Marc Johnson, Frank Twing Score Big Lebanon Valley Victories

Marc Johnson, after a race-long duel, was able to take the lead away from Kyle Armstrong with eight laps to go Saturday night, then held on to take his first win of the year.

“It was really good,” Johnson said after the race.  “It’s been two weeks that we’ve had the chance to adjust on [the car] out of our shop, and we’ve proven [the adjustments] with a first and second-place finish.”

Johnson won by 2.649 seconds over Armstrong.  Kolby Schroder was third, then Keith Flach and Brett Haas.

Ryan Charland started from the pole, but didn’t hold onto the lead for long as Armstrong was able to take the lead away on the first lap.  Johnson followed through into second.

Armstrong and Johnson battled hard for the lead early on with Johnson up high and Armstrong low.  It was more or less a stalemate.

On lap 9, the scariest moment of the night occurred.  On the backstretch, Brandon Lane and Josh Marcus collided and crashed.  Lane was then hit by Matt Pupello and Montgomery Tremont.  Mike King, Mike Engwer and Alan Houghtaling were also involved.  All seven were out on the spot.

The red flag was thrown to tend to the drivers and clean up the track.  For the most part, everyone was ok.  That said, a couple of drivers were effectively stuck and had to be cut out of their cars.

After a long delay, the race resumed with Armstrong and Johnson continuing to battle at the front.  Further back, Andy Bachetti was moving up into contention.  Problems for Chris Curtis brought the yellow back out with nine laps to go.

On the restart, Johnson resumed the battle.  This time, he was able to get ahead of Armstrong on the outside of turn 2 on lap 23.  Bachetti followed into second and looked like he had the car to beat.  Then, his engine threw a rod in the closing laps.  Bachetti dropping off the pace was all Johnson needed to win.

The 358 Modifieds had Alan Houghtaling start from pole, but immediately lose the advantage to Guy Sheldon.  Just as quickly, Jeff Watson was able to take the lead from Guy Sheldon.

Bachetti started ninth and quickly moved up the order.  By lap 5, he was already third and pressuring Guy Sheldon for second.

Bachetti took second from Sheldon on lap 8.  Watson couldn’t put up much of a defense as Bachetti swept into the lead a lap later.

From there, Bachetti pulled away from the pack to take his third win of the year.  Watson was second, then Ray Hall Jr., Guy Sheldon and Kyle Sheldon.

The DIRTcar Pro Stock Series held the annual Ol’ Buzzard 30 Saturday night in honor of Jimmy Langenback and Bobby Chalmers.  A field of 31 turned up for a big race.

By virtue of a redraw, Zach Sorrentino started from pole and battled early with Tom Dean.  Frank Twing tacked onto the leaders in an attempt to pull away and settle things among themselves.

A spin for Jay Casey in turn 1 brought out the yellow on lap 10 shortly after Dean took the lead away from Sorrentino.  On the restart, Twing was able to take the advantage from Dean in turn 2.

From here on, the race evolved into a series of short sprints followed by incidents.  There were 11 cautions in all that ultimately extended the race to 32 laps.  Through all of that, Twing was able to keep himself at the front and hold on for the victory.  Dean was second, while Pete Stefanski came from 23^rd to finish third.  Jocelyn Roy was fourth, while Tyler Bushey was fifth.

Sportsman saw John Agor start on the pole, but drop back early.  That allowed Anthony Maxon to come to the front.

After an early debris yellow, Michael Sabia was able to get around Maxon for the lead.  Despite that, Maxon continued to work hard and eventually got back around Sabia on lap 11.

Dylan Grogan was able to catch Sabia and took second on lap 16.  Then, contact was made on the frontstretch, resulting in Grogan going into the wall and bursting into flames.  Grogan was ok, but his car was heavily damaged from the fire.

The caution brought A.J. Albreada and Tim Hartman Jr. into the mix.  Following another caution, Albreada was able to take the lead from Maxon on lap 18.

Hartman and Albreada battled hard on the final lap.  A hard dive into turns 3 and 4 allowed Albreada to take his first career Sportsman win.  Hartman was second, then Maxon, Connor Prokop and Chris Crane Jr.

Limited Sportsman saw Brian Walsh start from pole and run well.  Behind him, Dylan Holmes started sixth and quickly moved up the order.  By lap 5, he was second and pressuring Walsh for the lead.

Holmes took a few laps, but was able to take over the lead on lap 10.  From there, he pulled away to take the victory by 4.879 seconds.  A wreck broke out on the final lap involving Walsh, John Santolin and Chris Humes.  That allowed Ray Royals to finish second, followed by Braxton Martin, Kyle Burl and Brian Nelson.

In Street Stock, Chris Stalker took the win in a rare appearance from the rear.

RacingJunk.com ProLine Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Marc Johnson, 2) Kyle Armstrong, 3) Kolby Schroder, 4) Keith Flach, 5) Brett Haas, 6) Eddie Marshall, 7) John Virgilio, 8) Kyle Sheldon, 9) Guy Sheldon, 10) Bubba McPhee, 11) Garrett Poland, 12) Ryan Charland, 13) Andy Bachetti, 14) Chris Curtis, 15) L.J. Lombardo, 16) Josh Marcus, 17) Brandon Lane, 18) Matt Pupello, 19) Mike Engwer, 20) Mike King, 21) Montgomery Tremont, 22) Alan Houghtaling

Herrington Farms 358 Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Jeff Watson, 3) Ray Hall Jr., 4) Guy Sheldon, 5) Kyle Sheldon, 6) L.J. Lombardo, 7) Joey Coppola, 8) Chris Curtis, 9) Brady Cordova, 10) Alan Houghtaling, 11) Mark Pullen, 12) Angelo DiCarlo, 13) Joe Pravia, 14) Donny Travaglin, 15) Brian Whittemore, 16) Ryan Larkin, 17) Brian Berger

Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) A.J. Albreada, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Anthony Maxon, 4) Connor Prokop, 5) Chris Crane Jr., 6) Nick Giardini, 7) Shawn McPhee, 8) Phil Arnold, 9) Michael Sabia, 10) Karl Barnes, 11) John Agor, 12) Dylan Grogan, 13) Brady Cordova, 14) Tavien Blowers, 15) Connor Crane, 16) Owen Lewis

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Dylan Holmes, 2) Ray Royals, 3) Braxton Martin, 4) Kyle Burl, 5) Brian Nelson, 6) Brandon Lemaire, 7) Cam Van Zandt, 8) Harold Robitaille, 9) Garrett Biagiarelli, 10) Daniel Odell, 11) Kent Clark, 12) Brian Walsh, 13) John Santolin, 14) Chris Humes, 15) Matt Jordan

DIRTcar Pro Stock Series Ol’ Buzzard 30 (32 laps): 1) Frank Twing, 2) Tom Dean, 3) Pete Stefanski, 4) Jocelyn Roy, 5) Tyler Bushey, 6) Zach Sorrentino, 7) Devon Camenga, 8) Luke Hornung, 9) Paul LaRochelle, 10) Shawn Perez, 11) Chris Stalker, 12) Roxanne Roy, 13) Richard Spencer, 14) Jason Casey, 15) Ryan Crellin, 16) Tom O’Connor, 17) Hugh Page, 18) Jaxson Ryan, 19) Dakota Sharp, 20) Nick Hilt, 21) Marc Lalonde, 22) Phil DeFiglio, 23) Shawn Perez Jr., 24) Jason Meltz, 25) Rich Crane, 26) Tommy Lizotte, 27) Brian Keough, 28) Marc Peladeau, 29) Jay Casey, 30) Dave Stickles, 31) Rocco Procopio (DNS)

Street Stock Feature (15 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Anthony King, 3) Bob Sleight, 4) Dave Streibel Jr., 5) Jeff Meltz Sr., 6) Doug Sterling, 7) Gary O’Brien, 8) Keri VanDenburg, 9) Peter Huntoon, 10) Franklin Smith, 11) Lou Gancarz, 12) Mike Dianda, 13) Rico Traversa, 14) Dave Streibel