TRACKS: Lebanon Valley Speedway concludes 2000 season, champions crowned
17 September 2000
WEST LEBANON, NY-A crisp autumn-like night greeted the crowd Saturday night
at Lebanon Valley. The sportsman class was on hand Saturday night on a night
that is usually reserved for the full-fendered divisions. Their race was held
over from last weeks fogged out Race of Kings program. Bobby Knipe was the
winner of their 30-lap feature. Danny Sanchez was the winner of the first
20-lap street stock feature. Ken Van Alphen won the $1000 cannonball feature.
In the last race of the 2000 season, Bob Duzlak took home the checkered flag
in the second 20-lap street stock feature. Todd Goldstein was crowned the
champion in the street stock division for the year 2000. SPEEDS GARAGE and
DICKS AUTOMOTIVE brought us this final night of great racing action.
Bobby Knipe took the lead at the start of the 30-lap sportsman feature.
Sportsman track champ for 2000, George Marcus, sat in second behind Knipe.
Marcus and Roy Bridge made contact on the frontstretch on lap three, but both
were able to continue without losing any positions. K.C. Goewey moved himself
into contention as he made the pass for third on lap five. The top four cars
motored away from the rest of the pack by lap seven. Stan Jablonka retired
from the event on lap eight. Problems at the one-third mark of the race as
the caution flag flew four times between laps eight and ten.
Goewey was able to take over the race lead from Knipe on one of the
restart and quickly opened up a twenty-car lead. The too five at the halfway
mark was Goewey, Knipe, Marcus, Sparky Lowe and Art Collins. The caution flew
for the eighth and final time on lap 15. Frank Harper made a great move and
rocketed from seventh to fifth on the restart, That was short-lived however
as Lowe made the pass back for fifth on the next lap.
Goewey would totally dominate the last half of the race as no one could
keep up with him. He crossed the finish line a full straightaway ahead of
second-place Knipe. But Goewey failed to make the post race weight and the
victory was awarded to Knipe. Marcus will be credited with second, Collins
third, Lowe fourth and Harper fifth
The street stocks were on hand to run two features Saturday night at
Lebanon Valley. The first feature was the held over event from the Kings 200
Weekend that got fogged out last week. Paul LaRochelle was the early race
leader in that first feature. Brian Wilber and Kevin Ward came together on
lap two while battling in the top ten. Both drivers were able to continue on
for the time being. Trouble for the point leader, Todd Goldstein, early in
the event as he dropped off the pace. Goldstein puttered around in the back
of the feature and finished a couple of laps down.
Trouble was brewing as the field came down the frontstretch four-wide on
lap four. Contact was made going into turn one and Robbie Speed and Nick
Rogers wound up spun out in turn one. Ricky Duzlak was also involved in the
melee and went pitside for the remainder of the event. The caution flag flew
twice on lap five before the filed finally started to settle down. Bob Duzlak
grabbed the lead from LaRochelle on the lap five restart. Danny Sanchez was
also able to scoot around LaRochelle on the restart and set after Duzlak.
Problems for Kevin Ward when his car went up in a big puff of smoke on
lap eight. Adam Haas had a strong top five run going at the halfway point of
the race. That ended three laps later as he slowed dramatically on the
frontstretch and pulled into the pits. The leader suffered a devastating blow
on lap 14 as his right rear tire went flat and he spun in turn four. That
gave the lead to Sanchez with LaRochelle in tow. Those two drivers wanted to
decide this race among themselves and pulled away from the rest of the field
by lap 15. Dan Burl moved into third on lap 15. LaRochelle made a bid for the
lead on lap 16, but Sanchez held on to first.
Rob Yetman came into this race second in the overall point just seventeen
points behind Goldstein. He would have problems on lap 17 when he came to a
stop in turn two. Robbie Speed was sent to the rear for his part in the
incident. The rest of the race went rather uneventful, as Sanchez was able to
hold on for the victory. LaRochelle had to settle for second and Dan Burl was
third. Ed Bachand's brakes were cherry red in the final laps of the race, but
he was able to hold on for a fourth place finish. Tom Brandt rounded out the
top five.
Ed Bachand lead the first four laps of the second 20-lap feature. Bob
Duzlak took command of the race on lap five and was looking to avenge his
race-losing flat tire in the first feature. Going into the final race of the
year Todd Goldstein was eleven points ahead of Rob Yetman in the overall
standings. Goldstein had problems in the first race and was forced to borrow
Ricky Duzlak's car for the second main. As of lap eight, Yetman was seventh
and Goldstein was eighth.
Disaster for Goldstein at the halfway point of the race as he got caught
up with several other cars in turn four. Goldstein went pitside during the
caution flag and would return to the track. Yetman dodged a bullet when Danny
Sanchez broke right in front of him on lap eleven. Yetman had to take evasive
action to the inside of the backstretch and he almost collided with Sanchez.
Al Blackburn had started the event near the tail end of the field. He was
making some great progress and had worked his way all the way up to sixth by
lap 13.
The top two cars had opened up a half-straightaway lead over the third
place car of Paul LaRochelle by lap 16. Bachand made one final effort on the
last lap but could not get around Duzlak and would have to finish in second.
LaRochelle came home third, Paul Rogers fourth and Earl Mellan rounded out
the top five. Despite his 15th place finish, Todd Goldstein walked away with
the overall point championship for the year 2000.
SPEED'S GARAGE & DICK'S AUTOMOTIVE NIGHT RACE RESULTS:
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) Bobby Knipe, 2) George Marcus, 3) Art
Collins, 4) Sparky Lowe, 5) Frank Harper, 6) Roy Bridge, 7) Jay Casey, 8)
Carmon Carnibucci, 9) Rusty Granacker, 10) Mike Visconti, 11) Jason Tompkins,
12) Paul Gilardi, 13) Jason Herrington, 14) John Hotchkiss, 15) Mike Mason,
16) Mark Flach Jr, 17) Jeff Watson, 18) Joe Sarvis, 19) Neal Erickson, 20)
Charlie Raffiani, 21) Tony Fiearro, 22) Jeff Cassidy, 23) Darral Hulbert, 24)
Stan Jablonka, 25) Charlie Humes, 26) Gary Carl, 27) K.C. Goewey
1ST STREET STOCK FEATURE SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) Danny Sanchez, 2) Paul
LaRochelle, 3) Dan Burl, 4) Ed Bachand, 5) Tom Brandt, 6) Jim Langenback, 7)
Pete DeFiglio, 8) Steve Brownell, 9) Rob Yetman, 10) Victor Hopkins, 11)
Robbie Speed, 12) Don Ely, 13) Bob McGannon, 14) Don Denue, 15) Todd
Goldstein, 16) Al Blackburn, 17) Brian Wilber, 18) Bob Duzlak, 19) Jamie
McGannon, 20) Adam Haas, 21) Kevin Ward, 22) Wayne Oliver, 23) Ted Teal, 24)
Nick Rogers, 25) Ricky Duzlak
2ND STREET STOCK FEATURE SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) Bob Duzlak, 2) Ed Bachand, 3)
Paul LaRochelle, 4) Paul Rogers, 5) Earl Mellan, 6) Al Blackburn, 7) Rob
Yetman, 8) Jim Langenback, 9) Robbie Speed, 10) Dan Burl, 11) Ted Teal, 12)
Tom Brandt, 13) Steve Brownell, 14) Don Denue, 15) Todd Goldstein, 16) Victor
Hopkins, 17) Jeff Kelmel, 18) Joe Humet, 19) Brian Wilber, 20) Danny Sanchez,
21) Pat O'Meara, 22) Pete DeFiglio, 23) Chris Mattison, 24) Rich Colesanti
ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (12 LAPS) - 1) Dave Colwell, 2) Wayne Keyes, 3)
Geo. Stalker Jr, 4) Phil DeFiglio, 5) Brian Keough, 6) Shane Peele, 7) Mike
Kratz, 8) Dan Humes, 9) Tom Fredericks, 10) Rick Fosby, 11) E.J. LeGeyt, 12)
Walt Clark, 13) Jim Keough, 14) Lawrence Ball, 15) Charlie Woodard, 16) Mike
Fachini, 17) Tony Gale
PURE STOCK "C" FROM 9-09 SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) Joe Mottoshiski, 2) Ryan
Crellin, 3) Bob Palmer, 4) Wally Engel, 5) Rich Douglass, 6) Anthony Cotugno,
7) Scott Kilmer, 8) Pete Wiegand, 9) Fran Marchand, 10) Ronnie Jacobsen, 11)
Rich. Schumann, 12) Brian Tator, 13) Philip Moffit, 14) Guy Hughes, 15) Mark
Houston, 16) Jim Hankey
PURE STOCK "D" FROM 9-09 SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) Robert Brown, 2) Tom Meltz, 3)
Ron Tritschler, 4) Steven Roy, 5) Dean Cushman, 6) Art Lafferty, 7) Chrissy
Hilt, 8) Chad Ritrovato, 9) Rich Kratt,
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) Anthony Cotugno, 2) Wally Engel, 3)
Robert Brown, 4) Jason Dibello, 5) Joe DiStefano, 6) Chrissy Hilt, 7) Ron
Tritschler, 8) Dean Cushman, 9) Chad Ritrovato, 10) Art Lafferty, 11) Steven
Roy, 12) Jim Fachini, 13) Henry Warner, 14) Jim Hankey, 15) Rich Kratt
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) Bob Gibson, 2) Jeff Douglas, 3) Randy
Meyers, 4) Ronald Johnson, 5) Shawn Dixon, 6) Jim O'Neil, 7) Jay Martin, 8)
Earl Soulier, 9) Ron Hapeman, 10) Bruce Moffitt, 11) Bill La Pointe, 12) Bud
Noble, 13) Marcus Tifft
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) Ryan Crellin, 2) Fran Marchand, 3)
Scott Kilmer, 4) Pete Wiegand, 5) Brian Tator, 6) Bob Palmer, 7) Tom Meltz,
8) Rich. Schumann, 9) Joe Mottoshiski, 10) Ronnie Jacobsen, 11) Philip
Moffit, 12) Jim Dellea, DQ) Rich Douglass
PURE STOCK "D" SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) Bruce Pecorella, 2) Lloyd Fosby, 3)
Keith Barlow, 4) George Miles Jr, 5) Doug Moore, 6) Sid Smith, 7) Steve
Hatch, 8) Donald Coon, 9) Jacob Coons Jr, 10) Gary Ashley, 11) Phil Decker
Jr, 12) Richard Harkins, DQ) Brian Sandstadt
$1,000 TO WIN CANNONBALL SUMMARY (40 LAPS) - 1) Ken VanAlphen, 2) Rick
Dempsey, 3) Al Relyea, 4) Keith Neer, 5) Joel Hunt, 6) Mark Van DeCarr, 7)
Grant Wescott, 8) Vinny Santoro, 9) Ray Hall Jr, 10) Chuck Lampe, 11) Dwayne
Dauski, 12) Harry Beron, 13) Mike Duncan