Bachetti Puts On A Show Sunday In Hard Clay Open

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – The first Hard Clay Open at Orange County in 2014 was won by Andy Bachetti, and on Sunday night, he became the events first two-time winner. However, he had to work for it.

After being one of the fastest cars all weekend, Bachetti was chasing down the leader in his heat race when he ran over a muffler that had fallen off a competitor’s car and cut down the right rear on his #4 machine. He then went to the consolation event and, within two laps, was leading. He went on to win that event, but still had to start deep in the feature event.

Beginning the Hard Clay from the 20th starting spot, Bachetti worked his Small Block car through the field, picking off machines left and right. To say the car was on rails would be an understatement.

He was hovering around the top five by the halfway point, but that’s when things got tougher. Bachetti was up to third, sitting behind the two leaders, Stewart Friesen and Brett Hearn, and thought that was where his charge would end due to tire wear. However, that wasn’t the case.

“I was just sitting back and watching the show between those to so I could see how things were going to play out,” Bachetti said. “I just tried to keep my nose clean until I got to the front, but I wasn’t content to finish third.”

In the closing stages, he watched as Friesen made a mistake in turns one and two, slipping by for the runner-up spot, and then chased down the Hearn #20 only a couple laps later. The green & black #4 made the pas on the Madsen Motorsports machine coming off turn two and went on to take the checkers.

Bachetti, who was running his Small Block during the event, crossed the finish line by about a half straightaway second place and knew he still had more if need be.

“We were good, but that’s because this car was super balanced tonight,” he said. “Running the Small Block wasn’t why we won the feature. My crew gave me an amazing car to drive.”

When it came to tires for the event, Bachetti’s team elected to start with the 48 compound American Racer right rear. That proved to be the right decision, but the team was prepared for any situation. They had several different compound options ready to go, if the caution came out at different times within the final 20 laps.

However, that wasn’t needed.

When the left rear hub broke on Danny Creeden’s #16x during a lap 28 restart, causing a big pile-up and a red flag situation, one of Bachetti’s crewman got a good look at the right rear and felt there was still enough tread left. That meant, unless the tire blew, Andy was set to go to the end.

When all was said and done, it looks like Bachetti could have pushed a little more if he needed to. There was still about 10 laps worth of tire left before it would have become critical.

“Just goes to show that good things come if you work hard enough, and this entire team busted their butts for this win,” he said with a smile.

New Crew Member Helping Out This Season…
When the Bachetti team hits the track this season, you’ll see a new face working with them in the pit area. That is former crewman for BBL Motorsports and David Schilling Motorsports, Travis Corbett. Just before the season-opening Short Track Super Series South event at Georgetown Speedway, Corbett moved his tools to the Andy’s Massachusetts shop and began work.

“I started just before Georgetown working in the shop,” Corbett said. “I think we’re going to be able to do some big things this year. “Andy’s surrounded himself with a great group of dedicated people and they’re all focused on what it takes to win.”

And chemistry between Travis and his new driver is important as well.

“As soon as we started to talk about getting together, Andy and I started clicking better than I could have imagined,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited to go racing.”

The pairing is something that could have happened for the 2016 season, but just wasn’t able to come together.

“We talked a bit last winter but never really made it happen,” Corbett said. “We let it go and never talked again once the season got rolling. The, out of nowhere, two Monday’s before Georgetown, he started calling nonstop and basically wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

And obviously parking their ride in victory lane in their second run together doesn’t hurt chemistry either.

“Man, this is just awesome,” he said. To win the first race I ‘really’ got to work on the car with him is just great. A lot of work over the last month in the shop paid off and we’re ready for more great things.”

Deyo Happy With The Hard Clay Open…
With 54 Modifieds and 40 Sportsman in the pit area, Series promoter Brett Deyo was extremely happy with how Sunday turned out.

“It was a great showing for our North region opener,” he said as he was returning to his Delaware home. “Everything went well and we are very happy.”

One difference compared to years past was that post race inspection was completed before the winner was brought to victory lane.

“The top five finishers all got puffed in tech before we did victory lane just to make sure all was good before we wrote the big check,” he said. “Also, with it being a Sunday night, there was no need to keep the Sportsman waiting to run their feature and we wanted to save our fans time who had to drive long distance to get home.”

UNOFFICIAL FINISH: Andy Bachetti, Stewart Friesen, Brett Hearn, Billy Decker, Tommy Meier, Anthony Perrego, Matt Janiak, Brian Krummel, Matt Sheppard, Jeremy Smith, Rich Ricci jr, Tyler Dippel, Billy VanInwegen, Craig Hanson, Matt Delorenzo, Kirk Horton, Bob McGannon, Allison Ricci, CG Morey, Rob Rowe, Michael Sabia, Richie Eurich, Danny Creeden, Jerry Higbie, Erick Rudolph, Mike Mahaney, Nick Nye, Jimmy Horton, Chris Schultz, Craig Mitchell

An official release about the event will be published soon.