HEFFNER, LARKIN AND GALM TAKE VALLEY CHECKERS , HEARN AND COLLINS CROWNED 2003 CHAMPIONS
By Ed & Betty Biittig
West Lebanon, NY- August 30, 2003- Topping off what had been a winless season on the high banks, J. R. Heffner of Averill Park, NY came away with the win in the Gable Auto Stores/J.H. Financial/Pepsi 30-lap Modified main event on Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway. Heffner missed doubling up in the win column on Saturday when he suffered a flat tire on his J. Colarusso No. 74 on lap 20 the 358-Mod event.
In the modified main Brett Hearn of Sussex, NJ finished third and came away with the Championship over Kenny Tremont who finished the event in sixth. “I was real conservative in the beginning of the race, said Hearn, I knew where I had to finish to win the title. These guys that work on this Gable car are great. They give me virtually a new car every week to race with.”
Will Galm was the winner of the Sportsman main event and Art Collins was crowned the 2003 Sportsman Championship for the second straight year.
In the 358-Modified event Dick Larkin came to victory lane for the win after the car of Rich Ricci, Jr. who was first at the checker, came up light at the scale. “Our car weighs what it’s supposed to weigh and that’s why we’re here right now” said Larkin in victory lane.
Pure Stock winners on the night were Tom Harkins, Pete Wiegand, Jason Casey and D. T. Pickard who picked up his first win of the season in the fourth Pure Stock event. The Rookie Pro Stock winner was Larry Megan. The Pro Stock winner was Rob Yetman for the fourth time this season.
Qualifying for the Modifieds was done through time trials by the request of sponsor, Jody Gable of Gable Auto Stores. It proved to be an exciting turn of events for Gable because his car the No. 1 driven by Brett Hearn was the fastest with a time of 20.085. The top twelve fastest were locked into a starting spot in the main event. A “B Main” for the Modifieds served to line up the remainder of the field of 28 cars.
Wayne Jelley as the winner of the “B Main”, picking up $300 from Jody Gable. It was a hard fought battle for second with Mike King coming away with $200 for his efforts. The top two finishes of the B Main also started the Modified Main in 13th and 14th.
The Gable Auto Stores/J.H. Financial/Pepsi Modified Main event was lined up by virtue of time trials and a B Main earlier in the night. Non-feature winners were lined up ahead of the other qualifiers. This put J. R. Heffner on the pole with Eddie Marshall and Chris Moore in third. With only one lap in the books the No. 88 Lapine & Sons Trucking car of Ron Dwyer spun in turn four when the cars of Moore and Leckonby collided ahead of him.
On the restart, Heffner took the lead with Marshall a close second. After 11 laps were completed the yellow flew again for the No. 20 of Matt Quinn with a left rear flat. This closed up the field and put Marshall on the inside of Heffner at the green. Heffner pulled into the lead, followed by Marshall, Leckonby, Bachetti and Pitcher as the top five. Point leaders Tremont and Hearn were sitting in eighth and ninth respectively. On the restart, Andy Bachetti came together with the No. 28 of Chris Moore in turn four. Bachetti ended up against the wall and Moore on the inside of turn four along the concrete barrier. Several other cars were collected behind them.
Tremont broke into the top five on lap 14 but that quickly changed when Hearn passed Tremont on the front stretch putting him back to sixth. Last week’s winner Hector Stratton was sitting seventh. A single file restart on lap 17 showed Heffner still in the lead, Marshall second and Rich Ricci, Jr. now third. Hearn continued his march to the front as he moved under Leckonby for fourth when the No. 88 went high in turn two. Hearn now challenged Ricci for third and got by him on the backstretch on lap 20. Ricci took the spot back on the front stretch and the two continued to battle for the position. Tremont was busy from his sixth place position trying to get by Dave Leckonby for fifth.
Hearn continued to try and get by Ricci but Ricci held his line denying Hearn the spot until the white flag lap when Hearn got under him on the backstretch. As they came to the line it was Heffner for the win followed by Marshall second, Hearn third, Ricci fourth and Leckonby fifth. This gave Hearn the 2003 Modified track title.
The Gable Auto Stores/J.H. Financial/Pepsi 358-Modified main event became eventful right from the start when the No. 959 of John Lutes, Jr. suffered a mechanical failure causing it to not take off on the start and several cars bunched up behind him. No serious damage was done due to all involved being able to correct the situation with some very creative driving.
With no laps complete J. R. Heffner took the lead at the green on the restart. The remainder of the event stayed green and Heffner was never seriously challenged until lap 20 when Rich Ricci, Jr. in the No. J7 took the lead as Heffner suffered a right rear flat on his No. 74. This put Dickie Larkin in the No. 39 in second followed by Brett Hearn in the Madsen No. 20, Andy Bachetti in the Coor’s Light No. 21 and Donnie Corellis in the Rifenburg No. 57 in fifth. This is how they came across the line but not how they came to victory lane as the Ricci car came up light at the scale giving Larkin win.
The Sportsman main event was the final race on Championship night on the high banks and the first lap of the event began similar to the first lap of the 358-Modified main. In turn four the No. 83 Advance Auto Parts car of Chad Pierce appeared to lose power as it came out of turn four and the entire field bunched up behind him. It took a good share of the cars out of the event, leaving only 20 cars sitting on the backstretch under red flag conditions.
On the restart, rookie, Kyle Hoffman of Averill Park, NY took the lead in the No. 16 Hoffman Carpentry car. By lap seven the No. 55 of Galm was challenging Hoffman but Kyle continued to hold his line. Hoffman’s car got a bit loose in the corners but he was able to fend off the challenges of Galm and the No. 22 of Jeff Watson for a few more laps. Bobby Knipe spun around on lap eleven. This brought out the yellow for the second time in the event. A single file restart with nine laps remaining saw Hoffman once again take the lead with Galm pressing in the second position. At the line on lap 14 in was a side-by-side battle between Hoffman and Galm but Galm was denied. Galm took the lead from Hoffman on the next circuit. With only four laps to go Jeff Watson took over the second place spot from Hoffman. On the final circuit Galm was leading followed by Watson, Harkins, Harper and Hoffman to complete the top five.
The Pro Stock event came to the green with 18 cars in the field. The early leader was Bill Lobdell, Jr. Don Ely’s No. 00 brought out the first yellow of the event and was pushed to the infield area. On the restart Lobdell and Duzlak fought for position and the No. 63 of Sanchez squeezed pasted four cars four wide for the lead. Point leader Paul LaRochelle was in second by lap three followed by Chris Crews and Yetman. On lap four Sanchez slid high in turn two and Rochelle slipped under for the lead. Duzlak dropped back to sixth. Robbie Speed sat right behind Yetman in fifth. For the next several laps Rochelle, Sanchez and Yetman battled for position. On lap eight, Sanchez and LaRochelle slid up the banking and Yetman quickly saw the opportunity and grabbed the lead. He extended his lead by the halfway mark with Sanchez chasing him in the runner up spot ahead of Paul LaRochelle. Sanchez began to chip away at Yetman’s lead. The lap car of Dave Blanchard slowed Yetman for just a moment on lap 17 but Sanchez was unable to gain ground on the leader. Two laps to go and it was still Yetman as the leader followed by Sanchez, Crews, LaRochelle, and Robbie Speed to complete the top five. The win tied him with Sanchez for wins on the season with four. Yetman sits third in points with only two more weeks remaining in the point battle for the Pro Stocks.
Qualifying event wins in the 358-Modifieds went to J. R. Heffner, Dickie Larkin, and Matt Quinn.
Sportsman qualifying event wins went to Whitey Slavin, Ryan Larkin, Chad Pierce, and Will Galm. The consolation win went to Hawley Smith.