Josh Marcus, Marc Johnson Split HC 82’s

Saturday night saw Lebanon Valley Speedway celebrate owner/promoter Howard Commander’s 82^nd birthday.  Instead of one 30-lap feature, there would be two 20-lap features with full points paid.  At the end of 40 laps of racing, Eddie Marshall and Marc Johnson took home victories.

Race No. 1 saw Montgomery Tremont start from the pole, but lose his advantage on the first lap to Josh Marcus on the outside.  On this evening, the outside line was the best line and the young racer made good use of it to open up a decent advantage.

The field was bunched back up at halfway when Kolby Schroder slowed exiting turn 4 and Mike King spun to avoid.  Schroder was out of the race, while King was able to continue.

On the restart, Marshall was able to quickly move up to second and began to challenge Marcus for the lead.  Marcus stayed high, while Marshall was low.

It was here where controversy broke out.  On the final lap, Kyle Armstrong crashed out of fourth on the backstretch.  The caution was announced over the radio, but the checkered flag was displayed instead of the yellow in error.

With the confusion in play, everyone was allowed to re-assume their position for a final restart.  On that restart, Marshall was able to get to the inside of Marcus and power past exiting turn 2 to take the win.  Marcus was second, then Keith Flach, Chris Curtis and Guy Sheldon.

However, officials took another look at the situation a couple of days later and decided to give the victory to Marcus given the unusual situation regarding the checkered flag being displayed at an inappropriate time.  That said, both Marcus and Marshall will still receive winner’s checks for $4100.

Following an invert of the top 12 finishers, Johnson started on pole, but immediately had substantial pressure from Andy Bachetti.  The two fought hard for the lead, trading slide jobs.  However, it was a vicious crossover move in turn 4 that allowed Johnson to get in front.

From there, Johnson was able to hold on to win H.C. 82 No. 2 and take home a check for $4100.  Johnson won by .973 seconds over Bachetti, then J.R. Heffner, Brett Haas and Curtis.  As of this writing, the results of both races are still unofficial.

The 358 Modifieds ran the held-over Jason Herrington Memorial.  By virtue of a redraw on July 4, Garrett Poland claimed the pole.  He was able to lead from the pole early.

Further back, Joey Coppola ran into the left rear of Brady Cordova and spun to bring out the yellow.  He would have more trouble later on and eventually finished 17^th.

Jeff Watson went to the outside on the restart and quickly got up to second.  He then took the lead from Poland.  Shortly afterwards, Guy Sheldon spun exiting turn 2 and was collected by his son Kyle to bring out another yellow.

Johnson got by Poland for second on the restart and immediately put the pressure on Watson for the lead.  It did not take long for Johnson to take the advantage and open up a gap.

From there, Johnson opened up a decent gap and held on to win the Jason Herrington Memorial.  He won by 2.425 seconds over Watson.  Bachetti was third, then Neil Stratton and Haas.

In Sportsman, Owen Lewis was able to take the lead away from pole sitter Karl Barnes on the first lap and pull out a gap over Ed Dachenhausen.  Meanwhile, Tim Hartman Jr. and AJ Albreada were trying to keep pace.

Hartman was able to get himself up to second and tried to run down Lewis, but Lewis had every bit of his pace.  Lapped traffic on the final lap made it a little closer, but Lewis held on for his first win of the year.

Lewis won by .623 seconds over Hartman.  Dachenhausen was third, then Albreada and Craig Wholey.

Following the race, Lewis’ engine was protested.  When this happens, the engine is taken out of the car and held by the track.  It was sent to D.M.O. Motor & Machine in Plattsburgh for testing.  It was determined that everything was on the up and up, so Lewis’ victory was upheld.

In Limited Sportsman, Dustin Bowen started from pole and led every lap to take his first career victory.  He won by 2.014 seconds over John Santolin.  Dan Odell was third, then Braxton Martin and Matt Humes.

Frank Twing Jr. started from pole in Pro Stock, but lost the advantage early on to Shawn Perez Jr.  Shortly afterwards, Paul LaRochelle spun and hit the wall on the frontstretch to bring out a yellow.

Once the race got into a rhythm, Perez slowed pulled away from the pack.  Meanwhile, Chris Stalker was able to slowly move up the order and took second from Frank Twing with seven laps to go.

From there, Stalker slowly ran down Perez and made a move to the inside entering turn 3 on the final lap.  There was some contact that allowed Stalker to get underneath and past to take the win.  Perez was second, then Frank Twing, Jason Casey and Frank Twing Jr.

In Street Stocks, Josh Bussino passed Dave Streibel Jr. with two laps to go and held on for his first win of the year.  Streibel Jr. was second, then Jeff Meltz Sr., Gary O’Brien and Dave Streibel.  In 4-Cylinders, Jason Peck picked up the win.

Modified All Green Hydroseed H.C. 82 Race No. 1 Results (20 laps): 1) Josh Marcus, 2) Eddie Marshall, 3) Keith Flach, 4) Chris Curtis, 5) Guy Sheldon, 6) Brett Haas, 7) J.R. Heffner, 8) John Virgilio, 9) Matt Pupello, 10) Andy Bachetti, 11) Brandon Lane, 12) Marc Johnson, 13) Kyle Sheldon, 14) Neil Stratton, 15) Alex Bell, 16) Montgomery Tremont, 17) Donny Travaglin, 18) Kyle Armstrong, 19) Mike King, 20) Mike Engwer, 21) Kolby Schroder, 22) Alan Houghtaling

Modified All Green Hydroseed H.C. 82 Race No. 2 Results (20 laps): 1) Marc Johnson, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Chris Curtis, 6) John Virgilio, 7) Eddie Marshall, 8) Kyle Sheldon, 9) Brandon Lane, 10) Guy Sheldon, 11) Kolby Schroder, 12) Keith Flach, 13) Kyle Armstrong, 14) Alex Bell, 15) Josh Marcus, 16) Mike King, 17) Alan Houghtaling, 18) Montgomery Tremont, 19) Neil Stratton, 20) Matt Pupello, 21) Donny Travaglin, 22) Mike Engwer

358 Modified Inaugural Jason Herrington Memorial Results (24 laps): 1) Marc Johnson, 2) Jeff Watson, 3) Andy Bachetti, 4) Neil Stratton, 5) Brett Haas, 6) Chris Curtis, 7) Nick Giardini, 8) Garrett Poland, 9) Brian Berger, 10) Ray Hall Jr., 11) Brady Cordova, 12) Donny Travaglin, 13) Mark Pullen, 14) Brian Whittemore, 15) Kyle Sheldon, 16) Guy Sheldon, 17) Joey Coppola, 18) Brian Peterson, 19) Brian Sandstedt, 20) Joey Bonetti, 21) Mike Engwer, 22) Joe Pravia, 23) Nick Perez, 24) Alan Houghtaling, 25) Kim LaVoy, 26) Harold Robitaille  DNS: Angelo DiCarlo, Walter Hammond Jr., Walter J. Hammond, Ronnie Johnson

Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Owen Lewis, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Ed Dachenhausen, 4) AJ Albreada, 5) Craig Wholey, 6) Connor Prokop, 7) Nick Brundige, 8) Cody Cordova, 9) Anthony Maxon, 10) Nick Giardini, 11) Cam Van Zandt, 12) John Agor, 13) Karl Barnes, 14) Dylan Holmes, 15) John Gibson

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Dustin Bowen, 2) John Santolin, 3) Dan Odell, 4) Braxton Martin, 5) Matt Hmes, 6) DJ Faulkner, 7) Garrett Biagiarelli, 8) Brian Walsh, 9) Ray Royals, 10) Kyle Burl, 11) Doug Sterling, 12) Fred Pavia, 13) Matt Jordan, 14) Travis Bernard (DNS)

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

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

Claverack Well & Pump 4-Cylinder Results (15 laps): 1) Jason Peck, 2) Chris Danylieko, 3) Prudence Peterson, 4) Dale Sirois, 5) Morgan Houghtaling, 6) Stephen Burka, 7) Jon Shepard