TRACKS: Blaney bests Stewart but can's stop Tremont at Lebanon Valley
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 21, 2001WEST LEBANON, NY- A hot summer night greeted the near capacity crowd at Lebanon Valley Saturday night. Winston Cup stars Tony Stewart and Dave Blaney both climbed aboard DIRT big block modifieds to compete with the Valley regulars. Kenny Tremont Jr graced victory lane for the seventh time this season in the 30-lap modified feature. Art Collins was victorious in the 20-lap sportsman feature and Tom Brandt won the 20-lap Pro Stock feature.
One of our great longtime sponsors, Rifenburg Construction, brought us this exciting night of racing. The Speedway also would like to thank I Love NY, CARQUEST Auto Parts, Molson Canadian and Saratoga Spring Water along with the great folks from Team Goewey Dodge for helping us bring you Tony Stewart and Dave Blaney.
David Sanchez and Rob Pitcher led the field down to the green flag in the 30-lap modified feature. Guy Sheldon saw his night end on lap one as he got turned into the turn four wall. Problems for Stewart on lap three as the suspension broke on his car ending his night. It was not the best of nights for Stewart. His primary car had overheating problems and he was able to borrow a back-up car from Blaney's team. Stewart ran great in the consolation going from last to third and this was the car that broke something in the rearend. Rob Pitcher was the leader in the early portion as the caution flag flew often. Tough break for Sanchez as he slowed dramatically on a lap five restart. Sanchez did a good job of getting out of the way of the field.
Moore used that same restart to take the lead after starting back in seventh. Ronnie Johnson started the race in tenth and was up to third on lap six. Tremont was shadowing Johnson's every move as he took fourth on the same lap. The two drivers moved into second and third, respectively, on lap nine. The top four cars had pulled away from the rest of the field at the halfway point of the race. Moore started running into lapped traffic on lap 17. Disaster for Moore on lap 19 as his right rear tire went flat essentially ending his chances for victory. Moore was able to return and finished 12th. The restart saw Heffner sent to the rear by officials for jumping the start. Tremont used the second lap nineteen restart to motor passed Johnson going into turn three.
After Tremont took the lead the race focused on the cars behind him. Tim Dwyer and Dave Blaney were waging a side by side battle for fifth on lap 22, which Dwyer eventually won. Dwyer made a late race pass on Pitcher to finish the race fourth. It was Tremont's 94th career modified victory at Lebanon Valley. Johnson had a strong second place finish and Marshall finished third.
Mike Molloy led the first eight laps of the sportsman feature. Art Collins started the race from the 13th position and was moving up quickly and he took the lead on a lap eight restart. Carmen Carnibucci ran a strong second the whole race and that is where he would finish. Bobby Knipe, Roy Bridge and Loren Browe were the show in the last half of the race. They were two and three wide at times all looking for a top five finish.
Knipe and Browe got hooked together on lap 18 dropping Knipe back to fourth and Browe back to eighth. No one could touch Collins on this night and he took his second win of the season. Carnibucci finished second, Bridge third, Knipe fourth and John Scarborough rounded out the top five. Nick Rogers led the first fifteen laps of the Pro Stock feature Saturday night. He had a strong car for most of the race until Tom Brandt made the pass on lap 15 going into turn one. Smoke began to show from Rogers's car late in the event and that problem may have cost him the victory. Jimmy Lagenback came into this event as the current point leader. He got involved in a lap one incident and had to go pitside with a flat tire. He returned to the race without losing a lap and was able to get all the way back up to second at the finish. Paul LaRochelle had a very strong car early, but he got hooked up with Rob Yetman going down the backstretch. LaRochelle was able to continue with little damage and brought his racer home third. Ray Hall finished the race in the fourth position.
Al Blackburn was another driver that had some problems during the feature. He got a flat tire on lap four, but was able to return without losing a lap. He got involved in a six-car pileup on lap eight and had to go pitside to remove some sheetmetal. Blackburn was able to recover to finish fifth. Brandt was not to be denied as he took the checkered flag for his first career victory in the Pro Stock division. As if winning his first feature was not enough, Brandt also picked up a four hundred-dollar bonus put up by Beer Belly Bob's Beverage Center.
Brian Keough was the winner of the Rookie main. Pure Stock winners were Jim Dellea, Jay Martin, Brian Sandstedt and Randy Myers.
Next week is Emerick Associates Night at the Valley. The modifieds will run two 20-lap features. Race time is set for 6:15.
7-21 RIFENBURG CONSTRUCTION MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Kenny Tremont Jr, 2) Ronnie Johnson, 3) Eddie Marshall, 4) Tim Dwyer, 5) Dave Blaney, 6) Rob Pitcher, 7) Matt Quinn, 8) Rich Ricci Jr, 9) Chris Kokosa, 10) Donnie Corellis, 11) Hector Stratton, 12) Chris Moore, 13) Mike King, 14) Steve Devine, 15) John Alberti, 16) Dave Mosher, 17) Dave McFeeters, 18) Wes Powell, 19) Jeremy Matthies, 20) Al McCoy, 21) John Tucker, 22) Jason Goff, 23) Mike Benson, 24) J.R. Heffner, 25) Wayne Figler, 26) Todd Morey, 27) Dickie Larkin, 28) John Hewitt, 29) Dave Leckonby, 30) David Sanchez, 31) Skippy Fox, 32) Mark Hagadorn, 33) Tony Stewart, 34) Guy Sheldon
SPORTSMAN RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Art Collins, 2) Carmon Carnibucci, 3) Roy Bridge, 4) Bobby Knipe, 5) John Scarborough, 6) Jason Tompkins, 7) Mike Molloy, 8) Lorne Browe, 9) Sparky Lowe, 10) John Hotchkiss, 11) Ted Teal, 12) Joe Bennett, 13) Frank Harper, 14) Hawley Smith, 15) Ernie Palmer Jr, 16) Jay Casey, 17) Mike Keeler, 18) Mike Mason, 19) Darral Hulbert, 20) Bob Gaetaniello, 21) Walt McKay, 22) Charlie Humes, 23) Phil Arnold, 24) Mike Catone, 25) Paul Gilardi, 26) K.C. Goewey
BEER BELLY BOB'S BEVERAGE CENTERS PRO STOCK RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Tom Brandt, 2) Jim Langenback, 3) Paul LaRochelle, 4) Ray Hall, 5) Al Blackburn, 6) Danny Sanchez, 7) Buddy Hencke, 8) Nick Rogers, 9) Mike Bradley, 10) Ricky Duzlak, 11) Rob Yetman, 12) Robbie Speed, 13) Ed Bachand, 14) Dan Galullo, 15) Jeff Kelmel, 16) Dan Burl, 17) Don Ely, 18) Paul Rogers
ROOKIE PRO STOCK RESULTS (10 LAPS) - 1) Brian Keough, 2) Ralph Hotchkiss, 3) Charlie Woodard, 4) Scott Kilmer, 5) Henry Warner, 6) Jason DiBello, 7) Dave Colwell, 8) Joe Mabb Jr, 9) Bill Hammell, 10) Jim Keough, 11) J. Schmidheini, 12) Dan Blackburn, 13) Chris DeCiel, 14) Michael Kratz, 15) John Santolin, 16) Chris Claus
PURE STOCK "A" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jim Dellea, 2) Jim O'Neil, 3) Chris Streeter, 4) Brian Houghtaling, 5) Earl Soulier Jr, 6) Eric Sbrega, 7) Kory Sandstedt, 8) Ronald Johnson, 9) Ryan Coon, 10) Larry Megan, 11) Mark Stevens, 12) Marcus Tifft, 13) Bill Lapointe, 14) David Stickles, 15) Mike Witherell, 16) Keith Barlow, 17) Jon Betz
PURE STOCK "B" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jay Martin, 2) Jeff Douglass, 3) Bob Burl, 4) Chip Martin, 5) Michael Dianda, 6) D.T. Pickard, 7) Chrissy Hilt, 8) Dwayne Dauski, 9) Dave Hall Jr, 10) Glenn Miller, 11) Dave Atwater, 12) Nick Hilt, 13) Randy Brink, 14) Wayne Hall, 15) Jeff Kuhnow, 16) Ron Tritschler
PURE STOCK "C" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Brian Sandstedt, 2) Peter Wiegand, 3) George Miles Jr, 4) Fran Marchand Jr, 5) Bob Palmer, 6) Joshua Brandt, 7) Jim Fachini, 8) Wally Engel, 9) Kevin Dolan, 10) Rich Douglass, 11) Jake Coons, 12) Bruce Moffit, 13) John Denue, 14) Ryan Larkin, 15) Ray Hall Jr
PURE STOCK "D" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Randy Myers, 2) Rich Harkins, 3) Mark Houston, 4) Todd Pelkey, 5) Brian Tator, 6) Robert Gibson, 7) Ronny Jacobsen, 8) John Connor Jr, 9) Steve Hatch, 10) Don Coon, 11) Mike Middleton, 12) Gene Cushman, 13) Kyle Carr, 14) Gary Ashley, 15) Joe DiStefano
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