Tracks: Corellis fantastic in Mods; Lowe tops in Sportsman at Lebanon Valley
18 June 2000
CORELLIS "FANE" TASTIC IN MODS, LOWE TOPS IN SPORTSMAN
West Lebanon, NY- A beautiful spring night greeted the race fans at Lebanon
Valley Saturday night. It was full moon madness as Donnie Corellis took the
victory in the 30-lap modified feature. Sparky Lowe was the winner in the
20-lap sportsman main. Bob Duzlak was victorious in the 20-lap street stock
feature and Steve Hough won the IMCA modified feature.
David Sanchez took the lead on the start of the 30-lap modified feature
followed closely by Jason Goff. The first caution of the race came as Dave
Leckonby got sideways in turn one. J.R. Heffner, Mike King and Matt Quinn all
got collected up behind Leckonby. Heffner was the only car that was able to
continue on after that melee. The yellow came out again before another lap
was completed as Rich Ricci; Dickie Larkin and Chris Moore came together in
turn two. They were all able to continue.
More contact brought out the caution on lap six as Moore and Maynard
Forrette came together in turn one. The shape of the race changed drastically
on the restart as Sanchez slowed suddenly coming off turn two and sent the
field scrambling. When the dust finally settled there was a ten-car parking
lot in turn three. As scary as the situation was all the drivers were okay,
but the same cannot be said for their racecars. This gave the race lead to
Goff. The race went green for only one more lap before the caution came out
for Forrette stopped in turn four. Moore's eventful night came to an end as
the rear end broke under the lap seven caution. The top five at this point
were Goff, Corellis, Guy Sheldon, Chris Kokosa and Kenny Tremont.
Some great side by side racing for the fourth place between Ricci,
Sheldon and Kokosa. Meanwhile Corellis was beginning to reel in Goff for the
lead. Steve Devine saw his night end early as he slowed on lap 22. The yellow
came out on the next lap as Devine was not able to get off the racing
surface. The restart gave Corellis the opportunity he was looking for as he
made the pass for the lead on the restart. Tremont was able to get around
Goff for the runner-up place on lap 24 and Ricci took over third on lap 25.
Corellis was very strong once he got out in front and Tremont was not
able to run him down. Ricci finished third with Goff a strong run in fourth.
Kokosa had a solid run in fifth with Sheldon finishing sixth. Heffner came
back from his early race problems to finish seventh followed by Dwyer, Russ
Blair and John Hewitt tenth. Twenty-six cars started the modified feature,
but only thirteen were remaining at the end of the event
After the modified fiasco was over, fans were hoping that the sportsman
drivers would not follow suit. The sportsman feature went green to checkered
and the drivers should be commended for their great driving. Mark Flach Jr.
is a rookie in the sportsman division and he is the nephew of former modified
champion, John Flach. Mark had a strong run in the 20-lap feature as he lead
the first ten laps of the race. Sparky Lowe made the pass around Flach for
the lead on lap eleven. Flach ran a very clean race and would finish a strong
fourth.
Last week's winner, Art Collins did not have a good night. He dropped a
cylinder a finished the race one lap down. Wayne Jelley had a strong top five
run end as he went pitside on lap 12. No one was able to mount a challenge on
Lowe and he took his first checkered flag of the season a full straightaway
over the second place finisher. There was some great nerf bar to nerf bar
action between Stan Jablonka, George Marcus, Don Miller and Danny Watson as
they all raced hard for a top five performance. Miller had the best run of
those four as he came home in second place. Jablonka finished third with
Flach fourth and Watson fifth.
Dan Burl led the early stages of the 20-lap street stock feature and
he held the top spot for half of the race. There was some great racing behind
Burl as Ricky Duzlak, Mike Halachick and Kirk Stanaway race side by side for
fourth on lap three. Halachick's night ended early as his racer went up in
smoke going down the backstretch. While the field was under caution Adam Haas
and Stanaway came to a stop against the frontstretch wall. Haas was finished
for the evening, but Stanaway would return to action. The brothers, Duzlak,
made the foray into the top three on the restart with Ricky second and Bobby
third. Jimmy Lagenback had a problem on lap eight and would not be a factor
in the feature.
Al Blackburn sat facing the wrong way in turn four, bringing out the yellow
on lap nine. Blackburn did recover nicely and was sitting in fifth at the end
of the race. The restart saw Todd Goldstein and Ricky Duzlak came together,
sending Goldstein to the pits and Duzlak to the rear. Goldstein did return
but was not a factor in the outcome. Bobby Duzlak used the restart to make
the pass on Burl for the number one spot. Scott Govertsen saw a top five
performance disappear as he dropped from the race on lap 13.
Duzlak checked out from the rest of the field and had opened a
half-straightaway lead. He missed out on all the great action behind him as
Danny Sanchez, Robbie Speed and Burl were racing hard for the runner-up
position. Sanchez would hold that spot by the end of the race. Speed was
third with Yetman fourth and Al Blackburn finished fifth.
Next week will be the first of two gigantic fireworks shows at the Valley.
Race time is 6:15.
6-17 FANE CONCRETE MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) DONNIE CORELLIS, 2) Kenny
Tremont Jr, 3) Rich Ricci Jr, 4) Jason Goff, 5) Chris Kokosa, 6) Guy Sheldon,
7) J.R. Heffner, 8) Tim Dwyer, 9) Russ Blair, 10) John Hewitt, 11) Dave
Mosher, 12) Al McCoy, 13) John Lutes Jr, 14) Steve Devine, 15) Chris Moore,
16) Maynard Forrette, 17) David Sanchez, 18) Ronnie Johnson, 19) Dave
Leckonby, 20) Denny Soltis, 21) Chip Mitchell, 22) Dickie Larkin, 23) Dave
McFeeters, 24) Ron Blake, 25) Mike King, 26) Matt Quinn
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) SPARKY LOWE, 2) Don Miller, 3) Stan
Jablonka, 4) Mark Flach Jr, 5) Danny Watson, 6) George Marcus, 7) Hawley
Smith, 8) Carmon Carnibucci, 9) Roy Bridge, 10) Bobby Knipe, 11) Lorne Browe,
12) Jay Casey, 13) Frank Harper, 14) Jeff Carr, 15) Charlie Humes, 16) Mike
Visconti, 17) John Alberti, 18) Ed Harkin, 19) Jeff Watson, 20) Art Collins,
21) Paul Gilardi, 22) Phil Arnold, 23) Wayne Jelley, 24) Mike Mason
IMCA MODIFIED SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) STEVE HOUGH, 2) Paul LaRochelle, 3) Chris
Crews, 4) Pete Tucker
STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) BOB DUZLAK, 2) Danny Sanchez, 3) Robbie
Speed, 4) Rob Yetman, 5) Al Blackburn, 6) Dan Burl, 7) Jim Langenback, 8) Ed
Bachand, 9) Tom Brandt, 10) Dave Kokindo, 11) Paul Rogers, 12) Todd
Goldstein, 13) John Denue, 14) Mike McDowell, 15) Pete DeFiglio, 16) Wayne
Walker, 17) Joe Humet, 18) Ted Teal, 19) Scott Govertsen, 20) Ricky Duzlak,
21) Bobby Blackburn, 22) Mike Halachick, 23) Kirk Stanaway, 24) Adam Haas
ROOKIE STREET STOCK (8 LAPS) - 1) DAVE COLWELL, 2) Geo. Stalker Jr, 3) Brian
Keough, 4) Rick Fosby, 5) Chris Claus, 6) Walt Clark, 7) Lawrence Ball, 8)
Rick Spencer, 9) Dan Humes, 10) Shawn Balestro, 11) Jim Keough, 12) Jerry
Wright Jr
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) PHILIP MOFFIT, 2) Art Lafferty, 3) Steve
Hatch, 4) Jim Dellea, 5) Lloyd Fosby, 6) Mark Houston, 7) Doug Moore, 8) Earl
Soulier, 9) Phil Decker Jr, 10) Chad Ritrovato, 11) Jeff Douglas, 12) Ken
Scofield, 13) Kevin Dolan, 14) John Fredsall, 15) Don Pickard, 16) Keith
Barlow
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) JON ROUTHIER, 2) Brian Sandstadt, 3)
Wally Engel, 4) Ronnie Jacobsen, 5) Scott Kilmer, 6) Donald Coon, 7) Marcus
Tifft, 8) Mark Forrest, 9) Jay Martin, 10) Stephen Post, 11) Lloyd Tomlin,
12) Jacob Coons Jr, 13) Jim Hankey, 14) Peter Robinson, 15) Matthew Jasmine,
16) Tom Sanchez Jr
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) JOE MOTTOSHISKI, 2) Bill Hughes, 3)
Brian Tator, 4) Bob Palmer, 5) Ryan Crellin, 6) Fran Marchand, 7) Rich.
Schumann, 8) Bruce Moffitt, 9) Ron Tritschler, 10) Bruce Pecorella, 11) Rich
Douglass, 12) Gary Ashley, 13) Pete Wiegand, 14) Richard Harkins
LADIES CANNONBALL - 1) JAN LYNN HUNT, 2) Tanya Haas, 3) Jenny Moffit, 4) Kim
Casey, 5) Christine Wescott, 6) Theresa Davis, 7) Debbie Litz, 8) Chrissy
Hilt, 9) Fay Fachini, 10) Terri Ionnotti, 11) Wendy Franchini, 12) Phyllis
Hulbert, 13) Jo Ann Stevens
TOP TEN MODIFIED POINTS AS OF 6-17-00 1) Kenny Tremont 528, 2) Rich Ricci Jr
462, 3) John Hewitt 440, 4) Donnie Corellis 414, 5) Chris Moore 408, 6)
Dickie Larkin 389, 7) J.R. Heffner 386, 8) Dave Leckonby 367, 9) ROnnie
Johnson 358, 10) Guy Sheldon 348