But Armstrong was strong enough to stay out front of the field for the remainder of the race. And at the checkers, it finished pretty much how it started with Armstrong taking the win, with Houghtaling right behind. 3rd was the #98 of Kolby Schroder, and the #25 of Frankie Harper was 4th, followed by Brian Sandstedt.
 
The marathon of feature events wasn’t over yet as the crowd favorite full fendered Pro Stocks took to the Valley of Speed for their 20 lap feature event.
 
Out front early was the #35 of Rick Dempsey and the #243 of Victor Hopkins. The action came fast as the #49 of Henry Warner powered into 2nd, followed by the #24 of Robbie Speed by lap 2. And the battle for the lead began. Contact in turn 4 between the #49 of Warner and Speed’s #24 caused Warner to spin, handing 2nd place to Speed.
 
By Lap 5, Speed was out front of Dempsey, and never looked back. The #17 of Nick Hilt tried everything he could to get a run at Speed, but it wasn’t going to be enough. At the finish, Speed takes the win followed by Hilt. The #324 of Jason Casey was 3rd followed by Paul LaRochelle’s #78 and the #38M of Mike Middleton.
 
Scott Kilmer won the Limited Pro Stock event that was shorted to just 3 laps after a horrendous crash on the front stretch that saw the #88 of Tim Sayers make contact with the #3S of Mark Stevens, launching Stevens’ car up the outside wall toward the flagstand, flipping several times before coming to rest just before turn 1. After blowing out the cobwebs, Stevens emerged from his car to the delight of the fans, and his family.
 
The Pure Stocks were also on tap for their 8 lap feature events, and the winners were: PS#1 - Jeff Douglas, PS#2 - Ed Hatch, and Pure Stock #3 saw Kirk Stanaway steal the win.
 
A 6 lap 305 Sprint car dash was cancelled due to 2 wrecks in 2 laps that caused 2 red flags, one of which saw the #19 sprinter flip almost out of the speedway taking out the fence and a 15 foot pole in turns 3 and 4. For safety reason, track officials cancelled the remaining laps. In addition, due to the time constraints, the 4 cylinders race was postponed for a future date.
 
This Sunday July 20th is the return of the Advanced Auto Parts World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series at the Valley of Speed, accompanied by the Benjamin Moore Paints 358 Super Series and Syracuse Qualifier.
 
Next Saturday, the Valley of Speed plays host to the NBT Bank $500 to win Pro Stock Feature, along with a special 20 lap Pure Stock event, and Round 2 of the King of the Track!
 
For more information, tickets, or even directions, visit our website at www.LebanonValley.com, and click on “Speedway”. Or call the speedway offices during normal business hours at (518) 794-9606, (518) 794-9965.
 
Saturday July 19, 2008 - Rifenburg Construction 50th Anniversary Celebration Modified Results ("King of the Track Series" Race 1 of 4) (30 Laps) - 1) Kenny Tremont Jr, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) J. R. Heffner, 4) Jeff Trombley, 5) Guy Sheldon, 6) Keith Flach, 7) Matt Quinn, 8) Eddie Marshall, 9) Brian Berger, 10) Ryan Larkin, 11) John Ruchel, 12) J. C. Flach, 13) Mark Flach Jr, 14) John Hewitt, 15) Bill Singer, 16) Hector Stratton, 17) Mike King, 18) Steve Hough, 19) Skippy Fox, 20) Wayne Jelley, 21) Donnie Ackner, 22) Paul Gilardi, 23) Kyle Sheldon, 24) Dave Mcfeeteers, 25) Rich Salisbury, 26) Lorne Browe, 27) Dan Humes
 
Rifenburg Construction Presents "Constructor's Clash" Results (8 Laps) - 1) Eddie Marshall, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Mark Flach Jr, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr, 5) J. R. Heffner, 6) Kyle Sheldon
 
Sportsman Results (20 Laps) - 1) Kyle Armstrong, 2) Alan Houghtaling, 3) Kolby Schroder, 4) Frank Harper, 5) Brian Sandstedt, 6) Kory Sandstedt, 7) Jeff Kelly, 8) Josh Gaylord, 9) Kale Groff, 10) Don Kennedy, 11) Chris Tryon, 12) Kevin Winers, 13) R. J. Daley, 14) Brett Haas, 15) Kyle Hoffman, 16) Chad Pierce, 17) Kevin Petrucci, 18) Neil Stratton, 19) Wayne Keyes, 20) Danny Sanchez, 21) Paul Knox, 22) Jeff Watson 23) Ed Harkin, 24) Chris Kokosa, 25) Kim Lavoy
 
Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) - 1) Robbie Speed, 2) Nick Hilt, 3) Jason Casey, 4) Paul LaRochelle, 5) Mike Middleton, 6) Kevin Arnold, 7) Rick Dempsey, 8) Jay Casey, 9) Jim Langenback, 10) Victor Hopkins, 11) John Denue, 12) Henry Warner, 13) Jay Corbin, 14) Matt Shadic, 15) Jeff Kelmel, 16) Duane Quenneville, 17) Jon Routhier
 
Limited Pro Stock Results (7 Laps) - 1) Scott Kilmer, 2) Frank Twing, 3) Mark Stevens, 4) Jeff Haas, 5) Tim Sayers, 6) Jay Kreutiziger Jr
Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) - 1) Jeff Douglass, 2) Dave Fachini, 3) Bob Palmer, 4) Jeff Wilbur, 5) Karl Castagna, 6) Rich Roger, 7) John Hubbard, 8) Mike Estes, 9) Joe Chenail, 10) Anthony Daley, 11) John Quigley, 12) Ryan Crellin, 13) Wuggie Burdick, 14) Anthony Maddalla, 15) Dan Herring, 16) Brian Vandenburgh, DQ) Herb Tompkins III
 
Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) - 1) Ed Hatch, 2) Tom Murphy, 3) Randy Myers, 4) Ray Hall Jr, 5) John Devine, 6) Harold Tarantino, 7) Dave Houser, 8) Joe Walcott, 9) Lenny Fields, 10) John Chapman, 11) Scott Adams, 12) Rich Douglass, 13) Howard Madsen, 14) Todd Pelkey
 
Pure Stock #3 Results (8 Laps) - 1) Kirk Stanaway, 2) Al Relyea, 3) Jesse Murphy, 4) Mark Webb, 5) Mike Eichstedt, 6) Ray Hall Sr, 7) Jim Fachini, 8) Lynn Wesley, 9) Phill Wood, 10) Pete Wiegand, 11) Lou Ganczar, 12) Lloyd Tomlin, 13) Rob Partridge Jr, 14) Johnny Lane, 15) Cord Becker
 

“ Lebanon Valley Speedway – 56th Season of fun for the Whole Family!”