TREMONT WINS 9TH RACE OF SEASON, LOWE TAKES SPORTSMAN TITLE BY TWO POINTS
SEPTEMBER 1, 2001
WEST LEBANON, NY- Kenny Tremont Jr. took his ninth victory of the season Saturday night at Lebanon Valley. Rich Ricci Jr. took the win in the 358-modified feature and along with it the 358-modified track title. Bobby Knipe won the 20-lap sportsman feature, but Sparky Lowe walked away with the 2001 sportsman track championship. Rob Yetman was victorious in the 20-lap pro stock main event. The fine folks at Gable Auto Sales brought this great night of racing to us.
The format for the modified division was a little different Saturday night in that time trial helped set the starting grid for the feature. Two races were run for the cars that finished outside the top twelve in time trials. Guy Sheldon and Hector Stratton won the two events and picked up $250 compliments of Jody Gable. J.R. Heffner was the fastest time trialer and started fifth. Chris Moore and Ronnie Johnson were the fastest two cars in time trials without a feature win this season and they comprised the front row for the start of the race. Moore had brake problems on the start of the race and dropped quickly to the middle of the field. Johnson took advantage and was the early race leader. Kenny Tremont Jr. started eighth and was up to fifth by lap two. The first caution of the race came on lap seven as Dave Mosher sat facing the wrong way in turn one. Tremont moved up to third on the restart and took over second one lap later.
Tim Dwyer was looking for his second win of the season as he moved into third on lap nine. The best race for position was between Eddie Marshall and Heffner. The two waged a war for sixth racing side by side for many laps. Johnson began to encounter lapped traffic just past the halfway point. That lapped traffic would get really heavy around lap 19, which allowed Tremont to close in on Johnson. The top three cars had pulled away from the rest of the pack with ten laps remaining in the race. The second and final caution came out on lap 25. Rich Ricci Jr moved into fourth on the restart. Tremont made his bid for the lead going into turn one on lap 26. He was able to pull off the slide job and pull away from Johnson. Dwyer battled with Johnson in the final laps but Johnson was able to hold on for the runner-up finish.
It is the 12th career modified championship for Tremont at Lebanon Valley. It was his 96th career modified victory at the track.
The 358-modifieds were also on hand Saturday night. J.R. Heffner was one of many drivers doing double duty and he led a majority of the event. Rich Ricci Jr was on the move and looking for a win and the 358-point title. He moved passed Eddie Marshall into the fifth position on lap seven. Heffner had a super fast racecar and had checked out on the rest of the field by lap nine. Craig Simmons started the race on the pole and ran a good race coming home fifth. Marshall’s night came to an end as he went pitside on lap 13.
Kenny Tremont Jr. started 14th in the race but cracked the top five on lap 14. The only caution of the race came on lap 16 when Bobby Chalmers dumped fluid on the track and went spinning in turn one. Ricci moved into second on the restart and Tremont moved into third. Ricci quickly went to work on Heffner. The two put on a great show in the final stages of the race as they bounced off each other more than once. The two made contact going down the backstretch on the final lap and went into turn three side by side. Ricci was able to get the advantage and took the victory by half a car length over Heffner. Tremont came home third and Todd Wilkinson fourth.
The closest point battle of the night came in the sportsman division. Sparky Lowe came into the event just six points ahead of Bobby Knipe and eighteen points over Art Collins. The caution came out immediately as Don Miller made contact with the turn four wall. Lowe ran into problems as he did not see the caution flag and spun around in turn two to avoid driving into the back of Knipe’s car. The restart saw Knipe take off like a rocket going from 13th to fourth in one lap. Three more cautions by lap three forced speedway officials to make the restarts single file. One of the cautions took Collins out of the point title as he suffered a flat tire and had to go to the pits. Knipe took the lead for good on one of the lap three restarts.
Lowe was recovering nicely form his early race woes to sit eighth by lap five. Lowe and Roy Bridge bounced off each other dropping Lowe back in the running order several spots. Lowe recovered once again to crack to top five by lap nine. Lowe continued his charge forward and took over second on lap 12. If the race finished this way Lowe would be the champion by two points. Roy Bridge had a top five run disappear as he suffered a left rear flat tire on lap 14. K.C. Goewey was looking to play the role of spoiler on the restart as he moved into third and went to work on second. Lowe had other ideas as he began to challenge Knipe for the lead on lap 15. Knipe and Lowe battled side by side for several laps, but Knipe held off his advances. Lowe had to then concentrate on holding off Goewey for second. The two made contact on the final lap and Lowe was able to take over second for good. Knipe took the victory, but it was not enough as Lowe won the 2001 track championship.
The Pro Stocks took to the track for their 20-lap feature. Robbie Speed had trouble on the start and dropped off the pace quickly. Buddy Hencke was shown as the leader for the first four laps of the race. Several cautions in the early going kept bunching up the field. Danny Sanchez had made his way up to second, but spun out on a lap two restart. Rob Yetman took the lead from Hencke on lap four. Behind him Jim Lagenback, Bob Duzlak and Ed Bachand raced three-wide for fourth. Lagenback came away with the advantage over the other two and quickly moved into third by lap six. Bachand started to have problems as early as lap seven with the hood on his car coming off. Sanchez had worked his way up to sixth after his lap two problems, but he spun around again on lap 15 when Ed Bachand dumped fluid in turn three.
Paul LaRochelle and Lagenback raced hard for second for the final two laps, with LaRochelle holding the advantage at the end. It was the third victory of the season for Yetman in the Pro Stock division.
Rich Harkins, Fran Marchand Jr., Pete Wiegand and Bruce Moffitt won the Pure Stock features. Jason Dibello and Mike Fachini won the rookie features.
The Kings 200 Weekend takes center stage next weekend. Two great days of action ending with the CARQUEST 200 for the modifieds.
GABLE AUTO STORES MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Kenny Tremont Jr, 2) Ronnie Johnson, 3) Tim Dwyer, 4) Rich Ricci Jr, 5) Donnie Corellis, 6) Eddie Marshall, 7) Matt Quinn, 8) J.R. Heffner, 9) Dave Leckonby, 10) Mike Benson, 11) Hector Stratton, 12) Chris Moore, 13) Guy Sheldon, 14) Steve Devine, 15) John Alberti, 16) Maynard Forrette, 17) Denny Soltis, 18) Chip Mitchell, 19) Mike King, 20) Jason Goff, 21) Hollis Morrisey, 22) Skippy Fox, 23) Wes Powell, 24) John Tucker, 25) Mark Bird, 26) Dave Mosher, 27) Dave McFeeters, 28) John G Wolfe
358 MODIFIED RESULTS (24 LAPS) - 1) Rich Ricci Jr, 2) J.R. Heffner, 3) Kenny Tremont Jr, 4) Todd Wilkinson, 5) Craig Simmons, 6) Wayne Jelley, 7) Dickie Larkin, 8) John Finley, 9) Tom Sanchez Jr, 10) Chris Moore, 11) Lee Gagliardi, 12) Vince Quenneville, 13) Lance Harting, 14) Rich Ricci Sr, 15) Lucas Baker, 16) John Lutes Jr, 17) Todd Morey, 18) Mark Pullen, 19) Dave Baranowski, 20) Bobby Chalmers, 21) Rob Pitcher, 22) Eddie Marshall, 23) Danny Watson, 24) Denny Young
SPORTSMAN RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Bobby Knipe, 2) Sparky Lowe, 3) K.C. Goewey, 4) Jason Tompkins, 5) Art Collins, 6) Frank Harper, 7) Ernie Palmer Jr, 8) Carmon Carnibucci, 9) Don Miller, 10) John Scarborough, 11) Mike Mason, 12) Mike Keeler, 13) Joe Bennett, 14) Roy Bridge, 15) Lorne Browe, 16) Charlie Humes, 17) Neal Erickson, 18) Whitey Slavin, 19) Dave Tanguay, 20) Ed Harkin, 21) John Hotchkiss, 22) Pat O'Hanlon, 23) Jeff Carr, 24) Mike Molloy, 25) Walt McKay, 26) Dan Humes, 27) Jay Casey
PRO STOCK RESULTS (20 LAPS) - 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Paul LaRochelle, 3) Jim Langenback, 4) Chris Morris, 5) Tom Brandt, 6) Ricky Duzlak, 7) Ray Hall, 8) Rob Noviczki, 9) Chris Crews, 10) Ed Bachand, 11) Danny Sanchez, 12) Don Ely, 13) Buddy Hencke, 14) Rick Fosby, 15) Bob Duzlak Jr, 16) Jeff Kelmel, 17) Joe Santoro, 18) Robbie Speed
ROOKIE A RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Jason DiBello, 2) Scott Kilmer, 3) Charlie Woodard, 4) Henry Warner, 5) Dan Blackburn, 6) Ralph Hotchkiss, 7) Jery Helms, 8) Phil Moffit, 9) Joe Mabb Jr, 10) Dave Colwell
ROOKIE B RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Mike Fachini, 2) Phil Wood, 3) Wayne Keyes, 4) Chris DeCiel, 5) E. J. Legeyt, 6) Tom Bungay, 7) John Hynes, 8) Bill Hammell, 9) Jim Rhodes, 10) Chris Claus, 11) Shane Mickle, 12) Don Belanger, 13) Michael Kratz
PURE STOCK "A" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Rich Harkins, 2) Bill Hughes, 3) Ryan Larkin, 4) Jon Betz, 5) Paul Handlowich, 6) Steve Hatch, 7) Dan Crosby, 8) Sid Smith, 9) Pierre Dupont, 10) Jeff Kuhnow, 11) Chrissy Hilt, 12) Fay Fachini, 13) Larry Megan, 14) Nick Hilt, 15) Keith Barlow, 16) Robert Brown, 17) Kevin Dolan
PURE STOCK "B" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Fran Marchand Jr, 2) Jay Martin, 3) Gene Cushman, 4) Jeff Douglass, 5) Rich Douglass, 6) Marcus Tifft, 7) Bob Burl, 8) Glenn Miller, 9) Mark Houston, 10) Joe DiStefano, 11) Bruce Pecorella, 12) Jim O'Neil, 13) Mike Middleton, 14) Don Johnson, 15) Seth Spencer, 16) Randy Brink, 17) Joshua Brandt
PURE STOCK "C" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Peter Wiegand, 2) Wally Engel, 3) Brian Sandstedt, 4) Jim Hankey, 5) Robert Gibson, 6) Darryl Baker, 7) George Miles Jr, 8) Kory Sandstadt, 9) Jim Dellea, 10) Michael Davis, 11) Bob Palmer, 12) Dave Atwater, 13) Jamie Reutenauer, 14) Randy Myers, 15) Earl Soulier Jr, 16) Chris Streeter, 17) Ryan Coon
PURE STOCK "D" RESULTS (8 LAPS) - 1) Bruce Moffit, 2) Jim Fachini, 3) Ronald Johnson, 4) Ron Tritschler, 5) John Denue, 6) Mike Witherell, 7) Eric Sbrega, 8) Ron Hapeman, 9) John Connor Jr, 10) D.T. Pickard, 11) Todd Pelkey, 12) Buck Gasner, 13) Lee Gallant, 14) Dwayne Dauski, 15) Ed Ashley, 16) Don Coon, 17) Jason Casey, 18) Mark Stevens