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QUINN, KNIPE & SPEED BANK FIRST WINS OF ’04 AT LEBANON VALLEY



June 26, 2004

West Lebanon, NY- A capacity crowd was on hand Saturday night to see three drivers get to victory lane for the first time in 2004. Matt Quinn, breaking a string of bad luck won the 30-lap modified feature. An emotional Bobby Knipe stood in victory lane after the 20-lap sportsman feature dedicating the win to his late father. Robbie Speed also shook off some very poor luck the season to get to victory lane in the 20-lap pro stock feature. The rookie pro stock feature was won by Ronnie Jacobsen. Pure stock feature wins went to Mike Eichstedt, Randy Myers, Al Relyea and David Stickles. Lebanon Valley helped get an early jump on the Fourth of July celebrations with a gigantic fireworks display much to the delight of the huge crowd. A special thanks to our sponsors’ on the night; BERKSHIRE BANK and CAPITAL TRACTOR.

Matt Quinn took command of the 30-lap modified feature right at the start of the race and ran away. Only three caution periods slowed the event and none came after lap six. The most serious incident of the race came on lap six when several cars got together in turn four. Wayne Jelley took a hard hit into the outside wall and was done for the night. J.R. Heffner was also involved and dropped from the race as well. Both drivers were in the top five in the point standings coming into the race. Ron Dwyer and Rob Pitcher trailed Quinn early in the race. Rich Ricci Jr moved into second position on lap nine and started to hunt down Quinn. Donnie Corellis has had a great season to date in the Rifenburg #57. He started 12th in the feature and was into the top five by lap seven. At the halfway mark it was Quinn, Ricci, Corellis, Pitcher and Denny Soltis.

Slowly it appeared that Ricci was reeling in Quinn, but not quite quick enough. With five laps to go Ricci was right on Quinn’s rear decklid, but that is a close as he could get to the Lebanon Springs Excavating and CarWash #20. Quinn was quick to thank his crew and some of his competitors for helping him get to victory lane. Ricci finished had his best finish of the season in second. Corellis’s third place finish vaulted him into the lead of the overall point standings. Pitcher was fourth and Soltis was fifth. Brett Hearn came home sixth and Kenny Tremont had some rearend gear problems before the feature, but still finished ninth.

Kevin Lynch and Kim Lavoy led the sportsman to the green flag. Bobby Knipe in the Pendergast Roll-Off & Recovery #18 wasted no time getting to the front as he took the lead on lap three. Defending champion, Art Collins was no slouch either as he cracked the top five by lap four and into second by lap seven. Lavoy good run came to an end on lap nine when she got spun around in turn four. The middle portion of the race saw Collins try everything he could to get around Knipe. K.C. Goewey moved into third on lap 15 and got by Collins for second on lap 17. A couple of late race attempts to get by Knipe failed and Goewey had to settle for second. It was a very emotional victory lane for Knipe. He has dedicated this season in the memory of his father who passed away in the off season and he dedicated this win to him as well. Collins was third, Jeff Watson fourth and Jason Tompkins rounded out the top five. A driver that was back at the Valley Saturday night behind the wheel of a sportsman car was Chris Kokosa. He will be back for the season in the familiar red and white #00 that he raced a couple of seasons ago.

The pro stock drivers were complimented in a pre-race driver’s meeting about how well that had been driving this season. Apparently that went to their heads as six caution flew in this 20-lap race and left many cars with damage of some kind. The caution flew on the very first lap for two cars in turn one. The leader Jay Corbin got turned around in turn three on that same lap. Rob Yetman got a right rear flat tire colliding with the spinning Corbin and both cars suffered heavy sheet metal damage. When racing resumed Robbie Speed was now in front. Some close racing action caused last week’s winner, Scott Govertsen a flat tire on lap ten.

Paul LaRochelle got turned around on lap 12 while running third. Yetman made some contact with his car and suffered more sheet metal damage but continued on in third. A great three-way battle foe the lead was just starting to heat up a lap 18 when the final caution flag of the night came out. Speed was able to get a good restart and took home his first win of the season. Danny Sanchez was second, Yetman third, Bill Lobdell fourth and Jay Corbin was fifth.

Modified Results (30 Laps): 1) Matt Quinn, 2) Rich Ricci Jr, 3) Donnie Corellis, 4) Rob Pitcher, 5) Denny Soltis, 6) Brett Hearn, 7) Hector Stratton, 8) Eddie Marshall, 9) Kenny Tremont Jr, 10) Ron Dwyer, 11) Guy Sheldon, 12) Dave Leckonby, 13) Mike King, 14) Andy Bachetti, 15) John Hewitt, 16) John Alberti, 17) Brian Berger, 18) Russ Reckner, 19)Stanley Wetmore, 20) Steve Hough, 21) Charlie Humes, 22) John Ruchel, 23) Kyle Sheldon, 24) Wayne Figler, 25) Wes Powell, 26) Dan Humes, 27) Paul Gilardi, 28) Wayne Jelley, 29) J.R. Heffner, 30) Mel Schruffer

Sportsman Results (20 Laps): 1) Bobby Knipe, 2) K.C. Goewey, 3) Art Collins, 4) Jeff Watson, 5) Jason Tompkins, 6) Brian Sandstedt, 7) Hawley Smith, 8) Ryan Larkin, 9) Kyle Hoffman, 10) Frank Harper, 11) Walt McKay, 12) Kevin Lynch, 13) Kory Sandstedt, 14) Lorne Browe, 15) Whitey Slavin, 16) Carmon Carnibucci, 17) Poover Daley, 18) Greg DeCamp, 19) Rob Barile, 20) Earl Thitchener, 21) Mike Molloy, 22) Ed Harkin, 23) Kim LaVoy

Prostock Results (20 Laps): 1) Robbie Speed, 2) Danny Sanchez, 3) Rob Yetman, 4) Bill Lobdell Jr, 5) Jay Corbin, 6) Paul Rogers, 7) Chris Crews, 8) Jim Langenback, 9) Tom Brandt, 10) Buddy Hencke, 11) Scott Govertsen, 12) Frank Twing, 13) Rick Fosby, 14) Jeff Kelmel, 15) Paul LaRochelle, 16) Dan Blackburn, 17) Don Ely, 18) Jay Casey, 19) Frank Boucher

Rookie Results (10 Laps): 1) Ronnie Jacobsen, 2) Rick Dempsey, 3) Steve Hankle, 4) George Miles, 5) Pete Everett, 6) E.J. Legeyt, 7) Brian Keough, 8) Kevin Kennedy, 9) Mike Bungay, 10) Jim Keough, 11) Larry Megan, 12) John Santolin, 13) Jery Helms, 14) Mike Fachini, 15) Jeff Haas, 16) Ben Birtch, 17) Ron Johnson, 18) Bill Hammell

Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps): 1) Mike Eichstedt, 2) Chris Stalker, 3) Jay LaMountain, 4) Paul Harding, 5) Paul Handlowich, 6) Jeff Wilbur, 7) Joe Landry, 8) Sparky King, 9) Jeff Kuhnow, 10) Joe Chenail, 11) JoAnn Stevens, 12) Richard Roger, 13) Jason Casey, 14) Anthony Maddalla, 15)Mark Burke

Pure Stock #2 Results: 1) Richard Puff, 2) Dave Striebel, 3) Ed Hatch, 4) Shannon McDermott, 5) Mark Stevens, 6) Larry Ball, 7) Don Coon, 8) Matt Humes, 9) John Chapman, 10) Jay Kreutziger Jr, 11) Art Lafarty, 12) Eric Ofiesh, 13) Mike Grehl Jr, 14) Joe Walcott, 15) Randy Myers,

Pure Stock #3 Results: 1) Al Relyea, 2) Tom Harkins, 3) Jon Routhier, 4) Pete DeFiglio, 5) Bob Palmer, 6) Jason Casey, 7) Kevin Hilt, 8) Pete Wiegand, 9) Glenn Miller, 10) Rich Douglass, 11) Nick Hilt Jr, 12) Dan Crosby, 13) Ryan Coon, 14) Karl Castagna

Pure Stock #4 Results: 1) Dave Stickles, 2) Steve Hatch, 3) Jesse Murphy, 4) Tom Murphy, 5) Don Collins, 6) Eric Sbrega, 7) Robert Hammell, 8) Brian Houghtaling, 9) Dave Houser, 10) Don Kennedy, 11) Chrissy Hilt, 12) Tony Marino, 13)Ed Hubbard