Brett Hearn: A Man On A Mission Saturday At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – In what may be one of the most dominant performances of his career on the high banks, in my opinion, Brett Hearn made quick, and I mean quick, work of the Modified field Saturday night at the Lebanon Valley Speedway. In turn, he was able to secure career win #897 in the process.

The defending track champion started in the 13th starting spot and was up to position seven by lap two. He then continued to pick cars off one by one and grabbed the runner-up position by the eighth circuit.

It was then that he had to chase down leader Andy Bachetti who had wrestled the lead away from the Kingfish, Mike King, early in the event. In what can only be stated as making quick work in short order, the Madsen Motorsports #20 ran down the Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming #4 and took the lead on the lap 14 while the took maneuvered through lap traffic.

He then opened up nearly a three quarter straight away lead in the next two laps. Did I forget to mention this was all without a single caution flag? In fact, the caution never flew during the 30-lap event. Hearn went on to grab the win and inch ever so closer to that milestone career win #900.

Bachetti came home in the second position, but didn’t have anything for the Jersey Jet on this evening.

“He was very good tonight,” Bachetti said. “I had brake problems all evening and I was fortunate to finish where I did.”

The driver from Sheffield, MA, who was coming off another win at Afton Motorsports Park the night before, finished second in his heat by wasn’t happy with how his car was stopping so he and his team went to work.

“We changed brake rotors, hubs, everything in this car to try and fix the problem,” he said. “We didn’t really have the time we needed to work on the set up of the car, so to finish second and lead some, I’m happy with that.”

Eddie Marshall had a great rebound after last weeks misfortune in the first of two Modified features races. Driving the Kolby Schroder back-up machine, Marshall started second and ran in the top five all evening, coming home with a solid third place finish and gaining valuable points in the process.

Kenny Tremont was another driver who worked his way up from deep in the handicapping order to gain a solid top five finish. The multi-time track champion placed fourth on the evening, but the team feels they could have been better with some breaks.

“We weren’t bad tonight,” crewman Joe Matthews stated after the race. “It was just a tough night. A yellow flag or two would have helped us, that’s for sure.”

Tremont started fourteenth and worked all race long to get to the top five, fighting with King and the 43 of Keith Flach late in the going.

“Ken seemed to be content with the way the car worked,” Matthews said. “I don’t think we were off a ton. It was just situational stuff that got us behind.”

For Flach, the current Modified point leader had another solid night, coming home with fifth.

“Things just seemed to pan out okay for us tonight,” he said. “We were alright, starting out okay, but were tight on entry and as a result we weren’t as good at the end of the race as we needed to be. We just have to keep digging.”

Flach now shares the point lead with Bachetti, as Hearn and Tremont are close in tow. This has the makings of an amazing battle to see who can take home the Modified track title on the high banks this season.

JR Heffner may have had a rough evening with his Big Block Modified, but that didn’t keep him from passing Brett Haas on lap 14 of the 358-Modified feature as the former track champion went on the score his first victory of 2017.

Heffner worked his was up from his 14th starting position, passing the Mildred Elley #55 of Haas with a move entering turn three, and never looked back.

“It looked like the 55 was struggling just a tick in the corner and our car liked to roll the top,” Heffner said. “We had great corner speed and I wasn’t happy with the way our Big Block ran tonight, so I’m glad we had another race to run. It feels good to win and I need more.”

Tremont was able to pass Haas with just a handful of laps left and came home second. Brett bought his car home third after 13th and driving through the field to take the lead on lap eight. For Haas, it was a solid effort but one that he wishes he was able to win.

“My car was absolutely phenomenal,” Haas said. “But, I wanted that win. It’s pretty frustrating when your car is as good as ours was and we still got beat by a straightaway. We’ll keep digging and I know that win is coming. My team worked their butts off and I can’t thank them enough. We had a great piece tonight.”

Demetrios Drellos and Olden Dwyer rounded out the top five.

In Pro Stock action, Rob Yetman ran was able to score the victory after a spirited battle with Steven Larochelle and Hugh Page for the top spot, which saw the defending champion take the lead and his third victory of 2017.

Page came home with an impressive second place finish followed by the Ghent Wood Products sponsored cars of Jason Meltz, and Jon Routhier, with Victor Hopkins rounding out the top five.

Jay Casey, Tom Murphy and Jeff Meltz Sr. all took home Pure Stock wins. Chris Vandeputte and James Street took home the four-cylinder feature wins from May 6th with Joey Morey and Kenny Stager winning the regularly-scheduled events.

News & Notes
Apparently a family wedding is something that can keep a driver out of his racing seat. Well, as it should be when it’s your daughter.

That’s the reason Elmo Reckner wasn’t in competition on Saturday as he was in the western part of the United States at his daughter’s wedding. Insert, substitute driver Jeff Heotzler.

“The Jeffer” has run for Elmo in the past and jumped at the opportunity because of how good the equipment is. Heotzler finished 3rd in his heat and brought the #17 machine home with a solid 12th place effort.

LJ Lombardo finished 14th on the night in the Modified feature after fighting brake issues in the early part of the night. The young driver didn’t like the way the car was slowing down entering the corners to the team changed the pads in his Ultimate Restoration #35 Teo before the middle of the night hot laps and it got better.

“We are figuring the place out but we just don’t have the right combination tonight for this track,” he said. “We were better for hot-laps but need to keep the momentum up off the corner to be strong. We’re on the right track though.”

Mike Keeler experienced engine troubles again in his #55 Teo Pro Car. After thrashing all week to fix his primary motor from a week ago, the Connecticut driver was running in a qualifying position in his heat only to have trouble.

“I’m not sure what happened yet, but I know my engine builder and team worked extremely hard to get back here and I’m proud of how we were running,” he said. “I love the power we’ve had this year and how well our car is handling. We’ll get this figured out. There’s no doubt in my mind. We’re very close.”

Jay Corbin had an eventful heat race. While he was able qualify through his heat, the former track champion noticed a small leak in his fuel line. Getting the necessary parts to fix it, Corbin went out for the main event and was running near the front when troubles set in.

After making a pit stop, Corbin was able to work his way through the field and came home 12th at the end of the feature.

Jason Casey was at the Valley on Saturday night, as was his father Jay. Both drivers have been floating around this season in order to have more fun with racing, rather than sticking to one track and chasing points.

The younger Casey got the best of his father on this night, finishing ninth while Jay dropped out early and came home 24th.

Both drivers plan to be at the Valley next for the DMC Racing Products Bubba Tanner Pro Stock Classic on June 17th and the King of Dirt events as well.

Modified Results (30 Laps) – 1) Brett Hearn, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Eddie Marshall, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr, 5) Keith Flach, 6) Mike King, 7) Brian Berger, 8) Chad Jeseo, 9) Kyle Armstrong, 10) J.R. Heffner, 11) Wayne Jelley, 12) Jeff Heotzler, 13) Matt Pupello, 14) L.J Lombardo, 15) Kyle Sheldon, 16) Paul Gilardi, 17) Demetrios Drellos, 18) Ken McGuire, 19) Kolby Schroder, 20) Olden Dwyer, 21) Dave Mcfeeters, 22) Rob Pitcher, 23) Denny Soltis, 24) Mike Keeler,

Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) – 1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Ken Tremont Jr, 3) Brett Haas, 4) Demetrios Drellos, 5) Olden Dwyer, 6) Pete Carlotto, 7) Brian Sandstedt, 8) Brandon Pitcher, 9) Bryan McQuire, 10) Frank Harper, 11) Timothy Davis, 12) Jason Tompkins, 13) Sean Mandel, 14) Allison Ricci, 15) Brian Peterson, 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Chad Pierce, 18) Frank Hoard III, 19) Ricky Davis, 20) Ray Hall Jr, 21) Jason Herrington,

Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) -1) Rob Yetman, 2) Hugh Page, 3) Jason Meltz, 4) Jon Routhier, 5) Victor Hopkins, 6) Paul LaRochelle, 7) Todd Hoffman, 8) Rick Duzlak, 9) Jason Casey, 10) Ed Bishop, 11) Nick Hilt, 12) Jay Corbin, 13) Joe LaFlamme, 14) Rich Crane, 15) Sparky Reilly, 16) Jeff Kelmel, 17) Chuck Towslee, 18) Dan Cote, 19) Brian Keough, 20) Tom Dean, 21) Rick Dempsey, 22) Tom O’Connor 23) Steven LaRochelle, 24) Jay Casey, 25) Jay Fitzgerald, 26) Matt Cross, 27) Don Collins, 28) Norm Loubier,

Pure Stock #1 Results (10 Laps) – 1) Casey, Jay** 2) Perez,Larry 3) Olds, Doug 4) Sorrentino, Zach 5) Stickles, Dave 6) Sherman, Phil 7) Denue, John 8) Burdick, Wuggie 9) Miller, Jordan 10) Meltz, Tim

Pure Stock #2 Results (10 Laps) -1) Murphy, Tom**2) Reilly, Nick 3) Morris, Scott 4) Booth, Clifford* 5) Dwyer, Mark 6) Walsh, Brian 7) Rogers, Rich 8) Ganczar, Lou 9) Arnold, Mike 10) O’Connor, Dennis Jr.

Pure Stock #3 Results (10 Laps) -1) Meltz, Jeff Jr.** 2) Meltz, Jeff 3) Hatch, Ed 4) Hall, Ray Sr * 5) Relyea, Al* 6) O’Brien, Gary* 7) Kreutzinger, Jeff 8) Deak, Bill Jr.* 9) Devine, John* 10) Denue, Dom 11) Perez, Shawn* 12) Seyerlein, Zach 13) Thompson, Tim 14) Murphy, Jesse

4 Cylinder Single Cam Results (05/06/2017)- 1) James Street, 2) Brandon Ely, 3) Jim Williams, 4) Joey Morey, 5) Jethro Rossman , 6) John Sheppard 7) Gary Malloy, 8) Victor Duncan Jr.,

4 Cylinder Dual Cam Results 05/06/2017) -1) Chris Vandeputte, 2) P.J. Bleau, 3) Shawny Hazel, 4) Jake Gomm, 5) Matt Thompson, 6) Jim Guertin, 7) Mike Dianda, 8) Mike Duncan, 9) John Wright, 10) Derek Quientaro 11) Tomm Gomm, 12) William Sass Jr,

4 Cylinder Single Cam Results-1) Morey, Joey* 2) Williams, Jim 3) Street, James* 4) White, Chris 5) Besze, Devine 6) Batho, Bradlley 7) Rossman, Jethro 8) Ely, Brandon* 9) Sheppard, John 10) Malloy, Gary 11) Duncan, Victor Jr.

4 Cylinder Dual Cam Results-1) Stager, Kenny* 2) Bleau, P.J 3) Vandeputte,Chris** 4) Gomm, Jake 5) Hazel, Shawny 6) Quientaro, Derek 7) Bleau, Jim 8) Guertin, Jim9) Wright, John 10) Gomm, Tomm 11) Calabro, Chris 12) Sass, William Jr 13) Duncan, Mike 14) White, David 15) Rick, Hodges 16) Taylor, Johnathan 17) Thompson, Matt 18) Dianda, Mike