Brett Hearn Keeps Consistent Season Going At Lebanon Valley; Wins JC Flach Memorial

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – It’s one of the most important events on the calendar for the Modifieds at the Lebanon Valley Speedway. The JC Flach Memorial, honoring one of the more likeable drivers ever to strap into a Big Block on the high banks.

Well, the sixth annual edition of the event saw the checkers go to one of the most dominant drivers ever to sit behind the wheel of a Modified, and one of the most consistent this season, that being Brett Hearn.

Hearn started the feature event from the 15th spot and wasted no time moving towards the front. By lap three he was in ninth. By lap seven he was fourth, and on lap 13, he made the move of the race to grab the second position.

While watching third place Ronnie Johnson trying to work the outside to get around runner-up man Brian Berger, Hearn made an amazing move to go three wide with both off of turn two and grabbed second.

After a caution bunched up the field, the Madsen Motorsports #20 made quick work of leader Elmo Reckner and was never seriously challenged the rest of the way, taking his second win of the 2018 season at the Valley.

“We’ve been consistent all year coming from deep in the pack here, scoring a lot of top four finishes,” Hearn said. “I knew if we did that the wins would start to come.”

However, on this important night, Hearn didn’t know if he’d get to the front to keep up his good start to the season.

“I got stalled at around seventh or eighth and then got shuffled on one of those restarts,” he said. “Ronnie (Johnson) had gone through traffic really well and I didn’t know if we could as well. Then I was able to get to fourth and Ronnie and I started catching the two leaders and things just started to open up for me.”

Even after grabbing career win #103 in Big Block competition at the Speedway, Hearn was humbled at what he had accomplished Saturday night.

“This was a great race car and team effort by the entire Madsen Motorsports team,” he said. “I just want to take a moment and remember JC. I think this is the second time I’ve won his night and that is fantastic and very special to me.”

Second place went to JC’s little brother, Keith Flach, who drove the wheels off his Flach Companies #43 machine. Keith utilized the extreme outside lane for most of the race to get to the front, after starting 13th.

At one point, you could damn near throw a blanket over the top five as Reckner, Berger, RJ, Hearn and Flach all tightened up to do battle.
In the end, Flach brought home the runner-up spot followed by Johnson who worked hard to keep pace with the front two at the end. Reckner and Kenny Tremont completed the top five.

With his win, Hearn was able to lengthen his point lead over Johnson by eight markers. He now has a 36-point advantage over the second generation driver with Tremont another 10 points back.

In the 358-Modified feature, JR Heffner used some lucky breaks to get through traffic and went on to take his second win in four starts this season.

After starting in 11th, Heffner go to the top five in quick fashion and then made some moves that had the fans on the edge of their seats, including the pass of his teammate and car owner, Steve Hough.

“That was a good race,” he said. “Those guys up front were really getting it on and I got lucky on the outside and was able to make an outside in move and get into clean air and I knew we were in good shape from there.”

From that point on, Heffner just had to hold the steering wheel as, even with a caution that grouped everyone back up, nobody was catching him the rest of the way.

“This car is something else,” he said. “Once it gets to clean air, it’s lights out really.”

Defending track champion in the division, Kenny Tremont, worked his way through the field Saturday from his 15th starting spot and got to second, but had nothing for JR. Jason Herrington had another great run to come home in third followed by Brett Haas in fourth and point leader Andy Bachetti fifth.

In Pro Stock action, Rob Yetman used a fifth place starting spot to his advantage, taking the lead from Joe LaFlamme on lap two and went on to take his second win of 2018 in the class.

Rick Dempsey came home second, right on the back bumper of Yetman, and gave it everything he had but just couldn’t get around him. Dempsey’s car appeared to need long runs to gain momentum if he wanted a chance to get around the 7 car, but with a string of cautions, he never got that chance.

For Yetman, it was way to get things back on track after a couple of tough races which has dropped him in the point standings.

“Opening night, we thought we were off to a great start and it was going to be easy from there” he said. “It got tough. Wrecks and being in the wrong place at the wrong time so far, but that’s racing. We want to start up front, but we like to come from the back to see what the car’s really got.”

Dempsey came home with a solid second place finish followed by Jason Casey in the #324 (from Canaan, CT), Jay Casey in the #93 (from Hinsdale, MA) and Richie Crane.

The Pro Stocks are shaping up to have another amazing points battle. Following Saturday night’s action, Jason is your point leader by eight markers over Rick Dempsey with Jason Casey just two behind Dempsey. Jon Routhier is fourth and Rick Duzlak is fifth. The top five are only separated by 20 points.

Evan Denue and Jeff Meltz Jr. took home the Pure Stock feature event wins with Tim Meltz winning the 4-Cylinder Single Cam feature and Chris Vandeputte victorious in the 4-Cylinder Dual Cam.

Modified Results (30 Laps) -1) Brett Hearn, 2) Keith Flach, 3) Ronnie Johnson, 4) Elmo Reckner, 5) Kenny Tremont Jr, 6) Kolby Schroder, 7) Wayne Jelley, 8) J.R. Heffner, 9) Andy Bachetti, 10) Eddie Marshall, 11) Chad Jeseo, 12) L.J Lombardo, 13) Kyle Sheldon, 14) Brian Berger, 15) Mike Keeler, 16) Steve Hough, 17) Rob Pitcher, 18) Kyle Armstrong, 19) Mike King, 20) Josh Marcus, 21) Jeff Sukup, 22) Denny Soltis, 23) Dave McFeeters, 24) Olden Dwyer, 25) Paul Gilardi, 26) Kenny Aanonson,

Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) – 1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Ken Tremont Jr, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Andy Bachetti, 6) Steve Hough, 7) Timothy Davis, 8) Ricky Davis, 9) Frank Hoard III, 10) Frank Harper, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Dillion Stuer, 13) Brandon Pitcher, 14) Brian Sandstedt, 15) Chad Pierce, 16) Ryan Charland, 17) Brian Peterson, 18) Alan Houghtaling, 19) Bryan McGuire, 20) Olden Dwyer, 21) Ray Hall Jr,

Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) – 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Rick Dempsey, 3) Jason Casey, 4) Jay Casey, 5) Rich Crane, 6) Jason Meltz, 7) Jay Casey, 8) Rick Duzlak, 9) Jon Routhier, 10) Nick Arnold, 11) Victor Hopkins, 12) Tom Dean, 13) Tom O’Connor, 14) Ed Bishop, 15) Don Collins, 16) Dave Stickles, 17) Scott Kilmer, 18) Joe LaFlamme, 19) Brian Keough, 20) Nick Hilt, 21) Scott Govertsen, 22) Steven LaRochelle, 23) Nick Reilly, 24) Frank Twing,

Pure Stock #1 Results (10 Laps) – 1) Evan Denue, 2) Dom Denue, 3) Scott Morris, 4) Shawn Perez, 5) Chris Murphy, 6) Kerri Vandenburg, 7) Jordan Miller, 8) Adam Schneider, 9) Karen Verhagen, 10) Bradley Batho, 11) Craig Coons, 12) Rocco Procopio, 13) Tim Meltz,

Pure Stock #3 Results (10 Laps) -1) Jeff Meltz Jr., 2) Ray Hall Sr., 3) John Devine, 4) Chad Arsenault, 5) Jeff Kreutzinger, 6) Zach Seyerlein, 7) Ed Hatch, 8) Zach Sorrentino, 9) Jeff Meltz, 10) Mark Dwyer,
11) Brian Walsh, 12) Al Relyea, 13) Kevin Paul,

4 Cylinder Single Cam Feature Results (15 Laps )-1) Tim Meltz, 2) James Street, 3) Gary Malloy, 4) Devin Besze, 5) Don Finney, 6) Victor Duncan Jr., 7) Jim Williams, 8) Nick McCleney

4 Cylinder Dual Cam Feature Results (15 Laps) -1) Chris Vandeputte, 2) Kenny Stager, 3) Chris White, 4) Connor Hill, 5) John Wright, 6) Christian Scribner, 7) MIke Duncan, 8) Jim Guertin, 9) Tomm Gomm,