PITCHER BLOWS THE ROOF OFF THE PLACE ON TOPLESS NIGHT LARKIN
SCORES POPULAR SPORTSMAN WIN WEST LEBANON, NY
COMPLETE RESULTS AND UPDATED TOP TEN POINTS WILL BE SENT OUT SUNDAY MORNING!
"PRESS RELEASE" For Immediate Release
July 12, 2003 Contact: Kevin Wright
Phone: 518-794-9606
PITCHER BLOWS THE ROOF OFF THE PLACE ON TOPLESS NIGHT
LARKIN SCORES POPULAR SPORTSMAN WIN
WEST LEBANON, NY - A first ever Topless night was held at Lebanon Valley
Speedway Saturday evening and Rob Pitcher of Chatham, NY wheeled his Valley Oil,
Chatham Auto Parts #17 into victory lane of the 30-lap Modified feature. Ryan
Larkin of Alford, MA took the 20-lap Sportsman main in his Shell Oil,
O'Connell's Convenience Mart #39 on a night when both the Modified and Sportsman racers
ran the night's races without their roof's or upper rear quarter panels.
Den Besten Enterprises and T-Net, Taconic Technologies presented the evenings
events, which proved to be well accepted by the great Lebanon Valley fans.
Running the race cars without the roof's really gave the fans a unique view of
just how hard the drivers have to work inside the cars.
Paul Gilardi and Stanley Wetmore brought the Modified field down for the
original start with Gilardi gaining the advantage exiting turn two. Donnie
Corellis rocketed to the front on an early race restart with Dave Leckonby bolting to
second. Andy Bachetti was forced pitside after contact with the Guy Sheldon
who was piloting the #42H.
At the one-third point Corellis had opened up a small lead on the now second
place Pitcher. The #17 was fast and began to reel in the Rifenburg 57 of
Corellis. Pitcher dogged Corellis lap after lap trying him low and then on the high
side before finally
Overtaking him on lap 14.
The racing was torrid behind the leaders with J. R. Heffner and Dave Leckonby
putting on a great door handle to door handle battle for several laps for
third position. Matt Quinn stuck his nose into the mix making it three wide for
quite a few circuits on the Valley high banks. Heffner pulled ahead to the
third position with Corellis holding forth.
A three wide contest for the fifth position between Kenny Tremont, Dave
Leckonby and Brett Hearn was shaping up at the halfway point. Hearn rallied to take
over the spot as Pitcher began to pull away from the field.
Lap 25 found Pitcher catching lap traffic and the #74 of Heffner began to
make a charge but was to no avail. Rob Pitcher went on to celebrate his first
Modified victory of 2003 and became the eighth different Modified winner. Heffner
was second with Brett Hearn, Donnie Corellis and last weeks winner Matt Quinn
rounding out the top five.
Todd Den Besten of Den Besten Enterprises put up a bonus of $500 to the
Modified victor and promised to double that if the night's winner had not won yet
in 2003. Pitcher happily accepted the 10 crisp $100 bills peeled off by Mr. Den
Besten.
The 20-lap roofless Sportsman feature took the green flag with Jason Tompkins
and Carmon Carnibucci leading the field. Carnibucci took over first place on
lap two and was looking strong. From his sixth place starting position
sophomore driver Ryan Larkin was on a mission and quickly rocketed his way past the
top two on lap three and looked to be in command.
A lap 5 caution for last week's winner Roy Bridge as contact was made with
the turn four wall ended the #145's bid for a second victory. K. C. Goewey was
charging his way to the front from his 11th place starting position and by lap
6 was now running second and was hunting down the #39 of Larkin.
At the mid-way point Goewey was dogging Larkin and putting pressure on the
youngster. Larkin would pull the Goewey racer down the straightaways while
Goewey would gain it back in the corners. Frank Harper was running a strong third.
Lap 15 found the feud for 4th between Art Collins and Jeff Watson. Great
racing for the top spots had the fans on their feet rooting for their favorites.
Current point leader Bobby Knipe lost the motor going into turn three on lap 17
bringing out the caution and setting up a three-lap shoot out for the finish.
Larkin got a great re-start and held a slim lead on Goewey while Collins
pulled alongside Harper on the backstretch. Four wide as the cars entered turn
four shuffled the #25 of Harper back to seventh while Collins took over third.
At the finish Larkin held off the hard charging Goewey for his second career
Sportsman victory. Goewey took the runner-up spot with Art Collins, Jeff
Watson and Ed Harkin rounded out the top five. Den Besten Enterprises also paid an
additional $500 to the Sportsman winner.
Chris Crews and Jay Corbin led the 20-lap Pro Stock feature to the start with
Crews taking the early lead. The #78 of Paul LaRochelle blasted his way past
Crews on lap eight and began to pull away. At the same time the #63 of Danny
Sanchez got sideways between turn one and two and collected Robbie Speed, Jim
Langenback and Rob Yetman. Speed wound up with the most damage and was forced
to the pits. Yetman and Langenback continued.
On the re-start Ed Bachand had made his way to second and was putting the
pressure on the #78 of LaRochelle. Great racing for the lead between LaRochelle,
Bachand and the now third place Yetman.
By halfway LaRochelle held a slim lead over Bachand with Yetman third, Scott
Govertsen fourth and Tom Brandt fifth. The caution came out at lap ten for the
#8 of Jay Corbin. The re-start was awesome as Yetman pulled alongside Bachand
and set his sights on the front running LaRochelle.
LaRochelle and Yetman put on quite a show running side-by-side for three laps
before Yetman dove down low in turn three and took the lead. By lap 15 the
top five running order was Yetman, LaRochelle, Bachand, Govertsen and
Langenback.
Contact between Langenback and Sanchez as the racers came off turn four
turning Langenback sideways and making hard contact with the outside steel wall.
The 54L came to rest alongside the jersey barriers. After a quick trip down pit
lane the 54L rejoined the field with damage to the left front.
Lap 18 found the #7 of Yetman with a half straightaway lead on the second
running LaRochelle. The yellow came out as Danny Sanchez blew a radiator hose in
turn three and the fluid on the track gathered up the #243 of Victor Hopkins.
Both were done for the evening.
Yetman went on to win his third Pro Stock feature of the season. Ed Bachand
passed Paul LaRochelle in turns 3 and 4 on the final lap but was disqualified
in a post race inspection. LaRochelle was awarded the runner up spot with Scott
Govertsen third and Tom Brandt fourth. Bill Lobdell who moved up from the
Rookie Pro Stock class this week had a great finish in fifth place.
The Rookie Pro Stock main was won by Jim Cronk followed by Mike Fachini, John
Santolin, E. J. Legeyt and Kim LaVoy.
The Pure Stock winners were each awarded $100 from Boomer's Performance in
memory of Robert "Boomer" Bedell who would have celebrated his 52nd birthday on
July 9th. The Bedell family has been a mainstay at Lebanon Valley since it
began holding races over 50 years ago.
Pure Stock races were won by Shannon McDermott, her first career win, Robert
Gibson, Phil Wood and Jim O'Neil. Great racing in all the Pure Stock events
with plenty of action. The #98 car of John Connor Jr. flipped violently down the
frontstretch damaging part of the starters stand and coming to rest on it's
wheels at the entrance to turn one. Connor was uninjured but the car was
destroyed.
The final event of the Den Besten Enterprises, T-Net racing program was the
4-cylinder enduro. Twenty-two cars buzzed like small bumblebees around the big
half-mile track for 20 laps. Jimmy Duncan captured his second win in a row
with Steve Ryan, Todd Goldstein, Tom Delaney and Phil DeFiglio finishing 2nd
through 5th.
Next Saturday Rifenburg Construction sponsors a full night of exciting racing
action at Lebanon Valley Speedway with all divisions in action including the
return of the 358 Modifieds. Gates open at 5pm with racing at 6pm, Adult
General Admission is only $10 with kids under 12 "Just-A-Buck". For more
information call 518-794-9606 or visit lebanonvalley.com.
Kevin Wright
V.P. Marketing & Promotions
Lebanon Valley Speedway
Phone: 518-794-9606
Fax: 518-794-7889
E-Mail: lbnvlyspwy@aol.com
website: www.lebanonvalley.com
