HEARN WINS 8TH MR. Dirt TRACK, USA AT LEBANON VALLEY
West Lebanon, NY- Sussex, NJ driver, Brett Hearn made history in the 100-lap modified feature at Lebanon Valley Speedway Thursday night. He became the first driver to ever win three straight Mr. Dirt Track, USA events. Hearn piloted his BUDWEISER-GABLE MOTORSPORTS TEO #1 to his second win of the season in the Advance Auto Parts Super Dirt Series. The sportsman division was also on hand and Roy Bridge was victorious in that 20-lap feature. A special thanks to BUDWEISER for their role in making Mr. Dirt Track, USA a huge success.
J.R. Heffner and Rob Pitcher brought thirty-three modifieds to the green flag in the 100-lap modified feature. The chance at victory in this prestigious event ended quickly for many drivers when a huge pileup occurred on the first lap. One of the drivers involved was current Advance Auto Parts Series point leader, Alan Johnson. He did return to the event but finished in 25th, five laps down. Heffner still held the lead on the restart. Of the six caution periods in the race, five of them came before lap 50. Problems for Eddie Marshall in the lap one incident and again on lap eight relegated him to a 31st place finish. It was a tough night for Matt Quinn as well. He got nosed into the turn two wall in almost the same place as last Saturday night and dropped from the event on lap 12.
Billy Decker came into the night second in the overall Advance Auto Part standings, but his night ended early as well. He tagged the turn two wall on lap 15 and was finished for the night by lap 18. At the one-quarter mark of the event Heffner still maintained the lead followed by Pitcher, Hearn, Pat Ward and Tim McCreadie. Hearn moved up to second after a lap 32 restart. Another driver on the move was Ken Tremont Jr. He started 14th and was up to sixth by lap 32. Heffner was setting a torrid pace and he and Hearn were a half-straight-away ahead on the rest of the pack by lap 42. That pace was quickly slowed as the leaders caught the tail end of the pack.
This was the break Hearn had been looking for as he caught Heffner in traffic and began to apply the pressure. At the halfway point the top ten in the running order was Heffner, Hearn, Pitcher, Ward, Tim Fuller, Tremont McCreadie, Denny Soltis, Rich Ricci Jr. and Andy Bachetti. McCreadie top five run came to an end on lap 55 as he blew the motor on his racer, which necessitated the final caution period of the race. Ricci had broken his car in warm-ups at the start of the night and was lend the Quinn back-up racer. Ricci was in the top ten until he had a left front tire go flat on lap 55. He recovered to finish 13th. Attrition did not play a large factor in this race as there were still twenty-seven cars running on lap 62 and twenty-six cars would finish the race.
The battle for the lead started to heat up again on lap 70. Heffner and Hearn raced door to door for three laps until Hearn grabbed coming off turn two on lap73. He encountered lapped traffic again by the very next lap and opened up a huge advantage over Heffner. Pitcher closed in on Heffner in the final stages of the race, but could never make a pass stick. The best race on the track over the final laps was for fourth between Ward, Tremont and Fuller. At the finish it was Hearn recording his record eighth victory in this event. Heffner strong runner-up performance made him the Syracuse Eckerd 200 qualifier. Heffner set second fastest time in time trials to Hearn. Heffner also picked up the Holley Performance Halfway Bonus. Pitcher also had a strong finish in third. Fuller won that battle royal for fourth, while Tremont finished fifth. The BERT Hard Charger Award went to Wayne Jelley who started 28th and finished 12th. The next stop on the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series in August 14th at the Grandview Speedway.
The Lebanon Valley Sportsman ran a 20-lap feature on Thursday night and Roy Bridge captured his second victory of the 2003 season in his SAXTON SIGN-PMC #145. Bridge made a power move on the outside of Kory Gurney on lap 12 to grab the lead. K.C. Goewey made the same move on Gurney on lap 16. A lap 19 restart gave Goewey a chance; but Bridge was too strong and crossed the start-finish line first. Gurney did cross the line third, but was disqualified in post-race tech and dropped to 24th. That moved Ed Harkin to third, Hawley Smith into fourth and Art Collins to fifth.