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  • Andy Bachetti Wins Cathy Plotz Memorial, L.J. Lombardo Wins Small Block Title

    Andy Bachetti charged up from 10th on the grid to take the lead on lap 12 from Jeff Watson. From there, he held on to win the Cathy Plotz Memorial for his third Small Block Modified win of the year. “The car was good tonight,” Bachetti said afterwards. “It’s a testament to my team with the carburetor issues all night. Everyone dug in our heels and made it happen.” Jeff Reis started from the pole, but quickly lost the advantage to Peter Carlotto. Carlotto opened up a decent advantage over the pack while Andy Bachetti quickly moved forward from 10th. Bachetti was up to fourth by lap 5 and pressuring others around him. Meanwhile, points leader L.J. Lombardo and Jason Herrington were further back, struggling to get past a group of slower cars. Jeff Watson ran down Carlotto just before the halfway point. Watson tried for multiple laps to get past, but couldn’t get by until Bachetti caught both of them. Watson did eventually take the lead, but Bachetti made short work of both drivers to take the lead and drive away. Bachetti then drove away to a five-second lead while Lombardo and Herrington made their way forward. The race looked like an easy victory for Bachetti until Lorne Browe stalled and brought the yellow out with three laps to go. On the restart, Lombardo got past Watson for second with Herrington following suit before Joey Coppola stopped on track to bring out another yellow. That set up a two-lap shootout to determine the winner and the champion. Bachetti was able to hold on to win by 1.08 seconds over Lombardo with Herrington third. Watson was fourth, then Carlotto. The second-place finish was enough to give Lombardo the Small Block Modified title. In Sportsman, Karl Barnes started from the pole and ran well early with Chris Lynch giving chase. Meanwhile, Rob Maxon, who had won the Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash earlier in the evening, lost his brakes and crashed hard in turn 1 to bring out the yellow. On the restart, Barnes jumped the cushion in turn 2, which allowed Bob Fachini to take the lead. The field was extremely bunched up, leading to a bunch of contact. Kevin Ward ended up losing control and spinning into the wall exiting turn 4 to bring out another yellow. Whitey Slavin slowly moved forward after starting fifth and put the pressure on Bob Fachini after the restart. On lap 6, Slavin was able to take the lead. Further back, 2023 Sportsman champ Tim Hartman Jr. was moving forward as quick as possible. Barnes’ night came to an end on lap 9 when he collided with Cody Cordova in turn 2 to bring out the third caution. Just prior to the yellow, Hartman had moved up to second. In the second half of the race, Hartman Jr. ran Slavin down and made multiple moves for the lead, including on the final lap. Slavin was able to hold on for the win by less than a car length over Hartman. Bob Fachini was third, then Gary O’Brien and Brady Cordova. In Limited Sportsman, Mike Engwer and Bella Pickard started on the front row, but ran into trouble almost immediately. The two drivers collided in turn 1 and spun. Owen Lewis was also caught in the crash. Engwer was able to continue, but Pickard was unable to restart her car and was forced to retire from the event. Scott Zehnacker inherited the lead as a result of the crash and led on the restart. Limited Sportsman champion-elect Anthony Maxon started at the rear of the field and spent his time moving forward as fast as he could. Engwer’s night came to an end when he crashed in turn 2 on lap 3. That put Mike Arnold on Zehnacker’s tail. Arnold tried to stick with Zehnacker, but could not do so. Meanwhile, Anthony Maxon immediately drove up to third and challenged Arnold for second. The battle allowed Zehnacker to get away. Anthony Maxon was able to take second with two laps to go, but it was far too late as Zehnacker took his second win of the year by 1.646 seconds. Arnold ended up third, then Craig Coons and Brian Walsh. The 4-Cylinder class had two features Saturday night. The first race was a makeup race from August 12th. Here, Jason Peck started from pole in his Honda Civic and was very strong early. However, he could not compete with Jon Shepard. Shepard ran down Peck and took the lead on lap 3. From there, Shepard ran away from the field to take an easy win. Peck was second, then James Fachini Jr. Joe Wolfe earned his first career Single-cam victory in fourth. Race No. 2 saw James Fachini Jr. lead flag-to-flag to take the win over Peck, Chris Dyer, Single-cam winner Tim Meltz and Wolfe. James Fachini Jr. (formerly known as Jim Guertin) won the Dual-cam championship with his performance by 14 points over Peck. Meltz won the Single-Cam title. In the Cannonball feature, Ammo Wright took the lead from Daniel Coonradt on lap 10. From there, Wright held on to take the win. Small Block Modified Cathy Plotz Memorial presented by Douglas Industrial Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) L.J. Lombardo, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Jeff Watson, 5) Peter Carlotto, 6) Ryan Larkin, 7) Montgomery Tremont, 8) Jeff Reis, 9) Kiim LaVoy, 10) Mark Pullen, 11) Kevin Petrucci, 12) Joey Coppola, 13) Donny Travaglin, 14) Ryan Charland, 15) Ryan Heath, 16) Lorne Browe, 17) Ray Hall Jr., 18) Brian Sandstedt, 19) Derek Schibi Note: Chris Curtis was also on-track in this race, but he was running an unapproved engine. As a result, he was not scored and not paid. Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Whitey Slavin, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Bob Fachini, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Brady Cordova, 6) Anthony Maxon*, 7) Kevin Ames#, 8) Kevin Ward, 9) Scott Duell, 10) Shane Powell, 11) Scott Zehnacher*, 12) Fred Pavia*, 13) Cody Cordova, 14) Karl Barnes, 15) Chris Lynch, 16) Rob Maxon *- Anthony Maxon, Scott Zehnacker and Fred Pavia are Limited Sportsman drivers who participated in the Sportsman feature. They will not earn points for their finishes. #- Mike Arnold drove his own No. 76 in the feature as a substitute driver for Kevin Ames. Ames will get credit for Arnold’s finish. Sportsman Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash Results (4 laps): 1) Rob Maxon, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Chris Lynch, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Brady Cordova, 6) Kevin Ward Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Scott Zehnacker, 2) Anthony Maxon, 3) Mike Arnold, 4) Craig Coons, 5) Brian Walsh, 6) Harold Robitaille, 7) Owen Lewis, 8) Fred Pavia, 9) Sara Arnold, 10) Mike Engwer, 11) Bella Pickard 4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature No. 1 Results (15 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Jason Peck, 3) James Fachini Jr., 4) Chris Danylieko, 5) Chris Dyer, 6) Mike Duncan 4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature No. 1 Results (15 laps): 1) Joe Wolfe, 2) Tim Meltz, 3) Wayne Russell, 4) Dylan MacLeod, 5) Stephen Burka 4-Cylinder Feature No. 1 Combined Results (15 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Jason Peck, 3) James Fachini Jr., 4) Joe Wolfe, 5) Tim Meltz, 6) Wayne Russell, 7) Dylan MacLeod, 8) Stephen Burka, 9) Chris Danylieko, 10) Chris Dyer, 11) Mike Duncan 4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature No. 2 Results (15 laps): 1) James Fachini Jr., 2) Jason Peck, 3) Chris Dyer, 4) Chris Danylieko. DNS: Jon Shepard, Mike Duncan 4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature No. 2 Results (15 laps): 1) Tim Meltz, 2) Joe Wolfe, 3) Dylan MacLeod, 4) Stephen Burka, 5) Wayne Russell 4-Cylinder Feature No. 2 Combined Results (15 laps): 1) James Fachini Jr., 2) Jason Peck, 3) Chris Dyler, 4) Tim Meltz, 5) Joe Wolfe, 6) Dylan MacLeod, 7) Stephen Burka, 8) Chris Danylieko, 9) Wayne Russell. DNS: Jon Shepard, Mike Duncan Cannonball Feature (20 laps): 1) Ammo Wright, 2) Ron Case, 3) Daniel Coonradt, 4) Dawson Thompson, 5) Anthony Johnson, 6) Jacob Hoag, 7) Chris Stalker, 8) Chase Thompson, 9) Evan Denue, 10) Anthony Spath

  • Andy Bachetti Wins 3rd Straight Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A.

    2023 Lebanon Valley Modified champion Andy Bachetti led flag-to-flag Saturday night and held off the best of the Super DIRTcar Series regulars to win the Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A. It is his third straight victory in the race, sixth Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A. win and seventh Super DIRTcar Series win at Lebanon Valley. “[The redraw] absolutely was the key,” Bachetti said after the race. “It was everything tonight. Had we started back further, I don’t know if we would have been that good tonight.” Super DIRTcar Series points leader Matt Sheppard was second, then J.R. Heffner, Adam Pierson and Eddie Marshall. L.J. Lombardo was the hard charger of the evening, coming up from the HYTORC New York Last Chance Showdown and finishing ninth after starting 23rd. In a program that was sped up due to the threat of rain, Bachetti ended up drawing the pole for the race with Kyle Armstrong alongside. When the green came out, Bachetti was able to get the jump and go out into the lead. It did not take long for Bachetti to open up a decent advantage. Further back, Sheppard drew the fifth starting spot and slowly moved forwards. Brian Berger started in the sixth spot and was able to maintain his position. However, trouble struck on lap 22 when his No. 60 slowed suddenly on the frontstretch, bringing out the first yellow of the race. Berger was done for the evening. Billy Decker was able to get up to second early on, but Sheppard took the spot away shortly after the first restart. That set the tone for much of the rest of the race as Bachetti, Sheppard and Decker ran away from the rest of the pack. Another yellow for Wayne Jelley spinning in turn 3 kept the field close together, but once the green came back out, it was back to a three-man race. A spin for Kolby Schroder on lap 53 brought out the race’s final caution and set up a 43-lap dash to the finish. Unfortunately, that didn’t work well for Decker as he broke shortly after the restart and retired. That meant that it was a two-man race at the front between Bachetti and Sheppard. Bachetti would pull out to a lead of about a second and a third, then he would catch lapped traffic. When that happened, Sheppard would make up ground. Once they cleared the traffic, Bachetti would pull back away. As a result, Sheppard never got close enough to make the move on Bachetti to prevent him from winning. In Sportsman, Chris Lynch started from the pole and led comfortable early over Ricky Davis. Meanwhile, points leader Tim Hartman Jr. started back in 13th and slowly made his way forward. An issue for Gerard Leclair brought out the yellow after five laps to bring the field back together. It was here that the Sportsman championship was decided. Kevin Ward scraped the wall in turn 1 on lap 7, but continued. A lap later, something failed in the right front of Ward’s car, pitching him into the wall on the backstretch. Matt Burke was also involved. Ward was done for the night and any real chance at the championship ended. This was just the beginning of a series of incidents. On the restart, Karl Barnes jumped the caution and spun, being hit by Mike Arnold. Then Rob Maxon and Brady Cordova got hooked together and spun in turn 4. Through this, Hartman continued to move forward, snatching second on lap 12 from Davis. After Cody Cordova spun on lap 14 to bring out a yellow, Hartman took the lead from Lynch on the restart. Another spin for Brady Cordova brought out the seventh caution and confirmed Hartman's lead. From there, Hartman was able to pull away to take his fifth win of the year. The win means that he has a 64-point lead over Rob Maxon with a week to go, meaning that he has clinched his second straight Sportsman championship. Lynch was second, then Davis, Ray Hall Jr. and Gary O’Brien. However, there were airbox issues on Davis’ car post-race, resulting in a DQ. The results are still unofficial as of this writing. In Limited Sportsman, Fred Pavia inherited the pole after Mike Engwer had issues in warmups. Pavia was able to lead early, but the man to beat was Anthony Maxon. Anthony drove up from eighth on the grid and took the lead on lap 6. From there, he drove off to nearly a five-second lead. That five-second lead disappeared when Brian Walsh hit the wall in turn 4 and brought out the yellow with two laps to go. On the restart, Craig Coons took second from Pavia, but could nothing to prevent Anthony Maxon from taking his fifth win of the year and clinching the Limited Sportsman championship. Coons was second, then Pavia, Harold Robitaille and Owen Lewis. Pro Stock teams raced in honor of the late Bubba Tanner Saturday night in the annual Bubba Tanner Classic. Fred Lee started from the pole in the class season finale and showed likely his best pace of the entire season. Meanwhile, Dave Stickles’ season ended in turn 4, stalled with a mechanical issue. On the restart, a collision in turn 2 resulted in Chad Jeseo, Ryan Crellin and Frank Twing crashing. Twing was eliminated from the race, while Jeseo and Crellin continued. A series of incidents kept the field bunched up behind Lee. Crellin had another incident with Lou Gancarz in turn 4. On the restart, Rick Duzlak spun in turn 3 and collected Tom O'Connor. A spin for Brian Keough on the next restart brought out another yellow and led officials to declare single-file restarts. Eight laps in, Lee still led with Tom Dean and Jeseo pressuring. Dean went to Lee's outside while Jeseo attempted to make it three-wide. While Dean was able to snatch the lead away, Jeseo had to back off to avoid an incident. Jeseo was ultimately able to get second when Lee was forced to retire from the race due to a fluid leak that left him without brakes. With eight laps to go, contact exiting turn 4 resulted in the hood flying up on Rocco Procopio's No. 62. He then spun on the frontstretch and was hit by Nick Hilt Jr. Hilt attempted repairs in the pits, but ultimately retired. Procopio ended up finishing a lap down in 10th. The rest of the race saw Dean and Jeseo duel for the lead. With two laps to go, Jeseo all but had Dean cleared, but couldn’t make it stick as Dean held on to win the Bubba Tanner Classic. Jeseo’s second-place finish won him his fourth straight Pro Stock title and sixth overall. Rick Duzlak was third, then Zach Sorrentino and Shawn Perez. Super DIRTcar Series Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A. presented by County Waste (100 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Matt Sheppard, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Adam Pierson, 5) Eddie Marshall, 6) Keith Flach, 7) Tim Sears Jr., 8) John Virgilio, 9) L.J. Lombardo, 10) Kyle Armstrong, 11) Jack Lehner, 12) Mike Mahaney, 13) Kolby Schroder, 14) Alex Yankowski, 15) Max McLaughlin, 16) Mat Williamson, 17) Kenny Tremont Jr., 18) Marc Johnson, 19) Larry Wight, 20) Chris Hile, 21) Jimmy Phelps, 22) Darren Smith, 23) Felix Roy, 24) Brandon Lane, 25) Billy Decker, 26) Wayne Jelley, 27) Brian Berger, 28) Marcus Dinkins. DNQ: C.G. Morey, Justin Stone, Kenny Aanonsen Jr., Steve Bernand, Mike King, Brett Haas, Olden Dwyer Unofficial Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Chris Lynch, 3) Ray Hall Jr., 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Bob Fachini, 6) Rob Maxon, 7) Brady Cordova, 8) Fred Pavia*, 9) John Miller, 10) Kevin Ames, 11) Harold Robitaille*, 12) Jacob Perry#, 13) Frank Frasco*, 14) Matt Burke, 15) Cody Cordova, 16) Karl Barnes, 17) Mike Arnold*, 18) Kevin Ward, 19) Whitey Slavin, 20) Gerard Leclair, 21) Ricky Davis% %- Ricky Davis finished third on the road, but was provisionally disqualified due to an unapproved airbox. However, the airbox is still being reviewed as of this writing and the results may change. *- Pavia, Robitaille, Frasco and Mike Arnold ran the Limited Sportsman feature and tacked onto the rear of the grid in order to earn additional money. They are not running for points. #- Jacob Perry’s transponder appeared to malfunction during the feature and only listed him as having finished nine laps when he had actually ran all 20. His finishing position here is his true finishing position. Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Anthony Maxon, 2) Craig Coons, 3) Fred Pavia, 4) Harold Robitaille, 5) Owen Lewis, 6) Mike Baker, 7) Frank Frasco, 8) Kent Clark, 9) Brian Walsh, 10) Sara Arnold, 11) Mike Arnold, 12) Mike Engwer Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tom Dean, 2) Chad Jeseo, 3) Rick Duzlak, 4) Zach Sorrentino, 5) Shawn Perez, 6) Ryan Crellin*, 7) Tom O’Connor, 8) Brian Keough, 9) Katarina Foster, 10) Rocco Procopio, 11) Nick Hilt Jr., 12) Fred Lee, 13) Paul LaRochelle, 14) Lou Gancarz, 15) Frank Twing, 16) Mike Dianda, 17) Dave Stickles

  • Kenny Tremont Jr. Claims 142nd Lebanon Valley Big Block Win

    Kenny Tremont Jr. recently announced his retirement from racing, which will commence at the end of the season. On Saturday night, Tremont took the lead on the first lap and led all 30 circuits to take his record-extending 142nd career Modified victory at Lebanon Valley. Tremont won by 1.582 seconds over Brian Berger. Marc Johnson was third, then Ryan Charland and Olden Dwyer. “I don’t think I could have asked for anything better,” Tremont said after the race. “It’s been a tough year, to be honest, but everything fell into place. The car ran really, really well. I don’t think I would have done anything different.” Charland started from the pole, but trouble did not take long to break out. J.R. Heffner was hit by Brandon Lane in turn 2 on the opening lap and went hard into the wall, rolling over multiple times and landing on Kyle Sheldon. Both drivers were ok, but done for the night. On the restart, Tremont was able to outdrag Charland to turn 1 and take the lead. Once out front, Tremont drove away from the rest of the pack. Meanwhile, Charland fell into a battle for second with Timothy Davis and Dwyer. Tremont got his advantage up to over five seconds when Davis’ No. 7t suddenly slowed exiting turn 4. The issue nearly caused a pileup on the frontstretch, but everyone managed to avoid Davis. It did bring out the yellow and ended Davis’ night. On the restart, a big scramble resulted in Berger moving up to second with Johnson giving chase. Further back, Andy Bachetti clinched the Modified title by showing up Saturday night, but he struggled to move up from his 12th starting spot. He would eventually finish eighth. A late caution for Mike King having mechanical issues bunched up the pack for a six-lap sprint to the finish. Here, Tremont inched away again and took the checkered flag in front of a raucous crowd. Ryan Heath started from the pole in the Small Block Modified feature, but quickly lost the advantage to Jeff Reis. Reis, in his strongest run to date in the class, proceeded to pull out a decent gap on the pack. Joey Coppola started in the eighth position and slowly but surely made his way forward. The Poughkeepsie native would pick off drivers one at a time while using the pace that won his heat and the Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash earlier in the evening to set quick times. Coppola was up to third on lap 15 when Lorne Browe’s car suddenly burst into flames exiting turn 4. Browe was able to stop the car and exit under his own power, but the yellow was out. On the restart, Reis’ car appeared to fail to come up to speed. This sparked a multi-car crash in turn 2 involving Jeff Watson, Ryan Larkin and others. Despite an excellent run, this was the end of the night for Reis. Reis’ retirement put Coppola in the lead. Once the race got back underway, Coppola was able to hold on to win by .885 seconds over Jason Herrington. Kim LaVoy was third, then Charland and L.J. Lombardo. In Sportsman, Chris Lynch started from the pole and ran well early on. Rob Maxon was giving chase early on before Kevin Ward was able to get by. Lynch was never threatened until his car shut off on the frontstretch on lap 12. That drew a caution and gave the lead to Ward. The final laps saw Ward and Tim Hartman Jr. fight it out. Hartman was briefly able to get by on lap 18, but Ward got him back immediately and held on for the win. Rob Maxon was third, then Whitey Slavin and Matt Burke. In Limited Sportsman, Anthony Maxon took his fourth win of the year. The DIRTcar Pro Stock Series made their annual visit to Lebanon Valley Saturday night for the Ol’ Buzzard 30, a 30-lap race in memory of Jimmy Langenback. By virtue of a redraw, Nick Hilt Jr. started from the pole. However, Devon Camenga got a little impatient on the initial start and jumped it. That resulted in confusion that led to a multi-car wreck on the frontstretch. No one was eliminated here, but there was damaged bodywork. Additional issues for Tom Dean and Phil Defiglio on the backstretch, along with Jaxson Ryan losing his hood marked the early portions of the race. Once the laps started clicking off, Hilt had to do battle with Frank Twing. The veteran racer was right on Hilt’s tail but couldn’t do much with Hilt. Followed a crash for Dave Stickles, Chad Jeseo drove up into the hunt. He took second from Twing on lap 19 and attempted to challenge for the win. Every time he got in position, a yellow stopped his charge. In the final couple of laps, Jeseo was able to get alongside Hilt for the lead, but Hilt was able to hold on to lead all 30 laps to win. Jeseo was second, then Twing, Zach Sorrentino and Pete Stefanski. In Street Stock, Jeff Meltz Sr. took the win after a huge crash on the final lap involving Dave Streibel Jr. and Chris Stalker. SHR Speed & Supply/Driveshafts by DMC Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Kenny Tremont Jr., 2) Brian Berger, 3) Marc Johnson, 4) Ryan Charland, 5) Olden Dwyer, 6) Kyle Armstrong, 7) L.J. Lombardo, 8) Andy Bachetti, 9) Eddie Marshall, 10) Brett Haas, 11) Kolby Schroder, 12) John Virgilio, 13) Wayne Jelley, 14) Matt Pupello, 15) Keith Flach, 16) Ryan Darcy, 17) Brandon Lane, 18) Mike King, 19) Timothy Davis, 20) J.R. Heffner, 21) Kyle Sheldon, 22) Dave McFeeters, 23) Kenny Aanonsen Jr. Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Joey Coppola, 2) Jason Herrington, 3) Kim LaVoy, 4) Ryan Charland, 5) L.J. Lombardo, 6) Ray Hall Jr., 7) Chris Curtis, 8) Donny Travaglin, 9) Ryan Heath, 10) Ryan Larkin, 11) Montgomery Tremont, 12) Andy Bachetti, 13) Brian Peterson, 14) Mark Pullen, 15) Kevin Petrucci, 16) Jeff Watson, 17) Jeff Reis, 18) Lorne Browe, 19) Brian Sandstedt, 20) Olden Dwyer Small Block Modified Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash (4 laps): 1) Joey Coppola, 2) Jason Herrington, 3) Lorne Browe, 4) Kevin Petrucci, 5) Ray Hall Jr., 6) Ryan Heath Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Kevin Ward, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Rob Maxon, 4) Whitey Slavin, 5) Matt Burke, 6) Gary O’Brien, 7) Nick Giardini, 8) Brady Cordova, 9) Karl Barnes, 10) Gerard Leclair*, 11) Kevin Ames, 12) Harold Robitaille#, 13) Scott Zehnacker#, 14) John Miller, 15) Chris Lynch, 16) Ricky Davis, 17) Cody Cordova, 18) Dan Ferguson *- Gerard Leclair intended on racing his No. 71 Saturday night, but was unable to make it due to work issues. Mike Arnold raced in his place as a substitute. As a result, Leclair gets credit for the finish. #- Harold Robitaille and Scott Zehnacker competed in the feature for money only. Their finishing positions are not factored into the points. Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Anthony Maxon, 2) Scott Zehnacker, 3) Mike Arnold, 4) Harold Robitaille, 5) Craig Coons, 6) Owen Lewis, 7) Mike Engwer, 8) Brian Walsh, 9) Bella Pickard, 10) Kent Clark DIRTcar Pro Stock Series Ol’ Buzzard 30 Results (30 laps): 1) Nick Hilt Jr., 2) Chad Jeseo, 3) Frank Twing, 4) Zach Sorrentino, 5) Pete Stefanski, 6) Devon Camenga, 7) Luke Horning, 8) Slater Baker, 9) Fred Lee, 10) Shawn Perez Jr., 11) Dave Stickles, 12) Shane Playford, 13) Johnny Rivers, 14) Tom O’Connor, 15) Phil Defiglio, 16) Tom Dean, 17) Ken Griffin, 18) Dave Kokindo, 19) Shawn Perez, 20) Paul LaRochelle, 21) Brian Keough, 22) Jaxson Ryan, 23) Jay Fitzgerald, 24) Mike Dianda Street Stock Feature Results (12 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Lou Gancarz, 3) Keri VanDenburg, 4) Scott Kilmer, 5) Dave Streibel Jr., 6) Chris Stalker, 7) Franklin Smith, 8) Don Kennedy

  • Kolby Schroder Snags Double Points Victory on Solemn Night

    Lebanon Valley Speedway celebrated the memory of Steven LaRochelle Saturday night. LaRochelle was commemorated in a roughly 25-minute ceremony where there were prayers, memories, well wishes to the LaRochelle family, and countless embraces. In a rare 50-lap feature for double points. Kolby Schroder took the lead when Kenny Tremont Jr. slowed with engine issues, then held off Brett Haas to take the victory. “I seem to always [run well in] the extra distance races with keeping the car underneath me and saving some stuff,” Schroder said in victory lane. “I really wish I could have run with [Kenny Tremont Jr.] at the end. That was going to be really cool at the end.” Schroder won by .608 seconds over Haas, followed by J.R. Heffner, Andy Bachetti and Keith Flach. With one regular Modified feature to go, Bachetti has a 48-point lead, meaning he’ll clinch the title by showing up next Saturday. After rain cut the racing program short on Aug. 12, track officials made the decision to run a 50-lap Modified feature for double points instead of two 30-lap Modified features for regular points. This was due to the expected significant length of the racing card, which also included double features for both the Sportsman and Limited Sportsman classes. Timothy Davis started from pole and swept into the lead. Meanwhile, Ryan Darcy cut across the front of Brandon Lane entering turn 1. Lane spun out and triggered a multi-car crash that involved 10 cars. Marc Johnson, Olden Dwyer and Ryan Charland were out on the spot. On the restart, Kenny Tremont Jr. was able to snatch second away from Darcy and set off in search of Davis. He got there by lap 6. What followed was a 10-lap back and forth between the young Davis and the veteran Tremont. Eventually, Tremont was able to take the lead definitively on lap 16. Following a debris caution, Tremont was able to pull away while Darcy took second away from Davis. Schroder and Haas followed past, then continued to move forward. By lap 23, they were second and third. Tremont continued to lead until he suddenly pulled into the pits at the end of lap 36. He drove through the pits and seemed fine at first, but the smoke started shortly after he left the pits. He would spend the remainder of the race limping around to finish four laps down in 16th. Tremont’s issues resulted in Schroder and Haas having a battle for the lead. With five laps to go, Haas got to Schroder’s inside on the backstretch, but the slower Mike King forced Haas to back off. That was the best chance Haas got as Schroder held on for the win. In the Small Blocks, contact between Joey Coppola and Olden Dwyer in turn 2 on the first lap resulted in Dwyer backing into the wall and blocking the track. The stack-up was on from here as five cars were collected. Points leader Jason Herrington got the worst of it as he hit Dwyer and nearly got on his side. Everyone was ok, but Herrington was done for the night. The 21st-place finish dropped him to third in points. On the restart, Ryan Larkin was able to get up to Brian Sandstedt. Once there, he made short work of the Chatham native to take the lead. While points leader Harrington was eliminated early, Bachetti wasn’t safe either. He ended up crashing with Joey Coppola in turn 1 on lap 6. Despite the incident, he still had a lot of speed. In the final 10 laps of the race, Larkin had to deal with L.J. Lombardo. The Danbury, Conn. racer was able to run down Larkin in lapped traffic and attempted a dive bomb for the lead on the final lap. Larkin was able to hold him off to take his first win of the year. Bachetti recovered from his crash to finish third, then Kim LaVoy and Jeff Watson. The Sportsman class had double features Saturday. Race No. 1 saw Cody Cordova start on pole alongside Karl Barnes. Barnes proceeded to spin in turn 2 on the first lap after contact from Ricky Davis. Chris Crane Jr. and Alan Houghtaling were also collected. Cody Cordova led from the pole, but had to do battle with points leader Tim Hartman Jr. Just after halfway, Hartman dove to the inside of Cody entering turn 1 to take the lead. From there, Hartman held on to take his fourth win of the year. Rob Maxon was second, then Cody Cordova, Gary O’Brien and Brady Cordova. Feature No. 2 started with a huge crash when Ricky Davis ran in the back of Joe Pravia and turned him into the wall on the frontstretch. The resulting crash wrapped up eight cars. While the 50/50 raffle ticket barrel has seen better days, all of the drivers were ok. After the restart, Kevin Ward was able to get past pole sitter Kevin Ames to take the lead. Ames’ night came to an end on lap 6 when he crashed in turn 3 after contact with Gerard Leclair. Ward had Hartman alongside for the restart, but he was able to put some distance on the Sportsman points leader. That was all Ward needed to take his third win of the year. Hartman was second, then O’Brien, Rob Maxon and Whitey Slavin. The Limited Sportsman teams also had double features on the evening. The first 15-lap feature saw Mike Engwer start from pole, but immediately come into pressure from Mike Arnold. Arnold was able to sweep around the outside in turn 2 to take the lead on the second lap. Owen Lewis tried to take second from Engwer shortly afterwards, but contact was made entering turn 1. Engwer spun while Lewis hit the wall hard, ending his race. Later on, contact between Alex Palmer-Sawyer and Connor Crane resulted in Palmer-Sawyer spinning into the wall in turn 3 and rolling over once. Palmer-Sawyer was ok afterwards and quite upset with Connor Crane. The crash did not end Palmer-Sawyer’s night. The team was able to repair the No. 61 and get back out for hot laps. However, Palmer-Sawyer crashed again during the hot laps session. That ended his night prior to the second race. Once the green came back out, Arnold was able to pull away to take the win. Anthony Maxon was second, then Connor Crane, Fred Pravia and Craig Coons. Feature No. 2 had Lewis on pole. He ran well early, but pressure from Connor Crane forced him into a mistake in turn 4. Hitting the wall on lap 3 allowed the young Crane to take the lead. From there, Connor was never seriously threatened en route to his first career Lebanon Valley win. Anthony Maxon was second, then Scott Zehnacker, Arnold and Coons. A 24-car field, the largest Pro Stock field of the year, took to the track in memory of Steven LaRochelle. By virtue of winning his heat, Zach Sorrentino started from the pole. He led a feature that struggled to truly get going. First, Johnny Rivers crashed in turn 1 to bring out a yellow. A couple of laps later, a multi-car crash broke out in turn 1 that involved Shawn Perez, Jason Casey, Fred Lee and others. A scary crash on lap 12 involving Fred Lee and Gary Silkey in turn 1 brought out the red flag. The two drivers collided and went hard into the outside wall with Silkey rolling over. Both drivers were able to exit their cars with assistance and appeared to be in a fair amount of pain. On the restart, Chad Jeseo made a move to the inside of Sorrentino for the lead. Sorrentino was able to fight back briefly, but he jumped the cushion in turn 3 on lap 14 and dropped back to third. That was all Jeseo needed up to get the lead and pull away to take his third win of the year. “We didn’t let [Steven] down tonight,” Jeseo said in victory lane. “We had a lot of good races over the years with Steven. Four weeks ago, we were fighting…but it feels more like we lost a friend.” Tom Dean ended up second, then Sorrentino, Nick Hilt Jr. and Frank Twing. In Street Stock, Jeff Meltz Sr. held off Chris Stalker to take the win. Bob Gibson was third, then Dave Streibel Jr. and Keri VanDenburg. Marc Johnson’s Family of Sponsors Modified Feature Results (50 laps): 1) Kolby Schroder, 2) Brett Haas, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Keith Flach, 6) L.J. Lombardo, 7) Brian Berger, 8) John Virgilio, 9) Wayne Jelley, 10) Eddie Marshall, 11) Ryan Darcy, 12) Timothy Davis, 13) Mike King, 14) Brandon Lane, 15) Kyle Armstrong, 16) Kenny Tremont Jr., 17) Matt Humes, 18) Matt Pupello, 19) Kyle Sheldon, 20) Kenny Aanonsen Jr., 21) Olden Dwyer, 22) Marc Johnson, 23) Ryan Charland, 24) Dave McFeeters Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Ryan Larkin, 2) L.J. Lombardo, 3) Andy Bachetti, 4) Kim LaVoy, 5) Jeff Watson, 6) Ray Hall Jr., 7) Brian Sandstedt, 8) Ryan Charland, 9) Brian Peterson, 10) Joey Coppola, 11) Peter Carlotto, 12) Jeff Reis, 13) Donny Travaglin, 14) Ryan Heath, 15) Montgomery Tremont, 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Kevin Petrucci, 18) Mark Pullen, 19) Olden Dwyer, 20) Lorne Browe, 21) Jason Herrington Sportsman Feature No. 1 Results (20 laps, delayed from August 12th): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Rob Maxon, 3) Cody Cordova, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Brady Cordova, 6) Whitey Slavin, 7) Ricky Davis, 8) Cody Bleau, 9) Kevin Ward, 10) Chris Crane Jr., 11) Gerard Leclair, 12) Alan Houghtaling, 13) Kevin Ames, 14) Joe Pravia, 15) Karl Barnes, 16) Chris Lynch Sportsman Feature No. 2 Results (20 laps): 1) Kevin Ward, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Gary O’Brien, 4) Rob Maxon, 5) Whitey Slavin, 6) Ricky Davis, 7) Gerard Leclair, 8) Brady Cordova, 9) Chris Crane Jr., 10) Karl Barnes, 11) Cody Bleau, 12) Chris Lynch, 13) Cody Cordova, 14) Alan Houghtaling, 15) Kevin Ames, 16) Joe Pravia Limited Sportsman Feature No. 1 Results (20 laps, delayed from August 12th): 1) Mike Arnold, 2) Anthony Maxon, 3) Connor Crane, 4) Fred Pravia, 5) Craig Coons, 6) Brian Walsh, 7) Kent Clark, 8) Harold Robitaille, 9) Scott Zehnacker, 10) Bella Pickard, 11) Mike Engwer, 12) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 13) Owen Lewis. DQ: Ira Doull Limited Sportsman Feature No. 2 Results (20 laps): 1) Connor Crane, 2) Anthony Maxon, 3) Scott Zehnacker, 4) Mike Arnold, 5) Craig Coons, 6) Owen Lewis, 7) Matt Jordan, 8) Mike Engwer, 9) Fred Pravia, 10) Bella Pickard, 11) Brian Walsh, 12) Harold Robitaille, 13) Kent Clark, 14) Alex Palmer-Sawyer Limited Sportsman Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash Results (4 laps): 1) Mike Arnold, 2) Scott Zehnacker, 3) Harold Robitaille, 4) Craig Coons, 5) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 6) Owen Lewis Pro Stock Steven LaRochelle Memorial (20 laps): 1) Chad Jeseo, 2) Tom Dean, 3) Zach Sorrentino, 4) Nick Hilt Jr., 5) Frank Twing, 6) Rick Duzlak, 7) Shawn Perez Jr., 8) Jay Casey, 9) Johnny Rivers, 10) Jason Casey, 11) Paul LaRochelle, 12) Rocco Procopio, 13) Brian Keough, 14) Dave Kokindo, 15) Mike Dianda, 16) Tom O’Connor, 17) Katarina Foster, 18) Doug Sheely, 19) Gary Silkey, 20) Fred Lee, 21) Shawn Perez, 22) Jay Fitzgerald, 23) Dave Stickles, 24) Rob Yetman Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Chris Stalker, 3) Bob Gibson, 4) Dave Streibel Jr., 5) Keri VanDenburg, 6) Lou Gancarz, 7) Franklin Smith

  • Remembering Steven LaRochelle

    Last week, the racing community was saddened by the death of Steven LaRochelle, a veteran competitor in the Pro Stock class at the age of 25 in a motorcycle crash. Steven was a tenacious competitor on the track and a friendly man off the track. The LaRochelles have been a steady presence at Lebanon Valley for more than 30 years. Paul LaRochelle came up through the Pure Stock and Street Stock classes in the 1980s before progressing up into what is now known as Pro Stock. By the time Steven was born, Paul was deep in the class and racing his No. 78 with Shell sponsorship. As a result, he was always around race cars. It was more or less a natural move that Steven himself would get into racing in his own right. Steven started out racing go-karts before progressing into the Pure Stock class at Lebanon Valley, driving an orange No. 79 Chevrolet Camaro sponsored by the LaRochelle family businesses. Later on, Steven switched to the No. 178. With that came a yellow paint scheme. It was a bit of a letdown to some at the time, but the scheme was actually a throwback scheme to a car Paul raced at Lebanon Valley in 1988. Eventually, Steven moved up to the Pro Stock class himself, running as a teammate to his father. It did not take long for Steven to come to grips with the additional power and tire on hand. As a result, good finishes came quickly. In the past few years, Paul chose to step away from driving in his own right in order to focus on Steven’s effort. It is quite the in-depth effort as the team does a lot of fabrication on their cars themselves, as opposed to buying complete chassis from third parties. Steven had developed into one of the best racers in the Pro Stock class in the past couple of years, always in the hunt for victories against stout drivers such as Chad Jeseo, Zach Sorrentino and others. When Steven passed away, he was third in Pro Stock points behind Jeseo and Sorrentino. He hadn’t won a race this season, but he’d been very close. His best race of the year had been on July 8, where he had led until his car suddenly slowed exiting turn 2 with two laps with transmission issues. It was discovered afterwards that the teeth had been stripped off the rear gear. Away from the track, Steven married his longtime girlfriend Taylor, who he had been with since 2014, just nine months ago. They were always together at the track, and they would do things together such as hunting for macaroons in Manhattan away from the track. He was fully embedded in the LaRochelle family businesses in Hinsdale, Mass as well. Steven, much like the rest of the LaRochelle family, was a friendly man who was protective of his family and friends. He, along with Paul, was respected for his work ethic and his skill behind the wheel. For now, Paul will return to the driver’s seat, racing his son’s car for the remaining three Pro Stock races in the 2023 season. In the Berkshire Eagle, track pit steward Ryan Hogencamp indicated that Paul is doing it “as a way to stay close to his son.” Lebanon Valley Speedway plans to have a permanent memorial race in Steven’s honor. For Saturday night, the Pro Stocks will be racing for $3178 to win, a substantial increase over the regular $700 to win. In addition, there will be memorial stickers for sale at the pit shack. The driver that wins with that sticker on their car will get a $178 bonus. $100 bonuses will be handed out to whichever driver leads the first lap, lap 7 or lap 8. Additional bonuses will also be in play. Prior to the Pro Stock feature, a memorial will be held in Steven’s honor Saturday night. A number of sponsors have stepped up in order to increase the purse. These outfits include Cole’s Collision, Hillsdale Repairs, Meltz Lumber, Bulldog Concrete, Gary and Kristen O’Brien, the Bedell family, Milo Campbell and Campbell Builders.

  • Chad Jeseo, Mike Bussino Claim Wins Before Downpour Curtail Features

    Saturday night saw racing at Lebanon Valley Speedway go off under threat of thunderstorms. Two of the features were able to be completed as scheduled. As the green was coming out for the Limited Sportsman feature, the skies opened with drenching rain. The rain resulted in the immediate end to racing for the evening. Since all of the heat races were completed, it does count as a full night of racing, so no rain checks will be honored. However, the features that were unable to run will have to be made up. These will be features for the Modified, Sportsman, Limited Sportsman and 4-Cylinder classes. Much of this will be done on Aug. 19, but stay tuned for an official announcement of when all the features will be made up. Before the rains came, there were a couple of features that did race. In Pro Stock, Fred Lee started on pole and had one of his best races since switching to his current chassis. He ran well to hold off the pack early on. Dave Kokindo started alongside Lee and had some handling issues early on. On lap 3, Kokindo spun in turn 4. The resulting scramble saw Mike Dianda and Rick Spencer also got involved. Kokindo was unable to continue, but Dianda and Spencer were able to get back underway. Rocco Procopio made upgrades to his car and moved up from the Street Stock class to Pro Stock Saturday night. He showed some speed in his debut, but the additional power comes with an adjustment in driving style. That led to a couple of spins that drew cautions. Chad Jeseo started seventh and slowly made his way forward. After the first Procopio spin, Jeseo was able to sweep past Frank Twing to take second, then immediately took the lead from Lee on lap 7. The second Procopio spin brought out another yellow. Shortly after the restart, Lee spun out in turn 2. He was then hit by Dave Stickles to bring out another yellow. Stickles lost his radiator in the crash, ending his night. Lee had rear end damage and tried to continue before pulling off. On the restart, Nick Hilt ran Jeseo hard into turns 1 and 2, triggering a rare mistake from Jeseo. The defending champion jumped the cushion and brushed the outside wall. That allowed Hilt to take the lead. With seven laps to go, Hilt suffered a mechanical failure and slowed in turn 4. That allowed Jeseo to retake the lead just as Dianda spun in turn 2 to bring out another yellow. Jeseo was able to hold on over the final seven laps to take his second Pro Stock win of the year. Twing ended up second, followed by Zach Sorrentino and Tom Dean. Rick Duzlak was fifth. The Street Stock campaigners had a special race Saturday night, the 20th Annual Boomer’s Performance Classic, a race held in memory of Robert “Boomer” Bedell. $2000 was on the line for the winner. Mike Bussino, who won his heat race, started from the pole and was able to lead early. Jim Dellea moved up to second and was hot on Mike’s tail. Chris Stalker was right up there in the hunt early until he spun out on lap 7 to draw a yellow. Stalker was able to continue. Later on, Ray Royals crashed hard at the end of the backstretch and nearly tipped his No. 6 over. Royals was ok, but his car was heavily damaged and done for the night Jeff Meltz Sr. gave chase for much of the race, but lost second to Dave Streibel just after halfway. Shortly afterwards, Dellea spun out to draw a yellow. On the restart, Streibel and Josh Bussino collided exiting turn 2. The two drivers went into the wall, resulting in Streibel getting up on two wheels briefly. That put Streibel out for the night, while Josh Bussino was able to continue with damage. Meltz retook second as a result of the crash, but could do nothing to pressure the No. 1x over the final five laps. Mike Bussino led flag-to-flag to win the Boomer’s Performance Classic and take home the $2000 first prize. Meltz was second, then a recovering Stalker in third. Chris Murphy was fourth, while Dave Streibel Jr. was fifth. In the Modified class, Timothy Davis claimed some extra money by winning the four-lap Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash before the rains came. Matt Pupello was second, while Keith Flach was third. Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chad Jeseo, 2) Frank Twing, 3) Zach Sorrentino, 4) Tom Dean, 5) Rick Duzlak, 6) Shawn Perez, 7) Ryan Crellin, 8) Rick Spencer, 9) Nick Hilt Jr., 10) Mike Dianda, 11) Katarina Foster, 12) Brian Keough, 13) Fred Lee, 14) Dave Stickles, 15) Rocco Procopio, 16) Dave Kokindo Street Stock 20th Annual Boomer’s Performance Classic in memory of Robert “Boomer” Bedell (20 laps): 1) Mike Bussino, 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) Chris Stalker, 4) Jesse Murphy, 5) Dave Streibel Jr., 6) Jim Dellea, 7) Josh Bussino, 8) Bob Gibson, 9) Lou Gancarz, 10) Keri VanDenburg, 11) Franklin Smith, 12) Peter Huntoon, 13) Dave Streibel, 14) Ryan Brown, 15) Ray Royals, 16) Don Kennedy, 17) Chris Murphy Modified Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash (4 laps): 1) Timothy Davis, 2) Matt Pupello, 3) Keith Flach, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr., 5) Kyle Armstrong, 6) Ryan Darcy

  • Andy Bachetti Dominates Bryan Goewey Memorial

    Saturday saw Bryan Goewey, a longtime driver/ team owner at Lebanon Valley and former competitor in the NASCAR Busch North Series, honored with a 44-lap memorial race. Andy Bachetti drew the pole and led flag-to-flag to claim the $5,000 check. It was a big change from July 15th, where Bachetti broke a rocker arm and finished 15th. J.R. Heffner was second, then Keith Flach, Brett Haas and Kyle Armstrong. “The car was real good,” Bachetti said afterwards. “We got a good starting spot, got out front and set sail. [We were] able to save the tires as well.” By virtue of the redraw, Bachetti started from pole with Heffner alongside. Bachetti used a strong start to open a decent gap on the rest of the field. From there, Bachetti maintained a gap from one to two seconds behind himself and Heffner. The breakneck pace resulted in the leaders approaching lapped traffic a little more than 10 laps into the race. Bachetti was able to maneuver through the slower traffic and maintain his advantage. The first caution flew on lap 25 when L.J. Lombardo slowed with a flat tire. While the Lombardo crew did change the tire and get him back out, the failure resulted in additional mechanical issues that ended his night. The restart saw more of the same as Bachetti got the jump on Heffner and pulled out enough of an advantage that he could not be threatened. Meanwhile, Brett Haas was making moves. He would work on drivers one at a time and moved himself into the top five. With a little more than a lap to go, Brian Berger slowed with a mechanical issue. The field bunched up for a one-lap shootout. Bachetti got another jump and held on to win. Brian Sandstedt started the Small Block Modified feature from pole and ran very well early on while Ray Hall Jr. gave chase. An early caution for Jeff Watson spinning out kept the field close. On lap 5, Hall was able to make the move to take the lead away. From there, Hall pulled away from the field. July 15th winner Joey Coppola slowly moved himself into contention, driving up to third and putting the pressure on Sandstedt. With three laps to go, trouble broke out. First, Ryan Larkin slowed on the frontstretch with mechanical issues. At the same time, Coppola and Sandstedt came together and crashed on the backstretch. All three drivers were out. The incident put Kevin Petrucci up to second, but Brian Peterson swept past him on the restart. Meanwhile, Hall held on to take his first Small Block victory in six years. Peterson finished second on-track, but was found to have an illegal torque arm in post-race technical inspection. As a result, Peterson was disqualified. As a result, second fell to Jason Harrington, followed by Lombardo, Bachetti and Petrucci. In Sportsman, Karl Barnes started on the pole and led early. Ricky Davis was able to take second from Brady Cordova on the first lap, but lost it to Cordova a few laps later. On lap 5, the caution flew due to two separate wrecks. In turn 2, Jim VanZandt spun and hit the wall. Shortly afterwards, a multi-car incident broke out in turn 4 that collected points leader Tim Hartman Jr., Kevin Ames and Matt Burke. Everyone was ok, but Ames was the only one of the three that continued afterwards. After the restart, Cordova began to pressure Barnes for the lead. It took until lap 10 for Cordova to make a move stick to the lead. Once out front, Cordova tried to pull away. However, a spin for Kevin Ward brought the pack back together. Barnes’ excellent night nearly came to an end on lap 13 when he collided with Rob Maxon exiting turn 4, resulting in both drivers going into the wall. Barnes was able to continue and ended up sixth. Rob Maxon had to take a little bit of time to catch his breath, but was able to get out of his car under his own power. He was done for the night. Cordova was able to hold off a charging Gary O’Brien to win his first career Sportsman feature. Davis ended up third, then Ward and Chris Lynch. In Limited Sportsman, Ira Doull was scheduled to start on the pole. However, he failed to come up to speed. After two attempts, he was moved to the rear. As a result, Scott Zehnacker inherited the pole. When the green flag finally came out, Zehnacker was able to pull out to a decent lead over Owen Lewis. Points leader Anthony Maxon started eighth and slowly made his way towards the front of the field. The only yellow of the race came out on lap 12 when Allyson Papp spun in turn 3. She was then hit by Brian Walsh. Once safety crews separated the two cars, Papp was able to continue and eventually finished seventh. Walsh was done for the night. On the restart, Alex Palmer-Sawyer was able to take second away from Lewis. Meanwhile, Zehnacker held on to take his first career win on the track. Unfortunately, inspection played a role here as well. The inspection discovered that Zehnacker’s car had aluminum shocks, which is against the rules for the class. As a result, he was moved to the rear of the field. Palmer-Sawyer, who lost a victory in post-race inspection on July 15th, ended up the beneficiary here as he claimed his first win of the year. Anthony Maxon was second, then Owen Lewis, Craig Coons and Harold Robitaille. Mike Arnold won the Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash. Pro Stock saw Shawn Perez started from the pole and led early. Further back, the man on the move was Zach Sorrentino. Starting eighth, Sorrentino moved up to fourth in the first two laps. Tom Dean took the lead away on lap 4 from Perez, then slipped in turn 4. That resulted in a six-way scrum for the top spot. Steven LaRochelle took it away at the end of lap 5 while Sorrentino moved up into second. On lap 8, Sorrentino got a big run on the inside of turn 2 to take the lead away from LaRochelle. Chad Jeseo followed into second. From here, Sorrentino was able to hold off Jeseo to take his third win of the year and move into second in points. LaRochelle was third, then Dean and Perez. In Street Stock, Dave Streibel Jr. took the lead away from pole sitter Franklin Smith on the first lap. Chris Stalker and Jeff Meltz Sr. followed into second and third. From there, the trio ran away from the rest of the field and attempted to settle things among themselves. Meltz ended up spinning out of third with three laps to go. The spin itself did not cause the yellow. A lap later, Meltz stalled in turn 2 to bring out the yellow. Dave Streibel Jr. was able to hold on in a two-lap shootout to win his second straight feature. Stalker was second, then Dave Streibel, Mike Bussino and Bob Gibson. In the 4-Cylinder feature, Jon Shepard was able to sweep around Jason Peck on the first lap to take the overall lead. From there, he was able to hold to take the win. Bradley Batho was second, then Jim Guertin. In Single-Cam, Tim Meltz, driving a newer Honda Prelude, took the victory in fourth overall. Modified Second Annual Bryan Goewey Memorial Results (44 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) J.R. Heffner, 3) Keith Flach, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Kyle Armstrong, 6) Marc Johnson, 7) Kenny Tremont Jr., 8) Ryan Darcy, 9) John Virgilio, 10) Kolby Schroder, 11) Eddie Marshall, 12) Mike King, 13) Kyle Sheldon, 14) Brett Hearn, 15) Matt Pupello, 16) Timothy Davis, 17) Olden Dwyer, 18) Ryan Charland, 19) Brandon Lane, 20) Brian Berger, 21) L.J. Lombardo, 22) Wayne Jelley, 23) Kenny Aanonsen Jr. Small Block Modified Results (24 laps): 1) Ray Hall Jr., 2) Jason Herrington, 3) L.J. Lombardo, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Kevin Petrucci, 6) Lorne Browe, 7) Montgomery Tremont, 8) Jeff Watson, 9) Peter Carlotto, 10) Ryan Charland, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Donny Travaglin, 13) Ryan Heath, 14) Jeff Reis, 15) Brady Cordova, 16) Brian Sandstedt, 17) Joey Coppola, 18) Ryan Larkin, 19) Olden Dwyer, 20) Brian Peterson* *- Brian Peterson finished second on the track, but was moved to the back due to an illegal torque arm being found on the car in post-race inspection. Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Brady Cordova, 2) Gary O’Brien, 3) Ricky Davis, 4) Kevin Ward, 5) Chris Lynch, 6) Karl Barnes, 7) Kevin Ames, 8) Rob Maxon, 9) Shane Powell, 10) Tim Hartman Jr., 11) Jim VanZandt, 12) Matt Burke Unofficial Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 2) Anthony Maxon, 3) Owen Lewis, 4) Craig Coons, 5) Harold Robitaille, 6) John Santolin, 7) Allyson Papp, 8) Kent Clark, 9) Ira Doull, 10) Brian Walsh, 11) Mike Arnold, 12) Mike Engwer, 13) Scott Zehnacker* *- Scott Zehnacker originally won the feature on-track, but unapproved aluminum shocks were found during inspection. The results are unofficial as of this writing due to officials trying to determine the punishment. Limited Sportsman Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash (4 laps): 1) Mike Arnold, 2) Scott Zehnacker, 3) Harold Robitaille, 4) Craig Coons, 5) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 6) Owen Lewis Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Zach Sorrentino, 2) Chad Jeseo, 3) Steven LaRochelle, 4) Tom Dean, 5) Shawn Perez, 6) Bruno Cyr, 7) Frank Twing, 8) Fred Lee, 9) Brian Keough, 10) Justin Chaput, 11) Dave Stickles, 12) Phil Defiglio, 13) Mike Dianda, 14) Katarina Foster Street Stock Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Dave Streibel Jr., 2) Chris Stalker, 3) Dave Streibel, 4) Mike Bussino, 5) Bob Gibson, 6) Ray Royals, 7) Keri VanDenburg, 8) Jeff Meltz Sr., 9) Lou Gancarz, 10) Franklin Smith, 11) Peter Huntoon, 12) Josh Bussino 4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature Results (10 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Bradley Batho, 3) Jim Guertin, 4) Jason Peck, 5) Mike Duncan 4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature Results (10 laps): 1) Tim Meltz, 2) Joe Wolfe, 3) Joey Batho, 4) Dylan MacLeod 4-Cylinder Combined Feature Results (10 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Bradley Batho, 3) Jim Guertin, 4) Tim Meltz, 5) Jason Peck, 6) Mike Duncan, 7) Joe Wolfe, 8) Joey Batho, 9) Dylan MacLeod

  • John Virgilio Earns 1st Career Big Block Victory

    John Virgilio moved up to the Modified class at Lebanon Valley a little over a year ago. Since then, the protégé of J.R. Heffner has shown flashes of brilliance along with mechanical issues. Saturday night saw him take the lead on a lap 12 restart and hold on to take his first career Lebanon Valley Modified win and took home a check for $5,000 on Rifenburg Construction Tommy Corellis Night. Marc Johnson was second, then Kolby Schroder, Olden Dwyer and Heffner. “It was really good. We’ve had a lot of bad luck in recent weeks, fluke things.” Virgilio said afterwards. “We finally got the failures worked out and we were able to execute tonight.” By virtue of finishing in the top five in his heat race, Tommy Corellis started from the pole. The first lap did not go well. Timothy Davis was able to get past entering turn 1. Corellis didn’t want to give up the lead and ran a little too hard through turn 2 and brushed the wall. Additional issues brought out the yellow. In that scrum, Brandon Lane took over the lead with Ryan Darcy giving chase. Issues for both Mike King and Kenny Tremont Jr. brought out another yellow on lap 3. King was able to continue and finished 13th. Tremont was done for the night. Darcy and Lane battled back and forth for the lead before Darcy took it on lap 10. Virgilio followed Darcy past into second. Shortly afterwards, Kolby Schroder cut his right rear tire to bring out a yellow. On the restart, Kyle Armstrong slowed on the backstretch after having contact to bring out another yellow. Armstrong was able to continue after a pit stop and eventually finished ninth. On the next restart, Virgilio got a great run into turn 1 that allowed him to take the lead from Darcy. Despite the pass, the spate of mechanical issues continued, keeping the field close to Virgilio. Behind Virgilio, drivers were taking everything they could. Heffner was able to move up to fourth with a daring four-wide move on the frontstretch. Darcy was still running in the top five when he had contact with the recovering Schroder and went hard into the wall exiting turn 2 bring out the seventh caution. Darcy was ok, but his night was over. When the race restarted, Virgilio was able to drive away from the pack. Dwyer inherited second after the caution, but had Johnson on his tail. Johnson took second away with seven laps to go, but could do nothing with Virgilio, who coasted to victory. Schroder took third from Dwyer with a last-lap pass. Corellis ultimately finished on the lead lap in 14th on his special night. In the Small Block Modifieds, Alan Houghtaling started from the pole and very quick early on. Joey Coppola, who started fifth, quickly moved up to second, the recent braking woes clearly in the past. The two drivers ran away from the pack to decide the race between themselves. Coppola was able to wrestle the lead away from Houghtaling on lap 10. Houghtaling then scrubbed the wall exiting turn 4, allowing Coppola to get away. Coppola had nearly a five-second lead when L.J. Lombardo cut his right rear tire and brought out a yellow. Andy Bachetti was running fourth and set to go after the lead, but his car simply didn’t want to get up to speed. After two false restarts, he went to the rear and nursed the car to a 14th-place finish. That came in addition to mechanical issues in the Modified feature that left him with a 15th-place finish there. Following a spin for Brian Sandstedt, Coppola was able to pull away on the final restart to take his first win of the year. Jeff Watson was second, then Jason Herrington, Peter Carlotto and Ryan Larkin. The Sportsman class saw Rob Maxon take the lead on lap 2 from pole sitter Kevin Ames and attempt to pull away from the pack. In recent years, the class has been a battle between Tim Hartman Jr. and Whitey Slavin, but that wasn’t so Saturday night. Hartman had two flat tires, one on lap 3 and another on lap 13. He would ultimately finish seventh. Slavin got up to second early on, but rode behind the No. 143. In the closing laps, Slavin was able to drive up to Rob Maxon in an attempt to snatch the victory, but the veteran racer held on to triumph over Slavin. Kevin Ward was third, then Chris Lynch and Gary O’Brien. In Limited Sportsman, Owen Lewis started from the pole and led early in what was originally scheduled to be a 20-lap feature. Due to early incidents, it was shortened to 15 laps. On the first lap, a crash broke out on the backstretch involving Ira Doull, Matt Jordan and Anthony Maxon to bring out a yellow. All three drivers were able to continue. Later on, Kent Clark hit the wall in turn 4, then spun out half a lap later to bring out another yellow. On the restart, Frank Twing Jr. jumped the cushion in turn 2 and spun in front of much of the field. He was then hit hard by Mike Engwer. Both drivers were out on the spot. That incident resulted in single-file restarts being declared for the remainder of the race. Alex Palmer-Sayer, who started in the sixth row, came into contention here, moving himself up to second. He was briefly able to take the lead away from Lewis on lap 7 before Lewis retook the advantage. Following another yellow due to a crash involving Clark and Adam Schneider, the second half of the race was a duel between Lewis, Palmer-Sawyer and the recovered Anthony Maxon. Palmer-Sawyer was able to retake the advantage on lap 11 when Lewis made a mistake and went up the hill in turn 2. From there, Palmer-Sawyer held on to take the win on the track. Then came what is normally a simple task, the post-race weight check. As per the 2023 Sportsman Rules, Sportsman cars have to weigh a minimum of 2400 pounds with the driver. Palmer-Sawyer’s No. 61 weighed in at 2383 pounds. That is 17 pounds too light. As a result, Palmer-Sawyer was disqualified, costing him his first win of the year. The beneficiary ended up being Anthony Maxon, who recovered from his early incident to take his third win of the year and expand his points lead. Lewis was second, then Craig Coons, Dylan Grogan and Brian Walsh. Dave Kokindo started from pole in the Pro Stock feature, but lost any chance at a good finish when he suddenly lost control of his No. 120 exiting turn 4 on the first lap. While Kokindo managed to regain control, he dropped to the back of the field. Shawn Perez was able to get into the lead. Frank Twing was able to move himself up to second early on in the feature. Then, Mike Dianda spun out in turn 4 to bring out a caution, allowing the elder Twing (Frank Jr.’s grandfather) to line up alongside Perez. On the restart, Frank Twing was able to sweep past Perez entering turn 1 to take the lead. Once out front, the veteran racer was able to open up a decent gap on the field. A late caution due to an incident on the backstretch involving Katarina Foster bunched up the pack with five laps to go. While Frank Twing led on the restart, a an all-out brawl broke out for second. Steven LaRochelle, equipped with a new transmission, held the spot while Zach Sorrentino wanted it. The two swapped the position back and forth, allowing Frank Twing to hol on for his second win in three weeks. LaRochelle was second, then Chad Jeseo, Dave Stickles and Tom Dean, despite Dean losing his hood at the beginning of the final lap. A significant amount of contact on the final lap dropped Sorrentino to sixth. In Street Stock action, Franklin Smith started from the pole, but ran into immediate trouble in turn 2 as he spun out and collected Josh Bussino. Both drivers were able to continue. Keri VanDenburg took the lead as a result. On the restart, Dave Streibel Jr. was able to take the lead away from VanDenburg and brought Jeff Meltz Sr. with him. From there, Streibel and Meltz ran away from the field in an attempt to settle things by themselves. Meltz was ultimately never able to get close enough to make any kind of move on the points leader. Streibel was able to hold on to win by a half-second over Meltz, then Ray Royals, VanDenburg and Peter Huntoon. Earlier in the evening, Cordova Heating & Plumbing sponsored a five-lap Street Stock Dash. VanDenburg led flag-to-flag to win over Meltz, Royals, Huntoon and Lou Gancarz. Modified Rifenburg Construction Tommy Corellis Night Feature (30 laps): 1) John Virgilio, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Kolby Schroder, 4) Olden Dwyer, 5) J.R. Heffner, 6) Brett Haas, 7) Kyle Sheldon, 8) Wayne Jelley, 9) Kyle Armstrong, 10) L.J. Lombardo, 11) Brandon Lane, 12) Ryan Charland, 13) Mike King, 14) Tommy Corellis, 15) Andy Bachetti, 16) Ryan Darcy, 17) Eddie Marshall, 18) Brian Berger, 19) Timothy Davis, 20) Matt Pupello, 21) Kenny Tremont Jr., 22) Keith Flach Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Joey Coppola, 2) Jeff Watson, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Peter Carlotto, 5) Ryan Larkin, 6) Donny Travaglin, 7) L.J. Lombardo, 8) Brian Peterson, 9) Kim LaVoy, 10) Ryan Charland, 11) Kevin Petrucci, 12) Brian Sandstedt, 13) Jeff Reis, 14) Andy Bachetti, 15) Alan Houghtaling, 16) Ryan Heath, 17) Olden Dwyer, 18) Montgomery Tremont, 19) Lorne Browe, 20) Ray Hall Jr. Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Rob Maxon, 2) Whitey Slavin, 3) Kevin Ward, 4) Chris Lynch, 5) Gary O’Brien, 6) Ricky Davis, 7) Tim Hartman Jr., 8) Brady Cordova, 9) Karl Barnes, 10) Kevin Ames, 11) Joe Pravia, 12) Alan Houghtaling, 13) Cody Cordova Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Anthony Maxon, 2) Owen Lewis, 3) Craig Coons, 4) Dylan Grogan, 5) Brian Walsh, 6) Matt Jordan, 7) Allyson Papp, 8) Ira Doull, 9) Adam Schneider, 10) Kent Clark, 11) Frank Twing Jr., 12) Mike Engwer, 13) Harold Robitaille. DQ: Alex Palmer-Sawyer (underweight) Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Frank Twing, 2) Steven LaRochelle, 3) Chad Jeseo, 4) Dave Stickles, 5) Tom Dean, 6) Zach Sorrentino, 7) Shawn Perez, 8) Tom O’Connor, 9) Brian Keough, 10) Ryan Crellin, 11) Mike Dianda, 12) Katarina Foster, 13) Dave Kokindo, 14) Fred Lee Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Dave Streibel Jr., 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) Ray Royals, 4) Keri VanDenburg, 5) Peter Huntoon, 6) Lou Gancarz, 7) Franklin Smith, 8) Josh Bussino* *- Bussino finished seventh on the track, but was moved back to eighth by track officials. He was originally brought in for the evening to be a substitute driver for Chris Stalker. However, Stalker was suspended for his actions on July 1st. As a result, it was determined that Bussino could not earn points for Stalker. Street Stock Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash Results (5 laps): 1) Keri VanDenburg, 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) Ray Royals, 4) Franklin Smith, 5) Peter Huntoon, 6) Lou Gancarz

  • Eddie Marshall Claims Victory With Repaired Race Car

    Veteran Eddie Marshall, with new bodywork fitted after a crash last weekend, took the lead when Timothy Davis’ car faltered on lap 8. From there, he held on to take his first Modified feature win of the year. “It was good. Timothy [Davis] was quite fast and he was going to have to slow for us to get there,” Marshall said afterwards. “Our car was pretty good. Starting up front makes all the difference in the world. It was good to be able to capitalize on it.” Mike King finished a season-best second, 4.835 seconds back. Wayne Jelley was third, then Kenny Tremont Jr. and Andy Bachetti. Timothy Davis started from the pole and led early over Marshall, who has struggled at times this year. Despite getting caught up in Josh Marcus’ crash, his No. 98 was still mechanically strong. Timothy Davis led on July 1 from pole and was in good position until the rear end tube failed on his car under yellow. Sadly, Saturday night was more of the same as at the end of lap 8, a mechanical failure forced Timothy Davis to pull off, giving Marshall the lead. It was the end of Timothy Davis’ night. John Virgilio was quick once again Saturday night. His night was derailed on July 1 by a suspension issue in the rear end and July 8 was more of the same as he slowed to bring out the race’s sole yellow on lap 12. Unlike last week, Virgilio’s team was able to make enough repairs to allow Virgilio to finish the race. When Timothy Davis dropped out, King moved up to second with Jelley third. Meanwhile, Bachetti started 14th and had quite a bit of trouble moving up the order. As the race continued, a few drivers started running into mechanical issues. Brian Berger and Olden Dwyer dropped out, while Kolby Schroder went behind the wall briefly, then returned. On the restart, Marshall was able to pull out to a decent advantage. He held this lead all the way to finish. Alan Houghtaling started from pole in the Small Block Modified and managed to put a little distance on the pack early on. That gap was eliminated when Ryan Larkin cut his right rear tire and brought a yellow out. On the restart, a crash on the backstretch involving Jeff Watson, Joey Coppola and Olden Dwyer brought out another yellow. Watson, who started second, was done for the night. Coppola and Dwyer were able to continue. Another yellow for a Jeff Reis spin kept the field packed up. The restarts played right into Bachetti’s plan. After dropping out of his heat due to braking issues, Bachetti was forced to drive through the field from the back. Good handling and a couple of restarts meant that he was already up to sixth by lap 6. Once the race got back underway, Houghtaling continued to lead and put a little distance between himself and Peter Carlotto. Meanwhile, Bachetti was able to get up to second. With seven laps to go, Brian Sandstedt spun and hit the wall to bring out the fifth yellow. That put Bachetti directly alongside Houghtaling for the restart. The pass for the win came almost immediately on the restart as the Sheffield, Mass. native drove into the lead. From there, Bachetti held on to take his second win of the year. Carlotto ended up second, followed by Lorne Browe and Jason Herrington. Coppola recovered from the incident to finish fifth. Sportsman teams had the George Marcus Sportsman Memorial, held in honor of the legendary Sportsman champ. $1000 was on the line to the winner. Cody Cordova started from pole in a somewhat rough feature. Before the first lap was complete, Kevin Ames was out after crashing on the backstretch and suffering front end damaged. Brady Cordova spun in turn 1 and was hit by Mike Arnold to bring out a yellow. The restart saw Keith Johannessen rub against Gary O’Brien and spin in turn 1, collecting Rob Maxon. On the restart, O’Brien was able to get past Cody Cordova for the lead. Kevin Ward and Tim Hartman Jr. followed him through. As the race continued, Whitey Slavin drove himself into contention for the win. Slavin got up to second on lap 11, then began to pressure O’Brien. On the final lap, Slavin made one last charge in turns 3 and 4. Both drivers ran hard and Slavin got too high, hit the wall, then climbed it and spun. O’Brien managed to avoid contact and held on for the win. Ward was second, then Hartman, Chris Lynch and Ricky Davis. In Pro Stock, Steven LaRochelle took the lead away from pole sitter Rick Duzlak on lap 3 and was able to open a gap on the pack. A series of tire issues and spins kept LaRochelle from getting too far away, though. Everything looked good for the Dalton, Mass. native until the transmission broke with two laps to go, putting him out. Zach Sorrentino took the lead and held on to take his second win of the year. Chad Jeseo recovered from a cut tire to finish second, then Duzlak, Dave Stickles and Tom Dean. In 4-Cylinders, Bradley Batho took the lead from Jim Guertin on lap 4 and held on for the win. Bradley’s brother Joey earned his first career Single-Cam win. Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Eddie Marshall, 2) Mike King, 3) Wayne Jelley, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr., 5) Andy Bachetti, 6) L.J. Lombardo, 7) Brett Haas, 8) Marc Johnson, 9) Keith Flach, 10) J.R. Heffner, 11) Kyle Armstrong, 12) Kolby Schroder, 13) Ryan Charland, 14) John Virgilio, 15) Olden Dwyer, 16) Matt Pupello, 17) Tommy Corellis, 18) Brian Berger, 19) Brandon Lane, 20) Kyle Sheldon, 21) Ryan Darcy, 22) Timothy Davis Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Peter Carlotto, 3) Lorne Browe, 4) Jason Herrington, 5) Joey Coppola, 6) Brian Petersen, 7) Jeff Reis, 8) L.J. Lombardo, 9) Kim LaVoy, 10) Montgomery Tremont, 11) Ryan Larkin, 12) Donny Travaglin, 13) Ryan Heath, 14) Brian Sandstedt, 15) Ray Hall Jr., 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Ryan Charland, 18) Olden Dwyer, 19) Kevin Petrucci, 20) Jeff Watson Sportsman George Marcus Sportsman Memorial Results (20 laps): 1) Gary O’Brien, 2) Kevin Ward, 3) Tim Hartman Jr., 4) Chris Lynch, 5) Ricky Davis, 6) Rob Maxon, 7) Mike Arnold, 8) Keith Johannessen, 9) Cody Cordova, 10) Karl Barnes, 11) Dylan Grogan, 12) Craig Coons, 13) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 14) Alan Houghtaling, 15) Owen Lewis, 16) Whitey Slavin, 17) Brady Cordova, 18) Kevin Ames, 19) James Galarneau Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Zach Sorrentino, 2) Chad Jeseo, 3) Rick Duzlak, 4) Dave Stickles, 5) Tom Dean, 6) Brian Keough, 7) Katarina Foster, 8) Steven LaRochelle, 9) Mike Dianda, 10) Fred Lee, 11) Shawn Perez, 12) Dave Kokindo, 13) Frank Twing 4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Bradley Batho, 2) Jim Guertin, 3) Jason Peck, 4) Jon Shepard 4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Joey Batho, 2) Joe Wolfe, 3) Dylan MacLeod, 4) Stephen Burka, 5) Tim Meltz 4-Cylinder Combined Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Bradley Batho, 2) Jim Guertin, 3) Jason Peck, 4) Joey Batho, 5) Joe Wolfe, 6) Dylan MacLeod, 7) Stephen Burka, 8) Tim Meltz, 9) Jon Shepard

  • Andy Bachetti Claims Lebanon Valley Victory From 16th

    Andy Bachetti charged up from 16th on the grid to take the lead with 10 laps to go. From there, he held on to take his second win of the season. “[The car] wasn’t very good early in the night,” Bachetti said. “We had to make some major household changes [after the heats], but we made it happen.” Timothy Davis started from the pole and led early. Meanwhile, Kenny Tremont Jr. and Mike King collided on the backstretch, resulting in both drivers cutting tires and bringing out an early caution. Both drivers would continue after pit stops. Davis had John Virgilio right on his tail for much of the early portions of the race. Bachetti was a man on a mission, quickly moving up into the top 10. Then, the scariest moment of the night happened on lap 8. Josh Marcus had a mechanical failure entering turn 3 and went hard into the wall. The car spun around twice, then rolled over. While upside-down, Marcus was hit by Kolby Schroder and Eddie Marshall. Marcus was ok, but his car was thrashed. Schroder continued after the crash and 14th. Marshall continued, but eventually retired from the race. During the caution, Davis pulled onto the pit lane with a mechanical failure and ended up dropping out of the race. That gave the lead to Wayne Jelley, but Virgilio was able to get by on the restart to get the lead. Bachetti used a strong restart to get to the leaders and take second. Virgilio had a very strong car and was able to hold Bachetti at bay. However, with 10 laps to go, the No. 74 suffered a suspension failure that ended his night. That allowed Bachetti to take the lead and moved Marc Johnson up to second. Johnson tried to make runs on Bachetti over the final 10 laps, but couldn’t get a run on him to prevent him from winning. Olden Dwyer was third, then L.J. Lombardo and Kyle Armstrong. Also of note, Tommy Corellis drove a backup car to Tremont and finished 16th. It was the first race for Corellis, 82, since his retirement back in the late 1990s. The big story in the Small Block Modifieds was that Bachetti was involved in a crash during his heat race with Brian Sandstedt and Kim LaVoy. The crash put Bachetti’s No. 4 out of commission. A deal was worked out for Bachetti to drive Peter Carlotto’s car in the feature from the rear. Dwyer started from the pole and was able to put some distance on Kevin Petrucci. Meanwhile, both Bachetti and Lombardo were moving forward. However, Lombardo brought out an early caution when he cut his right rear tire. Dwyer continued to lead over Petrucci and Ray Hall Jr. without issue until Jeff Watson had a tire issue on lap 17, followed by Sandstedt a lap later. That set up a situation in which Bachetti made a banzai move that moved him to second. Bachetti tried to get past Dwyer over the final five laps, but had to settle for second as Dwyer took the win. Jason Herrington was third, then Ryan Larkin and Lombardo. The Sportsman class was overshadowed by issues surrounding Brady Cordova and Bob Fachini. Multiple instances of contact angered Brady and led to a confrontation after the race. After Brady walked away, Fachini tried to rough up Brady’s car. For this, Fachini lost his eighth-place finish. In the race itself, Cody Cordova started from the pole, but he could do nothing with the charging Tim Hartman Jr. Hartman moved up from seventh to get to Cody Cordova on lap 7. It took only a lap for Hartman to take the lead and drive away. Cody Cordova’s race ended early due to two separate incidents. Hartman was able to hold on to take his third Sportsman year of the year and his 10th straight top two finish. Whitey Slavin was second, then Chris Lynch, who won the Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash earlier in the evening. Rob Maxon and Kevin Ward rounded out the top five. In Limited Sportsman, Anthony Maxon took the lead on lap 10 from pole sitter Mike Engwer and held on to take his second win of the year over Mike Arnold, Craig Coons, Connor Crane and Frank Twing Jr. The Pro Stock class saw Frank Twing start from pole and spend much of the race doing battle with multi-time champion Chad Jeseo. Twing has been away for multiple years from racing, but the two drivers had a nice duel for most of the race. At the end of the race, Twing held on for his first win since 2011 by a tenth of a second over Jeseo. Zach Sorrentino was third, then Steven LaRochelle and Fred Lee. In Street Stock, Dave Streibel Jr. took the lead on lap 2 and held on for the victory over Rocco Procopio, Dave Streibel, Chris Stalker and Peter Huntoon. However, a protest was lodged against the top three finishers. This protest stoked significant anger. The track has issued a statement on what happened. Ultimately, Dave Streibel Jr. was able to keep his victory after the protest. However, his father Dave Sr. and Procopio were disqualified. As a result, Stalker was elevated to second, then Huntoon, Jim Dellea and Jeff Meltz Sr. Berkshire Bank Fireworks Night Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Olden Dwyer, 4) L.J. Lombardo, 5) Kyle Armstrong, 6) Keith Flach, 7) Kyle Sheldon, 8) Brian Berger, 9) Brett Haas, 10) J.R. Heffner, 11) Ryan Darcy, 12) Kenny Tremont Jr., 13) Wayne Jelley, 14) Kolby Schroder, 15) Mike King, 16) Tommy Corellis, 17) John Virgilio, 18) Eddie Marshall, 19) Ryan Charland, 20) Jeff Sukup, 21) Timothy Davis, 22) Brandon Lane, 23) Josh Marcus, 24) Matt Pupello Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Olden Dwyer, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Ryan Larkin, 5) L.J. Lombardo, 6) Lorne Browe, 7) Ray Hall Jr., 8) Jeff Watson, 9) Kevin Petrucci, 10) Donny Travaglin, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Brian Peterson, 13) Montgomery Tremont, 14) Ryan Charland, 15) Jeff Reis, 16) Ryan Heath, 17) Brian Sandstedt, 18) Mark Pullen, 19) Joey Coppola, 20) Alan Houghtaling, 21) Peter Carlotto Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Whitey Slavin, 3) Chris Lynch, 4) Rob Maxon, 5) Kevin Ward, 6) Brady Cordova, 7) Ricky Davis, 8) Gary O’Brien, 9) Karl Barnes, 10) Kevin Ames, 11) Jim VanZandt, 12) Cody Cordova, 13) Keith Johannessen, 14) Alan Houghtaling, 15) Bob Fachini, 16) Matt Burke Sportsman Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash (4 laps): 1) Chris Lynch, 2) Bob Fachini, 3) Keith Johannessen, 4) Brady Cordova, 5) Alan Houghtaling, 6) Cody Cordova Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Anthony Maxon, 2) Mike Arnold, 3) Craig Coons, 4) Connor Crane, 5) Frank Twing Jr., 6) Brian Walsh, 7) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 8) Mike Engwer, 9) Owen Lewis, 10) Scott Zehnacker, 11) Harold Robitaille, 12) Matt Jordan, 13) Kent Clark, 14) Ira Doull, 15) Greg DeCamp Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Frank Twing, 2) Chad Jeseo, 3) Zach Sorrentino, 4) Steven LaRochelle, 5) Fred Lee, 6) Rick Duzlak, 7) Shawn Perez Jr., 8) Brian Keough, 9) Johnny Rivers, 10) Katarina Foster, 11) Mike Dianda, 12) Dave Stickles*, 13) Tom Dean, 14) Tom O’Connor, 15) Dave Kokindo, 16) Shawn Perez *- Jason Meltz raced in place of Dave Stickles and finished 12th. Meltz is considered to be a substitute driver and thus earned points for Stickles. Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Dave Streibel Jr., 2) Chris Stalker, 3) Peter Huntoon, 4) Jim Dellea, 5) Jeff Meltz Sr., 6) Franklin Smith, 7) Ray Royals, 8) Lou Gancarz. DQ: Rocco Procopio, Dave Streibel

  • Matt Pupello Scores Flag-To-Flag Victory At Lebanon Valley

    Matt Pupello led all 30 laps from the pole Saturday night to win the Dave Prime Jr. MAC Tools Modified feature. It is Pupello’s first victory since he returned to full-time racing at Lebanon Valley after he stepped away in order to take care of his family. “I knew that [Kyle Armstrong] was there. He pushed me down the backstretch one time,” Pupello stated afterwards. “I really haven’t had any results this year, but we’ve really started getting rolling the last couple of weeks. Took me a little while to really get comfortable running the top.” Pupello won by just a couple of car lengths over Kyle Armstrong. L.J. Lombardo was third, then Andy Bachetti and Mike King. Kenny Aanonsen Jr. started from pole after winning his heat race, but Pupello was able to take the lead in turn 1 on the first lap. Brandon Lane followed past into second. Once in the lead, Pupello quickly pulled out a decent advantage. That advantage was erased when Olden Dwyer stalled in turn 4 to bring out the yellow with six laps complete. On the restart, Armstrong was able to get past Lane for second, then went after Pupello for the lead. In doing so, the duo pulled away from the rest of the pack. Further back, Lombardo started seventh and slowly made his way forward. By lap 10, he was third. When Pupello and Armstrong started battling for the lead, Lombardo was able to close in. Armstrong got side-by-side for the lead on lap 11, but was not able to get past. That allowed Lombardo to make it a three-man fight. Eventually, Pupello was able to pull back out a little bit on Armstrong. Lombardo attempted to get past Armstrong for second, but couldn’t do so. Further back, Bachetti was moving up from 14th on the grid with an extra $1000 on offer. He was seventh at halfway and progressing. Once he got to fourth, he was able to break free of the pack and set out towards the leaders. He was lapping a full half-second faster than Pupello at one point, but couldn’t make inroads once he got into lapped traffic. That was all Pupello needed to hold on for the win. In Small Block Modified action, Kevin Petrucci started from pole after winning both his heat and a four-lap Dash sponsored by Cordova Heating & Plumbing. It was a race that had trouble getting underway. First, Ryan Heath spun in turn 1 on the first lap to bring out a yellow and complete restart. Then, a pile-up occurred on the next attempt in turn 2 when Lorne Browe spun. He was collected by Bachetti, Mark Pullen, Jeff Watson and others. Watson and Pullen were out on the spot, while Bachetti made multiple stops for repairs. He would eventually charge back to finish seventh. Much of the feature consisted of a continuation of a battle that had been waged all evening, through the heats and the Dash. Petrucci versus Ray Hall Jr. The two drivers ran each other hard but fair in the race. Later on, Petrucci was able to pull away to take his second career Small Block win by 2.793 seconds over Hall. Joey Coppola was third, then Jason Herrington and Lombardo. In Sportsman action, Bob Fachini started on the pole, but suffered a mechanical issue on the start that stacked up the field. Whitey Slavin was able to avoid the stricken Fachini and take the lead. Following a spin for Frank Twing Jr. that drew a yellow, Tim Hartman Jr. slowly entered the picture. He was able to take second on lap 13 and slowly began gaining on Slavin. However, Hartman ran out of time as Slavin took his first win of the year. Hartman was second, then Brady Cordova, Gary O’Brien and Kevin Ward. Harold Robitaille led flag-to-flag to win the Limited Sportsman feature. Pro Stock action saw Fred Lee start from the pole, only to have Tom Dean immediately pressure him. Within a couple of laps, Dean was able to take the lead and drive away. Jay Casey was running well Saturday night until he spun out on lap 6 in turn 3. No caution was thrown and Casey was able to continue. An unscheduled pit stop resulted in Casey finishing two laps down. Chad Jeseo was able to move up to second in the closing laps, but Dean was too far gone by then. Dean held on to win by 2.616 seconds over Jeseo. Rick Duzlak was third, followed by Steven LaRochelle and Dave Stickles. In Street Stock, Jeff Meltz Sr. was able to lead flag-to-flag to pick up the victory over Chris Stalker and Rocco Procopio. Dave Streibel beat his son Dave Jr. for fourth. Dave Prime Jr. MAC Tools Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Matt Pupello, 2) Kyle Armstrong, 3) L.J. Lombardo, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Mike King, 6) Keith Flach, 7) Marc Johnson, 8) Kolby Schroder, 9) Brian Berger, 10) Brett Haas, 11) Kenny Tremont Jr., 12) John Virgilio, 13) J.R. Heffner, 14) Brandon Lane, 15) Ryan Darcy, 16) Kyle Sheldon, 17) Eddie Marshall, 18) Wayne Jelley, 19) Ryan Charland, 20) Josh Marcus, 21) Dave McFeeters, 22) Olden Dwyer, 23) Kenny Aanonsen Jr., 24) Timothy Davis Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Kevin Petrucci, 2) Ray Hall Jr., 3) Joey Coppola, 4) Jason Herrington, 5) L.J. Lombardo, 6) Kim LaVoy, 7) Andy Bachetti, 8) Brian Sandstedt, 9) Ryan Larkin, 10) Ryan Charland, 11) Peter Carlotto, 12) Jeff Reis, 13) Donny Travaglin, 14) Ryan Heath, 15) Montgomery Tremont, 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Lorne Browe, 18) Jeff Watson, 19) Mark Pullen, 20) Olden Dwyer Small Block Modified Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash Results (4 laps): 1) Kevin Petrucci, 2) Ray Hall Jr., 3) Alan Houghtaling, 4) Kim LaVoy, 5) Ryan Larkin Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Whitey Slavin, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Brady Cordova, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Kevin Ward, 6) Rob Maxon, 7) Karl Barnes, 8) Cody Cordova, 9) Kevin Ames, 10) Bob Fachini, 11) Alan Houghtaling, 12) Chris Lynch, 13) Jim VanZandt Note: Scott Zehnacher, Frank Twing Jr. and Alex Palmer-Sawyer were tacked onto the back of the Sportsman feature, but were not scored. Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Harold Robitaille, 2) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 3) Anthony Maxon, 4) Frank Twing Jr., 5) Scott Zehnacker, 6) Brian Walsh, 7) Owen Lewis, 8) Mike Engwer, 9) Kent Clark, 10) Craig Coons, 11) Matt Jordan, 12) Jason Manchester, 13) Becky Belisle, 14) Billy Brandt Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tom Dean, 2) Chad Jeseo, 3) Rick Duzlak, 4) Steven LaRochelle, 5) Dave Stickles, 6) Zach Sorrentino, 7) Fred Lee, 8) Jason Casey, 9) Frank Twing, 10) Brian Keough, 11) Tom O’Connor, 12) Mike Dianda, 13) Dave Kokindo, 14) Jay Casey Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Chris Stalker, 3) Rocco Procopio, 4) Dave Streibel, 5) Dave Streibel Jr., 6) Ed Hatch, 7) Ray Royals, 8) Milo Campbell, 9) Keri VanDenburg, 10) Lou Gancarz, 11) Don Kennedy, 12) Peter Huntoon, 13) Franklin Smith, 14) Jim Dellea, 15) Mike Dianda

  • Brett Haas Breaks 3-Year Snide at Lebanon Valley

    It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Brett Haas. A blown engine last week set the team significantly, then he failed to make the King of Spring 100. Saturday night saw Haas take the lead from Ryan Charland on lap 15 and pull away to take his first Modified win at Lebanon Valley since 2020. “We went back to what we know, setup-wise,” Haas said afterwards. “We put our Bilstein shocks back on [the car]. We needed a hard reset, and as a result, the car was much more drivable.” Charland started from the pole and got a great start before a crash in turn 2 resulted in Alex Bell taking a significant hit. Bell suffered from a sprained neck in the incident, but was able to walk to the ambulance with assistance. Early on, Kyle Sheldon was the man on the move. He was able to move up to eighth on the first lap under green, then dispatched of Andy Bachetti to get up to sixth. As a result of Haas’ recent struggles, he started towards the front of the pack. He was able to get himself past Brandon Lane for second when L.J. Lombardo brought out the yellow due to a tire issue on lap 9. After the restart, Charland and Haas pulled away from the pack. After working on the No. 10c for a number of laps, Haas made the pass stick, then drove away from everyone else. Marc Johnson, the winner on May 27, had a very quick No. 9 Saturday night. Starting 14th, Johnson made his way up the order slowly, the cautions helping his case. Shortly after the Lombardo caution, he was up to third. A caution for Kyle Armstrong’s blown right rear tire brought everyone back together for a three-lap sprint, but Haas was able to hold on to take the win. Marc Johnson was second, then Andy Bachetti, Keith Flach and Charland. The Small Block Modified class saw Kevin Petrucci start on pole and open a decent lead. Joey Coppola was able to move up to second, then quickly ran down Petrucci. On lap 9, Coppola took the advantage. Shortly after Coppola took the lead, Ray Hall Jr. and Montgomery Tremont both slowed with mechanical issues. Brian Sandstedt also spun to bring out the yellow. During that yellow, Petrucci ended up dropping out with his own issues. Jeff Watson had contact with Donny Travaglin on the frontstretch shortly after the restart, breaking the right front corner of his No. 22 to bring out another yellow. After that yellow, L.J. Lombardo and Andy Bachetti began to threaten for the lead. Following another caution, Bachetti took second from Lombardo on the restart, then took the lead from Coppola in turn 3. Shortly afterwards, Coppola lost his brakes, ending his night. From there, Bachetti was able to pull away to take the win. He was 2.196 seconds ahead of Lombardo at the finish. Jason Herrington was third, then Lorne Browe and Kim LaVoy. In Sportsman, Alan Houghtaling started from the pole and led early. Meanwhile, Keith Johannessen had a flat tire and slowed on the apron. Peter Lorenzo ran into the back of Johannessen to bring out a yellow. Lorenzo was out on the spot with heavy damage, while Johannessen was able to continue. Behind Houghtaling, the man on the move was Kevin Ward. After the restart, Ward was able to dispatch of the Cordova brothers (Brady and Cody), then run down Houghtaling. On the seventh lap, Ward was able to get underneath Houghtaling and took the lead entering turn 1. Once out front, Ward drove away from the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Houghtaling ended up in a battle with Rob Maxon and Tim Hartman Jr. that was only broken up due to a debris caution for a bollard getting caught up in the left front suspension of Gary O’Brien’s car. Maxon took second on the lap 13 restart, but his time there was short-lived. Another yellow kept the field together and allowed Hartman to take it away on the next restart. That was as far as Hartman got as Ward was able to hold a steady lead to the finish to take his second win of the year. Hartman was second, then Maxon, O’Brien and Lynch. In Limited Sportsman, Craig Coons took his maiden Lebanon Valley victory over Frank Twing Jr., Anthony Maxon, Mike Arnold and Harold Robitaille. The Pro Stock class saw trouble almost immediately in turn 1. Steven LaRochelle was hit by Rick Duzlak, resulting in both cars spinning out. Zach Sorrentino was collected as the caution flew. Duzlak was out of the race, while LaRochelle and Sorrentino continued. Fred Lee started from the pole and led early, but went too fast into turn 3 on lap 2. The resulting wall contact allowed Dave Stickles to get himself into the lead. Once out front, Stickles was able to open up a decent gap. Meanwhile, LaRochelle got back to second after his spin and had to deal with Chad Jeseo. The two fought until Jeseo cut his right front tire and stopped to draw a caution with five laps to go. He would eventually finish seventh. Stickles was able to hold on over the final few laps to win his second feature of the year and take the points lead. LaRochelle was second, then Tom Dean, Sorrentino and Brian Keough. In Street Stock, Chris Stalker was able to get around Jeff Meltz Sr. on the final lap to win the 20-lap feature. Bradley Batho won his fourth 4-Cylinder feature of the year. Tim Meltz won in Single-cam. Modified 11th Annual J.C. Flach Memorial Results (30 laps): 1) Brett Haas, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Andy Bachetti, 4) Keith Flach, 5) Ryan Charland, 6) Kyle Sheldon, 7) Brandon Lane, 8) Ryan Darcy, 9) Kenny Tremont Jr., 10) J.R. Heffner, 11) John Virgilio, 12) Kolby Schroder, 13) Olden Dwyer, 14) Wayne Jelley, 15) Matt Pupello, 16) Eddie Marshall, 17) Josh Marcus, 18) Kyle Armstrong, 19) Brian Berger, 20) L.J. Lombardo, 21) Kenny Aanonsen Jr., 22) Jeff Sukup, 23) Paul Gilardi, 24) Timothy Davis, 25) Alex Bell, 26) Mike King Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) L.J. Lombardo, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Lorne Browe, 5) Kim LaVoy, 6) Ryan Charland, 7) Ryan Heath, 8) Peter Carlotto, 9) Jeff Reis, 10) Brian Sandstedt, 11) Joey Coppola, 12) Donny Travaglin, 13) Ryan Larkin, 14) Jeff Watson, 15) Kevin Petrucci, 16) Ray Hall Jr., 17) Alan Houghtaling, 18) Montgomery Tremont, 19) Olden Dwyer Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Kevin Ward, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Rob Maxon, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Chris Lynch, 6) Alan Houghtaling, 7) Brady Cordova, 8) Matt Burke, 9) Bob Fachini, 10) Karl Barnes, 11) Jim VanZandt, 12) Kevin Ames, 13) Keith Johannessen, 14) Cody Cordova, 15) Peter Lorenzo Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Craig Coons, 2) Frank Twing Jr., 3) Anthony Maxon, 4) Mike Arnold, 5) Harold Robitaille, 6) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 7) Scott Zehnacker, 8) Brian Walsh, 9) Allyson Papp, 10) Kent Clark, 11) Mike Engwer, 12) Jason Manchester, 13) Owen Lewis, 14) Billy Brandt Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Dave Stickles, 2) Steven LaRochelle, 3) Tom Dean, 4) Zach Sorrentino, 5) Brian Keough, 6) Fred Lee, 7) Chad Jeseo, 8) Katarina Foster, 9) Mike Dianda, 10) Frank Twing, 11) Rick Duzlak Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) Dave Streibel Jr., 4) Jim Dellea, 5) Dave Streibel, 6) Katarina Foster, 7) Ray Royals, 8) Keri VanDenburg, 9) Milo Campbell, 10) Lou Gancarz, 11) Franklin Smith, 12) Mike Dianda, 13) Rocco Procopio 4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Bradley Batho, 2) Jim Guertin, 3) Jason Peck, 4) Shawny Hazel, 5) Mike Duncan 4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Tim Meltz, 2) Joey Batho, 3) Joe Wolfe, 4) Stephen Burka, 5) Dylan MacLeod

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