Lebanon Valley Saturday night

TREMONT, HEARN, CARR AND LAGENBACK CAPTURE VALLEY GLORY

May 25, 2002
West Lebanon, NY- A near capacity crowd was on hand for the Memorial Day 
Weekend festivities at Lebanon Valley Saturday night. Kenny Tremont Jr. 
picked up the victory in the 30-lap modified feature. It was his 98th career 
victory at the speedway. The 358-modifieds made their first of six 
appearances at the Valley Saturday night. Brett Hearn was the winner of the 
24-lap feature for the 358-modifieds. Jeff Carr got the win in the 20-lap 
sportsman main. Jimmy Lagenback won the 20-lap Pro Stock feature in a photo 
finish. 
    Brett Hearn had some motor problems with his primary car Saturday night 
in the final warm-up session before the modified feature. Hearn had to go to 
his backup Budweiser #1 and start from the rear of the field. Hearn worked 
his way through the pack to an eighth place finish. Guy Sheldon also suffered 
problems with his #518 and had to use his 358-modified to start the modified 
feature. When the green flag dropped David Sanchez held the early race lead. 
Problems for the outside polesitter, Charlie Hume, on lap two which brought 
out the first caution flag of the race. While under that first caution period 
both Eddie Marshall and Steve Devine pitted with flat right rear tires. "The 
Connecticut Yankee" Denny Soltis had a lightning fast car in the feature, He 
started eighth and was up to second by lap one. He was able to grab the lead 
from Sanchez on a lap two restart. The Emerick Associates #115 of Kenny 
Tremont was not far behind the fast running Soltis. Tremont moved into the 
second on lap four and tried to run down the leader. Disaster for Soltis on 
lap nine as something broke in the rearend of his car and took him out of 
competition for the night and handing the lead over to Tremont.
    Rich Ricci Jr. moved his Fall Fittings #55 into third on the restart. 
Donnie Corellis spun in turn four on lap ten bringing out the yellow flag 
once again. Andy Bachetti moved his Coors Light #21 into the runner-up 
position on the ensuing restart. J.R. Heffner and Matt Quinn sat fourth and 
fifth respectively with ten laps remaining in the race. Lapped traffic came 
into the equation for Tremont with eight laps to go, but it did not impede 
his progress enough to let Bachetti close the gap. Tremont would cross the 
line first for his second victory in a row on the high banks. Bachetti was 
second, Ricci third, Heffner fourth and Quinn fifth.
Many of the modified competitors were also in the field for the 24-lap 
358-modified feature. As a matter of fact the top six finishers were modified 
drivers. Twenty-seven cars took the green flag for this event with Brett 
Hearn grabbing the lead from his front row starting spot with Donnie 
Corellis's Rifenburg #57 in second. Four caution flags slowed the event. The 
most serious of which came on lap 15 when several cars came together on the 
backstretch. Many drivers did a fantastic job of avoiding the incident, which 
had the potential to be much worse. 
    At the halfway point of the event Hearn was out front, Corellis second, 
Bachetti third, Lee Gagliardi fourth and J.R. Heffner fifth. Heffner made his 
way past Gagliardi on lap 13, while Bachetti began to pressure Corellis for 
second. Corellis appeared to have problems with about ten laps to go and 
started fading. Bachetti and Heffner quickly made their way passed the fading 
Corellis. A caution flag on lap 18 gave Bachetti the shot he wanted at Hearn. 
Bachetti went low into turn one on the restart and attempted to pull the 
slide job on Hearn, but he could not make the pass stick. Bachetti had one 
more shot at Hearn after Dave Manny brought out the final caution of the 
race. While under the yellow flag Bachetti gave Hearn a little nudge on the 
back bumper to let him know who was behind him. Hearn was a little quicker on 
this restart and was able to bring his Madsen Overhead Door #20 to victory 
lane. Bachetti had to settle for second for the second time tonight. Heffner 
was third, Ricci fourth and Corellis was able to hang on for fifth.
    Jeff Carr took the lead on the start on the 20-lap sportsman feature and 
never looked back. Carr endured three restarts in the event but he was not to 
be denied the victory. The point leader going into the event was Art Collins. 
He was able to bring home a fourth place finish even though he brushed the 
front stretch wall on lap three. Bobby Knipe ran the last 17 laps of the race 
in second position, but could not catch Carr. Problems for last week's 
winner, K.C. Goewey. He was involved in two incidents that took him out of 
contention for the victory. Sophomore sensation, Mike Keeler made his way up 
through the pack nicely and was rewarded with a third place finish. Willie 
Galm rounded out the top five.
    Dan Blackburn led the first five laps of the 20-lap Pro Stock feature 
Saturday night. A huge melee with cars running in the top five brought out 
the second caution of the race on lap five. Paul LaRochelle used the restart 
to take the lead away from Dan Blackburn. Buddy Hencke moved into third on 
lap seven while three cars were battling for fourth behind him. Al Blackburn, 
Dan's older brother, took command of fourth on lap nine. That was short-lived 
however as Jim Lagenback made his way around Al on in turn four on the same 
lap. Dave Colwell top five run came to a sudden end, as he was blackflagged 
on lap ten. Turns out there was afire under the hood of his car which was 
spotted by track officials and he was able to pit and the safety crew was 
able to extinguish the fire. 
    Lagenback moved around Dan Blackburn for second with five laps to go in 
the race. His only hope to catch the front running LaRochelle was for a 
caution to come out. Lagenback got what he wanted on lap 18 when Paul Rogers 
lost a wheel in turn four. This set up the most dramatic feature finish of 
the night. LaRochelle and Lagenback went door to door for the final two laps 
and were side by side coming down to the checkers. The two cars crossed the 
line in a near photo finish. Both cars actually came out to victory lane 
before Lagenback was declared the winner.
    Jason DiBello won his 4th Rookie race in 5 attempts and will move up to 
the Pro Stock division next week. Pure Stock races were won by Brian 
Sandstedt, Bruce Moffit, Pete Wiegand and Eric Sbrega. The School Bus race 
was won by Scott Hermance.

NATIONAL PLANNING ASSOCIATES / WOHRLES MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Kenny 
Tremont Jr, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Rich Ricci Jr, 4) J.R. Heffner, 5) Matt 
Quinn, 6) Jason Goff, 7) Hector Stratton, 8) Brett Hearn, 9) Chris Moore, 10) 
Sparky Lowe, 11) Eddie Marshall, 12) Rob Pitcher, 13) John Hewitt, 14) Dave 
Leckonby, 15) Dickie Larkin, 16) Stanley Wetmore, 17) Steve Devine, 18) Ron 
Blake, 19) Hawley Smith, 20) Dave Mosher, 21) Ernie Palmer Jr, 22) Dave 
McFeeters, 23) Paul Gilardi, 24) Russ Reckner, 25) Tom Sanchez Jr, 26) John 
Alberti, 27) Donnie Corellis, 28) John Ruchel, 29) Denny Soltis, 30) David 
Sanchez, 31) Wayne Figler, 32) Charlie Humes, 33) Guy Sheldon   

358 MODIFIED RESULTS (24 LAPS) - 1) Brett Hearn, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) J.R. 
Heffner, 4) Rich Ricci Jr, 5) Donnie Corellis, 6) Kenny Tremont Jr, 7) Lee 
Gagliardi, 8) Guy Sheldon, 9) Mike Benson, 10) Eddie Marshall, 11) Jason 
Herrington, 12) Rob Pitcher, 13) John Lutes Jr, 14) Jason Tompkins, 15) Ken 
Baker, 16) Ted Teal, 17) Todd Morey, 18) Dave Baranowski, 19) Dave Manny, 20) 
Jeff Sukup, 21) Lorne Browe, 22) Wayne Jelley, 23) Lucas Baker, 24) John 
Finley, 25) Craig Simmons, 26) Wes Powell, 27) Eddie Heanault   
        
SPORTSMAN RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Jeff Carr, 2) Bobby Knipe, 3) Mike Keeler, 
4) Art Collins, 5) Will Galm, 6) Roy Bridge, 7) Joe Bennett, 8) Mike 
Visconti, 9) Rich Salisbury, 10) Ryan Larkin, 11) John Hotchkiss, 12) Tony 
Ferriero, 13) Whitey Slavin, 14) Walt McKay, 15) Don Miller, 16) Kory Gurney, 
17) Frank Harper, 18) K.C. Goewey, 19) Jeff Watson, 20) Pat O'Hanlon, 21) Ed 
Harkin, 22) John Scarborough, 23) Lorne Browe, 24) Carmon Carnibucci    
    
PRO STOCK RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Jim Langenback, 2) Paul LaRochelle, 3) Dan 
Blackburn, 4) Buddy Hencke, 5) Al Blackburn, 6) Jim Dellea, 7) Rob Yetman, 8) 
Adam Haas, 9) Danny Sanchez, 10) Chris Crews, 11) Rich Colesanti, 12) Ed 
Bachand, 13) Paul Rogers, 14) Rick Fosby, 15) Dave Colwell, 16) Bob Duzlak Jr   

        
ROOKIE PRO STOCK RESULTS (10 LAPS) - 1) Jason DiBello, 2) Mark Forrest, 3) 
Ralph Hotchkiss, 4) Jery Helms, 5) Jerry Wright, 6) Jay Corbin, 7) Ray Hall 
Jr, 8) John Santolin, 9) Joe Mabb Jr, 10) Henry Warner, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) 
Leo Sousie, 13) Larry Megan, 14) Andy Graves, 15) Bill Lobdell, 16) Bill 
Hammell 

PURE STOCK #1 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Brian Sandstedt, 2) Keith Barlow, 3) Bob 
Burl, 4) Joe DiStefano, 5) Don Coon, 6) Guy Hughes, 7) Kory Sandstadt, 8) Bob 
Chenette, 9) Chris Hutnik, 10) Rich Douglass, 11) David Stickles, 12) Jeff 
Kuhnow, 13) Ryan Hover, 14) Dan Crosby, 15) Chris Stalker, 16) Michael 
Dianda, 17) John Connor Jr

PURE STOCK #2 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Bruce Moffit, 2) Mike Witherell, 3) D.T. 
Pickard, 4) Jim O'Neil, 5) Earl Soulier Jr, 6) John Betz, 7) Kevin Dolan, 8) 
Michael Middleton, 9) Ryan Coon, 10) Jim Palmer, 11) Kevin Hilt, 12) Marcus 
Tifft, 13) John Hubbard, 14) Shannon McDermott, 15) Phil Moffit, 16) Ramon 
Perry, 17) Ray Pierre Jr

PURE STOCK #3 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Peter Wiegand, 2) Jim Fachini, 3) Michael 
Davis, 4) George Miles Jr, 5) John Denue, 6) Ronald Johnson, 7) Poncho 
Hankey, 8) Ron Tritschler, 9) Pete Everett, 10) John Rivers Jr, 11) Chrissy 
Hilt, 12) Pete DeFiglio, 13) Lee Gallant, 14) Dave Striebel, 15) Scott 
Kilmer, 16) Bob Palmer, 17) Chris Smith

PURE STOCK #4 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Eric Sbrega, 2) Robert Gibson, 3) Chris 
Streeter, 4) Mike Eichstedt, 5) Nick Hilt Jr, 6) Mark Huston, 7) John 
Fachini, 8) Bill Gordon, 9) John Chapman, 10) Jeff Douglass, 11) Dave Houser, 
12) Ross Zito, 13) Chip Martin, 14) Paul Harding, 15) Dave Atwater, 16) Ronny 
Jacobsen, 17) Joe Landry, 18) Paul Handlowich, 19) Larry Ball