Tremont, Laporta, Hough & Lagenback
Win at Lenanon Valley
30 May 1999
TREMONT WINS SIXTH STRAIGHT, LAPORTA WINS SPORTSMAN MAY 29, 1999 WEST LEBANON, NY- Stop me if you've heard this one before, Kenny Tremont took home the win in the 30-lap modified feature Saturday night at Lebanon Valley. Tony Laporta was the winner in the 20-lap sportsman division. Jim Lagenback picked up a victory in the street stocks while Steve Hough was victorious in the IMCA modified feature. Eight caution flags slowed the pace tremendously in the 30-lap modified feature. Rich Ricci was trailing the field and pulled in to the pits on lap one. Several multi-car incidents forced speedway officials to go single file, on the restarts, after lap six. J.R. Heffner led the first five laps of the race. Dave Leckonby had a very strong car and took the lead from Heffner on a lap five restart. Tremont was making his presence known early; he was fifth by lap six. Ronnie Johnson was involved in one of the early race incidents and he dropped out of the race by lap eight. Tremont had moved up to the second spot by lap ten. Brian Burger and Mike King were racing side by side for the fifth spot on lap 12. Donnie Corellis passed them both to take over fifth by lap 14. The next to last yellow flag came out on lap 14. Chris Moore parked his car during this caution period. Moore had been involved in both incidents early in the race. Tim Dwyer was also involved in the early race melees' and had worked his way back to sixth by lap 16. Tremont began to put the heat on Leckonby just after the halfway point of the race. Tremont grabbed the lead on lap 17 and had opened up a half-straightaway lead by lap 23.Heffner began to fade in the later portion of the race. Corellis slipped by him for third on lap 25 and Heffner would fall all the way back to ninth by the end of the race. The final caution flag flew on lap 28 giving Leckonby once last shot at Tremont. Leckonby could not mount a charge for the lead and settled for a good second place showing. Corellis came home third with Mike Ricci fourth and Dwyer fifth. Tremont crossed the line first for the sixth straight time in 1999. Tremont is still the only driver to win in the modified division at Lebanon Valley in 1999. Several incidents highlighted the start of the 20-lap sportsman feature. Sparky Lowe stopped on the frontstretch right at the start of the race. He was able to continue and would be a factor later in the race. While Lowe was stopped three cars crashed in turn one. Last week's winner, Hawley Smith came together with Art Collins and Wayne Jelley. George Marcus, K.C. Goewey and Chris Kokosa all went pitside after an incident on the restart. All three were able to return to the action. When the race finally settled down Tony Laporta was in command of the event followed by John Hotchkiss and Ernie Palmer. Palmer's car had been smoking from the start of the event and he dropped from the race on lap ten. Laporta was strong on the front, as he had opened a half-straightaway lead by lap 11. Stan Jablonka dropped out of the race on lap 12. Hawley Smith spun out on lap 13 bringing out another caution. Bobby Knipe was looking for a strong performance taking over fourth on lap 15. Sparky Lowe recovered nicely from his early race woes. He took over third on lap 17 and grabbed second after a lap 19 restart. Laporta was never challenged on the front and took home his first win of the 1999 season. Lowe was second and Hotchkiss crossed the line third. Hotchkiss was disqualified during a post race inspection and Knipe would be credited with third. Roy Bridge was fourth and Art Collins recovered to finish fifth. Dave Kokindo led the early portion of the 20-lap street stock feature for the second week in a row. Butch Irwin made the pass on Kokindo for the lead on lap four. The only caution of the race flew on the very next lap. While the field was under caution, Irwin was sent back to the fifth position for rough riding. This gave the lead to the #24 of Robbie Speed. Kokindo had dropped back to fourth as a result of that early incident and on lap eight he was once again racing with Irwin, this time, for fourth place. Irwin won the battle for fourth on lap nine. The top five at the halfway point of the race was Speed, Jim Lagenback, Bob Duzlak, Irwin and Kokindo. Lagenback began to challenge Speed for the lead by lap ten. The two raced side by side for the next two laps before Lagenback was able to take over the lead. Speed challenged for the lead several times in the late stages of the race to no avail. The final three laps saw Speed in a three-way battle for second with Duzlak and Irwin. All three drivers exhibited great control as they ran fender to fender the last three laps. Lagenback was able to pull away from the pack as he took his second win of the season. Duzlak wound up in second, with Irwin third, Speed fourth and Kokindo rounded out the top five. Steve Hough led all 15-laps of the IMCA modified feature. He held off an early race challenge from George Catanzano and several late race charges from Rich Colesanti. Catanzano got back around Colesanti at the end to finish second. It looked as if Colesanti was losing the handle on his car toward the end of the race and he hung on to finish third. Brian Wilbur came in fourth and Paul LaRochelle was fifth. KEY BANK/J.D. HANDLING MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 Laps)-Kenny Tremont Jr, Dave Leckonby, Donnie Corellis, Mike Ricci, Tim Dwyer, Dickie Larkin, Mike King, Guy Sheldon, J.R. Heffner, Jason Goff, Todd Wilkinson, Rob Pitcher, Jody Tornabene, Chris Kokosa, Russ Blair, Steve Devine, John Hewitt, Chip Mitchell, Ron Blake, Brian Berger, Chris Moore, D. McFeeters, Maynard Forrette, Dave Mosher, Ronnie Johnson, John Lutes Jr, Stan Jablonka, Eddie Marshall, Russ Reckner, Rich Ricci Jr SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 Laps)-Tony La Porta, Sparky Lowe, Bobby Knipe, Roy Bridge, Art Collins, Wayne Jelley, Mike Mason, George Marcus, Lee Gagliardi, Mike Boomhower, K.C. Goewey, Ed Riiska, Hawley Smith, Lorne Browe, Frank Harper, Don Miller, Jay Casey, Chris Kokosa, Jason Tompkins, Mike Visconti, Stan Jablonka, Ernie Palmer, Tom Overbaugh, Dave Sanchez IMCA MODIFIED SUMMARY (15 Laps)-Steve Hough, George Catanzano, Rich Colesanti, Brian Wilbur, Paul LaRochelle, Jeff Carr, Anthony Markou, Don Denue, Craig Simmons, Chris Crews, Kevin Buff, Jim Rajczi, Tom Faxon, Bud Hernburg, Kevin Priest, Bill Lander STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 Laps)-Jim Langenback, Bob Duzlak, Butch Irwin, Robbie Speed, Dave Kokindo, Scott Govertsen, Chris Morris, Ray Hall, Bobby Blackburn, Rick Fosby, Kirk Stanaway, Henry Tanner, Bob Miller, Tom Brandt, Danny Sanchez ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (8 Laps)-Henry Warner, Mike Bungay, Don Ely, Don Collins, Wayne Keyes, Joe Humet, E.J. LeGeyt, Rob Reilly, Steve Kastner, Mike Halachick, Brian Keough, Phil Moffitt, John Denue, Pete Jeskee, Dan Burl, Earl Mellan, Jeff Joseph Jr PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 Laps)-William Hammell, Ron Tritchler, Rich Kratt, Ramon Perry, Tony Lopresti, Spencer Cushing, John Foglia, Charlie Woodard, Brian Tator, Bill Hughes, Brian Sandstedt, Dave Colwell, Mike Garcia, Rich. Schumann, Lee Gallant PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 Laps)-Tony Gale, Jonathan Coon, Bruce Moffitt, Wally Engel, Carl Bailargeon, Kevin Denue, Jim Hankey, Mark Houston, David Stickles, Ted Mulberry, David Hall Jr, Jason Saunders, Tom Meltz Jr, Phil Wood, Joe Mottoshiski PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 Laps)-Scott Kilmer, Peter De Figlio, Bob Palmer, Anthony Cotugno, Tim Drumm, Guy Hughes, Tom Sanchez Jr, Steve Hatch, Joe Hallenbeck, Jacob Coons, Danny Ensign, Ray Pierre Jr, Tom Currier, Dan Gambacorta, George Miles Jr