Andy Bachetti Scores 2nd Modified-358 Double of 2026

Andy Bachetti took the lead coming to the white flag Saturday night from Matt Pupello and held on to take his second Modified win of the year.  The triumph capped off his second Modified-358 Modified double of the season.

“It’s a tough deal coming from back where we started,” Bachetti said afterwards.  “We just picked the right lines.  Brett Hearn told me years ago that if you can start 15^th every week and drive to the front, you’re doing something.”

Bachetti won by .562 seconds over Pupello.  John Virgilio was third, then J.R. Heffner and Keith Flach.

Mike Engwer started from the pole and ran very well on the point.  The 30-lap feature had only one caution.  That came with only one lap complete when Marc Johnson spun in turn 2.  He was able to resume and finished ninth.

Once the race restarted, Engwer was able to open up a comfortable lead.  Meanwhile, Brandon Lane fell into the clutches of Virgilio and Pupello.

Virgilio lost time to Engwer at first, then moved back in on him as Pupello caught up.  Meanwhile, Bachetti was just getting past the rest of the field, one by one.

Pupello quickly became the man to beat on the outside line.  He was able to get the lead on lap 14 and pulled away.

Meanwhile, Bachetti got to second on lap 23 and was slowly reeling in Pupello.  It didn’t appear that he would have enough to catch up, then Pupello got caught up in lapped traffic.  That allowed Bachetti to sweep past in turns 3 and 4 to take the win.

In the 358 Modifieds, Engwer took the lead on the first lap after pole sitter Montgomery Tremont went up the hill.  Shortly afterwards, a crash broke out in turn 4 involving Nick Giardini, Kim LaVoy and Brian Peterson to bring out a yellow.  LaVoy and Peterson were done for the night.

A couple of more yellows flew in the first six laps.  These incidents kept the field close and allowed those who started well back to move up.  Bachetti was one of those drivers, having started 16^th.  So was Joey Coppola, who started 14^th.

Brian Berger took the lead from Engwer on lap 8 and opened a small gap.  Brett Haas followed into second.  Meanwhile, Bachetti was continuing to move up the order.  He was able to get Donny Travaglin for third on lap 12, then ran down Berger for second on lap 16.

Haas took the lead from Berger on lap 14 and tried to run off, but he had nothing for Bachetti’s pace.  Bachetti ran him down and took the lead with five laps to go.

From there, Bachetti held on to take his fifth 358 win of the year.  Haas was 1.47 seconds back and just held off Coppola for second.  Guy Sheldon was fourth and Brady Cordova fifth.

Pro Stock saw Frank Twing Jr. start from the pole and lead with ease.  It was the youngster’s best run to this point in a Pro Stock car.

Twing led for the first 14 laps until Shawn Perez Jr., who had been running second, stalled exiting turn 4.  That put Chris Stalker up to second.  On the restart, Stalker drove right around the outside of Frank Twing Jr. to take the lead.

Twing Jr.’s night came to an end a couple of laps later.  He felt that he had been roughed up by Shaine Dowd-Smith for second and retaliated in turn 4.  Both Twing Jr. and Dowd-Smith ended up in the wall and out of the race.

Stalker was able to hold off a charging Frank Twing to take the victory by about half a car length.  Tom Dean was third, then Jason Casey and Jason Meltz.

Sportsman teams competed in the George Marcus Memorial Saturday night.  Here, John Agor started on pole, but it wasn’t long before trouble broke out.  On the first lap, AJ Albreada had incidental contact with Ed Dachenhausen in turn 2 and hit the wall to bring out a yellow.

The man truly on the move early was Nick Giardini, who started 10^th and got himself all the way to third by the second lap.  However, it was not Giardini who took the lead away from Agor, but Dylan Holmes who pulled the feat off on lap 4.

Giardini was able to take the lead from Holmes on lap 7 and brought Tim Hartman Jr. with him.  In recent years, this has meant game over.  That was not the case Saturday night as Giardini held off Hartman Jr.’s charges, then pulled away to take the win.

Giardini won by 1.238 seconds over Hartman.  Holmes was third, then Craig Wholey and Nick Brundige.

In Limited Sportsman, Brian Walsh started from pole and immediately came under pressure from Ray Royals.  On lap 2, Royals was able to slip to Walsh’s inside to take the advantage away.

Once out front, Royals was able to pull away to take his first win of the year.  Walsh was 3.011 seconds back in second, then Chris Humes, Dalton Gamache and Dan Odell.

In Street Stocks, Jeff Meltz Sr. took the lead with three laps to go when David Shepard crashed.  From there, he held on to win over Dave Streibel Jr., Julius Pepin, Anthony King and Gary O’Brien.  Stephen Burka won the Claverack Well & Pump 4-Cylinder Feature.

Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Matt Pupello, 3) John Virgilio, 4) J.R. Heffner, 5) Keith Flach, 6) Kyle Armstrong, 7) Mike Engwer, 8) Chris Curtis, 9) Marc Johnson, 10) Kolby Schroder, 11) Eddie Marshall, 12) Brett Haas, 13) Brandon Lane, 14) Kyle Sheldon, 15) Alex Bell, 16) Josh Marcus, 17) Guy Sheldon, 18) Mike King, 19) Montgomery Tremont, 20) Alan Houghtaling

358 Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Brett Haas, 3) Joey Coppola, 4) Guy Sheldon, 5) Brady Cordova, 6) Brian Berger, 7) Donny Travaglin, 8) Garrett Poland, 9) Jeff Watson, 10) Mike Engwer, 11) Brian Whittemore, 12) Kyle Sheldon, 13) Brian Sandstedt, 14) Joey Bonetti, 15) Mark Pullen, 16) Harold Robitaille, 17) Nick Giardini, 18) Ray Hall Jr., 19) Alex Bell, 20) Joe Pravia, 21) Kim LaVoy, 22) Brian Peterson, 23) Montgomery Tremont, 24) Alan Houghtaling

Sportsman George Marcus Memorial Results (20 laps): 1) Nick Giardini, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Dylan Holmes, 4) Craig Wholey, 5) Nick Brundige, 6) AJ Albreada, 7) Ed Dachenhausen, 8) Anthony Maxon, 9) Cam Van Zandt, 10) Connor Prokop, 11) Karl Barnes, 12) John Agor, 13) Owen Lewis, 14) John Gibson

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Ray Royals, 2) Brian Walsh, 3) Matt Humes, 4) Dalton Gamache, 5) Dan Odell, 6) Braxton Martin, 7) Kyle Burl, 8) John Santolin, 9) Garrett Biagiarelli, 10) Doug Sterling, 11) Travis Bernard, 12) Dustin Bowen

Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Frank Twing, 3) Tom Dean, 4) Jason Casey, 5) Jason Meltz, 6) Shawn Perez, 7) Dave Stickles, 8) Jay Casey, 9) Tom O’Connor, 10) Paul LaRochelle, 11) Brian Keough, 12) Richard Spencer, 13) Shaine Dowd-Smith, 14) Frank Twing Jr., 15) Jeff Meltz Jr., 16) Shawn Perez Jr., 17) Zach Sorrentino (DNS)

Street Stock Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Dave Streibel Jr., 3) Jay Pepin, 4) Anthony King, 5) Gary O’Brien, 6) Franklin Smith, 7) Keri VanDenburg, 8) Chris Streeter, 9) Rocco Szemplinski, 10) Dave Streibel, 11) Mike Dianda, 12) David Shepard, 13) Henry Morris, 14) Dylan Quintero, 15) Brian Remmel, 16) Peter Huntoon

Claverack Well & Pump Service 4-Cylinder Feature Results (12 laps):1) Stephen Burka, 2) Prudence Peterson, 3) Morgan Houghtaling, 4) Jason Peck