Mandel Loved The Rain At Lebanon Valley While Others Weren’t Fans

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Lyrics from Garth Brooks’ song, the Thunder Rolls, couldn’t have been any more of poetic justice for Sean Mandel’s first career 358-Modified win at the Lebanon Valley Speedway Saturday night.

As the thunder rolled and the lightning was striking along the backstretch, Mandel powered his Troyer #66 around the Valley high banks from his front row starting spot and had to hold off fierce challenges from Frank Hoard, JR Heffner and the rest of the field for the victory.

The race ended up being shortened by four laps as a massive rain storm hit the speedway as the drivers headed into turn three. As the leaders were going through the turn, the track became soaked and third place runner Hoard went into the wall. Fourth place Jason Herrington came in behind him and slammed the wall, bouncing into Hoard and flipping his #13 machine. Demetrios Drellos also hit the wall and Herrington right after.

It was then that the race was called with Mandel your victor. For the Connecticut driver, it was a long time coming but something he’s been working hard for.

“I can’t believe we finally got one here,” he said as the rain fell. “My family and team have been putting in a lot of time to get this car right and tonight it felt amazing. I still can’t believe it.”

Mandel was focused on the task at hand as the laps were winding down and as the rain began to falll.

“The caution didn’t come out until I was already in the turn,” he said. “I couldn’t tell it was raining until after I was out of turn four.”

Ultimately though, for Mandel, it was just a dream come true.

“It feels just awesome to win and finally have a car that handles good enough to get the job done,” he said. “I can’t thank Kenny (Tremont) and his crew enough for taking the time to help me out. It’s really turned our program around.”

For second place finisher JR Heffner, he was lucky to make it through the turn on the final circuit as well.

“I was lucky to get slowed down just enough to make it through,” Heffner said. “I think we may have been able to get Sean if we ran the full distance, but who knows now. He did a great job.”

Freak rain storms aren’t new to Heffner though.

“Unfortunately, I have seen this before,” he said. “I was at Fonda many years ago, racing the brand new Magsarus 93 Troyer car when the entire field wrecked in turn one during a heat race as it started raining. When things like that happen, they happen too quick to get nervous.”

Frank Hoard and Jason Herrington were two drivers who didn’t make it out of turn three though. Hoard, as I stated before, ended up on his side and was surprised by how fast the rain came down.

“I knew it was raining hard by the time I got to the Berkshire Bank billboard,” Hoard said. “I couldn’t stop. I got woah’d up some, but it wasn’t enough. I would have been okay, I think, but when Jason hit me, it tipped me over. Totally a freak thing.”

The car sustained some damage that Hoard will evaluate at his shop, The driver is sore but otherwise okay, however, being on his side scared him a bit.

“I hit hard that’s for sure,” he said. “It went over easy, but I just wanted out. Oil and gas were running out and I just didn’t think it was good to be inside that thing.”

Hoard stated that he wasn’t sure if he should have run the race with the threat of rain coming, but those are the chance you take.

“It just wasn’t a good situation,” he said. “I had a bad feeling about the weather before race even started. I guess I should have listened to my gut.”

For Jason Herrington, the night ended with a decent finish even though he has a wrecked racecar.

“It must have rained down in turn three as we were getting there,” he said. “I don’t know, but know I couldn’t stop and couldn’t turn when I got there. Nobody could. It was just a straight line into the wall.”

Jason knew he was okay but was nervous about his fellow competitor.

“The cars came to rest and all I heard was someone yelling for help and I knew it was Frank,” he said. “I didn’t know what I would see but I knew I had to get out of my car and go help him. Luckily he was okay, but when you hear someone needing help, you do everything you can to help them.”

How hard did it rain? It rained so hard that Jason and Frank’s cars sat in turn three throughout the rain storm. It was over three hours after the race completed before teams were able to get their cars off the track.

“We just got the car from turn three,” Herrington texted me at 10:46pm. “It wasn’t easy.”

The Modified and Pro Stock features were rained out as was the Boomer’s Pure Stock Classic. Those races will be run at a later time, and we’ll have information about that once the track makes a decision. Full results from the evening will be coming from the track with the official press release.

News & Notes…
Keith Flach is still riding high after his win Friday night at Albany-Saratoga. It was a big shot in the arm for the team as they chase after Peter Britten in the points battle at the Malta, NY oval.

“It was a great win for all of us, especially the team,” he said. “We’ve been really good and our cars at both regular tracks have really been long run cars. I’m just glad we were able to get a win for my guys.”

Paul Gilardi came back pretty strong on Saturday night after two tough weeks in a row. Gilardi is getting comfortable in his backup machine after several long nights in the shop.

The driver from Pittsfield, MA made changes to the steering box inside the #87x Bicknell machine before his heat race to make him more comfortable.

Gilardi ran well in his heat race, finishing third Kolby Schroder and Brett Hearn.

The Kyle Armstrong #11a never made it out for early night warm-ups as the team found an ignition issue as they went to fire the machine.

“Absolutely no problems at the shop,” Armstrong said. “We get here and the car starts to act up. It never fails.”

The team felt they got things straightened out and going to start at the rear of the field before the rains came.

Olden Dwyer, whose season has been cut short due to last week’s vicious crash in turn three, was going to run a few laps in the Chad Pierce #83 Small Block Modified in the feature. Pierce’s car is sponsored by Dwyer’s Beer & Wine store in Pownal, VT.

It was cool to see the Brett Haas race team supporting the Make-A-Wish NY event put together by Christopher Fain Saturday afternoon at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy, NY.

The Haas family has been a big supporter of the program for several years and this event was able to raise $1,255 for the organization.

One notable missing driver in the Pro Stock division was Jay Corbin. After a string of bad luck and with only one win to his credit in 2017, the former track champion moved his racing program to the Albany-Saratoga Speedway starting last Friday night.

“After 16 years of racing at Lebanon Valley, it was time for a change,” Corbin said. “This was a decision we made as a team and I want to thank my fans for their support over the years at the Valley.”

ARCA Racing Series competitor Dalton Sargeant was in the pit area with the Kenny Martin back-up machine, just as he did Friday at Malta. The 19-year-old is friends with Martin’s son, Sheldon, and used the time in Martin’s Pro Stock as a test for the two ARCA dirt races that are coming up.

Word has Sargeant running on Sunday at another track with a possible test on Monday, probably at the Valley.