Hough Holds Off Tremont for Lebanon Valley Victory
Story By:PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY MEDIA Photos By:MARK BROWN / RACERSGUIDE.COM
West Lebanon NY. – June 26, 2016-Saturday night saw the kids have fun riding in the back of cars. However, once the rides were complete, the action began in earnest.
Steve Hough started from the pole and held off Olden Dwyer early. J.R. Heffner stalled in turn 3 and got hit by Rob Pitcher to bring out an early yellow. While slowing for said yellow, a crash broke out in turn 1 involving four more drivers.
The biggest incident of the night saw Chad Jeseo spin out in turn 3 on lap 3. Jeseo was then hit hard by Pitcher and Mike Keeler, who was knocked onto his side before coming to rest right-side up. Everyone was ok, but done after that incident.
As the race continued on, Brett Hearn charged towards the front from his 15th starting spot, along with Kenny Tremont, Jr. However, their charges weren’t quite as quick as in past weeks. In addition, Dwyer was still continuing to pressure Hough for the lead in his car with a more cost-effective engine package.
Tremont was up to third by lap 13, but couldn’t run down Dwyer. Hearn only entered the top 5 with about six laps to go.
Hough was able to hold off the field to take his first win in a number of years. Dwyer was still looking good for second, but ran out of fuel on the last lap and would be credited with ninth.
Afterwards, Hough was very happy to get back to Victory Lane.
“The car was perfect,” Hough said. “Good to be back in Victory Lane. It’s been a couple of years.”
Tremont inherited second-place after Dwyer fell back. Kolby Schroder was third, followed by Hearn and Keith Flach.
In the Small Block Modifieds, Joey Scarborough started from the pole and led early, despite wisps of smoke coming from the back of his No. 11. Frank Harper started fifth and ran well early, but fell victim to getting too high once again. Harper hit the wall in turn 3 to bring out a yellow on the second lap. Shortly afterwards, Kim LaVoy’s night ended when her car came to a stop on the frontstretch.
Early on, Jeseo was Scarborough’s primary competitor for the lead. The Scott Hamlin Racing driver moved up to second from the eighth starting spot and pressured the Vermont native. However, Jeseo could not get by. Meanwhile, cautions for incidents involving Elmo Reckner, Peter Carlotto and Hough allowed Tremont to come into the mix.
Tremont was able to get past Jeseo for second shortly after a restart on lap 9. From there, it was only a matter of time before the defending class champion got past Scarborough for the lead on lap 12. Afterwards, Tremont pulled away from the field to take his fifth of the year.
Demetrios Drellos followed Tremont past both Scarborough and Jeseo to finish second. Jeseo was third, followed by Scarborough and Jason Herrington.
The Sportsman race was unusually clean. Former Pro Stock Champion Kevin Arnold started his Catlin21 Racing entry on pole and quickly opened up a gap on Frank Hoard, Jr. Meanwhile, the main point contenders were more or less buried in the midfield. Jeff Watson seemed to be the only points contender that could make much progress during the race, moving up from tenth to sixth.
At the front, Arnold was able to maintain a comfortable lead over Hoard and took his first-ever Sportsman win in a race that went green flag-to-flag. Hoard finished second, followed by Jack Speshock, Timothy Davis and Chris Lynch.
Pro Stock saw Steven LaRochelle start on pole and beat out Frank Twing to turn 1. While the younger LaRochelle was at the front of the field, his father Paul started fifth and spun on the second lap of the race in turn 4, which brought out the first yellow.
On the restart, Rick Duzlak, who started third, was able to get past Steven LaRochelle for the lead and was able to open up a small gap. On lap 5, Rick Dempsey spun in turn 2 after contact from Chuck Towslee to bring out another yellow.
After the restart, a four-car lead pack developed. Duzlak, Rob Yetman, Nick Stone and Jay Corbin pulled away from the field to try to settle things amongst themselves. Yetman tried multiple times to get to the inside, but Duzlak was able to use the momentum of the higher line to hold off Yetman. Duzlak was able to hold off the pack on a four-lap shootout to take his first win of the year.
Yetman finished second, while Stone was third across the line. Stone was disqualified for being underweight. As a result, Corbin was credited was third, followed by Chad Arsenault and Nick Hilt.
In Pure Stock, John Devine, Phil Sherman and Gary O’Brien each won regular features. Dave Stickles won the inaugural Meltz Lumber Pure Stock Feature.
Gendron’s Truck Center/Peckham Materials Corporation Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Steve Hough, 2) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 3) Kolby Schroder, 4) Brett Hearn, 5) Keith Flach, 6) Eddie Marshall, 7) Kyle Sheldon, 8) Andy Bachetti, 9) Olden Dwyer, 10) Elmo Reckner, 11) Kyle Armstrong, 12) Wayne Jelley, 13) Matt Pupello, 14) J.R. Heffner, 15) John Ruchel, 16) Dave McFeeters, 17) Paul Gilardi, 18) Brian Berger, 19) Denny Soltis, 20) Mike King, 21) Chad Jeseo, 22) Mike Keeler, 23) Rob Pitcher. DNS: Mark Chartrand (Crash)
Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 2) Demetrios Drellos, 3) Chad Jeseo, 4) Joey Scarborough, 5) Jason Herrington, 6) Ray Hall, Jr., 7) J.R. Heffner, 8) Frank Hoard, III, 9) Brett Haas, 10) Brian Sandstedt, 11) Chad Pierce, 12) Buddy Hencke, 13) Ricky Davis, 14) Peter Carlotto, 15) Sean Mandel, 16) Kenny Aanonsen, Jr., 17) Steve Hough, 18) Alan Houghtaling, 19) Elmo Reckner, 20) Kim LaVoy, 21) Frank Harper. DNS: Olden Dwyer (Gave car to Brett Haas), Ken McGuire, Jason Tompkins (Crash)
Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Kevin Arnold, 2) Frank Hoard, Jr., 3) Jack Speshock, 4) Timothy Davis, 5) Chris Lynch, 6) Jeff Watson, 7) Kevin Ward, 8) John Virgilio, 9) Michael Sabia, 10) Whitey Slavin, 11) Rob Maxon, 12) Dan Lyle, 13) Nikki Ouellette, 14) Kyle Plumstead, 15) Cody Ochs, 16) Mike Coffey, Jr. DNS: Mike Catone
Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Rick Duzlak, 2) Rob Yetman, 3) Jay Corbin, 4) Chad Arsenault, 5) Nick Hilt, 6) Jon Routhier, 7) Steven LaRochelle, 8) Victor Hopkins, 9) Frank Twing, 10) Rick Dempsey, 11) Joe LaFlamme, 12) Ray Hall, Jr., 13) Tom O’Connor, 14) Paul LaRochelle, 15) Brian Keough, 16) Tom Dean, 17) Kyle Hosier, 18) Jeff Kelmel, 19) Chuck Towslee, 20) Preston Forbes. DNS: Mark Dupuis. Disqualified: Nick Stone (Weight Issue)
Pure Stock Feature No. 1 (8 laps): 1) John Devine, 2) Bill Deak, Jr., 3) Jesse Murphy, 4) Bob Palmer, 5) Dom Denue, 6) Greg DeCamp, 7) Zach Seyerlein, 8) John Tisko, 9) Wuggie Burdick, 10) Dave Fachini, 11) Joe Walcott, 12) Mark Dwyer
Pure Stock Feature No. 2 (8 laps): 1) Phil Sherman, 2) Zach Sorrentino, 3) Mike Arnold, 4) Chris Streeter, 5) Dan Cote, 6) Keri VanDenburg, 7) Lou Gancarz, 8) Karen Verhagen, 9) Martina Martin, 10) Ray Royals, 11) Brian VanDenburg
Pure Stock Feature No. 3 (8 laps): 1) Gary O’Brien, 2) Jeff Kreutziger, 3) Jason Meltz, 4) Jeff Meltz, Sr., 5) Ray Hall, Sr., 6) Al Relyea, 7) Jeff Meltz, Jr., 8) Harold Robitaille, 9) Bill Deak, Sr., 10) Tim Thompson, 11) Chris Murphy, 12) Larry Perez, 13) Brian Walsh, 14) Dave Stickles
Inaugural Meltz Lumber Pure Stock Feature (20 laps): 1) Dave Stickles, 2) Bill Deak, Jr., 3) Larry Perez, 4) John Devine, 5) Harold Robitaille, 6) Zach Sorrentino, 7) Greg DeCamp, 8) Bill Deak, Sr., 9) Wuggie Burdick, 10) Dan Cote, 11) Karen Verhagen, 12) Martina Martin, 13) Dom Denue, 14) John Tisko, 15) Tim Thompson, 16) Mike Arnold. DNS: Zach Seyerlein, Brian VanDenburg, Keri VanDenburg, Phil Sherman, Dave Fachini, Chris Murphy
