MARSHALL BANKS FIRST VICTORY OF ’02 AT THE VALLEY

August 10, 2002, West Lebanon, NY-Eddie Marshall, from Pound Ridge, NY, took the victory in the 30-lap modified feature at Lebanon Valley Speedway Saturday night. In the sportsman division Jeff Carr picked up the 20-lap victory. Al Blackburn was victorious in the 20-lap pro stock main. Other feature winners on Saturday night included Jerry Helms and Bill Lobdell in the Rookie Pro Stocks. Ronnie Jacobsen, Pete Everett, George Miles and Jason Casey won the Pure Stock mains. Berkshire Bank and TNT Sales brought us the racing action on Saturday night.

Dave Leckonby took the lead at the start of the 30-lap modified feature with Andy Bachetti in second. Problems for Guy Sheldon on the second lap of the race as he got turned around in turn four. Brett Hearn made slight contact with Sheldon’s disabled car, but appeared to suffer little damage. The Marshall Oil #98 of Eddie Marshall moved into fourth on lap three. Rich Ricci Jr. moved into sixth on lap six. Bachetti got alongside Leckonby on lap 11 and the two made contact coming off turn four. Bachetti moved into the lead as Leckonby slowed with a left rear flat tire, which resulted in the second yellow flag of the event. While under caution Bachetti’s right rear tire went soft forcing him to give up the lead and go pitside for some new rubber. This handed the lead over to Marshall, with Denny Soltis now in the runner-up spot.

Hearn moved the Gable Motorsports #1 Budweiser car into third on the restart. Kenny Tremont Jr. cracked the top five with his Freihofer #115 just before the halfway point of the event. The caution flag flew again on lap 16 for a multi-car incident in turn one. The fans were on the feet as Soltis and Ricci went door to door for second and Tremont and Hearn were side by side for fourth. Tremont was able to motor passed Hearn into fourth on lap 17. All this side by side racing allowed Marshall to pull away from the pack. The battle for second got even better as Tremont now joined the battle and they were briefly three-wide. Ricci won the war for second on lap 21. Something broke in the rearend of Soltis’s car on lap 22 ending his strong run.

Ricci tried to close in on Marshall in the final stages of the race and was able to put his nose under him a couple of times. Marshall was in the fast lane and held off every challenge for his first victory on the 2002 season. Ricci had to settle for second Tremont third, Hearn fourth and Matt Quinn rounded out the top five.

The sportsman division has had their share of problems the last couple of weeks. They were much improved Saturday night with only three caution flags slowing the 20-lap feature. Jeff Carr took the lead early in the event looking for his second win of the season. Bobby Knipe moved into third on lap four with Roy Bridge right behind him in second. Knipe grabbed second on a lap seven restart. Carr had opened up a sizable advantage just before the halfway point. If Carr had a rearview mirror he would have seen a great battle for second through fifth.

Art Collins had to take evasive action at the start of the race and got below the berm in turn one. He was recovering nicely and was into the top ten by lap 14. The Beacon Transportation # 5J of Carr was untouchable on this night and he took his second win of the season. Knipe was second, Ed Harkins was third, Roy Bridge was fourth and K.C. Goewey rounded out the top five.

Dan Blackburn was the early leader in the 20-lap Pro Stock feature. Trouble for Frank Twing and Danny Sanchez on lap one as they crashed in turn two, both were able to continue. The pro stocks version of "the big one" came on the restart as at least seven cars crashed into turn two. Several of the contenders were involved in the incident. Chris Crews was now the race leader as the Blackburn brothers, Al and Dan, battled for second.

Problems for Dan Blackburn on lap four as the right rear tire came off his car. Al Blackburn took the lead on the restart. At the halfway point it was Al Blackburn, Bob Duzlak, Jim Langenback, Crews and Ed Bachand.

Sanchez recovered from his lap one incident to run fifth by lap 16. Crews turned around Langenback on lap 18. Crews was sent to the back of the pack for his role in the incident. Sanchez moved into second on the restart, but he could not catch the leader in time. Al Blackburn brought his Olay Fabrications #23 into victory lane for the second time in 2002. Sanchez had to settle for second, Bachand was third, Paul LaRochelle was fourth and Tom Brandt was fifth.

A four-cylinder enduro was held for the first time every at Lebanon Valley and Joe Duncan took the victory in that event. Lebanon Valley Speedway will be back in action next Saturday night with racing getting underway at 6:00

8-10 BERKSHIRE BANK / T & T SALES BODY KING MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Eddie Marshall, 2) Rich Ricci Jr, 3) Kenny Tremont Jr, 4) Brett Hearn, 5) Matt Quinn, 6) Rob Pitcher, 7) Mike King, 8) Dave Leckonby, 9) Andy Bachetti, 10) John Hewitt, 11) Guy Sheldon, 12) Ernie Palmer Jr, 13) Hawley Smith, 14) Maynard Forrette, 15) Mel Schruffer, 16) Russ Reckner, 17) J.R. Heffner, 18) Charlie Humes, 19) Denny Soltis, 20) John Alberti, 21) Chris Moore, 22) Steve Devine

SPORTSMAN RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Jeff Carr, 2) Bobby Knipe, 3) Ed Harkin, 4) Roy Bridge, 5) K.C. Goewey, 6) Lorne Browe, 7) Mike Keeler, 8) Jeff Watson, 9) Art Collins, 10) Don Miller, 11) Bob Matthews, 12) Mike Mason, 13) Whitey Slavin, 14) Ryan Larkin, 15) John Hotchkiss, 16) Earl Thitchener, 17) Frank Harper, 18) Stan Lemiesz, 19) Walt McKay, 20) Dan Humes, 21) K. C. McCoy, 22) Dave Tanguay, 23) Ted Layton, 24) Ryan Hotchkiss, 25) Will Galm

PRO STOCK RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Al Blackburn, 2) Danny Sanchez, 3) Ed Bachand, 4) Paul LaRochelle, 5) Tom Brandt, 6) Victor Hopkins, 7) Frank Twing, 8) Jason DiBello, 9) Jim Langenback, 10) Chris Crews, 11) Brian Keough, 12) Bob Duzlak Jr, 13) Adam Haas, 14) Robbie Speed, 15) Danny Burl, 16) Dan Blackburn, 17) Don Ely, 18) Rob Yetman, 19) Rick Spencer, 20) Rick Fosby

ROOKIE "A" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jery Helms, 2) Mark Forrest, 3) Jerry Wright, 4) Jim Cronk, 5) Ray Hall Jr, 6) Mike Fachini, 7) Ben Britch, 8) Jim Keough, 9) John Santolin

ROOKIE "B" RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Bill Lobdell, 2) Charlie Woodard, 3) Ralph Hotchkiss, 4) Kim LaVoy, 5) Bill Hammell, 6) Jay Corbin, 7) Henry Warner, 8) Jim Hankle, 9) Fran Marchand, 10) Joe Mabb Jr

PURE STOCK #1 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Ronny Jacobsen, 2) Jim Fachini, 3) Rich Douglass, 4) Jay Martin, 5) John Denue, 6) Michael Middleton, 7) Mike Eichstedt, 8) Nick Hilt Jr, 9) Ronald Johnson, 10) Chris Hutnik, 11) Marcus Tifft, 12) John Fachini, 13) Todd Pelkey, 14) Dave Houser, 15) Ed Hubbard

PURE STOCK #2 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Pete Everett, 2) Michael Davis, 3) Dave Shepard, 4) Jim O'Neil, 5) John Rivers Jr, 6) Earl Soulier Jr, 7) Mark Huston, 8) Tom Harkins, 9) Mark Burke, 10) John Chapman, 11) Larry Ball, 12) Ryan Hover, 13) Chris Stalker, 14) Eric Sbrega, 15) Don Coon

PURE STOCK #3 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) George Miles Jr, 2) D.T. Pickard, 3) Pete DeFiglio, 4) Jim Hankey, 5) Bob Palmer, 6) Peter Wiegand, 7) Brian Sandstedt, 8) Randy Myers, 9) Kory Sandstadt, 10) Keith Barlow, 11) Ron Hapeman, 12) Michael Dianda, 13) Ron Tritschler, 14) Mike Grehl Jr, 15) Kevin Dolan

PURE STOCK #4 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jason Casey, 2) Dave Atwater, 3) Bob Burl, 4) Ryan Coon, 5) Chris Streeter, 6) Dan Crosby, 7) Shannon McDermott, 8) Chrissy Hilt, 9) Bob Copeland, 10) Steve Hatch, 11) David Stickles, 12) Bob Chenette, 13) Poncho Hankey, 14) Pud Noble

FOUR CYLINDER ENDURO RESULTS (15 LAPS) - 1) Joe Duncan, 2) Phil DeFiglio, 3) Tom Delaney, 4) Mike Gonyea, 5) J. Duncan, 6) Steve Ryan, 7) SG Johnson, 8) Chris Stalker, 9) Jim Nichols, 10) Chris Gudath, 11) Marty Poole, 12) Jim Duncan, 13) Ray Chadwich, 14) Jeremy Curley, 15) Jeff Walter (DNS)