Schroder Overcomes Transmission Issues To Take Lebanon Valley Victory

After three straight rainouts, the action returned to Lebanon Valley Saturday.  Kyle Sheldon was leading in his No. 44 until a brake failure put him hard into the wall on lap 13.  That gave the advantage to Kolby Schroder, who held off the pack to take the first Big Block win of the year at Lebanon Valley.

“The car was really good tonight,” Schroder said after the race.  “The crew really did an awesome job getting this car dialed in.  We had some [transmission] issues throughout the night, but [we had enough] to hold on.”

Schroder’s margin of victory was .540 seconds over Brett Haas.  Andy Bachetti was third, then Chris Curtis and Kyle Armstrong.

By virtue of a revenge draw, rookie Bubba McPhee started from pole.  His time at the front was short-lived as Ryan Charland took the lead on the opening lap.  L.J. Lombardo had the car to beat early on, taking the lead on lap 2 and pulling away.

Then, Lombardo blew his right rear tire, one of a number of drivers to have tire issues Saturday night, to bring out the yellow.  That gave Sheldon the lead.

Additional cautions involving Mike Engwer and Armstrong kept the field close, but Sheldon was extremely quick.  At times, he had multiple tenths of a second per lap on the field.

On lap 13, Sheldon had a decent lead over Schroder when the left rear brake caliper broke entering turn 1.  That failure pitched him hard into the outside wall.  Sheldon was ok, but out on the spot.

Schroder, who started ninth, assumed the lead when Sheldon crashed.  He had to battle against a couple of competitors.  One was Haas, while another was Keith Flach.  A third was his own car.  Off and on for the entire evening, his car was jumping out of gear.  That meant that he had to hold the car in gear while driving, not an easy feat in a modified.

Cautions kept the field relatively bunched up. John Virgilio was running well until he suffered a suspension failure that ended his night on lap 16. Marc Johnson also had a suspension failure.

Lombardo still had a very fast car after his tire failure. He made a charge all the way back to fifth before a second tire failure put him out and set up a one-lap shootout.  From there, Schroder held on for the win.

In the 358 Modifieds, Alan Houghtaling started from pole, but the stars of the race were Bachetti and Curtis.  Both drivers drew spots outside of the top 10, but were at the front in less than two minutes.

Curtis went from 11th on the grid to the lead in less than three laps, while Bachetti was close behind after starting 15th.  The two were battling hard for the lead until Bachetti’s right rear tire went down on lap 15, bringing out a yellow.

Once the green came out, Bachetti charged again from the rear, making use of the outside line that most other drivers weren’t using much at the time.  Unfortunately, a rear suspension failure in the closing laps dropped him back to a 10th-place finish.

At the front, Curtis held on to take the win by 2.4 seconds over Jeff Watson.  Brett Haas was third, then Joey Coppola and Ryan Larkin.

During the heat races, John Kendall's planned 358 Modified debut at Lebanon Valley ended before it could even get going. Just a couple laps into his heat, Kendall barrel rolled his No. 55 in turn 3, badly damaging the car. He was able to exit his car uninjured once it was righted, but he was done for the night.

In Sportsman, Brady Cordova started from pole and ran very well early on.  Chris Crane Jr. moved up from seventh on the grid to get to second in the opening laps.

On lap 5, Michael Sabia, Karl Barnes and Cody Cordova collided in turns 3 and 4 to bring out a long caution.  All three drivers were ok, but done for the night.

On the restart, Crane was able to get past Brady Cordova to take over the lead.  Further back, defending champion Tim Hartman Jr. started way back in 15th and slowly made his way to the front.  However, he couldn’t properly dispatch of Alex Bell, who was running third.  That kept him from fighting for the lead.

Brady did his best over the final 10 laps of the race, but he could not keep Crane from winning his first career Sportsman race at Lebanon Valley by four-tenths of a second.  Bell was third, then Hartman and Joey Scarborough.

The Limited Sportsman feature saw Dylan Holmes start on pole, but immediately lose the advantage to Kevin Groff. Groff ran competitively at the front, but A.J. Albreada, the opening night winner, was quickly moving up from ninth on the grid. A caution for Frank Twing Jr. stalling on track bunched everyone up after five laps. On the restart, Albreada was able to swoop around Groff for the lead.

Following another caution due to a spin for Garrett Biagiarelli, a frightening wreck broke out just after the restart.  Ray Royals was racing for position with Colby Kokosa when contact was made in turn 1.  The contact immediately sent Royals into two barrel rolls.  Royals was uninjured and able to walk away.  Kokosa’s car hit the inside wall and was also done for the night.

Albreada ran away from the field after the Kokosa-Royals crash to take his second straight win.  His margin of victory was 2.406 seconds over Brandon Lemaire.  Kevin Groff was third, then Braxton Martin and Dylan Holmes.

The Pro Stock class saw Rocco Procopio start on pole, but quickly lost his advantage to Zach Sorrentino.  Sorrentino then spent the next few laps doing battle with Frank Twing and Chris Stalker.

Twing was able to take the lead on lap 8 just before Stalker suffered a flat tire that brought out the yellow.  Following a tire change, the Hillsdale native was back out there.

Stalker nearly got back to the leaders before the entire rear end was nearly ripped out of his car with three laps to go.  From there, Twing held on to win by .976 seconds over Sorrentino.  Tom Dean was third, then Shawn Perez and Dave Stickles.

In Street Stock, there were a number of early incidents as drivers struggled at times. Doug Sterling started on pole, but immediately lost the lead to Jeff Meltz Sr. Shortly afterwards, opening night winner Anthony King spun in turn 4 to bring out a yellow.

Defending class champion Dave Streibel Jr. was right in the hunt early on. However, he spun out on lap 5 to bring out a caution. That allowed King to come back into the picture.

On lap 7, King was able to get past Meltz and take the lead. Once out front, King was not threatened at the front of the field en route to his second straight victory.

King won by 1.041 seconds over Dave Streibel Jr. Meltz was third, then Sterling and Dave Streibel.

The Mohawk Valley Vintage Modified features were won by Jack Miller (Modifieds), Merv Blackwell (Sportsman), Harry Baldwin (Mystique), Mike Wheeler (Antique) and Malcolm Warner (Late Model).

Contractor Sales/Wohrle’s Foods Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Kolby Schroder, 2) Brett Haas, 3) Andy Bachetti, 4) Chris Curtis, 5) Kyle Armstrong, 6) Keith Flach, 7) Matt Pupello, 8) Mike King, 9) Guy Sheldon, 10) Josh Marcus, 11) Bubba McPhee, 12) Rob Maxon, 13) Chris Bisson, 14) Ryan Charland, 15) Montgomery Tremont, 16) Marc Johnson, 17) L.J. Lombardo, 18) John Virgilio, 19) Kyle Sheldon, 20) Brandon Lane, 21) Alan Houghtaling, 22) J.R. Heffner, 23) Eddie Marshall, 24) Mike Engwer, 25) Ryan Darcy (DNS)

358 Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Chris Curtis, 2) Jeff Watson, 3) Brett Haas, 4) Joey Coppola, 5) Ryan Larkin, 6) Kim LaVoy, 7) Guy Sheldon, 8) Kyle Sheldon, 9) Brady Cordova, 10) Andy Bachetti, 11) Donny Travaglin, 12) Ray Hall Jr., 13) Alan Houghtaling, 14) Michael Sabia, 15) Anthony DiCarlo, 16) Fred Pravia (DNS), 17) John Kendall (DNS)

Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Crane Jr., 2) Brady Cordova, 3) Alex Bell, 4) Tim Hartman Jr., 5) Joey Scarborough, 6) Dylan Grogan, 7) Nick Giardini, 8) Connor Crane, 9) Craig Wholey, 10) Mike Arnold, 11) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 12) Owen Lewis, 13) Shawn McPhee, 14) Anthony Maxon, 15) Keith Johannessen, 16) Michael Sabia, 17) Cody Cordova, 18) Karl Barnes, 19) Justin Gozzi (DNS)

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) A.J. Albreada, 2) Brandon Lemaire, 3) Kevin Groff, 4) Braxton Martin, 5) Dylan Holmes, 6) Chris Humes, 7) Craig Coons, 8) Garrett Biagiarelli, 9) Daniel Odell, 10) Cam Van Zandt, 11) Ray Royals, 12) Colby Kokosa, 13) Dalton Gamache, 14) Frank Twing Jr., 15) Dakota Green, 16) Harold Robitaille, 17) Brian Walsh

Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Frank Twing, 2) Zach Sorrentino, 3) Tom Dean, 4) Shawn Perez, 5) Dave Stickles, 6) Rocco Procopio, 7) Shawn Perez Jr., 8) Dave Kokindo, 9) Chris Stalker, 10) Rick Duzlak, 11) Paul LaRochelle

Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Anthony King, 2) Dave Streibel Jr., 3) Jeff Meltz Sr., 4) Doug Sterling, 5) Dave Streibel, 6) Bob Sleight, 7) Jason Barrett, 8) Peter Huntoon, 9) Evan Denue, 10) Franklin Smith, 11) Hannah Stalker