Tracks: Points race heats up as Tremont takes win at Lebanon Valley
28 August 2000
WEST LEBANON, NY- A capacity crowd was on hand Saturday night to see Kenny
Tremont pick up his sixth modified victory of the season. The 358-modifieds
were also on hand and Todd Wilkinson was the winner of their feature. Art
Collins won his fifth sportsman feature of the season. Adam Haas was the
winner of the 20-lap Street Stock feature. Berkshire Bank and TNT Sales
brought us all the great racing action
Trouble began right at the start of the 30-lap modified feature Saturday
night as Jason Goff got turned around in turn three. Matt Quinn, John Hewitt,
J.R. Heffner and Guy Sheldon were all involved in the wreck. While under
caution for that incident current point leader, Rich Ricci Jr, went pitside
with a left front flat tire. Kenny Tremont was able to miss the melee and was
running third by lap one. When green flag racing resumed Mark Fluery was in
command of the event. More problems for the point leader on lap four as Ricci
went pitside with magneto problems. The crew would be able to replace the
magneto and Ricci salvaged a fifteenth place finish. Several more cautions in
the early going kept bunching up the field for restarts. Chris Moore looking
to back up last week's victory with another strong run moved up to fourth on
a lap six restart.
Moore was able to take third from Tremont after a lap seven restart.
Pitcher would try and pressure Fluery again on lap nine. The caution came out
again on lap ten when Chris Kokosa lost a left rear tire going down the
backstretch. The restart would see the most serious incident of the night.
The field got bunched up on the restart and Ronnie Johnson hit the pit
opening on the outside of turn four. His car ricochet off the outside into
Matt Quinn's car and Quinn rolled down the frontstretch. Quinn's car was
demolished, but his was not injured. Tremont was able to get around Pitcher
for second on the restart and he quickly set his sights on Fluery. Tremont
was able to take the lead as the field completed half of the event.
Heffner recovered nicely from his early race problems to run sixth by lap
17. Donnie Corellis had something go south in the motor department and
started fading on lap 18. Tremont was able to open up a full straightaway
over Fluery by lap 21. Heffner made the pass around Dickie Larkin for fifth
on lap 24. While first was already decided Pitcher and Moore put on a good
run for the third place in the final stages of the race. The two raced side
by side with Pitcher holding the advantage at the end. Tremont was able to
hold on for his sixth victory of the season. Fluery has his strongest run of
the season with a second place performance. Pitcher was third, Moore fourth
and Heffner rounded out the top five.
The point race really tightened up with Tremont winning and Ricci having
problems. Going into the race Ricci had a forty-seven-point advantage over
Tremont. The gap is now only fifteen points going into the final point race
next Saturday night.
The 358-modifieds were on hand Saturday night and they ran a 24-lap
feature. Wes Powell led the early portion of the race with Lance Harting in
tow. Tremont was not able to fire in the pits and needed a tow, which
relegated him to the rear for the start. He was able to recover quickly and
was up to 13th by lap five. Guy Sheldon was able to take the top spot after a
lap five restart. J.R. Heffner had a strong run in the first half of the race
and had made it all the way up to second on lap six. Todd Wilkinson was
charging hard as well and took second away from Heffner on lap nine.
Problems for Harting on lap 13 as his car went up in a ball of flames.
Wilkinson was able to get around Sheldon for the lead on lap 16. Tremont
would get as far as seventh by the end of the race. Rich Ricci Jr. and
Tremont came into this event tied for the point lead. The race was double
points and Ricci was able to finish the race sixth. Another driver that had a
strong run was Tony Paes who had a late race charge to finish third. With the
victory Wilkinson was able to take over the point lead with two events
remaining. The 358-modifieds will end their season with the 100-lap Race of
Kings on September 9th.
Seeing as the modifieds and street stocks had a rather uneventful race it
was up to the sportsman to have a bad night. John Hotchkiss and Charlie Humes
started the race on the front row for the 20-lap feature. The two got stuck
together on the start and wound up in the turn one wall. The restart was not
much better as Roy Bridge got spun around on the frontstretch. The third
caution of the event lap two made the officals decide to make the restart
single file. Mike Mason was the early race leader but Art Collins was coming
fast. Collins wasted little time with Mason and took the lead on a lap five
restart.
Mason would spend the reminder of the race in the runner-up position
holding off the advances of Lorne Browe. He got some help from Hawley Smith
who was able to challenge Browe from time to time. The only change in the top
five in the last half of the race was Sparky Lowe was able to take over fifth
from Jeff Carr by the end of the race. Collins was untouchable and was able
to open a full straightaway lead by the end of the race for his fifth win of
the season. Mason had a very good runner-up finish, with Browe third, Smith
fourth and Lowe fifth.
Ed Bachand held the lead for almost three-quarters of the 20-lap street
stock feature. Trouble in the race early for Dan Burl as he came to a
standstill on the frontstretch. Todd Goldstein had the lead in the overall
standings going into the feature. Misfortunate hit early as he went pitside
under the caution for a flat tire and he would never be a factor in the
event. Bachand was able to hold off the advances of Paul LaRochelle on the
restart. Ricky Duzlak and Adam Haas ran door to door for third on lap four
with Duzlak taking the advantage. Trouble for last week's winner, Jim
Lagenback got turned around in turn four on lap five but continue without
bringing out the caution flag. Haas began to make his charge to the front by
lap six as he ran third. He was able to get around LaRochelle the next lap to
take over the runner-up position.
Rob Yetman and Steve Brownell came together in turn two and brought out
the caution on lap eight. Ricky Duzlak applied pressure to Haas on the
restart, but could not make the pass. Al Blackburn had a strong run going and
sat fourth at the halfway point of the race. Early race challenger,
LaRochelle, exited the event on lap ten. Some great racing at the front of
this event as the top three cars ran nose to tail. The final caution of the
race came out on lap 14 which set-up a shootout for the win. Haas got a great
run on the restart and was able to get around Bachand for the lead. Bachand
would fade quickly and finish just outside the top ten. Ricky Duzlak was able
to close the gap on Haas but was never able to make a serious bid for the
lead. When the checkered flag flew Haas crossed the line first with Duzlak
second, Blackburn third, Sanchez fourth and Bubba Tanner rounded out the top
five.
8-26 BERKSHIRE BANK / T-N-T BODY KING MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) KENNY
TREMONT JR, 2) Mark Fluery, 3) Rob Pitcher, 4) Chris Moore, 5) J.R. Heffner,
6) Dickie Larkin, 7) David Sanchez, 8) Jason Goff, 9) Maynard Forrette, 10)
Steve Devine, 11) Donnie Corellis, 12) Russ Reckner, 13) John Hewitt, 14)
John Tucker, 15) Rich Ricci Jr, 16) Chris Kokosa, 17) Guy Sheldon, 18) John
Lutes Jr, 19) John Royal, 20) Ronnie Johnson, 21) Matt Quinn, 22) Tim Dwyer,
23) Al McCoy, 24) Dave Leckonby, 25) Dave Mosher, 26) Mike Molloy
358 MODIFIED SUMMARY (24 LAPS) - 1) TODD WILKINSON, 2) Guy Sheldon, 3) Tony
Paes, 4) Hector Stratton, 5) J.R. Heffner, 6) Rich Ricci Jr., 7) Kenny
Tremont Jr., 8) Dave Leckonby, 9) Wes Powell, 10) Lee Gagliardi, 11) Ronnie
Johnson, 12) Sparky Lowe, 13) Rick Mill, 14) Jerry Pennock, 15) Jason
Herrington, 16) Todd Morey, 17) Mark Pullen, 18) Jeremy Markle, 19) Dave
Baranowski, 20) Rick Davis, 21) Lance Harting, 22) Denny Young Jr., 23) John
Alberti, 24) Paul Luskin
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) ART COLLINS, 2) Mike Mason, 3) Lorne Browe,
4) Hawley Smith, 5) Sparky Lowe, 6) Jeff Carr, 7) Bobby Knipe, 8) Roy Bridge,
9) K.C. Goewey, 10) George Marcus, 11) Stan Jablonka, 12) Frank Harper, 13)
Jay Casey, 14) Carmon Carnibucci, 15) Jason Tompkins, 16) Rusty Granacker,
17) Mike Visconti, 18) Jeff Watson, 19) Darral Hulbert, 20) Charlie Humes,
21) John Hotchkiss, 22) Mark Flach Jr, 23) Phil Arnold, 24) Tony Fiearro, 25)
Don Miller, 26) Paul Gilardi
STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1)ADAM HAAS, 2) Ricky Duzlak, 3) Al
Blackburn, 4) Danny Sanchez, 5) Bubba Tanner, 6) Brian Wilber, 7) Robbie
Speed, 8) Ed Bachand, 9) Ted Teal, 10) Pete DeFiglio, 11) Todd Goldstein, 12)
Rob Yetman, 13) Tom Brandt, 14) Steve Brownell, 15) Jeff Kelmel, 16) Paul
Rogers, 17) Jim Langenback, 18) Joe Humet, 19) Paul LaRochelle, 20) Don Ely,
21) Bob Duzlak, 22) Earl Mellan, 23) Dan Burl
ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) GEORGE STALKER JR, 2) Kevin
Arnold, 3) Mike Fachini, 4) Brian Keough, 5) Charlie Woodard, 6) Dan Humes,
7) Tony Gale, 8) Lawrence Ball, 9) Rick Fosby, 10) E.J. LeGeyt, 11) Dave
Colwell, 12) Phil DeFiglio
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) JACOB COONS, 2) Randy Meyers, 3) Jeff
Douglas, 4) Jay Martin, 5) Art Lafferty, 6) Mark Houston, 7) Darryl Baker, 8)
Phil Decker Jr, 9) Peter Robinson, 10) Jim O'Neil, 11) Brian Atwood, 12) Mike
Saglimbeni, 13) Ken Scofield, 14) Eric Harper, 15) David Hall
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) -1) GEORGE MILES JR, 2) Tom Sanchez Jr, 3)
Jon Routhier, 4) Wally Engel, 5) Marcus Tifft, 6) Anthony Cotugno, 7) Ray
Pierre Jr, 8) Keith Barlow, 9) Bruce Moffitt, 10) Donald Coon, 11) Ron
Hapeman, 12) Gary Ashley, 13) Chrissy Hilt, 14) Doug Moore, 15) Chad
Ritrovato, 16) Paul Handlowich
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) -1) JIM HANKEY, 2) Richard Harkins, 3) Ronald
Johnson, 4) Robert Brown, 5) Earl Soulier, 6) Bruce Pecorella, 7) Brian
Sandstadt, 8) Joe DiStefano, 9) Sid Smith, 10) Tom Meltz, 11) Lloyd Fosby,
12) Dean Cushman, 13) Shawn Dixon, 14) Matthew Jasmine, 15) Steve Hatch, 16)
Charlie Rose, DQ) Jason Dibello
PURE STOCK "D" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) -1) RON TRITSCHLER, 2) Ronnie Jacobsen, 3)
Fran Marchand, 4) Philip Moffit, 5) Bill Hughes, 6) Rich Douglass, 7) Ryan
Crellin, 8) Brian Tator, 9) Bob Palmer, 10) Rich. Schumann, 11) Scott Kilmer,
12) Pete Wiegand, 13) Joe Mottoshiski, 14) Bob Gibson