Tracks: Tremont takes Modified Main, becomes all time win leader at Lebanon Valley
30 May 2000
WEST LEBANON, NY- History was made Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway
as Kenny Tremont Jr. became the all-time winning driver in the modified
division. Wacker Corporation and Admar Supply were the sponsors for the
evening's events. The 358 Modifieds were on hand for the first of their seven
races to be held during the season and Kenny Tremont Jr. came away the 358
victor. Art Collins won the sportsman division and Henry Tanner won the
street stock main. Chris Crews won the IMCA modified feature.
Denny Soltis was the early race leader in the 30-lap modified main event. Too
say the race was caution-plagued would be an understatement. The most serious
incident came on lap four as twelve cars piled up on the frontstretch taking
out many of the contenders. When the field was finally able to get restarted,
Kenny Tremont was already up to second behind Soltis. Tremont used a lap five
restart to get around Soltis for the top spot. Steve Poirier made the long
trip down form Canada to race at the Valley Saturday night. He got into
several early incidents, but came back to finish a very respectable fifth.
Guy Sheldon had a top five run go away when he tagged the fourth turn wall on
lap nine. The top five at the halfway point were Tremont, Soltis, Donnie
Corellis and Dickie Larkin.
The rest of the race went rather uneventful as the drivers finally settled
down. Only half of the cars that started the event were running at the end.
Tremont crossed the line a half-straightaway ahead of Soltis for his
eighty-fourth career victory. Soltis was found to be light at the post race
inspection moving Corellis up to second. Dickie Larkin finished third, John
Hewitt fourth and Steve Poirier rounded out the top five.
Tremont is now the all-time modified feature winner at Lebanon Valley as he
surpassed Tommy Corellis Saturday night. It was somewhat ironic that Tremont
won his first career modified feature at Lebanon Valley on Memorial Day
Weekend in 1982 and he becomes the all time win leader this Memorial Day
Weekend. In a show of respect Donnie Corellis congratulated Kenny in victory
lane.
In the 358-modified feature Sparky Lowe took the early lead in the 24-lap
event. Guy Sheldon used a lap one restart to take the lead away from Lowe.
Rich Ricci Jr. was one of drivers doing double duty in the 358-modifieds. He
had moved passed Lowe for second on lap three. The 358-modifieds were putting
on quite a show as Todd Wilkinson, Ronnie Johnson and Lowe went three wide
for fourth on lap four. Ricci made his way around Sheldon for the lead on lap
five. Kenny Tremont was not letting Ricci get too far ahead as he moved into
the runner up position on lap six.
The field would regroup on a lap eight caution for the spun car of John
Leiby. J.R. Heffner used the ensuing restart to take over the fifth spot. The
top five at the halfway point was Ricci, Tremont, Wilkinson, Sheldon and
Hector Stratton. Sheldon and Stratton swapped spots on lap 14. Tremont made
the pass for the lead on lap 18. Three more cautions slowed the event with
the most serious incident coming on lap 21 as Ronnie Johnson tagged the turn
one wall hard. No one was able to challenge Tremont as he took the victory.
Ricci was second, Wilkinson third, Stratton fourth and Heffner rounded out
the top five.
The sportsman looked like they wanted to make their feature as long as the
modifieds. Hawley Smith was turned on his lid on the green flag. He was all
right and he was able to return a couple laps down. When the race resumed
Danny Watson was in command on the race with Lorne Browe in hot pursuit. Art
Collins made the pass for the second position on lap nine. The top five at
halfway were Watson, Collins, Browe, Roy Bridge and Sparky Lowe.
Collins had caught the front running Watson by lap 12 and made the pass
for the lead on lap 14 and never looked back. Watson came in second, Lowe
third. Roy Bridge came from the consolation to finish fourth and Bobby Knipe
rounded out the top five.
Steve Brownell took the lead at the start of the 20-lap street stock
feature. A multi-car incident slowed the field for the first time on lap
three. Adam Haas and Robbie Speed were two of the heavy hitters caught up in
the wreck. The restart saw contact between Brownell, Danny Sanchez and Al
Blackburn on the front of the field. Sanchez spun as a result and Blackburn
was sent to the rear for his involvement. Henry Tanner used the restart to
vault from third to first with Rob Yetman in tow. Yetman handed second over
to Bobby Duzlak on lap five. Jim Langenback spun down the backstretch on lap
nine bringing out the third yellow of the race.
The next caution came on lap 13 as Blackburn and Sanchez came together on
the backstretch sending Blackburn spinning this time. The top five opened up
a half straightaway advantage over the rest of the field by lap 16. That
advantage would disappear when the caution flag flew on lap 17. Todd
Goldstein used the restart to take fourth from Yetman. The last three laps
went uneventful as Tanner cruised home for the feature win. Bob Duzlak, Scott
Govertsen, Goldstein and Yetman rounded out the top five.
Lebanon Valley would like to extend their condolences to the Denue family
as their son Kevin Denue lost his life on Friday morning. Kevin was a driver
in the pure stock division and will be missed. Sympathy cards can be sent to
James Denue RD3 Box 407B Averill Park, N.Y. 12018.
The Rookie Street Stock feature was won by Pete DeFiglio while Pure Stock
wins went to Jim Hankey, Anthony Cotugno and Bill Hughes.
5-27 WACKER CORPORATION / ADMAR SUPPLY MODIFED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) KENNY
TREMONT JR, 2) Donnie Corellis, 3) Dickie Larkin, 4) John Hewitt, 5) Steve
Poirier, 6) Dave Leckonby, 7) David Sanchez, 8) Rob Pitcher, 9) Ronnie
Johnson, 10) Jason Goff, 11) Russ Blair, 12) J.R. Heffner, 13) Matt Quinn,
14) Dave Mosher, 15) Chip Mitchell, 16) Tim Dwyer, 17) Guy Sheldon, 18) Ron
Blake, 19) Rich Ricci Jr, 20) Chris Kokosa, 21) Maynard Forrette, 22) Wayne
Jelley, 23) Mike King, 24) Chris Moore, 25) Steve Devine, 26) Dave McFeeters,
27) Wayne Figler, 28) Al McCoy, 29) Denny Soltis
358 MODIFIED SUMMARY (24 LAPS) - 1) KENNY TREMONT JR, 2) Rich Ricci Jr, 3)
Todd Wilkinson, 4) Hector Stratton, 5) J.R. Heffner, 6) Guy Sheldon, 7)
Sparky Lowe, 8) Eddie Maxon, 9) Donnie Ackner, 10) Jeremy Matthies, 11)
Maynard Forrette, 12) David Towns, 13) Wes Powell, 14) Denny Young Jr, 15)
John Alibi, 16) John Harrison, 17) Chad Miller, 18) Todd Morey, 19) Ronnie
Johnson, 20) Lee Gagliardi, 21) Lee Niznik, 22) Mark Hagadorn, 23) Rick Mill,
24) Mark Pullen
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS)- 1) ART COLLINS, 2) Danny Watson, 3) Sparky
Lowe, 4) Roy Bridge, 5) Bobby Knipe, 6) Jay Casey, 7) George Marcus, 8) Lorne
Browe, 9) Stan Jablonka, 10) Mike Visconti, 11) Charlie Humes, 12) K.C.
Goewey, 13) Ed Harkin, 14) Frank Harper, 15) Don Miller, 16) Jeff Carr, 17)
Darral Hulbert, 18) Mike Mason, 19) Phil Arnold, 20) Paul Gilardi, 21) Hawley
Smith, 22) Neal Erickson, 23) Joe Higgins, 24) John Hotchkiss
STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) HENRY TANNER, 2) Bob Duzlak, 3) Scott
Govertsen, 4) Todd Goldstein, 5) Rob Yetman, 6) Danny Sanchez, 7) Bobby
Blackburn, 8) Mike Halachick, 9) Paul Rogers, 10) Ricky Duzlak, 11) Don Ely,
12) Dan Burl, 13) Steve Brownell, 14) Dave Kokindo, 15) Al Blackburn, 16)
Kirk Stanaway, 17) Joel Humet, 18) Jim Langenback, 19) Robbie Speed, 20) Adam
Haas, 21) Butch Irwin, 22) Jeff Kelmel
ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) PETE DEFIGLIO, 2) Brian Keough, 3)
Geo. Stalker Jr, 4) Wayne Keyes, 5) Lawrence Ball, 6) Shawn Balestro, 7) Jery
Helms, 8) Pete Jeske, 9) E.J. LeGeyt, 10) Joe Donato, 11) Phil DeFiglio, 12)
Dan Humes
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 LAPS)- 1) JIM HANKEY, 2) Art Lafferty, 3) Randy
Meyers, 4) Philip Moffit, 5) Lloyd Fosby, 6) Mark Houston, 7) Jim Dellea, 8)
Bruce Pecorella, 9) Jay Martin, 10) Rich Douglass, 11) Phil Decker Jr, 12)
Kevin Dolan, 13) Lloyd Tomlin, 14) Ray Pierre Jr
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 LAPS)- 1) ANTHONY COTUGNO, 2) Joe Mottoshiski, 3)
Brian Sandstadt, 4) Bruce Moffitt, 5) Donald Coon, 6) Marcus Tifft, 7) Gary
Ashley, 8) Tom Sanchez Jr, 9) Chris Streeter, 10) Doug Moore, 11) Adam
Unberger, 12) Pete Wiegand, 13) Bud Noble, 14) Tim Drumm
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 LAPS)- 1) BILL HUGHES, 2) Brian Tator, 3) Ryan
Crellin, 4) Bob Palmer, 5) Jon Routhier, 6) Peter Robinson, 7) Rich.
Schumann, 8) Fran Marchand, 9) Richard Harkins, 10) Dean Cushman, 11) Ronnie
Jacobsen, 12) Ron Tritschler, 13) Bill La Pointe, 14) Jeff Douglas, 15)
Jonathan Coon, 16) John Fredsall
TOP FIVE MODIFIED POINTS AS OF 5-27 - 1) Kenny Tremont Jr 336, 2) John Hewitt
284, 3) Donnie Corellis 270, 4) Rich Ricci Jr 268, 5) Dickie Larkin 260, 6)
Chris Moore 252, 7) J.R. Heffner 234, 8) Ronnie Johnson 231, 9) Dave Leckonby
231, 10) Rob Pitcher 211