Tracks: Johnson visits victory lane for first time this season at 'The Valley'
13 August 2000
WEST LEBANON, NY- Ronnie Johnson took home the win in the modified feature
Saturday night at Lebanon Valley. The track crew deserves quite a pat on the
back for getting the speedway race ready. It did not look like there would be
any racing due to all the rain that had hit the area in the last two days.
The pit area looked more like a swamp and lead to some creative pit parking.
Sparky Lowe won the 20-lap sportsman feature, which paid a one
thousand-dollar bonus compliments of Capital Speed. Dan Burl won his first
career street stock feature. Saxton Signs brought us all the action on
Saturday night.
Dickie Larkin took command of the 30-lap modified feature at the drop of
the green flag. The first caution came on lap one as Don Ackner and Al McCoy
got together in turn four. The second caution came out on the very next lap
as nine cars came together on the frontstretch. Kenny Tremont, Donnie
Corellis and Matt Quinn were several of the cars involved. Tremont returned
to the race four laps down and finished the race 16th. The yellow came out
again on lap five. This time for Chris Moore who went hard into the turn one
wall.
Chris Kokosa used the restart to get around Jason Goff who was behind the
wheel of Chip Mitchell's car. The bad luck that has plagued Larkin this
season raised its ugly head again as he dropped from the event on lap six.
John Lutes spun around and brought out the caution again on lap six. Things
would get really interesting on the restart as Kokosa left a little early and
took the lead. The race was being scored with Johnson as the leader. Matt
Quinn dropped from the race on lap seven. As the field reached the halfway
point the top four had checked out from the rest of the field.
The caution came out again on lap 17 as Steve Devine faced the wrong way
in turn two. While under the caution flag Kokosa was penalized two spots for
the lap six jump. Donnie Corellis was recovering nicely from the lap two
incident to run sixth by lap 18. Guy Sheldon drifted high in turn one and
that allowed Kokosa to get around for second. Rich Ricci Jr. took advantage
of Sheldon's miscue to take over third on lap 20. The final caution of the
race came out on lap 22 as Dave Mosher sat facing traffic in turn four.
Kokosa tried to get around Johnson on the restart, but Johnson was strong to
the challenge.
Since August 7th of 1999 John Hewitt had completed every lap in the
modified features at Lebanon Valley. It all came to end on lap 23 as the
motor went south in his racecar. Ricci got around Kokosa for second in the
final stages of the race and Kokosa slowed up to finish seventh.
The 20-lap sportsman got off to a bad start as ten cars piled into turn
one of the initial green flag. When the race resumed Jeff Carr was in command
of the event. Roy Bridge was looking to win on his sponsors night was up to
fifth on lap one. Sparky Lowe had moved up to fourth on lap two. The caution
came out again on lap four as several cars in the back got together. Bridge
and Wayne Jelley bounced off each other on the restart and they both lost
several positions. Lowe moved up to second on the restart. K.C. Goewey and
Jelley sat parked in turn one on lap five. Lowe used the restart to take the
lead from Carr.
Art Collins moved up to third after a lap seven yellow. After another
caution on lap eight the officials decided to set the field single file on
the restart. Trouble for Collins on lap 13 as his right rear tire went soft.
. Stan Jablonka was charging to the front in the late stages of the event as
he pressured Carr for second. Jablonka made the pass for Carr on lap 17, but
could not reel in the front running Lowe. It was the second win of the season
for Lowe, Jablonka was second, Carr was third, Jay Casey fourth and George
Marcus finished fifth.
Paul LaRochelle was the first to take command of the 20-lap street stock
feature. The top five were looking to settle the race among themselves as
they pulled away by lap four. Kevin Ward dropped form the event on lap six.
Bob Duzlak grabbed the lead after on lap eight restart. Duzlak got tagged by
LaRochelle on lap ten and spun out in turn four. Tom Brandt wound up on his
lid as a result of trying to avoid Duzlak. Once his car was back on four
wheels he was able to drive away. LaRochelle was sent to the rear of the
field for his involvement in the incident. Dan Burl went from third to first
as a result. Robbie Speed and Rob Yetman both made late race charge to finish
second and third respectively. Burl was able to hang on for his first career
street stock feature win. Pete DeFiglio was fourth and Danny Sanchez rounded
out the top five.
8-12 SAXTON SIGN CORP. MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) RONNIE JOHNSON, 2)
Rich Ricci Jr, 3) Guy Sheldon, 4) Donnie Corellis, 5) J.R. Heffner, 6) David
Sanchez, 7) Chris Kokosa, 8) Jason Goff, 9) Mike King, 10) Maynard Forrette,
11) John Lutes Jr, 12) Steve Devine, 13) Dave Mosher, 14) Wes Powell, 15) Al
McCoy, 16) Kenny Tremont Jr, 17) John Hewitt, 18) Russ Reckner, 19) Donnie
Ackner, 20) Dave Leckonby, 21) Matt Quinn, 22) Dickie Larkin, 23) Chris
Moore, 24) Denny Soltis, 25) Tim Dwyer, 26) John G. Wolfe, 27) Mark Fluery
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) SPARKY LOWE, 2) Stan Jablonka, 3) Jeff Carr,
4) Jay Casey, 5) George Marcus, 6) Hawley Smith, 7) Wayne Jelley, 8) Frank
Harper, 9) Roy Bridge, 10) K.C. Goewey, 11) Bobby Knipe, 12) Ed Harkin, 13)
Mike Visconti, 14) J.R. Delvechio, 15) Art Collins, 16) Paul Gilardi, 17)
Jason Tompkins, 18) Mark Flach Jr, 19) Darral Hulbert, 20) Randall Salisbury,
21) John Hotchkiss, 22) Charlie Raffiani, 23) Don Miller, 24) Charlie Humes,
25) Mike Mason, 26) Rusty Granacker, 27) Lorne Browe, 28) Tony Fiearro
IMCA MODIFIED SUMMARY (6 LAPS) - 1) CHRIS CREWS, 2) Dan Galullo
STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) DAN BURL, 2) Robbie Speed, 3) Rob Yetman,
4) Pete DeFiglio, 5) Danny Sanchez, 6) Ricky Duzlak, 7) Todd Goldstein, 8)
Bob Duzlak, 9) Paul Rogers, 10) Paul LaRochelle, 11) Steve Brownell, 12) Ted
Teal, 13) Jeff Kelmel, 14) Al Blackburn, 15) Ed Bachand, 16) Jim Langenback,
17) Butch Irwin, 18) Adam Haas, 19) Tom Faxon, 20) Tom Brandt, 21) Nick
Rogers, 22) Kevin Ward, 23) Earl Mellan
ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) GEO. STALKER JR, 2) Kevin Arnold,
3) Brian Keough, 4) Rick Fosby, 5) Dave Colwell, 6) Lawrence Ball, 7) Dan
Humes, 8) Walt Clark, 9) Jery Helms, 10) Charlie Woodard, 11) E.J. LeGeyt,
12) Phil Wood, 13) Mike Kratz, 14) Tony Gale, 15) Leo Sousie, 16) Pete Jeske,
17) Chris Matteson
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) CHRIS STREETER, 2) Phil Decker Jr, 3)
Dean Cushman, 4) Jim O'Neil, 5) Doug Moore, 6) Ron Hapeman, 7) Ron
Tritschler, 8) Bud Noble, 9) Dave Bayliss Jr, 10) Bill La Pointe, DQ) Robert
Brown, DQ) Kevin Dolan, DQ) Jeff Douglas, DQ) Mark Houston
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) LEE GALLANT, 2) Philip Moffit, 3) Jason
Dibello, 4) George Miles Jr, 5) Keith Barlow, 6) Bruce Moffitt, 7) Rich
Douglass, 8) Anthony Cotugno, 9) Steve Hatch, 10) Donald Coon, 11) Richard
Harkins, 12) Lloyd Fosby, 13) Joe DiStefano, 14) Marcus Tifft, DQ) Lloyd
Tomlin
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) SCOTT KILMER, 2) Ryan Crellin, 3) Bob
Palmer, 4) Joe Mottoshiski, 5) Bruce Pecorella, 6) Ronnie Jacobsen, 7) Pete
Wiegand, 8) Ronald Johnson, 9) Earl Soulier, 10) Rich. Schumann, 11) David
Hall, 12) Sid Smith, 13) Brian Sandstadt, 14) Wally Engel, 15) Bob Gibson
