TREMONT ROCKETS TO 1ST 03 WIN, KNIPE SPARKLES IN SPORTSMAN MAIN
WEST LEBANON, NY- Lebanon Valley Speedway started off the Fourth of July Celebration a bit early by hosting a gigantic fireworks show on Saturday night. The capacity crowd saw Kenny Tremont Jr victorious in the 30-lap modified feature. Bobby Knipe came from last to first to win the 20-lap sportsman feature and Danny Sanchez picked up his second victory in five days in the 20-lap pro stock main event. Bill Lobdell was the winner of the rookie pro stock main event. A special thanks to St. Lawrence Cement, Capital Tractor and Yankee Trails for sponsoring this night of racing.
Eric Mack and Steve Hough led thirty-eight cars to the green flag in the 30-lap modified feature. Mack jumped into the early lead, but tagged the wall in turn three and fell back. Andy Bachetti also tagged the turn three wall on the first lap and was done for the night. Hough would inherit the lead for the restart. Kenny Tremont Jr. was already in fifth with his Emerick Associates-Freihofer Baking #115 by the second lap. Chris Moore has been a consistent top five performer each week in 2003. Tonight would be no different as he started to apply pressure to Hough for the lead as early as lap six.
The leaders caught the back of the pack by lap seven. The caution flag flew for the second time in the feature on lap nine with Hough, Moore, Sparky Lowe, Tremont and Rob Pitcher showing as your top five. CRASH! BOOM! BANG! That was how it sounded not only during the great fireworks presentation, but also on lap ten when almost half the field was involved in a wreck on the frontstretch. Several cars got turned upside down as the red flag flew, fortunately the only damage was to the racecars and not the racers. Moore took advantage of the restart to get around Hough for the lead.
Brett Hearn had suffered a left rear flat tire on the first lap of the race and had to go to the rear of the pack after changing the tire. He narrowly avoided the lap ten melee and was running eleventh on lap 12. At the halfway point of the feature it was still Moore leading, but Tremont was now second and Hough had dropped back to third. With just over a third of the race remaining the top two cars had pulled away from the rest of the field. Moore got some breathing room on lap 21 as Tremont got stuck behind a lapped car.
It was tough to now where to look in the waning laps of the race. Some great side by side action was happening throughout the top ten. Rich Ricci Jr was making his patented late race charge as he cracked the top five for the first time on lap 25. He had Hearn right on his back bumper as the top two cars were battling it out. Near disaster for the lead duo on lap 27 as a car detonated a motor right in front of them.
Tremont tried to make his move with two laps to go, but Moore held strong. Tremont made one last ditch effort going into turn one on the final lap and was able to make the pass stick and he took he first victory of the 2003 season. Moore had to settled for second with Matt Quinn third, Pitcher fourth and Ricci fifth. However a post race-bumping incident with Hearn saw Ricci dropped to 16th in the running order and moving Hearn to fifth.
Five caution flags slowed the 20-lap sportsman feature, four of which came out before halfway. The most serious wreck of the race came on lap five when the fourth place car of Kory Gurney got spun out in turn four while running fourth. One of the other cars in the incident was Roy Bridge. Ted Layton had taken the lead on the initial green flag and held it almost three-quarters of the event. Bobby Knipe got into the feature by virtue of winning the b-main and started last on the field. He was into the top five before halfway and was challenging Layton for the lead by lap 13.
Art Collins was looking for a feature win on his sponsors night as he was following Knipe through the pack and sat third by lap 14. Knipe took the lead on lap 15 with Collins following him passed Layton into second. Collins tried several times to get around Knipe but could not make a pass stick. He got one final shot as the caution flew for the final time setting up a one-lap shoot out for the victory. Knipe got a strong restart and motored to victory lane. Collins finished second, Layton a strong run in third, Willie Galm was fourth and Lorne Browe rounded out the top five.
Dan Blackburn was the early race leader in the 20-lap pro stock main event. He was able to hold off early advances by Paul LaRochelle and Robbie Speed to hang on to the lead. But just before the halfway point Blackburns car started to get a little loose coming off the corners which allowed the rest of the field to close in. Two caution flags slowed the race on laps nine and ten. The second caution was for Speed who spun while making a bid for the lead on Blackburn.
This allowed Danny Sanchez to move up into second place. Sanchez got by Blackburn on the restart and quickly motored away. Some great three-wide racing for fourth between Jim Langenback, Rob Yetman and Ed Bachand on lap 12. Langenback got the advantage over the other two and moved all the way up to second by lap 15. Yetman was able to move into third with two laps remaining, but no one could mount a serious challenge to Sanchez as he took home his second victory in the past five days at Lebanon Valley.
Normally the pure stock racers compete for trophies only, but Saturday night each pure stock feature winner received one hundred and fifty dollars. One hundred dollars came in memory of Henry Dickinson, a former pure stock competitor who passed away in the off season and fifty dollars came from St. Lawrence Cement. Feature winners in the pure stocks were Kory Sandstedt, Chris Stalker, Pete Wiegand and Mike Middleton.
ST. LAWRENCE CEMENT, CAPITAL TRACTOR &YANKEE TRAILS MODIFIED FEATURE (30 LAPS) 1. Kenny Tremont Jr., 2. Chris Moore, 3. Matt Quinn, 4. Rob Pitcher, 5. Brett Hearn
SPORTSMAN TOP FIVE SUMMARY- (20 LAPS)- 1. Bobby Knipe, 2. Art Collins, 3. Ted Layton, 4. Willie Galm, 5. Lorne Browe
PRO STOCK TOP FIVE SUMMARY (20 LAPS) 1. Danny Sanchez, 2. Jim Langenback, 3. Rob Yetman, 4. Dan Blackburn, 5. Paul LaRochelle
ROOKIE PRO STOCK FEATURE WINNER (10 LAPS) 1) Bill Lobdell
PURE STOCK #1 WINNER (8 LAPS) KORY SANDSTEDT
PURE STOCK #2 WINNER (8 LAPS) CHRIS STALKER
PURE STOCK #3 WINNER (8 LAPS) PETE WIEGAND
PURE STOCK #4 WINNER (8 LAPS) MIKE MIDDLETON
For a run down of all the finishes please visit www.lebanonvalley.com