Pitcher Rebounds From Hard Luck: Wins JC Flach Memorial At LVS

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – On a cold and windy night in the Valley…an evening dedicated to the memory of a fallen racer, Rob Pitcher parlayed a good starting position into a visit in victory lane as he took the JC Flach Memorial at Lebanon Valley Saturday.

Pitcher had to withstand a challenge from third-place starter Kyle Sheldon who tried everything he could to catch up to the #17 Troyer machine but to no avail. The win was the first of the season for the Spencertown, NY driver who just two weeks ago was involved in the massive multi-car pileup on the front stretch that was part of double features on May 20th.

“This car was simply amazing tonight,” Pitcher said. “We finally got a win for this Troyer and I’m honored that it came on JC’s night.”

The win, worth $3,000, was the first for Pitcher’s own engine combination, and that’s something he’s really proud of.

“I am so happy that we got this win, and with a motor we built in our shop,” he said. “I was really nervous that the adjustments we made before the feature would make us too free, but it rolled in real nice and got off the corners great. This is exactly what we needed.”

Second place finisher Kyle Sheldon was ecstatic to come away with a runner-up finish, given the recent string of bad luck that has befallen on the team.

“Hell yeah this was a big shot in the arm for our entire team,” Sheldon said. “I hope this means we’ve got things going in the right direction and got all the gremlins out of the way.”

On lap five there was a massive accident in turn one and two which involved Chad Jeseo, Denny Soltis, Matt Pupello and Brett Hearn. All but Hearn were done for the evening. However, that was a turning point as that ended up being the only caution of the race.
For Sheldon, however, he needed one more caution.

“I would like to think I could have gotten him if I had more another caution or two,” he said. “But, you’ll never know now.”

Third place finisher Kolby Schroder has had an up and down 2017 to date, but an solid top five run may be just what he ordered as the summer months roll around.

“I was giving it all I had out there and then some,” Schroder said. “That’s 110%, just like my guys do, and I’m just so happy that we could have a strong run for them, and all our sponsors. We needed this.”

Brett Hearn came away with a fourth place finish which was big after the lap five accident. The Jeseo machine landed on Brett’s right side door, but, as stated before, he was able to continue.

He then worked his way through the pack and got to the top five, where he battled hard with Brian Berger for fourth late in the going, and took the spot away with just a handful of laps left.

Berger, on the other hand, greatly needed a strong showing on Saturday night, and he got it with a fifth place finish. After two motor issues in the first dozen races to start the season, Berger was able to get his primary engine back for this weekend and his car was a rocket.

“We definitely needed that caution,” Berger said. “I probably would have ending up in the wall soon after if it didn’t come. I was able t make a few adjustments to the car that really helped the handling.”

Tremont Back On Top: Wins First Of 2017 In Small Block Modifieds
In Small Block competition, it was a tail of two segments…before lap 12 and after lap 12. Before halfway, there was a fierce battle up front between Alan Houghtaling and Ray Hall…oh, and add into the mix a guy named Kenny Tremont.

After halfway, Hall passed Houghtaling’s 250 and tried to set sail. One problem…the driver of the #115.

Tremont got to second and figured a way to move around the outside of Hall’s #72 in turns three and four and never looked back, grabbing his first 358-Mod win of 2017.

“Through the years, I’ve had good cars, and it’s almost like their idiot proof, like no matter what you do to them they go good,” he said. “That’s what this car is like. I knew where Ray was running. It took a second, but he was committed to the bottom so I went to the top. I don’t know I could have gotten him if he was on the top.”

For Hall, it was his best career finish in open wheel cars. The Massachusetts campaigner has slowly been enjoying his best season to date on the high banks in the 358-Modified class.

Third place finisher Brett Haas had a bounce back of sorts on Saturday. Last week, he lost the lead in the feature to Kenny Tremont. This week, it was a problem in the heat race.

“Everyone in our pit stayed calm all night,” he said. “That was even when we got a flat tire on the last lap of our heat and lost a handicap position. We knew we had a fast car and could overcome it and that’s what happened. We stayed out of trouble and drove to the front.

Haas started in the final row for the event (18th) and drove to a podium finish.

JR Heffner and Frank Harper rounded out the top 5.

Sportsman & Pro Stock Features
The Sportsman feature ended with the #66 of Mike Gramolini crossing the line first and taking career win number one on dirt, followed by Rob Maxon, Frank Hoard Jr. Whitey Slavin and John Virgilio. However, in tech, both the winner and second place were disqualified for infractions, giving the win to Hoard.

For more information on this and the rest of the event, check out RPW for the official track release.

In the Pro Stock feature, Connecticut’s Rich Crane took his #711 to winner’s circle after starting in the fourth position. It was his second win since making his return to racing last season.

“The car was pretty good at the start of the feature, and by lap 10 my tires started to come in,” he said while in the tech area. “While my tires started to work, my brakes started to fade so I was able to compromise a little bit and everything just worked out.”

Crane was quick to give credit for his win to a few of his competitors who’ve assisted in getting up to speed.

“I couldn’t have done this without my awesome crew,” he said. “I also can’t thank everyone at Routhier Racing and Casey Racing for their help. This has been a total team effort.”

Just like the Sportsman feature, there were some issues in the tech area, and again, for more info on that, stay tuned to Race Pro Weekly for the official release from the track. We will post it as it becomes available.

News & Notes
NASAR Whelen Modified Tour driver Chase Dowling was at the Valley running the back-up Kenny Tremont machine. Both drivers are sponsored by S&S Asphalt Paving.

This is the second time Dowling has run Tremont’s car. He did so as well a few years ago, but this time had better results. He ran well in his heat and finished all thirty laps in the feature.

Paul Gilardi has had an up-and-down 2017 so far, and over the last week decided to install his AFR spec-head Big Block for competition, taking advantage of the weight break.

The car was extremely fast in his heat race, as Gilardi drove up to second behind winner Matt Pupello. He then started 10th in the feature and was fighting for fifth just after the lap 5 caution, before the handling started to go just a bit.

He did bring the car home with a top 10 finish which is another shot in the arm for a team getting use to their new HigFab Chassis.

Mike Keeler had distributor hold down come loose during his heat race, which allowed the distributor to move as he was leading his heat. He and his crew worked to correct the situation all evening but was an early retiree from the feature event.

358-Modified driver Timothy Davis hit the fourth turn pit gate with his #7T late in his heat race. He was able to continue but ended up with what the team felt was a rear axle issue that they needed to address.

After they had that squared away, they noticed that the front axle was pushed back at least an inch.

They worked hard to get the car race ready as best as they could and were rewarded with a ninth place finish.

Pro Stock driver Jason Meltz fought power steering pump issues during early night warm-ups, causing the team to change pumps. They were able to get the work complete, run their heat and put kept out of trouble as best as possible, bringing their #51 machine home with a top five in the feature.