Andy Bachetti Claims Valley Win on Attrition-Filled Night
Story By:PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY MEDIA Photos By: MARK BROWN / RACERSGUIDE.COM
West Lebanon NY.- May 29, 2016- Saturday night was a rather physical night of racing at Lebanon Valley. Eddie Marshall’s car was eliminated in a heat race crash with Chad Jeseo. Scott Hamlin Racing provided a backup for Marshall with the order to “drive it like it’s yours.”
In the Modified feature, Mike Keeler started from pole, but lost the advantage to Matt Pupello. Shortly afterwards, a big crash broke out in turn 3 that involved a number of big names. Kenny Tremont, Jr., Brett Hearn, J.R. Heffner, Jeseo, Brian Berger and more were caught up in it. Hearn’s car suffered a front-end failure and was forced to retire for the evening, along with Jeseo, Olden Dwyer and Kyle Armstrong.
After the restart, Kyle Sheldon made short work of Keeler and immediately put the pressure on Pupello for the lead. Sheldon was able to get to the inside of Pupello, but just couldn’t quite get by.
Meanwhile, Andy Bachetti was the man on the move. While he did get some contact in the big crash, he continued to move up in the order. A caution on lap 8 for Marshall spinning in turn 4 bunched the field up and allowed him to make more passes.
Eventually, the top 4 (Pupello, Sheldon, Kolby Schroder and Bachetti) were nose-to-tail, racing for position. Then, a yellow flew with eight laps to go for a collision between Keeler and Mike King. During the yellow, Schroder pulled off with mechanical issues. Shortly before that, Tremont pulled off with what turned out to be a burned piston.
Bachetti was able to get past Sheldon for second on lap 25 and took two laps of side-by-side racing to get past Pupello for the lead. From there, Bachetti pulled away to take his second win of the year.
Afterwards, Bachetti was thankful to get out of the evening unscathed.
“We came out of the night pretty lucky,” Bachetti said. “Our damage was more cosmetic than anything. Other than that, the car was pretty decent. Still got some homework to do.”
Pupello held on for second, followed by Sheldon. Keith Flach finished fourth, while Heffner finished fifth.
The Small Block Modified feature saw Ricky Davis lead the field to green with Olden Dwyer giving chase. Meanwhile, Jeseo’s tough night continued with a crash in turn 3 with Peter Carlotto on lap 2, drawing the first yellow.
Olden Dwyer took the lead away from Ricky Davis on lap 5, but incidents kept the pack close. Brett Haas was jostled around in turn 2, leading to a caution. Shortly afterwards, Joey Scarborough and Steve Hough collided exiting turn 2, creating a crash that wrapped up Kim LaVoy and Jason Tompkins.
With all the incidents, plus moves on restarts, Tremont was able to get himself up to third from 15th by lap 7. A couple laps later, Tremont swept past Jason Herrington for second.
Another yellow for a spin for Ricky Davis on lap 12 bunched the pack back up. Once the green flew, Olden Dwyer and Tremont drove off from the pack to settle the race themselves. The two fought for a couple of laps before Tremont got past on lap 16. From there, Tremont pulled away to take his third win of the year.
Olden Dwyer finished second, followed by Herrington. Heffner finished fourth after starting 23rd, while Frank Hoard, III was fifth.
In Pro Stock, the night started off with the completion of last week’s feature. Jay Corbin restarted the race in the lead and held on to take his first win of the year over Jon Routhier, Rob Yetman, Rick Duzlak and Paul LaRochelle.
The regular feature got off to a spectacular start when Steven LaRochelle got hooked and turned into Yetman, then went into a series of barrel rolls. The crash collected Corbin, Paul LaRochelle and Victor Hopkins. Steven LaRochelle was ok, but he was done for the night.
Once the race got underway, Rick Duzlak was able to take the lead on lap 2. However, shortly afterwards, the car gave up on him, allowing pole sitter Nick Hilt to regain the advantage.
Despite his right side damage and a slight right rear tire rub, Yetman was the man on the move. By lap 5, he was already up to third and knocking on the door of the leaders. The very next lap saw Yetman take second from Chad Arsenault. Hilt put up a fight against him, but it didn’t take long for Yetman to take the lead.
After a brief yellow due to a spin for Paul LaRochelle, Yetman set sail and drove off into the distance to take his third win of the year over Chuck Towslee, Routhier, Hilt and Hopkins.
In Pure Stock, Clifford Booth, Larry Perez and Jeff Meltz, Jr. won features. In the 4 Cylinder ranks, Todd Goldstein won Dual-Cam while Jim Williams won in Single-Cam.
Wohrles Food & County Waste Modified Results (30 Laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Matt Pupello, 3) Kyle Sheldon, 4) Keith Flach, 5) J.R. Heffner, 6) Brian Berger, 7) Elmo Reckner, 8) Eddie Marshall, 9) Mike Keeler, 10) Mike King, 11) Kolby Schroder, 12) Kenny Tremont Jr, 13) Paul Gilardi, 14) Rob Pitcher, 15) Ed Kitchell, 16) Kyle Armstrong, 17) Olden Dwyer, 18) Chad Jeseo, 19) Brett Hearn. DNS) Stan Frankenfield, DNS) Steve Hough
Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps): 1) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 2) Olden Dwyer, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Jason Herrington, 5) Frank Hoard III, 6) Frank Harper, 7) Brian Sandstedt, 8) Chad Pierce, 9) Ray Hall Jr, 10) Brett Haas, 11) Brian Peterson, 12) Alan Houghtaling, 13) Ricky Davis, 14) Ken McGuire, 15) Demetrios Drellos, 16) Rob Pitcher, 17) Steve Hough, 18) Joey Scarborough, 19) Elmo Reckner, 20) Kim LaVoy, 21) Jason Tompkins, 22) Pete Carlotto, 23) Chad Jeseo.
Pro Stock Feature No. 1 (Delayed from 5/21) Results (20 Laps): 1) Jay Corbin, 2) Jon Routhier, 3) Rob Yetman, 4) Rick Duzlak, 5) Paul LaRochelle, 6) Rick Dempsey, 7) Frank Twing, 8) Chuck Towslee, 9) Steven LaRochelle, 10) Nick Stone, 11) Rich Crane, 12) Tom O’Connor, 13) Joe LaFlamme, 14) Gus Hollner, 15) Ray Hall, Jr., 16) Victor Hopkins, 17) Kyle Hosier, 18) Chad Asenault, 19) Tom Dean, 20) Brian Keough, 21) Nick Hilt, 22) Jeff Kelmel. DNS: Matt Cross, Sparky Reilly
Pro Stock Feature No. 2 Results (20 Laps): 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Chuck Towslee, 3) Jon Routhier, 4) Nick Hilt, 5) Victor Hopkins, 6) Rick Dempsey, 7) Chad Asenault, 8) Daniel Sanchez, 9) Nick Stone, 10) Gus Hollner, 11) Joe LaFlamme, 12) Ray Hall, Jr., 13) Tom O’Connor, 14) Tom Dean, 15) Jeff Kelmel, 16) Kyle Hosier, 17) Paul LaRochelle, 18) Rick Duzlak, 19) Frank Twing, 20) Jay Corbin, 21) Steven LaRochelle, 22) Rich Crane. DNS) Brian Keough
Pure Stock Feature No. 1 Results (8 Laps): 1) Clifford Booth, 2) Kevin Paul, 3) Dan Cote, 4) Jesse Murphy, 5) Zach Sorrentino, 6) Joe Walcott, 7) Karen Verhagen, 8) Wuggie Burdick, 9) Rich Rogers
Pure Stock Feature No. 2 Results (8 Laps): 1) Larry Perez, 2) Bill Deak, Jr., 3) Dave Stickles, 4) Scott Morris, 5) Bill Deak, Sr., 6) Greg DeCamp, 7) George Miles, III, 8) Gary Malloy, 9) Nick Reilly. DNS: Mark Dwyer
Pure Stock Feature No. 3 Results (12 Laps): 1) Jeff Meltz, Jr., 2) Jason Meltz, 3) Al Relyea, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Ray Hall, Sr., 6) Jeff Kreutziger, 7) Mike Arnold, 8) Shawn Perez, 9) Dom Denue, 10) Walsh Brian, 11) Chris Murphy, 12) Harold Robitalle, 13) Tim Thompson, 14) Jeff Meltz, 15) Zach Seyerlein, 16) Jay Casey
4 Cylinder Single-Cam Feature Results (10 laps): 1) Jim Williams, 2) Brandon Ely, 3) James Street, 4) Tim Meltz, 5) Luke Williams, 6) Jethro Rossman, 7) Scott Morris, 8) Robert Martin, 9) Nick McClendon, 10) Victor Duncan, 11) Mike Dianda, 12) Stephen Cameron, Jr, 13) Emily Deming, 14) Chris White, 15) Bradlley Batho
4 Cylinder Dual-Cam Results: 1) Todd Goldstein, 2) Chris Vandeputte, 3) Kenny Stager, 4) Shawny Hazel, 5) Ammo Wright, 6) William Sass, Jr., 7) Kelly Duncan, 8) Philipp Gomm, 9) Jonathan Taylor, 10) Jared Powell, 11) Jim Guertin
