RACE PRO WEEKLY - WEST LEBANON, NY - It’s
one of the most important events on the calendar for the Modifieds at
the Lebanon Valley Speedway. The JC Flach Memorial, honoring one of
the more likeable drivers ever to strap into a Big Block on the high
banks.
Well, the sixth annual edition of the event saw the checkers go to one
of the most dominant drivers ever to sit behind the wheel of a
Modified, and one of the most consistent this season, that being Brett
Hearn.
Hearn started the feature event from the 15th spot and wasted no time
moving towards the front. By lap three he was in ninth. By lap seven
he was fourth, and on lap 13, he made the move of the race to grab the
second position.
While watching third place Ronnie Johnson trying to work the outside
to get around runner-up man Brian Berger, Hearn made an amazing move
to go three wide with both off of turn two and grabbed second.
After a caution bunched up the field, the Madsen Motorsports #20 made
quick work of leader Elmo Reckner and was never seriously challenged
the rest of the way, taking his second win of the 2018 season at the
Valley.
“We’ve been consistent all year coming from deep in the pack here,
scoring a lot of top four finishes,” Hearn said. “I knew if we did
that the wins would start to come.”
However, on this important night, Hearn didn’t know if he’d get to the
front to keep up his good start to the season.
“I got stalled at around seventh or eighth and then got shuffled on
one of those restarts,” he said. “Ronnie (Johnson) had gone through
traffic really well and I didn’t know if we could as well. Then I was
able to get to fourth and Ronnie and I started catching the two
leaders and things just started to open up for me.”
Even after grabbing career win #103 in Big Block competition at the
Speedway, Hearn was humbled at what he had accomplished Saturday
night.
“This was a great race car and team effort by the entire Madsen
Motorsports team,” he said. “I just want to take a moment and remember
JC. I think this is the second time I’ve won his night and that is
fantastic and very special to me.”
Second place went to JC’s little brother, Keith Flach, who drove the
wheels off his Flach Companies #43 machine. Keith utilized the extreme
outside lane for most of the race to get to the front, after starting
13th.
At one point, you could damn near throw a blanket over the top five as
Reckner, Berger, RJ, Hearn and Flach all tightened up to do battle.
In the end, Flach brought home the runner-up spot followed by Johnson
who worked hard to keep pace with the front two at the end. Reckner
and Kenny Tremont completed the top five.
With his win, Hearn was able to lengthen his point lead over Johnson
by eight markers. He now has a 36-point advantage over the second
generation driver with Tremont another 10 points back.
In the 358-Modified feature, JR Heffner used some lucky breaks to get
through traffic and went on to take his second win in four starts this
season.
After starting in 11th, Heffner go to the top five in quick fashion
and then made some moves that had the fans on the edge of their seats,
including the pass of his teammate and car owner, Steve Hough.
“That was a good race,” he said. “Those guys up front were really
getting it on and I got lucky on the outside and was able to make an
outside in move and get into clean air and I knew we were in good
shape from there.”
From that point on, Heffner just had to hold the steering wheel as,
even with a caution that grouped everyone back up, nobody was catching
him the rest of the way.
“This car is something else,” he said. “Once it gets to clean air,
it’s lights out really.”
Defending track champion in the division, Kenny Tremont, worked his
way through the field Saturday from his 15th starting spot and got to
second, but had nothing for JR. Jason Herrington had another great run
to come home in third followed by Brett Haas in fourth and point
leader Andy Bachetti fifth.
In Pro Stock action, Rob Yetman used a fifth place starting spot to
his advantage, taking the lead from Joe LaFlamme on lap two and went
on to take his second win of 2018 in the class.
Rick Dempsey came home second, right on the back bumper of Yetman, and
gave it everything he had but just couldn’t get around him. Dempsey’s
car appeared to need long runs to gain momentum if he wanted a chance
to get around the 7 car, but with a string of cautions, he never got
that chance.
For Yetman, it was way to get things back on track after a couple of
tough races which has dropped him in the point standings.
“Opening night, we thought we were off to a great start and it was
going to be easy from there” he said. “It got tough. Wrecks and being
in the wrong place at the wrong time so far, but that’s racing. We
want to start up front, but we like to come from the back to see what
the car’s really got.”
Dempsey came home with a solid second place finish followed by Jason
Hinsdale, MA) and Richie Crane.
The Pro Stocks are shaping up to have another amazing points battle.
Following Saturday night’s action, Jason is your point leader by eight
markers over Rick Dempsey with Jason Casey just two behind Dempsey.
Jon Routhier is fourth and Rick Duzlak is fifth. The top five are only
separated by 20 points.
Evan Denue and Jeff Meltz Jr. took home the Pure Stock feature event
wins with Tim Meltz winning the 4-Cylinder Single Cam feature and
Chris Vandeputte victorious in the 4-Cylinder Dual Cam.
Modified Results (30 Laps) -1) Brett Hearn, 2) Keith Flach, 3) Ronnie
Johnson, 4) Elmo Reckner, 5) Kenny Tremont Jr, 6) Kolby Schroder, 7)
Wayne Jelley, 8) J.R. Heffner, 9) Andy Bachetti, 10) Eddie Marshall,
11) Chad Jeseo, 12) L.J Lombardo, 13) Kyle Sheldon, 14) Brian Berger,
15) Mike Keeler, 16) Steve Hough, 17) Rob Pitcher, 18) Kyle Armstrong,
19) Mike King, 20) Josh Marcus, 21) Jeff Sukup, 22) Denny Soltis, 23)
Dave McFeeters, 24) Olden Dwyer, 25) Paul Gilardi, 26) Kenny Aanonson,
Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) - 1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Ken
Tremont Jr, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Andy Bachetti, 6)
Steve Hough, 7) Timothy Davis, 8) Ricky Davis, 9) Frank Hoard III, 10)
Frank Harper, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Dillion Stuer, 13) Brandon Pitcher,
14) Brian Sandstedt, 15) Chad Pierce, 16) Ryan Charland, 17) Brian
Peterson, 18) Alan Houghtaling, 19) Bryan McGuire, 20) Olden Dwyer,
21) Ray Hall Jr,
Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) - 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Rick Dempsey, 3) Jason
Casey, 4) Jay Casey, 5) Rich Crane, 6) Jason Meltz, 7) Jay Casey, 8)
Rick Duzlak, 9) Jon Routhier, 10) Nick Arnold, 11) Victor Hopkins, 12)
Tom Dean, 13) Tom O'Connor, 14) Ed Bishop, 15) Don Collins, 16) Dave
Stickles, 17) Scott Kilmer, 18) Joe LaFlamme, 19) Brian Keough, 20)
Nick Hilt, 21) Scott Govertsen, 22) Steven LaRochelle, 23) Nick
Reilly, 24) Frank Twing,
Pure Stock #1 Results (10 Laps) - 1) Evan Denue, 2) Dom Denue, 3)
Scott Morris, 4) Shawn Perez, 5) Chris Murphy, 6) Kerri Vandenburg, 7)
Jordan Miller, 8) Adam Schneider, 9) Karen Verhagen, 10) Bradley
Batho, 11) Craig Coons, 12) Rocco Procopio, 13) Tim Meltz,
Pure Stock #3 Results (10 Laps) -1) Jeff Meltz Jr., 2) Ray Hall Sr.,
3) John Devine, 4) Chad Arsenault, 5) Jeff Kreutzinger, 6) Zach
Seyerlein, 7) Ed Hatch, 8) Zach Sorrentino, 9) Jeff Meltz, 10) Mark
Dwyer,
11) Brian Walsh, 12) Al Relyea, 13) Kevin Paul,
4 Cylinder Single Cam Feature Results (15 Laps )-1) Tim Meltz, 2)
James Street, 3) Gary Malloy, 4) Devin Besze, 5) Don Finney, 6) Victor
Duncan Jr., 7) Jim Williams, 8) Nick McCleney
4 Cylinder Dual Cam Feature Results (15 Laps) -1) Chris Vandeputte, 2)
Kenny Stager, 3) Chris White, 4) Connor Hill, 5) John Wright, 6)
Christian Scribner, 7) MIke Duncan, 8) Jim Guertin, 9) Tomm Gomm,