Jason Herrington Wins Final Small Block Modified Race Of 2021; Lebanon Valley Champions Crowned

The final night of the season saw most of the championships already decided, but there was still a good amount of competitive action. Jason Herrington showed that you shouldn’t give up for any reason in the Small Block Modified feature.

“I was actually settling for third,” Herrington said afterwards. “I thought ‘We ain’t bad and we haven’t smashed [anything up].’ Then, [Ryan Charland] and [Chris] Curtis got together and I said ‘I might be able to capitalize on this.’ That’s exactly what happened.”

Curtis started from the pole in his No. 35 and led early. For Alan Houghtaling, his 2021 season came to an end on the first lap when he went into the wall in turn 4, then crossed the track in front of traffic. This collected Ray Hall Jr., Kevin Petrucci and Montgomery Tremont. Petrucci was able to continue, while Hall’s car failed right after the restart.

Tremont tried to continue after a couple of laps in the pits, but his car came to a halt on the frontstretch to draw another yellow. He was done for the night from there. Another restart saw Frank Harper get tagged and spin into the inside wall on the frontstretch.

All of these shenanigans played into the hands of Andy Bachetti, who quickly moved up from the 14th starting spot to take third from Jason Herrington on lap 7. Normally, this would mean that Bachetti would thrash Curtis and Ryan Charland, take the lead and run away with it. Not so fast.

Herrington got a second wind and retook third three laps later. From there, he was actually able to pull away from Bachetti and attempted to run down Curtis and Charland by himself.

In the closing laps, Charland began pressuring Curtis for the lead. The two drivers ran side-by-side for a couple of laps, which allowed Herrington to catch up. A failed move for the lead by Charland led to Herrington taking second on lap 22. With a little more than a lap to go, Herrington made the pass for the lead and held on to win.

Curtis crossed the line in second, but was later disqualified for the team’s hauler pulling out of the infield during the Sportsman feature. As a result, Charland is credited with second, then Bachetti, Kim LaVoy and Joey Coppola.

35 cars started the Sportsman feature, resulting in a stop-and-go feature. The trouble started early as Bob Fachini spun in turn 1, triggering a stackup that wrapped up Keith Johannessen, Joey Scarborough, Harold Robitaille and others.

Another crash broke out a lap after the restart involving Jeff Reis, Walter Hammond Jr., Karl Barnes and others exiting turn 4. The track was briefly blocked here.

On the restart, Matt Burke took the lead away from pole sitter Peter Lorenzo. Michael Sabia, who had moved up from the 10th starting spot to third on the first couple of starts, followed into second. It was only a couple more laps before Sabia took the lead for himself.

The trouble kept on coming from there. First, Jared Powell spun to bring out a yellow. Then, Jeff Gallup was run over from back, triggering another stackup. Another crash in turn 2 involving Keith Patnode, Kevin Ames and Dave Fachini resulted in single-file restarts being declared for the remainder of the race.

2021 Sportsman champion John Virgilio moved up to second on lap 7 and tried to do battle in between yellows, but even he didn’t seem to have much for Sabia. The race ultimately came down to a one-lap shootout after a spin for Jimmy VanZandt, but no one could keep Sabia from taking his second win of the year. Walter J. Hammond was second, then Sabia, Whitey Slavin and Rob Maxon.

Pro Stock teams finished their points on Sept. 4. Saturday night saw 11 Pro Stock drivers race for 12 laps in a Dash.

Dave Stickles started from the pole and ran very well from the start. Zach Seyerlein started fifth and immediately rose to the occasion, moving up to second.

Seyerlein and Stickles battled for the lead for much of the race, but Stickles was able to hold him off. With four laps to go, Seyerlein was finally able to make a move for the lead stick. Shortly afterwards, Dominique Hilt spun in turn 4 to bring out the race’s sole caution.

Seyerlein was able to hold back the pack during the final three laps to take the win. Stickles was second, followed by Nick Hilt Jr., Zach Sorrentino and Brian Keough.

In Pure Stock, Brian Walsh, Rob Partridge and John Devine each won regular features. Dave Streibel Jr. claimed $1100 for winning the Fallin Heros feature. Jeff Meltz Sr. clinched the Pure Stock championship by signing in at the track.

In 4-Cylinders, Brandon Ely won the Dual-Cam class and overall. Jon Shepard finished fifth and won the Single-cam class. Lucas Ballard won the Dual-Cam championship, while Bradley Batho won the Single-cam title.

Small Block Modified Kathy Plotz Memorial (24 laps): 1) Jason Herrington, 2) Ryan Charland, 3) Andy Bachetti, 4) Kim LaVoy, 5) Joey Coppola, 6) Frank Harper, 7) Michael Sabia, 8) Ryan Larkin, 9) Kevin Petrucci, 10) Brian Sandstedt, 11) Mark Pullen, 12) Olden Dwyer, 13) John Lutes Jr., 14) Sean Mandel, 15) Ray Hall Jr., 16) Montgomery Tremont, 17) Alan Houghtaling. DQ: Chris Curtis

Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Michael Sabia, 2) Walter J. Hammond, 3) John Virgilio, 4) Whitey Slavin, 5) Rob Maxon, 6) Chris Lynch, 7) Matt Burke, 8) Dylan Gibson, 9) Robbie Colburn, 10) Angelo DiCarlo, 11) Jeff Gallup, 12) Peter Lorenzo, 13) John Stowell, 14) Bob Fachini, 15) Karl Barnes, 16) Brady Cordova, 17) Jared Powell, 18) Peter Carlotto, 19) Matt Gallo, 20) Keith Patnode, 21) Shane Powell, 22) Dave Fachini, 23) Joe Mennitte, 24) Jimmy VanZandt, 25) Shane Henion, 26) Frank Twing Jr., 27) Tim Hartman Jr., 28) Kevin Ames, 29) Bryce Breault, 30) Rob Hallaback, 31) Harold Robitaille, 32) Jeff Reis, 33) Walter Hammond Jr., 34) Joey Scarborough, 35) Keith Johannessen

Pro Stock Dash (12 laps): 1) Zach Seyerlein, 2) Dave Stickles, 3) Nick Hilt Jr., 4) Zach Sorrentino, 5) Brian Keough, 6) Frank Twing, 7) Tom O’Connor, 8) Doug Olds, 9) Rick Spencer, 10) Dominique Hilt, 11) Rich Colasanti

Pure Stock Feature No. 1 Results (8 laps): 1) Brian Walsh, 2) Clifford Booth, 3) Dylan Fachini, 4) Ryan Brown, 5) Franklin Smith, 6) Janai St. Pierre, 7) Ray Royals, 8) Katarina Foster, 9) Shawn Perez Jr.

Pure Stock Feature No. 2 Results (8 laps): 1) John Devine, 2) Rocco Procopio, 3) Chris Stalker, 4) Jeff Meltz Sr., 5) Craig Coons, 6) Jim Dellea, 7) Christopher Brown, 8) Peter Huntoon

Pure Stock Feature No. 3 Results (8 laps): 1) Rob Partridge, 2) Chris Murphy, 3) Dave Streibel Jr., 4) Dave Streibel, 5) Keri VanDenburg, 6) Colby Kokosa, 7) Mike Dianda, 8) Scott Morris

Pure Stock Go-Fast Graphics Fallin Heros Feature (20 laps): 1) Dave Streibel Jr., 2) John Devine, 3) Dylan Fachini, 4) Chris Stalker, 5) Ryan Brown, 6) Ray Royals, 7) Katarina Foster, 8) Christopher Brown, 9) Mike Dianda, 10) Colby Kokosa, 11) Brian Walsh, 12) Jim Dellea, 13) Rob Partridge, 14) Craig Coons, 15) Janai St. Pierre, 16) Shawn Perez Jr., 17) Peter Huntoon. DNS: Chris Murphy, Jeff Meltz Sr., Clifford Booth, Rocco Procopio, Franklin Smith, Scott Morris, Keri VanDenburg

4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Brandon Ely, 2) Slappy White, 3) Lucas Ballard, 4) Gary Malloy, 5) Jim Guertin, 6) Chris Hall, 7) Garrett Biagiarelli, 8) Frank Twing Sr., 9) Steve Burbank, 10) Helina Yeno

4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Bradley Batho, 3) Victor Duncan Jr., 4) Tim Meltz, 5) Tom Meltz, 6) Joey Batho, 7) Victor Duncan Sr., 8) Althea Roy, 9) Joe Wolfe, 10) Bob Ely, 11) Austin MacDonald