Kyle Armstrong Snags Lebanon Valley Victory on Rifenburg Construction Night

Kyle Armstrong was able to get around Brandon Lane for the lead early on Saturday night. From there, he was able to hold on to take his first win of the year.

“This has been a long time coming,” Armstrong said in victory lane. “I’ve had a lot of races in the bag over the last couple of years, but something breaks. Finally, luck went our way tonight and we pulled it off.”

Lane started from the pole, but didn’t really have a chance to get going before trouble broke out. Keith Flach, who started third, appeared to have a mechanical failure at the start and coasted to a halt on the backstretch. It was the end of the night for the “Ravena Rocket.”

On the restart, Armstrong was quickly able to get past Mike King for second. He then put the pressure on Lane for the lead. On lap 3, Armstrong went to the inside on the backstretch and got the pass complete on Lane entering turn 3.

Once out front, Armstrong was able to quickly open up an advantage. Brian Berger was able to follow Armstrong past Lane into second, but could barely keep pace early on.

L.J. Lombardo had a pretty miserable Saturday night. This was capped off by his car losing power exiting turn 4 on lap 9. He was then hit from behind by Andy Bachetti, who had nowhere to go. Lombardo ended up out for the night, but Bachetti was able to continue.

The second yellow flew on lap 10 when John Virgilio crashed the Heffner No. 74 in turn 1. Virgilio was ok, but he was out of the race.

Once the race got back underway, Armstrong was able to open up a small advantage over Berger and Eddie Marshall. Further back, Bachetti was able to get past Kyle Sheldon, but could not progress much further as Armstrong held on for his first win of the year.

Armstrong’s margin of victory was .979 seconds over Berger. Eddie Marshall was third, then Bachetti and Kyle Sheldon.

The Small Block Modified feature got off to a rough start. Alan Houghtaling hooked wheels in turn 2 with Kim LaVoy. This shot Houghtaling up the track into L.J. Lombardo, setting off a multi-car crash that also involved Olden Dwyer, Andy Bachetti, Ryan Larkin and Mark Pullen.

Lombardo and Dwyer were out on the spot with significant damage. Pullen and Bachetti were hooked together and had to wait to be pulled apart. Larkin and Houghtaling were able to continue without assistance.

Brian Sandstedt started on the pole with Ryan Charland alongside. Once the race resumed after the crash, the two ultimately waged their own battle. Peter Carlotto and Frank Harper fought for third briefly, but Harper was able to snag the position.

Bachetti was able to charge back towards the front in his damaged No. 4. Restarting at the rear of the field, Bachetti quickly moved back into the top 10, then continued his charge from there. By halfway, he was already to seventh, then dispatched of Jeff Watson and Carlotto to move up to fifth.

Just after halfway, Sandstedt was able to get himself a little breathing room over Charland. That margin was good enough that no one could catch up to the veteran campaigner as Sandstedt took the win.

Sandstedt was .580 seconds ahead of Charland at the finish. Frank Harper finished third, followed by Bachetti. Jason Herrington was fifth.

In Pro Stock, Zach Seyerlein led the field to green in his No. 33 and ran very strong early on. Meanwhile, there was a collision between Dave Stickles and Zach Sorrentino exiting turn 4 on the first lap that saw drivers go everywhere. Ultimately, everyone continued.

Seyerlein was able to open up a decent advantage over a four-way battle for second. Of those four, Chad Jeseo was the strongest and simply picked each of the others off, one by one.

Just after halfway, Chris Stalker spun out on his own in turn 3 to bring out a yellow, collecting Tom Dean. Dean was done for the night, while Stalker continued and finished sixth.

The wreck put Jeseo into second. He immediately went to work on Seyerlein as soon as the race restarted. The two drivers ran side-by-side for a couple of laps until Jeseo poked his nose in front at the end of lap 14.

A couple of turns later, Jeseo cleared Seyerlein and held on to take his eighth win of the year. Seyerlein was .819 seconds behind in second, then Steven LaRochelle, Nick Hilt Jr. and Sorrentino.

In Limited Sportsman, Karl Barnes took the lead from Frank Twing Jr. and claimed the win. In Pure Stock, Chris Stalker won a 20-lap feature in memory of Ed Hubbard and Sherry Smithee. Finally, Gary Malloy won the 4-Cylinder feature overall and the Dual-Cam class. Victor Duncan Jr. won the Single-cam class.

Modified Rifenburg Construction First Responders Night Feature (30 laps): 1) Kyle Armstrong, 2) Brian Berger, 3) Eddie Marshall, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Kyle Sheldon, 6) Brett Haas, 7) Olden Dwyer, 8) Marc Johnson, 9) Mike King, 10) Brandon Lane, 11) Kenny Tremont Jr., 12) Kolby Schroder, 13) John Virgilio, 14) L.J. Lombardo, 15) Dylan Gibson, 16) Kenny Aanonsen Jr., 17) Keith Flach, 18) Josh Marcus, 19) Timothy Davis

Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Brian Sandstedt, 2) Ryan Charland, 3) Frank Harper, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Jason Herrington, 6) Peter Carlotto, 7) Jeff Watson, 8) Ray Hall Jr., 9) Brian Peterson, 10) Ryan Larkin, 11) Kevin Petrucci, 12) Montgomery Tremont, 13) Kim LaVoy, 14) Angelo DiCarlo, 15) Mark Pullen, 16) Rob Maxon*, 17) Colin Clow*, 18) Bob Fachini*, 19) Alan Houghtaling, 20) L.J. Lombardo, 21) Olden Dwyer

*- Rob Maxon, Colin Clow and Bob Fachini were all driving Sportsman cars.

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (10 laps): 1) Karl Barnes, 2) Kevin Ames, 3) Matt Jordan, 4) Frank Twing Jr.

Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chad Jeseo, 2) Zach Seyerlein, 3) Steven LaRochelle, 4) Nick Hilt Jr., 5) Zach Sorrentino, 6) Chris Stalker, 7) Dave Stickles, 8) Brian Keough, 9) Scott Kilmer, 10) Tom Dean, 11) Tom Gomm

Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Dave Streibel Jr., 3) Brian Walsh, 4) Scott Morris, 5) Evan Denue, 6) Katarina Foster, 7) Jeff Meltz Sr., 8) Rob Partridge, 9) Franklin Smith, 10) Dominic Hilt, 11) Christopher Brown, 12) Gary O’Brien, 13) Dom Denue, 14) Ryan Brown, 15) Daniel Coonradt, 16) Craig Coons, 17) Jake Gomm, 18) Jim Dellea

4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Results (10 laps): 1) Gary Malloy, 2) Garrett Biagiarelli, 3) Steve Burbank, 4) Jon Shepard

4-Cylinder Single-Cam Results (10 laps): 1) Victor Duncan Jr., 2) Bradley Batho, 3) Joe Wolfe, 4) Joey Batho