TRACKS: Pitcher survives to take second victory of the season at Lebanon Valley
6 August 2000
WEST LEBANON, NY- It was a great night for the kids at Lebanon Valley
Saturday night. A pit party before all the action got started allowed the
youngsters a chance to see their favorite drivers up close and personally and
gather an autograph or two. Rob Pitcher survived an early race parking lot to
take his second victory of the season in the 30-lap modified feature. George
Marcus won the 20-lap sportsman main and Danny Sanchez won the 20-lap Street
Stock feature. Don Denue was the winner of the IMCA modified feature. Vermeer
Sales & Service and T-NET, Taconic Technologies brought us all the racing
excitement. Vermeer handed out a $300 bonus in the modified, $500 in the
sportsman and $1,000 in the street stocks.
Things got out of hand quickly in the 30-lap modified feature as 18 cars
came together on the frontstretch. Many of the top guns were involved in the
fracas including current point leader Kenny Tremont. He was able to return to
the racing action eight laps down and finished in the 16th position. The
driver who stood the most to gain was Rich Ricci who was also in the melee.
Ricci was able to get back into the action on the lead lap. Ricci was able to
get as high as the top five before something broke on the car with a couple
of laps remaining. He was able to hang on to a tenth place finish.
The race was able to resume after a half-hour delay to clear up all the
carnage and Steve Devine was in command. Dickie Larkin took the lead from
Devine on lap six. Gary Waters was back in competition at the Valley Saturday
night. Waters got as high as third in the race and would finish seventh. John
Hewitt was third in the point standings coming into this race, He was looking
to make the most of the other driver's problems as he took over third on lap
twelve. Devine dropped from the event on lap 13. Rob Pitcher began to
pressure Larkin for the lead just past the halfway point. Pitcher made the
pass for the top spot on lap 18. Larkin's good run came to an end on the next
lap as his right rear tire went soft. He did return without losing a lap but
dropped from the event for good on lap 21.
This allowed Hewitt to get on the back bumper of Pitcher. Matt Quinn made
the pass around Waters for third on lap 20. The top two cars broke away from
the rest of the pack by lap 22. The final caution of the race came as Guy
Sheldon spun in turn one. This set up a three lap shootout for the victory.
Pitcher was strong to the advance of Hewitt and was able to hold on for his
second victory of the season. Hewitt had another solid run in second with
Quinn third, Leckonby fourth and J.R. Heffner fifth.
Darral Hulbert was the early race leader of the 20-lap sportsman feature.
George Marcus was heading to the front early and was up to fourth on lap two.
The sportsman tried to imitate the modifieds with their own parking lot on
lap three, but only six cars were involved. K.C. Goewey, Jeff Carr and Lorne
Browe were all in the incident. Dan Watson and Art Collins bounced off each
other on the restart and Collins lost ten spots. The caution came out twice
on lap two the second of which was for a seven-car pileup on the frontstretch.
As a result of all the early race cautions the field was restarted single
file. Collins had recovered from his early race woes to be fourth on the
lap-four restart. The top five at the halfway point was Marcus, Bobby Knipe,
Collins, Watson and Paul Gilardi. Marcus was able to open up a ten-car lead
in the last half of the race. Stan Jablonka cracked the top five on lap 13.
The final caution of the race came out on lap 16 but no one could touch
Marcus. Collins tried to challenge Knipe for the runner-up position but Knipe
was able to hold on for second. Collins was third, Watson fourth and Mike
Visconti rounded out the top five.
The 20-lap street stock feature had a little trouble getting off the
ground. The first caution came on the initial start as Adam Haas had trouble
in turn one and several cars got caught up behind him. The most violent wreck
of the night came on the very next lap as Ricky Duzlak went end over end
right at the flag stand. Fortunately, Duzlak was able to walk away from the
very scary ride. Jim Lagenback was also involved in the wreck and his car sat
on the inside jersey barrier. Lagenback needed a little help getting off the
barrier but was able to drive into the pits. Lagenback was able to recover
nicely from the incident to finish sixth. Kevin Ward was on hand for the
first time this season. He looked very strong in the early laps and was
running second by lap three. He would exit the event while under a lap three
yellow with apparent mechanical difficulties. Bobby Duzlak moved up to second
with Ward's departure. Duzlak wasted little time on the restart and made the
pass by Al Blackburn for the lead by lap four.
Ed Bachand had a strong run going in the borrowed racecar of Kirk
Stanaway's. Bachand bowed out of the event on lap six as the car exploded
going down the backstretch. A close call on the restart as Danny Sanchez and
Butch Irwin made contact. Both drivers were able to continue without losing
any positions. The fifth yellow of the race came on lap nine as Pete DeFiglio
lost a right rear tire. Irwin tried to challenge Sanchez for third on the
restart but could not make the pass stick. Irwin's bid for third was
interrupted as Rob Yetman tried to challenge for fourth spot. Sanchez used a
lap ten restart to take over second and he quickly made a bid for the lead.
Duzlak drifted high on the track and Sanchez took command of the event. The
reason for Duzlak drifting high was apparent on the very next lap as his
right rear tire lost all its air.
Current point leader, Todd Goldstein jumped into fourth on the lap 14
restart. He would try and challenge Blackburn for third in the final stages
of the race but could not make the pass and would have to settle for fourth.
Sanchez was able to hang on and take the victory ahead of Irwin. Sanchez also
picked up a one thousand-dollar bonus from Vermeer for his efforts. Rob
Yetman rounded out the top five. Bob DiRuzzio won the Roll-Over Contest.
8-05 VERMEER SALES & SERVICE / T-NET TACONIC TECHNOLOGIES NIGHT MODIFIED
SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) ROB PITCHER, 2) John Hewitt, 3) Matt Quinn, 4) Dave
Leckonby, 5) J.R. Heffner, 6) Donnie Corellis, 7) Garry Waters, 8) Dave
Mosher, 9) David Sanchez, 10) Rich Ricci Jr, 11) Guy Sheldon, 12) Chip
Mitchell, 13) Dickie Larkin, 14) Todd Wilkinson, 15) Ronnie Johnson, 16)
Kenny Tremont Jr, 17) Ron Blake, 18) Steve Devine, 19) Jack Johnson, 20)
Maynard Forrette, 21) Mike King, 22) Chris Kokosa, 23) Chris Moore, 24) Mark
Fluery, 25) Jason Goff, 26) Tim Dwyer, 27) Russ Reckner, 28) Al McCoy
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) GEORGE MARCUS, 2) Bobby Knipe, 3) Art
Collins, 4) Danny Watson, 5) Mike Visconti, 6) Stan Jablonka, 7) Hawley
Smith, 8) Tony Fiearro, 9) Paul Gilardi, 10) Frank Harper, 11) Darral
Hulbert, 12) Jeff Watson, 13) Lorne Browe, 14) K.C. Goewey, 15) Don Miller,
16) Jay Casey, 17) Jason Tompkins, 18) Phil Arnold, 19) Ed Harkin, 20) Sparky
Lowe, 21) Jeff Carr, 22) Charlie Humes, 23) Mike Mason
IMCA MODIFIED SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) DON DENUE, 2) Chris Crews, 3) Jim
Rajczi, 4) Dan Galullo, 5) Pete Tucker, DNS Joe Fachini
STREET STOCK SUMMARY - (20 LAPS) - 1) DANNY SANCHEZ, 2) Butch Irwin, 3) Al
Blackburn, 4) Todd Goldstein, 5) Rob Yetman, 6) Jim Langenback, 7) Victor
Hopkins, 8) Dan Burl, 9) Ted Teal, 10) Adam Haas, 11) Tom Faxon, 12) Steve
Brownell, 13) Tom Brandt, 14) Spencer Hughes, 15) Paul Rogers, 16) Bob
Duzlak, 17) Bobby Blackburn, 18) Dave Streibel, 19) Robbie Speed, 20) Pete
Defiglio, 21) Ed Bachand, 22) Kevin Ward, 23) Paul LaRochelle, 24) Ricky
Duzlak
ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) KEVIN ARNOLD, 2) Dave Colwell, 3)
Phil DeFiglio, 4) Brian Keough, 5) Rick Spencer, 6) Walt Clark, 7) Phil Wood,
8) Lawrence Ball, 9) Jim Keough, 10) John Santolin, 11) Charlie Woodard, 12)
Tony Gale, 13) Geo. Stalker Jr, 14) John Danylicko, 15) Dan Humes, 16) Mike
Kratz
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) JOE DISTEFANO, 2) Robert Brown, 3) Earl
Soulier, 4) Lloyd Tomlin, 5) Ronald Johnson, 6) Ray Pierre Jr, 7) Jason
Dibello, 8) Jim O'Neil, 9) Chad Ritrovato, 10) Gary Ashley, 11) Dean Cushman,
12) Dan Crosby, 13) Matthew Jasmine, 14) Phil Decker Jr, 15) Kevin Dolan
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) -1) ANTHONY COTUGNO, 2) Wally Engel, 3) Tom
Sanchez Jr, 4) Mark Houston, 5) Keith Barlow, 6) Guy Hughes, 7) Chris
Streeter, 8) Bob Gibson, 9) Steven Roy, 10) Jacob Coons Jr, 11) Sid Smith,
12) Bruce Moffitt, 13) Brian Atwood, 14) Brian Sandstadt (DQ)
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) -1) RICH. SCHUMANN, 2) George Miles Jr, 3)
Jeff Douglas, 4) Randy Meyers, 5) Lloyd Fosby, 6) Lee Gallant, 7) Donald
Coon, 8) Philip Moffit, 9) Bruce Pecorella, 10) Bud Noble, 11) Paul
Handlowich, 12) David Hall, 13) Jim Hankey, 14) Dave Bayliss Jr
PURE STOCK "D" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) -1) BILL HUGHES, 2) Joe Mottoshiski, 3) Bob
Palmer, 4) Pete Wiegand, 5) Brian Tator, 6) Scott Kilmer, 7) Rich Douglass,
8) Marcus Tifft, 9) Fran Marchand, 10) Ryan Crellin, 11) Ken Scofield, 12)
Ronnie Jacobsen, 13) Richard Harkins