L.J. Lombardo, Andy Bachetti Split Lebanon Valley Double Features

Due to rains that showed up at Lebanon Valley Speedway on June 19 right before the Modified feature, Saturday night’s car was jam-packed with action. Both the Modified and Sportsman classes had double features, while the Pro Stocks had the special Eastwood Detailing Dash.

In the first Modified feature, Rob Pitcher started from the pole and ran well early. Then, his car suddenly quit at the end of the sixth lap. Kyle Armstrong swept into the lead while Pitcher coasted back to the pits to end his first race early.

A couple of laps later, Olden Dwyer cut his right rear tire and slowed on track to bring out the yellow. That closed everyone back up. On the restart, L.J. Lombardo made a charge to the inside of Armstrong. Contact was made between the two drivers, forcing Armstrong up the track and Lombardo into the lead. Lombardo was unaware that contact had been made at the time and later apologized.

For much of the second half of the race, Lombardo was stalked by Kyle Sheldon. Sheldon had to deal with Brett Haas as well, but eventually shook him off. Sheldon challenged Lombardo in the final laps, but Lombardo held on for the win over Sheldon, Haas, Kenny Tremont Jr. and Marc Johnson.

The second feature saw Pitcher start from pole once again. This time, the car was able to hold up. However, he had to do battle with a fierce adversary.

After suffering a blown engine in the first feature, Andy Bachetti started ninth and quickly moved up the order. After a caution on lap 16 due to Armstrong cutting a tire, Bachetti made his move on the restart to get second from J.R. Heffner.

From there, Bachetti stalked Pitcher for many laps. With six laps to go, Bachetti went to the outside in turns 3 and 4 and made it stick for the lead. From there, Bachetti pulled away to win over Pitcher, Heffner, Kolby Schroder and Chase Dowling.

The Small Block Modified feature saw Kim LaVoy start from the pole and open a small gap on Brian Peterson. It did not take long for a three-car breakaway of LaVoy, Peterson and Frank Harper to form.

Peterson was right there until he hit the wall in turn 4 on lap 16. That dropped him from second to fifth and gave LaVoy a big lead. From there, she held on to take her first victory in five years. Harper was second, followed by Dwyer, Brandon Lane and Joey Coppola.

Sportsman teams had two features as well. The first feature saw Rob Maxon take the lead from pole sitter Matt Burke on lap 6. He was able to hold on through a series of restarts due to on-track incidents.

The worst of these incidents was one on lap 18 that involved Whitey Slavin and Nikki Ouellette in turns 3 and 4. Slavin made repairs, but Ouellette was forced to a backup car for the second race.

Maxon was able to hold off a late charge from points leader John Virgilio to win. Michael Sabia was third, then Joey Coppola and Peter Carlotto.

The second feature saw New Hampshire’s Walter J. Hammond start from pole and lead early. Chris Lynch, who had braking issues in the first feature, quickly dispatched of Burke and went after Hammond.

On lap 4, Lynch was able to get the lead exiting turn 4. From there, he was able to hold off continued runs from Hammond to earn his second win of the year. Hammond was second, then Kevin Ward, Sabia and Coppola.

In Pro Stock, Dave Stickles started from the pole and led early until he went wide in turn 4 on lap 3. That allowed Johnny Rivers to sneak past into the lead.

Rivers was racing a car that had been significantly damaged earlier in the evening, resulting in a thrash just to be able to start. Rivers led with ease over Seyerlein until Jay Fitzgerald slowed exiting turn 2 to bring out the yellow on lap 14.

The yellow brought up a number of fast cars into the mix. Jason Meltz got past Seyerlein for second on the restart and immediately pressured Rivers. Another yellow for Nick Hilt Jr.’s flat tire resulted in a two-lap shootout.

Rivers took a push on the restart and managed to hold off the pack to take the win. Jason Meltz was second, then Chad Jeseo, Seyerlein (who won the $250 Eastwood Detailing Dash earlier in the evening) and Shawn Perez.

In Pure Stock, Rob Partridge, Brian Walsh and Jeff Meltz Sr. each claimed victories. In the Mohawk Valley Vintage Modified races, Mike Brown won the Antique race, while John Flach won the Mystique race.

Modified Feature No. 1 Results (delayed from June 19, 30 laps): 1) L.J. Lombardo, 2) Kyle Sheldon, 3) Brett Haas, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr., 5) Marc Johnson, 6) Kyle Armstrong, 7) Ricky Davis, 8) Kolby Schroder, 9) Eddie Marshall, 10) Brian Berger, 11) Bobby Hackel, IV, 12) Chase Dowling, 13) Wayne Jelley, 14) Mike King, 15) Ryan Darcy, 16) Jackie Brown Jr., 17) Dan Humes, 18) John Ruchel, 19) Andy Bachetti, 20) J.R. Heffner, 21) Olden Dwyer, 22) Rob Pitcher, 23) Kenny Aanonsen, III, 24) Timothy Davis

Modified Anderson Equipment/Premium Waters Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Rob Pitcher, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Kolby Schroder, 5) Chase Dowling, 6) L.J. Lombardo, 7) Marc Johnson, 8) Brett Haas, 9) Olden Dwyer, 10) Kenny Tremont Jr., 11) Eddie Marshall, 12) Ricky Davis, 13) Bobby Hackel, IV, 14) Wayne Jelley, 15) Kyle Armstrong, 16) John Ruchel, 17) Mike King, 18) Ryan Darcy, 19) Brian Berger, 20) Kyle Sheldon, 21) Dan Humes, 22) Kenny Aanonsen, III, 23) Jackie Brown Jr., 24) Timothy Davis

Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Kim LaVoy, 2) Frank Harper, 3) Olden Dwyer, 4) Brandon Lane, 5) Joey Coppola, 6) Brian Peterson, 7) Ryan Charland, 8) Andy Bachetti, 9) Ryan Larkin, 10) Jason Herrington, 11) Alan Houghtaling, 12) Brian Sandstedt, 13) Chris Curtis, 14) John Lutes Jr., 15) Montgomery Tremont, 16) Michael Sabia, 17) Kevin Petrucci, 18) Ray Hall Jr., 19) Sean Mandel

Sportsman Feature No. 1 Results (postponed from June 19, 20 laps): 1) Rob Maxon, 2) John Virgilio, 3) Michael Sabia, 4) Joey Coppola, 5) Peter Carlotto, 6) John Stowell, 7) Kevin Ward, 8) Robbie Colburn, 9) Matt Burke, 10) Jeff Reis, 11) Robbie Knipe, 12) Greg DeCamp, 13) Kevin Ames, 14) Dave Fachini, 15) Dylan Grogan, 16) Walter J. Hammond, 17) Jeff Watson, 18) Walter Hammond Jr., 19) Nikki Ouellette, 20) Whitey Slavin, 21) Colin Clow, 22) Chris Lynch, 23) Karl Barnes, 24) John Santolin, 25) Alan Houghtaling, 26) Harold Robitaille, 27) Del Ligouri, 28) Dylan Gibson

Sportsman Feature No. 2 Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Lynch, 2) Walter J. Hammond, 3) Kevin Ward, 4) Michael Sabia, 5) Joey Coppola, 6) John Virgilio, 7) Robbie Colburn, 8) Rob Maxon, 9) Peter Carlotto, 10) Jeff Watson, 11) Walter Hammond Jr., 12) Robbie Knipe, 13) Whitey Slavin, 14) John Stowell, 15) Kevin Ames, 16) Jeff Reis, 17) John Santolin, 18) Dave Fachini, 19) Nikki Ouellette, 20) Harold Robitaille, 21) Karl Barnes, 22) Dylan Grogan, 23) Matt Burke, 24) Greg DeCamp, 25) Alan Houghtaling, 26) Dylan Gibson, 27) Colin Clow, 28) Del Ligouri

Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Johnny Rivers, 2) Jason Meltz, 3) Chad Jeseo, 4) Zach Seyerlein, 5) Shawn Perez, 6) Tom O’Connor, 7) Brian Carter, 8) Dave Stickles, 9) Tim Bailey, 10) Brian Keough, 11) Nick Hilt Jr., 12) Tom Dean, 13) Jay Fitzgerald, 14) Steven LaRochelle

Pure Stock Feature No. 1 Results (8 laps): 1) Rob Partridge, 2) Scott Morris, 3) Clifford Booth, 4) Dave Streibel, 5) Zach Sorrentino, 6) Shawn Perez Jr., 7) Christopher Brown, 8) Ryan Brown*

*- Chris Murphy drove the No. 010 in place of Ryan Brown. Ryan Brown will earn points for Murphy’s performance.

Pure Stock Feature No. 2 Results (8 laps): 1) Brian Walsh, 2) Janai St. Pierre, 3) Colby Kokosa, 4) Craig Coons, 5) Andrew Wheeler, 6) Katarina Foster, 7) Dave Streibel Jr., 8) Peter Huntoon, 9) Chris Stalker, 10) Jeremy Dodge

Pure Stock Feature No. 3 Results (8 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Dylan Fachini, 3) John Devine, 4) Don Kennedy, 5) Franklin Smith, 6) Keri VanDenburg, 7) Mike Dianda, 8) Rocco Procopio, 9) Jethro Rossman