RPW Exclusive: Keith Flach Takes Victory By Inches At Lebanon Valley; Brett Hearn Is Modified Champ…Again

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – In a battle right to the end Saturday night at the Lebanon Valley Speedway, Eddie Marshall held the lead, but Keith Flach was the person in victory lane. Flach made the pass of the #98 machine in lap traffic coming off of turn four to grab his second win of the season on the high banks.

Flach may have won the battle, but Brett Hearn took home the spoils of war. For the seventh straight year, and 13th of his career, the Jersey Jet is your Modified track champion. All he had to do was finish fourth, and no matter what his closest rival, Ronnie Johnson did, Hearn would be the champion. He did just as he needed to do.

The race started off with Paul Gilardi getting out front and taking off after a very good run in his heat race. Gilardi tried to hide but the cavalry was coming in the likes of Marshall, Kenny Tremont, Flach Hearn, Kolby Schroder and RJ.

Through a string of cautions, Marshall worked his way to second and by lap eight was putting some serious pressure on the leader Gilardi. Tremont worked his way to third and the trio put on a spirited battle up front that Marshall finally gained control of, and proceeded to pull away.

Tremont worked his way to second and set his sights on the top prize. There was only one problem with his plan; the driver of the 43, Keith Flach. After another caution, Flach worked his way to the outside of Tremont as the drivers came off turn two, powering to the runner-up spot and began to chase down the leader.

As this was happening, Hearn had worked his way to the top five, almost exactly where he needed to be to win the title. That fight was aided right around halfway when the caution came out for Johnson who shredded a right rear tire while running seventh. This put RJ at the rear of the field and Hearn in the catbirds seat.

On the ensuing restart, Hearn moved passed Gilardi for fourth, where he needed to finish, but the show was up front. Marshall pulled away and looked to be on the road to his third win of the 2018 season. There was no other cautions the rest of the way, and the leaders began to hit lap traffic.

On the final circuit of the race, after being more than three car lengths behind Marshall as they rumbled down the backstretch, Flach made the move around the Marshall. The leader chose the wrong way to execute the traffic and Flach took advantage, sneaking around the same way he had passed Tremont and beat Marshall to the line by inches for a win the fans will not surely forget.

“That was some awesome racing right there,” Flach said. “I’ve got to give Eddie (Marshall) a lot of credit for running me clean down the frontstretch and (Kenny) Tremont as well for when we were racing for second early in the race. They are two of the nicest guys to race against and I have to thank them for that.”

The battle with Marshall and the victory may never have happened if it wasn’t for the great equalizer…lap traffic.

“I saw Eddie getting a little jammed up in traffic there and I knew it was going to be a little tight off of four, but the hole opened up for me and I got the car where I needed,” he said. “I have to thank all the guys on this crew who put the work in. 2018 wasn’t as good of a year for us as last year was but it was a nice solid year and I have to thank the team for that.”

Flach is usually very strong near the end of the season each year, winning the final night of points on multiple occasions, but it will be the most recent one that sticks in everyone’s mind.

“It always seems like we come on late in the year after we figure some stuff out,” Flach said. “That’s all because of how hard this team works. I’m excited to see what we can do next week at Mr. Dirt and the rest of the season when we travel.”

After experiencing a heart-breaking loss, second place finisher Marshall was philosophical in what he could have done different to bring home the win.

“It was a great race for us up to the very end,” Marshall told our own Dylan Friebel. “I kind of chose the wrong place to be on that last lap and Keith did a great job getting over the top of us and beat us to the line. Congratulations to him but it’s certainly a big disappointment for us.”

Early on in the race, cautions fell in Marshall’s favor as he was able to get to the front by the one-third mark of the race and looked to have things in control.

“I was searching around more for where I wanted to run on the track,” he said. “I thought I had the right place to be but I guess I chose the wrong line in traffic and it ended up biting us.”

Tremont came home third with Hearn finishing fourth and Schroder completing the top five. With next week’s event, Mr. DIRT Track USA being a show-up point event for all regular competitors, Hearn clinched his 13th track title.

“I think this place is finally starting to become our home,” Hearn said after the race was complete. “I think we’ve only run like 16 or 17 full seasons here and to win our 13th championship, I guess that’s a pretty good ratio to have.”

Hearn was able overcome several misfortunes this year several motor issues during this season, but the Madsen team prevailed.

“We were consistent even with having to fight through the weeks of adversity,” he said. “Still, though, to week in week out run these top fives, win some races after starting 15th almost every week, to get to the front really makes me thank my team.”

In 358-Modified action, it looked as if young Dillon Steuer was going to get his first career feature event win…up until lap 21 when the King of the Valley, Kenny Tremont, made his way by and went on to grab yet another victory in the division.

The race was marred by several caution flags, which left the field very light as the field got to the late stages of the race. However, that also meant the cream was rising to the top as Steuer led the likes of Tremont, Bachetti and Herrington.

Tremont sat behind the #6D of Steuer for several laps, unable to make a pass of the 16-year-old racer. With the rash of cautions, Tremont’s car needed long green flag runs, and he didn’t get it, until late in the event.

“Dillon was awful quick tonight,” Tremont said. “I really needed a long, green flag run because he took off right after the green. I think just got a little bit loose and thankfully he did because I wouldn’t have caught him otherwise.”

Even though Tremont was able to get the win Saturday for the fifth time this season, this one was far from easy.

“I was trying to catch him for all I had,” he said. “It may have looked easy but it wasn’t that way because Dillon was running so well.”

Steuer, on the other hand, really wanted the win, and wasn’t happy to come home with the runner-up spot.

“We had a good run tonight for sure,” Steuer said. “It’s not normal to have this many cautions during our race but I think we’d have a good lead and the caution would come out. We held them off for a while but I’m not really happy with finishing second.”

Even disappointed, the young racer knows he got beat by one of the best.

“I don’t like running second, but it’s not as bad considering Kenny Tremont beat me,” he said. “It sucks we came up one spot short but we’ll be back.”

Andy Bachetti finished third followed by Jason Herrington, who drove from the rear of the field with a badly damaged #1 machine after an early race incident, and young Ricky Davis with one of his best finishes this season.

The King of Dirt Pro Stock Series made its way into the Valley Saturday night and it was track point leader and series point leader Jason Casey showing the way around the high banks, leading wire-to-wire and grabbing the 30-lap victory.

Casey got out in front and left everyone else in the dust, taking the victory by almost a full straightaway over Jason Meltz.

“This feels real good,” Casey said. “Never in a million years did I think we’d get a win up at Malta against the regulars there (he won the last KOD race which was at Albany-Saratoga). Tonight, I just kept telling myself to stay calm and hit your marks and that’s what it took.”

Casey was very appreciative for the work his team puts in to his family-owned operation, especially the troubles he and his father, Jay, had a few weeks back during the Old Buzzard 30 Jimmy Langenback Memorial race.

“I’ve really gotta thank my guys,” he said. “We tore both of these cars up a couple weeks ago when we ran here. We were in the shop at like 4am, before work, after work and we hustled to get them back together. They made these things run as good as nothing even happened to them.”

Casey was racing with a special purpose on Saturday night. Not only did he want to win, but he was racing for the community near his home.

“Our community took a hard hit recently, losing the chief of the Sheffield (MA) Fire Company,” he said. “The last thing I said to his son before we left to come to the races was, ‘I’m going to go get one for your dad,’ so this win’s for Rick Boardman.”

With Casey long gone, the battle was for second between Meltz, Rob Yetman, Chuck Towslee and Jason’s father, Jay Casey. You could throw a blanket over the four cars for most of the race, even when in lap traffic.

In the end, Meltz brought his #51 home in the second spot and was happy with the finish.

“We really needed this good run tonight,” Meltz said. “We’ve had a rough couple months here with wrecks and what not but we’ll take this. Jason was just in a different time zone tonight.”

As the 324 was way out in front, with no cautions, he didn’t see the leader, so it go him to thinking.

“After 20 laps, I thought maybe I was leading so maybe me and Rob (Yetman) were going for the win,” Meltz said with a laugh. “Jason was just so far ahead we had no idea til after the race.”

Battling with the likes of Yetman, Towslee and Jay Casey, clean and hard-fought, lap after lap, really makes racing enjoyable for Meltz.

“It was definitely fun tonight,” he said. “Rob & Chuck both ran great. I saw their noses a couple of times. You sure didn’t want to hit the black strip on the track or you’d be spinning your tires, but luckily I didn’t hit it too many times.”

Yetman, Towslee and Jay Casey completed the top five in this race.

Gary O’Brien, Jeff Meltz Jr. and John Devine took home the three Pure Stock feature events with Meltz Jr. also victorious in the Boomer’s Pure Stock Classic.

News & Notes…

A multitude of substitute drivers was used for Olden Dwyer on Saturday night.

Unfortunately, due to a family emergency, Dwyer wasn’t at the speedway so he could tend to the situation. That left his teams searching for drivers.

This season, Lebanon Valley implemented a substitute driver program. From what RPW was told by officials on Saturday, a team can utilize this one time during the season. Saturday was a time for Dwyer.

Brett Haas ran the Big Block car, taking a few laps and was scored in 24th at the finish.

The team’s Small Block program, run by Terry Stacy, first tried to get Chad Pierce to run the car but Pierce turned down the offer. Then they tried to see about Ronnie Johnson, who was intrigued, but decided to focus on trying to win the Big Block track title.

So, they offered the ride to Keith Flach who accepted and drove the car to a solid ninth place finish. Not a bad night for the Ravena Rocket.

There was a Batman sighting at the Valley on Saturday as Peter Britten was in town to get ready for the Mr. DIRT Track USA event next week. See the story about Britten written by Dylan Friebel for more information on his night.

Note: Thanks to Dylan Friebel for assistance with quotes for this column.

 

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

Small Block Modified Results (24 Lap)-1) Ken Tremont Jr, 2) Dillon Steuer, 3) Andy Bachetti, 4) Jason Herrington, 5) Ricky Davis, 6) Frank Hoard III, 7) Matt Humes, 8) Brandon Pitcher, 9) Olden Dwyer, 10) Frank Harper, 11) Brandon Lane, 12) Lorne Browe, 13) Kim LaVoy, 14) Ryan Charland, 15) Brett Haas, 16) J.R. Heffner, 17) Alan Houghtaling, 18) Brian Sandstedt, 19) Timothy Davis, 20) Kenny Aanonson,

Pro Stock Results KING OF DIRT SERIES (30 Laps) -1) Jason Casey 2) Jason Meltz 3) Rob Yetman 4) Chuck Towslee 5) Jay Casey 6) Jon Routhier 7) Nick Arnold 8) Rick Dempsey 9) Pascaal Payeur 10) Steven Larochelle 11) Rich Crane 12) Rick Duzlak 13) Chuck Dumblewski 14) Ed Bishop 15) Nick Reiley 16) Tom O’ Connor 17) Dave Stickles 18) Adam Schneider 19) Doug Olds 20) Tom Dean 21) Don Collins 22) Scott Kilmer 23) Devon Camenga 24) Brian Keough 25) Andy Graves 26) Nick Hilt

Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) -1) Gary O’Brien, 2) Jesse Murphy, 3) Shawn Perez, 4) Phil Sherman, 5) Rob Partridge, 6) Dave Fachini, 7) Jake Gomm, 8) Paul Harding, 9) Don Kennedy, 10) Craig Coons, 11) Marcus Hillard,

Pure Stock #2 Results (8Laps)-1) Jeff Meltz Jr., 2) Ray Hall Sr., 3) Evan Denue, 4) Chris Murphy, 5) Karen Verhagen, 6) Rocco Procopio, 7) Ryan Brown, 8) Wuggie Burdick, 9) Mike Arnold, 10) Matt Cross

Pure Stock #3 Results (8 Laps) – 1) John Devine, 2) Ed Hatch, 3) Jeff Meltz, 4) Zach Seyerlein, 5) Dom Denue, 6) Clifford Booth, 7) Kerri Vandenburg, 8) Chad Arsenault, 9) Brian Walsh, 10) Zach Sorrentino, 11) Jeff Kreutzinger, 12) Al Relyea,

Boomers Pure Stock Classic Results (20 Laps)-1) Meltz, Jeff Jr.* 2) Hatch, Ed** 3) Denue, Evan** 4) Meltz, Jeff* 5) Sorrentino, Zach** 6) Murphy, Chris 7) Denue, Dom** 8) Relyea, Al* 9) Seyerlein, Zach* 10) Verhagen,Karen 11) Murphy,Jesse* 12) O’Brein, Gary* 13) Fachini, Dave 14) Burdick, Wuggie 15) Booth, Clifford*** 16) Gomm, Jake 17) Procopio,Rocco 18) Partridge, Rob 19) Perez, Shawn 20) Devine, John*** 21) Vandenburg, Kerri 22) Sherman, Phil