Saturday Was Big For JR Heffner, Timothy Davis, Jay Casey & Even Brett Hearn At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – While the temperatures may have been a little brisk on Saturday night at Lebanon Valley, JR Heffner was ‘cool’ under pressure as well as he took his Modified to victory lane for the second time in the 2017 racing season.

Heffner, who started in the fifth position, took the lead from pole sitter John Ruchel before the one third mark of the event and had to fend off some tough competitors for the victory. First it was Keith Flach and then point leader Brett Hearn, but Heffner was up to the challenge.

“I was really inspired by my crew as hard as they worked tonight,” Heffner said. “They worked really hard after blowing our primary engine last week. Tonight, the Bedell horsepower pulled us through. I don’t know what Dickie (Williams) and Dan Bedell did with this back-up engine but it was really strong tonight.”

Two weeks ago, the Heffner team did switchover to a brand new chassis which necessitated taking all of the components off the old car and putting them on the new one. That meant a lot of late nights in the shop. Couple that with the motor issue from last week and you can see why JR was thankful for his crew.

“Our guys keep working so hard so when I’m on the track I give it all I got,” he said. “The new Bicknell felt really strong tonight. Brett showed me a nose, and like Kolby Schroder last week, when Brett’s up there, he’s the best there is so to hang on to the lead and stay there was really good for us.”

With the second place finish on Saturday, Brett Hearn mathematically locked up another Modified point title at the Valley of Speed. For Hearn, it was a bittersweet runner-up finish.

“I guess I should be gracious as it looks like we locked up the title, but man, I hate getting beat by somebody who has perfected the art of sandbagging,” Hearn said. “It really is just terrible. I mean, these guys win a race, and three weeks later, they’re on the pole for the heat, starts fifth for the feature and as a racer, you have to overcome that.”

Hearn started the feature in 14th and really charged through the field but came up just one spot short.

“We started deep, got up to second and the car was really good,” he said. “But those last ten laps, when everything is really hot it’s hard to make a move.”

Hearn’s focus now shifts to Thursday night and the $17,500-to-win Mr. DIRT Track USA event at Lebanon Valley. The veteran didn’t win a race on the Super DIRTcar Series at all in 2016 and has yet to grace victory lane on tour this year. He’d like to change that this coming week on his home turf.

“We’ve been working towards Thursday night as our focus for the last few weeks has been on that,” he said. “Mr. DIRT’s a very important race to us on our schedule and we’ve been working to find the right deal so we can bring that one home.”

Keith Flach looked like he was on his way to another top 5 run, but, as he put it, a momentary laps in judgment that cost him a shot at the win, and now the point title.

“We were pretty tight in the feature,” Flach said. “We started to have some minor brake issues for the first time tonight. I just got passed by Brett and got into turn three a little harder than I wanted and thought he was going to go in low, but he went in higher than I expected. I tried to cross over to get a run under him but it didn’t work and we spun out.”

Flach was able to rebound from the rear of the field to bring the Flach Companies #43 home in 13th.

“I know it happens, but I just feel bad for my guys,” he said. “It’s the first real mistake I’ve made at Lebanon all year, but I still hate it for my crew.”

Kenny Tremont brought his #115 home for a third place finish after his win of a week ago. LJ Lombardo came home with a well-deserved fourth place run and Rob Pitcher rebounded after motor troubles of his own last week for fifth.

For the first time in his career, Timothy Davis was able to bring home a victory in the 358-Modified division, leading wire-to-wire to score the win.

Davis held off a lap 12 restart challenge by Ricky Davis and then went on to take the checkers.

“This win is for my grandmother who passed away two years ago,” Davis said. “I didn’t know what was going on behind me but I was just praying for the best.”

Even with an up and down season to date, Davis and his team, lead by his father, have persevered it paid off with a career first victory in the division.

“Consistency is key this year for us,” he said. “We were aiming for a top ten in points and this is sure going to help us out with that. Hard work from a lower budget team against these guys paid off. The car was a rocket tonight.”

JR Heffner was able to have a great night in the Small Block class as well bringing his #74 home in the runner-up spot with Ricky Davis hanging on for third. Frank Hoard III came home fourth and Brett Haas backed up his second place from last week with a fifth Saturday night.

The King of Dirt Pro Stock Series made its way into the Valley Saturday and after a hard fought battle between neighbors, Jay Casey got the best of Jon Routhier to score the win in the 30-lap main event.

Casey had to work for this victory, passing Routhier near the halfway point and then had to hold him off to score his first win at the speedway since 2014.

“Everything seemed to just fall back into place,” Casey said. “Nice track. Smooth and fast. I thought I was going to have a problem with Routhier as he was coming on strong on the bottom. I think he had the right gear and I took advantage of the high side and kept on rolling.”

The two close friends were “close” at the finish in every sense of the word. As both cars come down to the finish, Casey was able to pull out the victory by the narrowest of margins. Timing and scoring had to get the call in the photo finish of the event.

“Jon and I are close as he lives down the street from me,” he said. “This race was fun I can tell you that.”

Routhier reiterated those same sentiments.

“It was an excellent race and getting to race with a guy from my hometown,” he said. “It was really fun racing against him and I needed a couple more adjustments. “I lost some brakes in the back and Jay snuck by me and I was trying to figure a way to reel hi in.”

For two Canaan, CT drivers to finish one-two, Routhier felt it was a great race. He just wished he was one instead of two.

“There was definitely nothing more I could have asked for,” he said. “The car was great but just a little bit of driver error.”

Third place finisher Frank Twing had an eventful night after starting in the sixth position. The veteran had to work his way back from some early race trouble and was battling with Steven LaRochelle and Rob Yetman for the podium at the end.

“That was a lot of fun,” Twing said after the race. “Brakes started to go away and I needed that caution late in the race. My right rear tire was pretty well warm and going away on me.”

When they were getting ready to go back to green, Twing realized they were double file restarts and saw he was on the bottom. He thought he was done.

“I truly believed we were in trouble,” he said. “Maybe Steven missed a shift or something because I was able to get back by him pretty easy, but after running a flat track all season (Fonda), the car felt great here.”

Jason Meltz brought the Meltz Lumber, Ghent Wood Products #51 home in fourth and Rob Yetman finished fifth.

The three Pure Stock winners were Tim Thompson, Mike Eicchstedt and Jeff Meltz Sr. with Jeff Kreitzinger winning the Boomer’s Pure Stock Classic.

News & Notes…
Two interesting entries in the Modified class on Saturday were Tyler Dippel and Anthony Perrego. For Perrego, it was the first time he’s even set foot in the West Lebanon oval. For Dippel it was his second starts of the year at the Valley. Both drivers were there to get laps in preparation for Thursday’s Mr. DIRT Track USA event.

Dippel was an early retiree from the feature, finishing 23rd while Perrego kept his nose clean and was able to bring his #44 Teo home with a fine sixth place finish.

Demetrios Drellos also had his Big Block in attendance but was the first driver out of the feature. Dan Humes ran his second race on the high banks this season and brought the #0 home with a sixteenth place finish.

Elmo Reckner brought out his DKM Cyclone Chassis for Modified competition on Saturday. He had been running a Bicknell all season long but decided to try the car he’d been running at Albany-Saratoga.

The car gained speed through the course of the night but never really had what Elmo needed. The #17 was credited with an 18th place finish when the feature was complete.

Andy Bachetti seemed to be brake issues early in the night on his #4 machine. The team was trying to change pads during the night to give Andy a better feel. After not qualifying through the heat race, Bachetti made his way to 10th at the end of the Modified feature.

Chad Pierce has been working hard to get the handle on his 358-Modified. Last week, he found that he had a broken shock on his #83 PMC Race Car.

That seemed to be one of the problems as the car was better in early night warm-ups. One problem…he lost power steering during the session as a belt came loose.

The team got that fixed but the car never seemed to be right the rest of the night and Pierce didn’t complete all of the 24 scheduled laps, finishing 18th.

I have to give a tip of the hat to veteran campaigner Mike Malloy. For the first time in a long time, Mike ran a strong heat race with his former Bill Wilson #7 Teo Pro Car and was able to qualify for the main by finishing fifth in the first 358-Modified heat.

To say Mike was happy is an understatement. He didn’t even know he had to go over the scales after the event was over.
In the feature, Mike completed all of the laps and came home in 16th, but you couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

Look for Nick Reilly to move up from the Pure Stock to Pro Stock class next year as a teammate to Eddie Bishop. After two years in the entry level class, Reilly has enjoyed some success and his father feels he’s ready for the move.

The team will also attempt Super DIRT Week at Oswego this year with Bishop racing the team’s #144 Pro Stock that he raced at the Valley this season.

Saturday August 26 , 2017 – West Lebanon, NY – Benjamin Moore Paints & Ameripride Linen Presents – Modified Results (30 Laps) -1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Brett Hearn, 3) Kenny Tremont Jr, 4) L.J Lombardo, 5) Rob Pitcher, 6) Anthony Perrego, 7) Brian Berger, 8) Eddie Marshall, 9) Kyle Sheldon, 10) Andy Bachetti, 11) Chad Jeseo, 12) Kolby Schroder, 13) Keith Flach, 14) Matt Pupello, 15) Kyle Armstrong, 16) Dan Humes, 17) Mike Keeler, 18) Elmo Reckner, 19) Denny Soltis, 20) John Ruchel, 21) Mike King, 22) Paul Gilardi, 23) Tyler Dippel, 24) Ken McGuire, 25) Demetrios Drellos, 26) Wayne Jelley,

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

Pro Stock Results (King of Dirt Series Race)(30 Laps) – 1) Jay Casey 2) Jon Routhier 3) Frank Twing 4) Jason Meltz 5) Rob Yetman 6) Ed Bishop 7) Kenny Martin 8) Dan Older 9) Steven LaRochelle 10) Nick Stone 11) Tommy Dean 12) Chuck Dumbleski 13) Doug Olds 14) Jason Casey 15) Devon Camenga 16) Joe LaFlamme 17) Scott Govertsen 18) Tom O’Connor 19) Brian Keough 20) Luke Horning 21) Nick Hilt 22) Nick Arnold 23) Rich Crane 24) Don Collins 25) Rick Duzlak 26) Rick Dempsey

Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) -1) Tim Thompson, 2) Nick Reilly, 3) Dom Denue, 4) Scott Morris, 5) Zach Sorrentino, 6) Tom Murphy, 7) Martina Martin, 8) Kerri Vandenburg, 9) Dennis O’Connor, 10) Brian Vandenburg, DQ) Joe Wilson,

Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) -1) Mike Eicchstedt, 2) Chris Murphy, 3) Clifford Booth, 4) Jordan Miller, 5) Adam Schneider, 6) Evan Denue, 7) Karen Verhagen, 8) Paul Harding, 9) Tim Meltz 10) Rocco Procopio, DQ) Jesse Murphy,

Pure Stock #3 Results (12 Laps) -1) Jeff Meltz, 2) Gary O’Brien, 3) Ed Hatch, 4) Al Relyea, 5) Larry Perez, 6) Jeff Kreutzinger, 7) Dave Stickles, 8) Jeff Meltz Jr, 9) Ray Hall Sr, 10) Mike Arnold, 11) Zach Seyerlein, 12) Brian Walsh, 13) Shawn Perez, 14) Bill Deek Jr,

Boomer’s Performance Classic (20 Laps)-1) Jeff Kreutzinger, 2) Jeff Meltz JR., 3) Mike Eichstedt, 4) Bill Deak JR., 5) Ed Hatch, 6) Gary O’Brein, 7) Dave Stickles, 8) Zach Seyerlein, 9) Evan Denue, 10) Mike Arnold, 11) Scott Morris, 12) Larry Perez, 13) Al Relyea,