Hearn Overtakes Flach at the Finish for Valley Win
Story By: PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY Photos By: MARK BROWN / RACERSGUIDE.COM
WEST LEBANON, NY- June 20, 2016- Saturday night brought action back to Lebanon Valley Speedway after last weekend’s rainout. The Modified feature nearly ended up with Keith Flach in Victory Lane until a veteran pulled a surprise.
Mike Keeler started from the pole and quickly got away from inside-pole sitter Kyle Armstrong. Keith Flach, who started sixth, quickly moved up into the second spot and pulled away from the pack to catch Keeler.
The two racers fought a back-and-forth battle for the advantage. Flach took the lead on lap 7, but Keeler got it back. Flach re-passed Keeler on lap 9 for good. Meanwhile, Andy Bachetti and Brett Hearn were charging towards the front. Bachetti had started 14th, but was already to sixth by lap 5. Flach and Keeler’s battle brought them back to the pack.
At halfway, Bachetti was right on Keeler’s tail for second when a mechanical failure ended his night and brought out a yellow. The caution put Hearn, who started 15th, up to second. On the restart, Hearn got by Keeler for second, then tried to run down Flach for the lead.
Flach appeared to have the pace to win, but was not all that great in lapped traffic. That allowed Hearn to close up to Flach’s bumper. On the last lap, Hearn was able to get inside of Flach in turns 3 and 4. Hearn then out-dragged Flach to the line to win his fourth of the year by just 0.033 of a second, shocking the crowd in attendance.
Afterwards, Hearn was surprised.
“I think [that] this time around, I’m as stunned as everyone else because Keith Flach was running so well,” Hearn said after the race. “The lapped traffic may have broken [Flach’s] rhythm, which allowed me to get that extra bite off of turns 3 and 4.”
Behind Hearn and Flach was JR Heffner in third. Kenny Tremont, Jr. was fourth and Eddie Marshall in fifth.
In the Small Block Modifieds, Art Collins made his season debut in the No. 68. Unfortunately, the Alligator’s first feature of the year lasted about eight seconds after he crashed in turn 1 to bring out a yellow on the opening lap.
On the restart, Kim LaVoy took the lead away from pole-sitter Joey Scarborough and pulled away from the pack, easily outdistancing Drellos. Meanwhile, Tremont started in 15th and methodically worked his way up the order.
Frank Harper ran well early in the feature, but dropped back before getting a little too high and hitting the wall in turn 1 to bring out a yellow on lap 13.
On the restart, Tremont got past Drellos for second. Two more quick cautions kept Tremont on LaVoy’s bumper. On lap 16, Tremont pounced and took the lead away.
From there, Tremont was not threatened on the way to his fourth win of the year. Brett Haas passed LaVoy on the final lap for second. Heffner was fourth, while Elmo Reckner was fifth.
In the Bubba Tanner Pro Stock Classic, Steven LaRochelle was able to get by pole-sitter Joe LaFlamme on the restart from an early yellow to take the lead. Steven’s father Paul followed past and the two drivers ran nose-to-tail.
The man that was on the move early was Rob Yetman. Yetman started 14th and quickly moved up the order. By lap 8, he was all over the LaRochelles. Paul was looking to take the lead, but Yetman was all up on Steven’s rear end. That allowed Steven to keep the lead.
Unfortunately, all the contact came to a head on lap 10 when a crash involving both LaRochelles, Yetman and others broke out in turn 1. Steven LaRochelle was out on the spot, while Paul tried to continue, but eventually pulled off.
Once the dust cleared, Jay Corbin ended up with the lead with Rick Dempsey in second with a damaged right front fender. Dempsey put the pressure on Corbin for the lead, but couldn’t get alongside.
A late yellow involving Tom O’Connor and Rich Crane bunched the pack back up with four laps to go, but Corbin pulled away to take his second win of the year over Dempsey, Chuck Towslee, Jon Routhier and Victor Hopkins.
In Sportsman, Rob Maxon, driving a new chassis, started from the pole, but spent the first half under constant pressure from Timothy Davis. Nikki Ouellette then spun on lap 9 to bring out a yellow.
There were then three attempts to restart. Eventually, Davis was sent to the rear for jumping Maxon twice, moving Chris Lynch up to second.
A lap later, a crash involving Ouellette, John Miller, Alissa Cody and Christopher Delfino brought out another yellow. On the restart, Lynch was able to get past Maxon and take the lead. From there, Lynch was able to pull away to take his first career Sportsman win over Kevin Ward, Jeff Watson, Jack Speshock and Frank Hoard, Jr.
In Pure Stock, Chris Murphy, Dave Stickles and Jeff Meltz, Sr. each won features.
Three Alarms of Berkshire County/DMC Racing Products Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Brett Hearn, 2) Keith Flach, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 5) Eddie Marshall, 6) Mike Keeler, 7) Elmo Reckner, 8) Kyle Armstrong, 9) Tyler Dippel, 10) Kyle Sheldon, 11) Brian Berger, 12) Wayne Jelley, 13) Kolby Schroder, 14) Olden Dwyer, 15) Matt Pupello, 16) Steve Hough, 17) Chad Jeseo, 18) Mike King, 19) John Ruchel, 20) Paul Gilardi, 21) Andy Bachetti, 22) Rob Pitcher, 23) Mark Chartrand, 24) Denny Soltis, 25) Jeff Sukup, 26) Stan Frankenfield
Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 2) Brett Haas, 3) Kim LaVoy, 4) J.R. Heffner, 5) Elmo Reckner, 6) Wayne Jelley, 7) Ray Hall, Jr., 8) Ricky Davis, 9) Frank Hoard, III, 10) Joey Scarborough, 11) Brian Sandstedt, 12) Jason Tompkins, 13) Ken McGuire, 14) Chad Pierce, 15) Peter Carlotto, 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Demetrios Drellos, 18) Jason Herrington, 19) Chad Jeseo, 20) Steve Hough, 21) Brian Peterson, 22) Frank Harper, 23) Buddy Hencke, 24) Olden Dwyer, 25) Kenny Aanonsen, Jr., 26) Art Collins
Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Lynch, 2) Kevin Ward, 3) Jeff Watson, 4) Jack Speshock, 5) Frank Hoard, Jr., 6) John Virgilio, 7) Michael Sabia, 8) Whitey Slavin, 9) Timothy Davis, 10) Rob Maxon, 11) Dan Lyle, 12) Nikki Ouellette, 13) Kevin Arnold, 14) Alissa Cody, 15) John Miller, 16) Christopher Delfino, 17) Gerard LeClair, 18) Cody Ochs. DNS: Angelo DiCarlo
Pro Stock Bubba Tanner Memorial Results (23 laps): 1) Jay Corbin, 2) Rick Dempsey, 3) Chuck Towslee, 4) Jon Routhier, 5) Victor Hopkins, 6) Rob Yetman, 7) Chad Arsenault, 8) Daniel Sanchez, 9) Nick Hilt, 10) Ray Hall, Jr., 11) Frank Twing, 12) Joe LaFlamme, 13) Brian Keough, 14) Tom O’Connor, 15) Sparky Reilly, 16) Kyle Hosier, 17) Rich Crane, 18) Rick Duzlak, 19) Paul LaRochelle, 20) Steven LaRochelle, 21) Robbie Speed, 22) Rich Colasanti, 23) Aaron Bennett, 24) Tom Dean
Pure Stock Feature No. 1 Results (8 laps): 1) Chris Murphy, 2) Scott Morris, 3) Chris Streeter, 4) Dennis O’Connor, Sr., 5) Brian Walsh, 6) Keri VanDenburg, 7) Bill Deak, Jr., 8) Ray Royals, 9) Gary Malloy, 10) Wuggie Burdick, 11) Brian VanDenburg, 12) Kevin Paul, 13) Zach Sorrentino
Pure Stock Feature No. 2 Results (8 laps): 1) Dave Stickles, 2) Jesse Murphy, 3) Harold Robitalle, 4) Bob Palmer, 5) Bill Deak, Sr., 6) John Tisko, 7) Dan Cote, 8) John Devine, 9) Mike Arnold, 10) Zach Seyerlein, 11) Karen Verhagen, 12) Nick Reilly, 13) Rich Rogers
Pure Stock Feature No. 3 Results (12 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz, Sr., 2) Al Relyea, 3) Jason Meltz, 4) Ray Hall, Sr., 5) Jay Casey, 6) Jeff Kreutziger, 7) Larry Perez, 8) Tim Thompson, 9) Shawn Perez, 10) Dom Denue, 11) Gary O’Brien, 12) Jeff Meltz, Jr.
