Flach Wows The Crowd In Drive To The Front At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / WEST LEBANON, NY – He’s been consistent. He’s been fast. Now you can call him a winner in 2017. Keith Flach put on an amazing driving display Saturday night at Lebanon Valley, coming from deep on the starting grid, and leaving many in attendance asking, “How’d he do that?”

The answer, ironically, is in the details. That is, a great set up, a great tire program, and a great all-around team.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure how we got this win tonight,” Flach said. “The car felt really good on the top, and once we got going, it was left open a bunch of times in traffic.”

Kyle Armstrong looked to have the race in hand, only to fall into the clutches of the Flach #43. The Danbury, CT driver took the lead from Mike Keeler at halfway and was running away with the race. However, Flach got to second around LJ Lombardo and started to reel in the Newtown Pools #11A.

“I don’t think we would have caught Kyle at the end,” he said. “He seemed to be changing his line close to five to go.”

Mother Nature threw a curve ball early in the evening when a slight rainstorm blanketed the speedway and caused a slight delay just before the Modified heat races.

“We knew we’ve had a decent car lately, but with the rain, we struggled early in the night.” Flach said. “We struggled in traffic the first part of the feature too. I think the restarts hurt until we got things filed out. We were real tight the first six laps or so.”

With the amount of traveling that the Flach team has done over the last seven days, parking the 43 in victory lane is huge. Races at Eldora (two nights), then Sharon Speedway and Albany-Saratoga on Friday really put the crew through their paces.

“This win was a true blessing and the best ending we could’ve had to the week,” Flach said. “This week was so up and down. The guys worked their tails off getting things back in order. To be able to walk away with a win tonight made the whole week worth it. I couldn’t have done it without the guys behind me.”

For second place finisher Kyle Armstrong, it was an amazing comeback after a highway accident last Friday night. The Danbury, CT driver looked to be on his way to the second win of his career but came up just a bit short.

“A second place finish after where we were last week and the way we’ve been running as of late is great for us,” he said. “I would have loved to have had a win for my sponsors and my crew. But we’ll come back, keep digging to get better.”

With only a handful of laps left to go, it looked as if Armstrong was on his way to a win. Grabbing the top spot away from Mike Keeler at the races midway point allowed Kyle to take off and hide from the rest of the field. It was only by chance that the Flach machine ran him down.

We’re putting the pieces together to run really well,” Armstrong said. “We’re almost there. Just need a little bit more but hats off to Keith. He ran me down.

LJ Lombardo came home third followed by Andy Bachetti and Wayne Jelley.

Sixth place finisher was Mike Keeler. Keeler and his team worked their butts off this past week to try and correct their engine issues from a week ago. They believe it to be in the ignition area, so they removed the entire MSD Ignition system in exchange for a magneto.

It worked.

The Montanari Fuel #55 lead half the Modified feature and stayed solid all night to bring home a solid sixth.

“I am very pleased with our performance tonight,” Keeler said. “My crew put a great car under me and the only thing we were lacking was outright horsepower. I hit my marks every lap and the car handled perfectly. I hope to have our primary engine back soon.”

Ray Hall Jr. was able to parley a front row starting spot into his first career 358-Modified win on the high banks. Hall held off the likes of Brian Sansteadt who was second, Brian Peterson who came home third. JR Heffner was fourth and Timothy Davis was fifth.

“This is pretty cool,” he said after the win. “I figured if we didn’t have a caution, I would probably hold them off. I could tell early in the feature that it was a going to be a tough track to pass on. If we had started back further, we weren’t going to go forward. Everybody was going to kind of stay where they were.”

Another driver who was able to pick up his career first victory in the Pro Stocks was Steven Larochelle. The second-generation driver led all 30-laps enroute to the Tour series win.

To say he was excited would be an understatement. After clearing the scale area, the winner took his #178 to the front stretch and preceded to do donuts to celebrate.

Not only was it his first win, but it came in the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series stop at the Valley. Not a bad way to get your first win then on one of the highest stages. Larochelle was followed across the line by Rob Yetman, Jason Casey, Robbie Speed and Jon Routhier.

Evan Denue, Dave Stickles and John Devine took home the three Pure Stock feature events with Tim Meltz & Chris Vandeputte taking victories in the 4-Cylinders.

News & Notes…
JR Heffner was a no-show with his Big Block #74. Earlier this week, his team went to Bicknell to pick up a brand new chassis. However, it appears that the swapover was not completed in time for Saturday’s racing.

Heffner ran his Small Block against the Modifieds and brought it home in 17th.

Engine problems last weekend in the 358-Modified heat races may turn out to be good for Olden Dwyer’s Big Block program.

The second-generation driver from Pownal, VT broke a lifter in his Small Block motor, sending shrapnel throughout the engine and doing serious damage. That means their 358-Mod season is relatively over.

Only one problem…he absolutely loves the car he ran in the class. That is a HigFab chassis that the team bought from Brian Sisson a few years back. So, for next week, the team will pull the Big Block from their Teo and put it in the HigFab.

“I love that car,” Dwyer said. “I feel like I have a better chance to win in it. It’s got so much drive that I know it will really work well.”

With Fonda cancelling, Jessey Mueller and Jack Lehner were in attendance in preparation for the King of Dirt Small Block Modified feature on the night of the All Star Sprints. That event will be co-sponsored by Herrington Farms and DMC Racing Products.

Also coming up, on August 5th will be this annual “Old Buzzard 30” Jimmy Langenback Memorial. Several plans are in the works for this event but if you’re interested in helping out, give me a call at DMC Racing Products at 518-794-8100.

Saturday July 22, 2017 – West Lebanon, NY – NBT Bank & Andy’s Speed Shop Presents – Modified Results (30 Laps) – 1) Keith Flach, 2) Kyle Armstrong, 3) L.J Lombardo, 4) Andy Bachetti, 5) Wayne Jelley, 6) Mike Keeler, 7) Chad Jeseo, 8) Steve Hough, 9) Eddie Marshall, 10) Brett Hearn, 11) Kolby Schroder, 12) Kyle Sheldon, 13) Brian Berger, 14) Kyle Hoffman, 15) Denny Soltis, 16) Matt Pupello,
17) J.R. Heffner, 18) Mike King, 19) Kenny Tremont Jr, 20) Elmo Reckner, 21) Rob Pitcher, 22) Paul Gilardi, 23) John Ruchel, 24) Jeff Sukup, 25) Olden Dwyer,

Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) -1) Ray Hall Jr, 2) Brian Sandstedt, 3) Brian Peterson, 4) J.R. Heffner, 5) Timothy Davis, 6) Ken Tremont Jr, 7) Frank Hoard III, 8) Brett Haas, 9) Jason Herrington,
10) Demetrios Drellos, 11) Chad Pierce, 12) Brandon Pitcher, 13) Frank Harper, 14) Alan Houghtaling, 15) Jessey Mueller, 16) Sean Mandel, 17) Jack Lehner, 18) Bryan McGuire, 19) Ryan Charland,
20) Mike Malloy, 21) Kim LaVoy, 22) Kenny Aanonson,

Pro Stock Results (DIRTCAR TOUR RACE)(30 Laps) -1) Stephen Larochelle 2) Rob Yetmen 3) Jason Casey 4) Robbie Speed 5) Jon Routhier 6) Frank Twing 7) Chuck Towslee 8) Dave Bissonnette 9) Jocelyn Roy 10) Jay Casey 11) Jay Corbin 12) Bruno Cyr 13) Dan Older 14) Mark Lalonde 15) Gus Holliner 16) Joe LaFlamme 17) Tom Dean 18) Brian Keough 19) Pascal Payeur 20) Steve Chaput
21) Roch Aubin 22) Tom O’Connor 23) Ed Bishop 24) Scott Govertsen 25) Nick Arnold 26) Rich Crane 27) Jason Meltz 28) Don Collins 29) Rick Dempsey 30) Rick Duzlak

Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Evan Denue, 2) Jordan Miller, 3) Adam Schneider, 4) Chris Streeter, 5) Dennis O’Connor, 6) Karen Verhagen, 7) Joe Walcott, 8) Wuggie Burdick,

Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) -1) Dave Stickles, 2) Zach Seyerlein, 3) Mark Dwyer, 4) Al Relyea, 5) Scott Morris, 6) Mike Eicchstedt, 7) D.J. Reilly, 8) Chris Murphy,

Pure Stock #3 Results (10 Laps) – 1) John Devine, 2) Jeff Meltz, 3) Ed Hatch, 4) Jeff Meltz Jr, 5) Jesse Murphy, 6) Bill Deek Jr, 7) Dom Denue, 8) Tim Thompson, 9) Mike Arnold, 10) Ray Hall Sr, 11) Jeff Kreutzinger, 12) Lou Ganczar, 13) Shawn Perez, 14) Gary O’Brien, 15) Brian Walsh,

4 Cylinder Single Cam Results -1) Tim Meltz, 2) Chris White, 3) Brandon Ely, 4) Jim Williams, 5) Gary Malloy, 6) Victor Duncan Jr., 7) Jethro Rossman , 8) Bradlley Batho, 9) James Street,

4 Cylinder Dual Cam Results -1) Chris Vandeputte, 2) P.J. Bleau, 3) Jake Gomm, 4) Kenny Stager, 5) Tomm Gomm, 6) Jim Guertin, 7) Shawny Hazel, 8) Matt Thompson, 9) John Wright, 10) Mike Duncan,