HEARN FIRST REPEAT WINNER AT LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY

West Lebanon, NY ..... At the Lebanon Valley Speedway

on Saturday night May 31, Brett Hearn of Sussex NJ took

the win in the 30 lap Modified feature with George

Marcus of Danbury CT claiming victory in the 20 lap

Sportsman main event. Other winners on Saturdays

program, which was sponsored by Madsen Overhead Doors

and Boomerss Performance, were Rich Colesanti, in the

IMCA Modified division and Lorne Browe in the Street

Stock class.

The Modified feature began with the #78 of

Maynard Forrette grabbing the early lead with John

Hankamp and Don Ackner in second and third. The first

few laps saw many drivers jockeying for position as

Brett Hearn and Rich Ricci Jr. began to make their way

toward the front of the field. The top three positions

remained unchanged for the next ten laps with the only

action being Ackner pressuring Hankamp for second.

Meanwhile Hearn was on the move as he broke into the top

ten by lap nine from his 17th starting position.

As the race approached the half way mark the top

three cars began to close up as Forrettes lead began to

shrink. Hearn continued his impressive march to the

front when he passed Rob Pitcher for fifth position on

lap 13. At the midpoint of the race Forrette was still

the leader followed by Hankamp, Ackner, Brian Berger and

Hearn. The first of three cautions appeared on lap 17

as the # 94 of Glenn Grossjung spun in turn two just

missing the # 3 of Hearn.

On the restart Ackner and Hearn dove to the

inside of the speedway and moved into second and third

behind Forrette. Over the next several laps Forrette,

Ackner and Hearn put on a fantastic display of driving

as they raced three wide for the lead. Ackner emerged

the leader, however one lap later Hearn went to the

outside of Ackner and took command of the race. The

second caution flag flew on lap 25 and when the race

returned to green Hearn maintained his lead with Eddie

Marshall moving into second.

The final five laps saw Hearn extend his lead

over Marshall and Rich Ricci, who had moved into third

position on the final restart. At the finish it was

Hearn taking his second win of the year at Lebanon

Valley Speedway followed by Eddie Marshall, Rich Ricci,

Don Ackner and Rob Pitcher.

Modified qualifying events were won by Brian

Berger, Maynard Forrette and Billy Decker.

The Sportsman feature saw George Marcus make

Lebanon Valley history as he became the first driver in

the Sportsman division to win three feature events in a

row. Marcus started in the 15th position and was able

to take advantage of several early accidents to improve

his position. Lap 7 saw Marcus drive to the inside of

Hawley Smith between turns three and four to take the

lead and then drove to an easy victory. Smith was

second followed by Ed Riiska, Chris Kokosa and Denny

Young.

Rick Colesanti was the winner in the 20 lap

IMCA feature. Colesanti took the lead from the # 81 of

Dennis Cooper on a lap six restart and then held off a

hard charging Bob Fachini to claim his first victory of

1997. Tony Markou was second with Don Denue rounding

out the top three.

The Street Stock feature saw 20 laps of exciting

full fender competition and at the finish it was Dave

Streibel crossing the line first. However, Streibel was

penalized for jumping a restart thus the win was given

to Lorne Browe. Jeff Sylvester drove a strong race to

finish second with Jim Langenback third.

In other racing action Pure Stock events were

won by Ron Yetman and Gary Virgilio. Bobby Blackburn

was the the winner of the Rookie Street Stock Feature.