Story By: PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY – WEST LEBANON, NY – 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. Marcus was ok, but his car was thrashed. Schroder continued after the crash and 14th.
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 has been lodged. We will have more in the future on what happens here.
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 Unofficial Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Dave Streibel Jr., 2) Rocco Procopio, 3) Dave Streibel, 4) Chris Stalker, 5) Peter Huntoon, 6) Jim Dellea, 7) Jeff Meltz Sr., 8) Franklin Smith, 9) Ray Royals, 10) Lou Gancarz
*- The Street Stock feature results are unofficial due to a protest of the top finishers.