HEARN, BACHETTI, COLLINS & LANGENBACK ALL WINNERS AT LEBANON VALLEY

July 20, 2002 WEST LEBANON, NY- A huge crowd was on hand at Lebanon Valley Speedway Saturday for RIFENBURG night. Those on hand witnessed Brett Hearn visit victory lane in the 30-lap modified feature. The 358-modifieds were on hand once again in ‘02 at the Valley and that 24-lap feature went to Andy Bachetti. Art Collins was victorious in the 20-lap sportsman feature and Jim Langenback was in victory lane once again in the 20-lap Pro Stock main.

Sparky Lowe took command of the 30-lap modified feature at the green flag and held the lead for nearly ten laps. Chris Moore made a great save on the frontstretch on lap four and prevented a huge wreck from happening. Rich Ricci Jr’s night came to an abrupt end on lap nine as the yoke on the transmission broke. Donnie Corellis took his Rifenburg #57 into the lead on the restart. J.R. Heffner and Matt Quinn made incidental contact on lap ten, which resulted in Quinn making heavy contact with the turn four wall. Andy Bachetti was up to fourth by lap ten with Brett Hearn right behind him in fifth. Two laps later Bachetti moved his Coors Light #21 passed Maynard Forrette into third. The top five in the running order at the halfway point was Corellis, Lowe, Bachetti, Hearn and Kenny Tremont Jr.

Corellis looked very strong up on the point and had opened up a half straightaway lead before another caution on lap 16. Lowe would begin to feel the pressure from Bachetti for second on lap 16. Hearn joined the fray on lap 18 and quickly worked his way past both into the runner-up position. This side by side racing allowed Tremont to join Lowe and Bachetti in a three-wide battle for third on lap 19. Tremont would gain the upper hand for third on lap 20 while Hearn was beginning to reel in the leader. Hearn was able to get his Budweiser #1 into the lead by lap 21 and he quickly checked out from the rest of the pack. Eddie Marshall moved his Marshall Oil #98 into fifth on lap 23. Tremont moved his Emerick Associates #115 into second on lap 25.

The only thing that slowed Hearn in the final stages was lapped traffic. Hearn narrowly avoided disaster with a couple of laps remaining when a lapped car slid into his path. But Tremont was too far back to have a shot and Hearn picked up his second win in a row at the Valley. For Hearn it was career victory 590. Tremont had to settle for second, Corellis was third, Bachetti finished fourth and Marshall was fifth.

Lucas Baker was the early race leader in the 24-lap 358-modified feature. Andy Bachetti used a lap four restart to move from fourth into second. He took the lead from Baker on lap six and would never look back. Rich Ricci Jr duplicated Bachetti’s early move on a lap nine restart to vault from fourth to second. Right behind him there was a great three-way battle for third between Donnie Corellis, Baker and Kenny Tremont Jr. Corellis would hold third by the halfway point of the event. Brett Hearn worked his way up to sixth by lap 15. Tremont grabbed third on lap 16. The 358-modified feature winner two weeks ago was Matt Quinn. Things didn’t work out quite the same this week as he retired from the event on lap 17

Bachetti was the class of the field on this night and easily cruised home for the victory. Ricci and Tremont were second and third respectively .The closet battle in the final stages was for fourth between Corellis and Hearn. Corellis was able to hang on for fourth with Hearn having to settle for fifth.

Problems right at the start of the 20-lap sportsman feature caused the red flag to be flown with no laps completed. Twelve cars were involved in a pileup in turn one. When racing resumed Walt McKay was the race leader. Several multi-car incidents on lap four forced speedway officials to go single file early for the second time in three weeks. Art Collins had his St. Lawrence Cement #68 dialed in Saturday night. He had worked his way into the top five on the second lap and into third before the first lap four caution. Collins grabbed the lead on the second lap four restart. Mike Keeler moved into third on lap five and into second by lap seven. Bobby Knipe moved into third just before halfway.

K.C. Goewey dropped from the event on lap 12. Rookie driver, Ryan Larkin had a strong run in the feature, He was involved in one of those early race incidents but was back into the top five by lap 16. Collins took home the victory with Keeler in second. Knipe held off Roy Bridge in the final stages on the race for third and Larkin rounded out the top five.

One of the best features of the night was the 20-lap Pro Stock main. Everywhere you looked the cars were running two-wide battling lap after lap. Paul LaRochelle led from the start of the race and appeared to be headed to victory lane. He had to hold off early challenges from Danny Sanchez and Bob Duzlak. Dan Blackburn spun while running in the top five but he was able to continue with no caution necessary. Jim Langenback was looking to add another win to his season and was up to third by lap 11. Rob Yetman slowed suddenly on the backstretch on lap 14 and dropped out on the top ten.

The car appeared to come back to life, but he had already dropped to the tail of the field. He recovered nicely to move up to sixth by the end of the event. Langenback moved into second on lap 13, which set up a fantastic finish! LaRochelle and Langenback raced door to door for the in the final laps. Langenback was able to grab the advantage with one lap to go. LaRochelle tried to make a pass on the backstretch and the two made contact sending LaRochelle into the backstretch wall. The incident also collected up last week’s winner, Al Blackburn. There was a restart with one lap remaining but Langenback held on for the win. In victory lane Langenback credited Denny and Chris Soltis for the strong motor that they build for his Advance Auto Parts #54L. Duzlak was second, Adam Haas third, Sanchez fourth and Ed Bachand rounded out the top five.

7-20 RIFENBURG CONSTRUCTION MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Brett Hearn, 2) Kenny Tremont Jr, 3) Donnie Corellis, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Eddie Marshall, 6) Chris Moore, 7) Sparky Lowe, 8) Maynard Forrette, 9) Hector Stratton, 10) J.R. Heffner, 11) Dave Leckonby, 12) Stanley Wetmore, 13) Paul Gilardi, 14) Guy Sheldon, 15) Rob Pitcher, 16) Ernie Palmer Jr, 17) John Alberti, 18) Steve Devine, 19) Hawley Smith, 20) Ron Blake, 21) Dave McFeeters, 22) Mel Schruffer, 23) Charlie Humes, 24) Ron Cartwright Sr, 25) Mike Ricci, 26) Denny Soltis, 27) Matt Quinn, 28) Rich Ricci Jr, 29) Mike King, 30) Russ Reckner, 31) Jason Goff

358 MODIFIED RESULTS (24 LAPS) - 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Rich Ricci Jr, 3) Kenny Tremont Jr, 4) Donnie Corellis, 5) Brett Hearn, 6) Lucas Baker, 7) J.R. Heffner, 8) Wayne Jelley, 9) Eddie Marshall, 10) Guy Sheldon, 11) Jason Herrington, 12) Ted Teal, 13) Wes Powell, 14) Denny Young Jr, 15) Rich Salisbury, 16) Stan Lemiesz, 17) Dave Baranowski, 18) Donnie Ackner, 19) Matt Quinn, 20) Ken Baker, 21) Ron Cartwright Jr, 22) Danny Watson, 23) John Lutes Jr, 24) Mike Benson, 25) Art Collins

SPORTSMAN RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Art Collins, 2) Mike Keeler, 3) Bobby Knipe, 4) Roy Bridge, 5) Ryan Larkin, 6) Joe Bennett, 7) Jeff Watson, 8) Jeff Carr, 9) Jay Haviland, 10) Walt McKay, 11) Kory Gurney, 12) Dan Humes, 13) Tony Ferriero, 14) Will Galm, 15) Mike Mason, 16) K.C. Goewey, 17) Whitey Slavin, 18) Frank Harper, 19) Carmon Carnibucci, 20) Mike Molloy, 21) Lorne Browe, 22) Don Miller, 23) John Hotchkiss, 24) Ed Harkin, 25) Ted Layton

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

ROOKIE PRO STOCK RESULTS (10 LAPS) - 1) Henry Warner, 2) Jim Hankle, 3) Mike Fachini, 4) Ralph Hotchkiss, 5) Jay Corbin, 6) Charlie Woodard, 7) Joe Mabb Jr, 8) Jerry Wright, 9) John Santolin, 10) Bill Hammell, 11) Chris Claus, 12) Ray Hall Jr, 13) Kim LaVoy, 14) Bill Lobdell

PURE STOCK #1 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Mike Eichstedt, 2) Mark Huston, 3) Jim O'Neil, 4) Rich Douglass, 5) Bob Burl, 6) Jeremy Pease, 7) Jay Martin,8) Dave Atwater, 9) Chrissy Hilt, 10) Don Coon, 11) Paul Harding, 12) Chris Streeter, 13) Ross Zito, 14) Michael Dianda, 15) Mark Burke, 16) Pud Noble

PURE STOCK #2 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jason Casey, 2) John Betz, 3) Michael Davis, 4) Ryan Coon, 5) Marcus Tifft, 6) Robert Gibson, 7) Steve Hatch, 8) Kevin Dolan, 9) Pete Everett, 10) Chris Hutnik, 11) Randy Myers, 12) William Fuchs, 13) Shannon McDermott, 14) John Rivers Jr, 15) Eric Sbrega, 16) Bob Chenette, 17) Dave Houser

PURE STOCK #3 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Pete DeFiglio, 2) Bill Hughes, 3) George Miles Jr, 4) Peter Wiegand, 5) Bob Palmer, 6) D.T. Pickard, 7) Ronald Johnson, 8) Michael Middleton, 9) Keith Barlow, 10) Ron Tritschler, 11) Ronny Jacobsen, 12) John Chapman, 13) Alan Hill, 14) Larry Ball, 15) Dave Shepard, 16) Ed Hubbard, 17) Brian Sandstedt

PURE STOCK #4 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jim Hankey, 2) Earl Soulier Jr, 3) Kory Sandstadt, 4) John Denue, 5) Poncho Hankey, 6) George Miles III, 7) Jeff Douglass, 8) Dwayne Dauski, 9) Jeff Kuhnow, 10) Nick Hilt Jr, 11) John Fachini, 12) David Stickles, 13) John Connor Jr, 14) Dan Crosby, 15) Jim Fachini, 16) Paul Handlowich