J.R. Heffner Triumphs On Halloween Night

J.R. Heffner was able to get past Josh Marcus on a lap 14 restart Saturday night. From there, he was able to hold off Andy Bachetti to take his first Modified win of the year.

“The car [had] been good since we got here,” Heffner said in victory lane.  “I’m hungry [for wins].  We’ve kind of been dorking around all year.  We had to make a change.  We’ve got the car and the engine’s fresh.”

Heffner won by .776 seconds over Bachetti.  Marcus ended up in a season-best third, followed by John Virgilio and Matt Pupello.

By virtue of winning his heat race, Marcus started from the pole.  He used good form to be able to open up a gap of more than 2.5 seconds over the pack.

Marc Johnson was able to move up to second early on, but had a group of drivers chomping at his heels.  Heffner was in that group after having started sixth.

On lap 6, Heffner was able to get around Johnson and move up to second.  Further back, Bachetti started 14^th and methodically moved up the order.

The race’s sole caution came out with 13 laps complete when Chris Curtis spun in turn 4.  That wiped out Marcus’ lead and allowed Bachetti, who had just taken over fifth, to catch up.

On the restart, Heffner was able to get a good run and swept under Marcus to take the lead.  Bachetti swooped around the outside of Virgilio, then dipped to the inside of Marcus to move up to second.

From there, Heffner and Bachetti drove away from the rest of the pack.  With clean air, Heffner was able to hold off the defending champion until the closing laps.  Bachetti tried to get the lead on the final lap, but came up short.

The 358 Modifieds saw Alan Houghtaling start from pole and lead early.  Bachetti was able to get himself up to third by lap 3.  A couple of laps later, Bachetti caught the leaders.

A debris caution allowed Bachetti to start on the outside of the second row.  The restart saw him sweep around the outside of Brady Cordova for second, then dive to the inside in turn 4 to take the lead from Houghtaling.

Once in the lead, Bachetti drove away from the field.  Meanwhile, Curtis was moving up in his No. 35.  The lead was wiped out when Joe Pravia stalled on the backstretch on lap 13 to bring out a yellow.

Curtis moved up to second with nine laps to go.  With a couple of cautions aiding him, he was able to run Bachetti hard, but Bachetti was able to hold on for his second 358 win of the year.  Curtis was second, then Jeff Watson, Joey Coppola and Houghtaling.

In Sportsman, Owen Lewis started from the pole, but quickly lost the lead to Michael Sabia.  Further back, Tim Hartman Jr. started from 10^th and slowly made his way forward.

After a couple of cautions at the very start of the race, the 20-lap feature went caution-free.  Sabia was able to open up a couple of seconds over the rest of the field.  Meanwhile, Hartman was able to take second on lap 9 from Dylan Grogan and start to run down Sabia.

Hartman was a little bit faster and ran down Sabia with a couple of laps to go.  On lap 19, Hartman was able to rub his way past.  From there, he held on to take his seventh win of the year.  Sabia was second, then Grogan, Brady Cordova and Nick Giardini.

Limited Sportsman saw Kyle Burl start from the pole and open up a decent gap over the field.  That was erased when Harold Robitaille spun in turn 4 after contact from Tim Deffer.

Brandon Lemaire got up to second and took the fight to Burl in the second lap of the race.  The two drivers ran side-by-side for multiple laps, but Lemaire couldn’t quite get past.

A late spin for Cam Van Zandt set up a two-lap shootout.  Burl was just barely able to hold on to take his first career win.  Lemaire was second, then Dylan Holmes, John Santolin and Ray Royals.

Pro Stock saw Shawn Perez start from the pole.  At the end of the first lap, the biggest crash of the night broke out when Paul LaRochelle hit the wall exiting turn 4.  That hit shot him back into traffic, collecting Dave Stickles, Rick Duzlak, Richard Spencer, Tom O’Connor, Brian Keough and Nick Hilt.  The crash resulted in the red flag being thrown.  Stickles, LaRochelle and O’Connor were out on the spot.

Chris Stalker was right on Perez’s tail for the restart and made the move to the inside on lap 3 to take the lead.  For much of the remainder of the race, Stalker fought for the lead with Tom Dean.

Stalker was able to hold on to take his third win of the year. Dean was second.  Hilt was third across the line, but was later disqualified due to his spoiler being too high.  That gave third to Zach Sorrentino, then Perez and Rocco Procopio.

In Street Stock, Dave Streibel Jr. earned his fourth win of the year.

Proline Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Josh Marcus, 4) John Virgilio, 5) Matt Pupello, 6) Eddie Marshall, 7) Kolby Schroder, 8) Keith Flach, 9) Brett Haas, 10) Kyle Armstrong, 11) Chris Curtis, 12) Kyle Sheldon, 13) Ryan Charland, 14) Guy Sheldon, 15) Mike King, 16) Bubba McPhee, 17) Brandon Lane, 18) Montgomery Tremont, 19) Donny Travaglin, 20) Marc Johnson, 21) Alan Houghtaling

Herrington Farms 358 Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Chris Curtis, 3) Jeff Watson, 4) Joey Coppola, 5) Alan Houghtaling, 6) Kyle Sheldon, 7) Brady Cordova, 8) Donny Travaglin, 9) Ryan Larkin, 10) Guy Sheldon, 11) Brian Berger, 12) Brian Peterson, 13) Mike Engwer, 14) Brian Whittemore, 15) Mark Pullen, 16) Joe Pravia, 17) Michael Sabia

Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Michael Sabia, 3) Dylan Grogan, 4) Brady Cordova, 5) Nick Giardini, 6) A.J. Albreada, 7) Owen Lewis, 8) Shawn McPhee, 9) Anthony Maxon, 10) Connor Prokop, 11) Jeff Gallup, 12) John Agor, 13) Pat Mann, 14) Karl Barnes

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Kyle Burl, 2) Brandon Lemaire, 3) Dylan Holmes, 4) John Santolin, 5) Ray Royals, 6) Brian Walsh, 7) Marty Hutchins, 8) Dalton Gamache, 9) Braxton Martin*, 10) Harold Robitaille, 11) Tim Deffer, 12) Cam Van Zandt

*- Dave Fachini drove in substitution for Braxton Martin.  Martin will earn the points from Fachini’s ninth-place finish.

Pro Stock Feature Results (25 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Tom Dean, 3) Zach Sorrentino. 4) Shawn Perez, 5) Rocco Procopio, 6) Brian Keough, 7) Rick Duzlak, 8) Richard Spencer, 9) Shawn Perez Jr., 10) David Stickles, 11) Tom O’Connor, 12) Paul LaRochelle.  DQ: Nick Hilt

Street Stock Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Dave Streibel Jr., 2) Anthony King, 3) Doug Sterling, 4) Dave Streibel, 5) Peter Huntoon, 6) Franklin Smith, 7) Keri VanDenburg, 8) Mike Dianda, 9) Gary O’Brien