DAVE LECKONBY SNAPS UP FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON AT LEBANON VALLEY
SPORTSMAN CHECKERS TO KOKOSA
By Ed & Betty Biittig
West Lebanon, NY July 24, 2004- Dave Leckonby of Averill Park, NY, grabbed the lead from Mel Schruffer on the back stretch on the first lap of the 30-lap feature, and held off the challenges of Donnie Corellis after two late race yellows to record his first win of the 2004 season.
Leckonby was ecstatic in victory lane and thank a number of people for getting him there.
“I don’t think the fans realize that the crews on these cars work night and day and my team worked 24-hour shifts to get me here tonight. Ken Tremont, Sr. was and that team was a big part too, said Leckonby in victory lane. The speedway was fantastic tonight.”
Snap On Tools sponsored the exciting night of racing on the high banks and presented each winner with a Snap On racing jacket.
After returning to racing at Lebanon Valley this season, Chris Kokosa was able to pull off the win in the Sportsman division, his first in five years on the high banks. “Lebanon Valley is definitely home to me and I thank my wife, Bonnie who is the inspiration that keeps me racing, said Kokosa as he celebrated with his team.
Pro Stock winner Jim Langenback said, it’s about time” when announcer Dan Martin remarked that it had taken him a long time this season to get his first win. Langenback said later that this was the latest in the season he had ever gone without a win.
Larry Megan was the winner in the Rookie Pro Stock feature for the fourth time this season. Winners in Pure Stock #1 Jason Casey, Pure Stock #2 Chrissy Hilt, Pure Stock #3 Pete Wiegand, & Pure Stock #4 Steve Hatch.
The Snap On 30-lap Modified main event came to the green flag with Mel Schruffer and John Hewitt on the front row. Schruffer jumped into the lead but by the time the front running cars were on the backstretch, Dave Leckonby had passed Schruffer for the lead. Leckonby pulled away from the field with Schruffer still holding onto second, several car lengths behind.
Leckonby stretched out his lead and was in lap traffic by lap nine. On lap 11, the first caution of the event flew when the No. 55 of Mike King and the No. 42 of Guy Sheldon banged nerf bars in turn two, sending King spinning. King went to the pits for attention from his crew but was done for the night. Sheldon remained on the track.
The caution put Schruffer along side Leckonby for the restart with Donnie Corellis and Chris Whitehead in row two. Schruffer slipped up the bank in turn one and Corellis grabbed second. Point leader, Hearn was now ninth and Tremont had worked his way to 14th from his last place starting position having started there because he was forced to jump into his back up car.
With ten laps remaining Leckonby was still flying high ahead of the second place runner, Corellis as the rest of the field spread out around the speedway.
The final caution flew with three laps to go, closing up the field in single file formation. The yellow flew for Denny Soltis who stopped on the front stretch. The question now was, could Leckonby hold of the powerful Rifenburg Construction sponsored No. 57 of Donnie Corellis?
On the restart Corellis put the nose of his No. 57 under Leckonby’s No. 88 in turn one but Leckonby was able to prevail. As the checker came down on the final circuit it was still Leckonby followed by Corellis, Whitehead, JR Heffner and Rich Ricci, Jr.
Heat wins in Modifieds went to Mel Schruffer, John Hewitt, Matt Quinn and JR Heffner.
Chris Kokosa led the Sportsman main event to the green. With only two laps in the books, the yellow flag flew for the No. 25 of Frank Harper when it got sideways on the front stretch and flipped over twice. Also collected in the incident was last week’s winner, Lorne Browe. Harper was not injured.
Kokosa led on the restart with Alan Hotaling running second, followed by defending track champion, Art Collins. By the time the leaders reached the fourth turn, another yellow flew as the No. 9 of Harkins and the No. 68 of Collins tangled. Collins ended up against the fourth turn wall with serve damage to the No. 68.
The green flew for the restart and Kokosa was still the leader only to be challenged by Hotaling briefly in turn one. Hotaling remained second, Ryan Larkin was now in third, Bobby Knipe fourth and 2003 Rookie Kyle Hoffman sitting in fifth.
With five laps remaining in the 20-lap event, Knipe got around Larkin for third. This left Larkin and Hoffman fighting for fourth spot. Two laps to go and Larkin slid to the high side of turn four allowing Hoffman to move into fourth.
Kokosa held on for the win with Hotaling recording his best finish to date in second, followed by Knipe third, Hoffman fourth and KC Goewey in fifth. Hotaling was disqualified in a post race inspection, moving everyone up one position.
Sportsman heat wins went to Jeff Watson, Art Collins, and Alan Hotaling.
In Pro Stock action, Kevin Arnold led the field to the green and held the lead until lap five when Danny Sanchez got under him on the backstretch.
With only six laps on the lap counter, starter Rich Rosa signaled the field for a single file restart. Sanchez led once again and started to pull away from the field. The race for second was a battle between, Arnold, Langenback and Speed.
At the midway point, Danny Sanchez suddenly dropped to the inside of the backstretch giving the lead to Langenback. Langenback stretched his lead to a comfortable margin between himself and Robby Speed. Paul La Rochelle and Bill Lobdell hit the first turn wall bringing out the yellow. This put Robby Speed on the rear bumper of Langenback.
Langenback held strong on the front and beat Robby Speed to the checker for his first win of the season. Govertsen was second, and Robby Speed third.
Two Pro Stock heats determined the lineup and the winners were Scott Govertsen and Bill Lobdell, Jr.
Lebanon Valley swings back into action tomorrow, Sunday July 25 when the rained out /rescheduled World of Outlaw show will race on the high banks along with the Modifieds.
Next Saturday night, July 31st, Emerick Associates will sponsor a $3000 to win 40-lap Modified main event along with Pro Stock and Pure Stock bonuses and a Kid’s Pit Party.
7-24 SNAP-ON TOOLS MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1 Dave Leckonby, 2 Donnie Corellis, 3 Chris Whitehead, 4 J.R. Heffner, 5 Rich Ricci Jr, 6 Brett Hearn, 7 Hector Stratton, 8 Wayne Jelley, 9 Andy Bachetti, 10 Matt Quinn, 11 Kenny Tremont Jr, 12 Eddie Marshall, 13 Mel Schruffer, 14 Ron Dwyer, 15 John Alberti, 16 Tom Sanchez Jr, 17 Stanley Wetmore, 18 Guy Sheldon, 19 Steve Hough, 20 Dave McFeeters, 21 Wayne Figler, 22 Kyle Sheldon, 23 John Ruchel, 24 Rob Pitcher, 25 Skippy Fox, 26 Denny Soltis, 27 Wes Powell, 28 Mike King, 29 John Hewitt, 30 Brian Berger
SPORTSMAN RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1 Chris Kokosa, 2 Bobby Knipe, 3 Kyle Hoffman, 4 K.C. Goewey, 5 Ryan Larkin, 6 Carmon Carnibucci, 7 Jason Tompkins, 8 Kory Sandstedt, 9 Ed Harkin, 10 Poover Daley, 11 J.R. Delvechio, 12 Rob Barile, 13 Kim LaVoy, 14 Chad Pierce, 15 Brian Sandstedt, 16 Mike Mason, 17 Wayne Keyes, 18 Lorne Browe, 19 Frank Harper, 20 Hawley Smith, 21 Art Collins, 22 Kevin Lynch, 23 Jeff Watson
PRO STOCK RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1 Jim Langenback, 2 Scott Govertsen, 3 Robbie Speed, 4 Chris Crews, 5 Jay Casey, 6 Rob Yetman, 7 Jay Corbin, 8 Bill Lobdell Jr, 8 Lou Gancarz, 9 Paul LaRochelle, 10 Jeff Kelmel, 12 Tom Brandt, 13 Henry Warner, 14 Kevin Arnold, 15 Buddy Hencke, 16 Don Ely, 17 Danny Sanchez, 18 Paul Rogers
ROOKIE PRO STOCK RESULTS (10 LAPS) - 1 Larry Megan, 2 Rick Dempsey, 3 George Miles, 4 Steve Hankle, 5 Brian Keough, 6 Jeff Haas, 7 Pete Everett, 8 Ronnie Jacobsen, 9 Kevin Kennedy, 10 E.J. Legeyt, 11 John Santolin, 12 Jim Keough, 13 Ron Johnson, 14 Jery Helms, 15 Mike Fachini, 16 Jim Cronk
PURE STOCK #1 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1 Jason Casey, 2 Ed Hatch, 3 Scott Kilmer, 4 Don Collins, 5 Larry Ball, 6 John Chapman, 7 Sparky King, 8 Dave Houser, 9 Randy Myers, 10 Kevin Hilt, 11 Robby Ketzer Jr, 12 Richard Puff
PURE STOCK #2 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1 Chrissy Hilt, 2 Matt Humes, 3 Don Kennedy, 4 Joe Chenail, 5 Jesse Murphy, 6 Robert Hammell, 7 Don Coon,8 Karl Castagna, 9 Jay Kreutziger Jr, 10 Dave Reichert
PURE STOCK #3 RESULTS (8LAPS) - 1 Pete Wiegand, 2 Pete DeFiglio, 3 Jon Routhier, 4 Al Relyea, 5 Jason Casey, 6 Bob Palmer, 7 Tom Harkins, 8 Mike Eichstedt, 9 Nick Hilt Jr, 10 Jay LaMountain, 11 Dan Crosby, 12 Mark Burke, 13 Glenn Miller
PURE STOCK #4 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1 Steve Hatch, 2 Paul Harding, 3 Ryan Coon, 4 Shannon McDermott, 5 Joe Landry, 6 Richard Roger, 7 Anthony Maddalla, 8 Eric Ofiesh, 9 Dave Stickles, 10 Joe Walcott, 11 Brian Hyserman Jr.