TREMONT, HEARN, CARR AND LAGENBACK CAPTURE VALLEY GLORY

May 25, 2002, West Lebanon, NY- A near capacity crowd was on hand for the Memorial Day Weekend festivities at Lebanon Valley Saturday night. Kenny Tremont Jr. picked up the victory in the 30-lap modified feature. It was his 98th career victory at the speedway. The 358-modifieds made their first of six appearances at the Valley Saturday night. Brett Hearn was the winner of the 24-lap feature for the 358-modifieds. Jeff Carr got the win in the 20-lap sportsman main. Jimmy Lagenback won the 20-lap Pro Stock feature in a photo finish.

Brett Hearn had some motor problems with his primary car Saturday night in the final warm-up session before the modified feature. Hearn had to go to his backup Budweiser #1 and start from the rear of the field. Hearn worked his way through the pack to an eighth place finish. Guy Sheldon also suffered problems with his #518 and had to use his 358-modified to start the modified feature. When the green flag dropped David Sanchez held the early race lead. Problems for the outside polesitter, Charlie Hume, on lap two which brought out the first caution flag of the race. While under that first caution period both Eddie Marshall and Steve Devine pitted with flat right rear tires. "The Connecticut Yankee" Denny Soltis had a lightning fast car in the feature, He started eighth and was up to second by lap one. He was able to grab the lead from Sanchez on a lap two restart. The Emerick Associates #115 of Kenny Tremont was not far behind the fast running Soltis. Tremont moved into the second on lap four and tried to run down the leader. Disaster for Soltis on lap nine as something broke in the rearend of his car and took him out of competition for the night and handing the lead over to Tremont.

Rich Ricci Jr. moved his Fall Fittings #55 into third on the restart. Donnie Corellis spun in turn four on lap ten bringing out the yellow flag once again. Andy Bachetti moved his Coors Light #21 into the runner-up position on the ensuing restart. J.R. Heffner and Matt Quinn sat fourth and fifth respectively with ten laps remaining in the race. Lapped traffic came into the equation for Tremont with eight laps to go, but it did not impede his progress enough to let Bachetti close the gap. Tremont would cross the line first for his second victory in a row on the high banks. Bachetti was second, Ricci third, Heffner fourth and Quinn fifth.

Many of the modified competitors were also in the field for the 24-lap 358-modified feature. As a matter of fact the top six finishers were modified drivers. Twenty-seven cars took the green flag for this event with Brett Hearn grabbing the lead from his front row starting spot with Donnie Corellis's Rifenburg #57 in second. Four caution flags slowed the event. The most serious of which came on lap 15 when several cars came together on the backstretch. Many drivers did a fantastic job of avoiding the incident, which had the potential to be much worse.

At the halfway point of the event Hearn was out front, Corellis second, Bachetti third, Lee Gagliardi fourth and J.R. Heffner fifth. Heffner made his way past Gagliardi on lap 13, while Bachetti began to pressure Corellis for second. Corellis appeared to have problems with about ten laps to go and started fading. Bachetti and Heffner quickly made their way passed the fading Corellis. A caution flag on lap 18 gave Bachetti the shot he wanted at Hearn. Bachetti went low into turn one on the restart and attempted to pull the slide job on Hearn, but he could not make the pass stick. Bachetti had one more shot at Hearn after Dave Manny brought out the final caution of the race. While under the yellow flag Bachetti gave Hearn a little nudge on the back bumper to let him know who was behind him. Hearn was a little quicker on this restart and was able to bring his Madsen Overhead Door #20 to victory lane. Bachetti had to settle for second for the second time tonight. Heffner was third, Ricci fourth and Corellis was able to hang on for fifth.

Jeff Carr took the lead on the start on the 20-lap sportsman feature and never looked back. Carr endured three restarts in the event but he was not to be denied the victory. The point leader going into the event was Art Collins. He was able to bring home a fourth place finish even though he brushed the front stretch wall on lap three. Bobby Knipe ran the last 17 laps of the race in second position, but could not catch Carr. Problems for last week's winner, K.C. Goewey. He was involved in two incidents that took him out of contention for the victory. Sophomore sensation, Mike Keeler made his way up through the pack nicely and was rewarded with a third place finish. Willie Galm rounded out the top five.

Dan Blackburn led the first five laps of the 20-lap Pro Stock feature Saturday night. A huge melee with cars running in the top five brought out the second caution of the race on lap five. Paul LaRochelle used the restart to take the lead away from Dan Blackburn. Buddy Hencke moved into third on lap seven while three cars were battling for fourth behind him. Al Blackburn, Dan's older brother, took command of fourth on lap nine. That was short-lived however as Jim Lagenback made his way around Al on in turn four on the same lap. Dave Colwell top five run came to a sudden end, as he was blackflagged on lap ten. Turns out there was afire under the hood of his car which was spotted by track officials and he was able to pit and the safety crew was able to extinguish the fire.

Lagenback moved around Dan Blackburn for second with five laps to go in the race. His only hope to catch the front running LaRochelle was for a caution to come out. Lagenback got what he wanted on lap 18 when Paul Rogers lost a wheel in turn four. This set up the most dramatic feature finish of the night. LaRochelle and Lagenback went door to door for the final two laps and were side by side coming down to the checkers. The two cars crossed the line in a near photo finish. Both cars actually came out to victory lane before Lagenback was declared the winner.

Jason DiBello won his 4th Rookie race in 5 attempts and will move up to the Pro Stock division next week. Pure Stock races were won by Brian Sandstedt, Bruce Moffit, Pete Wiegand and Eric Sbrega. The School Bus race was won by Scott Hermance.

NATIONAL PLANNING ASSOCIATES / WOHRLES MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Kenny Tremont Jr, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Rich Ricci Jr, 4) J.R. Heffner, 5) Matt Quinn, 6) Jason Goff, 7) Hector Stratton, 8) Brett Hearn, 9) Chris Moore, 10) Sparky Lowe, 11) Eddie Marshall, 12) Rob Pitcher, 13) John Hewitt, 14) Dave Leckonby, 15) Dickie Larkin, 16) Stanley Wetmore, 17) Steve Devine, 18) Ron Blake, 19) Hawley Smith, 20) Dave Mosher, 21) Ernie Palmer Jr, 22) Dave McFeeters, 23) Paul Gilardi, 24) Russ Reckner, 25) Tom Sanchez Jr, 26) John Alberti, 27) Donnie Corellis, 28) John Ruchel, 29) Denny Soltis, 30) David Sanchez, 31) Wayne Figler, 32) Charlie Humes, 33) Guy Sheldon

358 MODIFIED RESULTS (24 LAPS) - 1) Brett Hearn, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Rich Ricci Jr, 5) Donnie Corellis, 6) Kenny Tremont Jr, 7) Lee Gagliardi, 8) Guy Sheldon, 9) Mike Benson, 10) Eddie Marshall, 11) Jason Herrington, 12) Rob Pitcher, 13) John Lutes Jr, 14) Jason Tompkins, 15) Ken Baker, 16) Ted Teal, 17) Todd Morey, 18) Dave Baranowski, 19) Dave Manny, 20) Jeff Sukup, 21) Lorne Browe, 22) Wayne Jelley, 23) Lucas Baker, 24) John Finley, 25) Craig Simmons, 26) Wes Powell, 27) Eddie Heanault

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

PRO STOCK RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Jim Langenback, 2) Paul LaRochelle, 3) Dan Blackburn, 4) Buddy Hencke, 5) Al Blackburn, 6) Jim Dellea, 7) Rob Yetman, 8) Adam Haas, 9) Danny Sanchez, 10) Chris Crews, 11) Rich Colesanti, 12) Ed Bachand, 13) Paul Rogers, 14) Rick Fosby, 15) Dave Colwell, 16) Bob Duzlak Jr

ROOKIE PRO STOCK RESULTS (10 LAPS) - 1) Jason DiBello, 2) Mark Forrest, 3) Ralph Hotchkiss, 4) Jery Helms, 5) Jerry Wright, 6) Jay Corbin, 7) Ray Hall Jr, 8) John Santolin, 9) Joe Mabb Jr, 10) Henry Warner, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Leo Sousie, 13) Larry Megan, 14) Andy Graves, 15) Bill Lobdell, 16) Bill Hammell

PURE STOCK #1 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Brian Sandstedt, 2) Keith Barlow, 3) Bob Burl, 4) Joe DiStefano, 5) Don Coon, 6) Guy Hughes, 7) Kory Sandstadt, 8) Bob Chenette, 9) Chris Hutnik, 10) Rich Douglass, 11) David Stickles, 12) Jeff Kuhnow, 13) Ryan Hover, 14) Dan Crosby, 15) Chris Stalker, 16) Michael Dianda, 17) John Connor Jr

PURE STOCK #2 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Bruce Moffit, 2) Mike Witherell, 3) D.T. Pickard, 4) Jim O'Neil, 5) Earl Soulier Jr, 6) John Betz, 7) Kevin Dolan, 8) Michael Middleton, 9) Ryan Coon, 10) Jim Palmer, 11) Kevin Hilt, 12) Marcus Tifft, 13) John Hubbard, 14) Shannon McDermott, 15) Phil Moffit, 16) Ramon Perry, 17) Ray Pierre Jr

PURE STOCK #3 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Peter Wiegand, 2) Jim Fachini, 3) Michael Davis, 4) George Miles Jr, 5) John Denue, 6) Ronald Johnson, 7) Poncho Hankey, 8) Ron Tritschler, 9) Pete Everett, 10) John Rivers Jr, 11) Chrissy Hilt, 12) Pete DeFiglio, 13) Lee Gallant, 14) Dave Striebel, 15) Scott Kilmer, 16) Bob Palmer, 17) Chris Smith

PURE STOCK #4 RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Eric Sbrega, 2) Robert Gibson, 3) Chris Streeter, 4) Mike Eichstedt, 5) Nick Hilt Jr, 6) Mark Huston, 7) John Fachini, 8) Bill Gordon, 9) John Chapman, 10) Jeff Douglass, 11) Dave Houser, 12) Ross Zito, 13) Chip Martin, 14) Paul Harding, 15) Dave Atwater, 16) Ronny Jacobsen, 17) Joe Landry, 18) Paul Handlowich, 19) Larry Ball