RPW Exclusive: Not Even A Broken Shock Could Keep Brett Hearn From Winning At Lebanon Valley; Regains Point Lead

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – An 11th place starting position is uncommon for Brett Hearn at Lebanon Valley for a regular Saturday night handicapped event. He’s use to firing from 15th, so he needed to take full advantage of the starting spot. He did by grabbing the lead in fourteen laps and went on for his third victory of 2018 on the high banks.

Through in a broken right rear shock just past the one-third mark and you’ll see that “the Jet” landing in victory lane was extra amazing on this night. However, it may have been a blessing.

“We broke the shock and I almost pulled in because I thought we had broken something more serious then that,” Hearn said. “I went to the bottom to just take it easy and I started saving my tires, by accident. That’s when I started reeling in those guys and really started making some time.”

Hearn was able to make his way by the likes of LJ Lombardo, Kolby Schroder, Kyle Armstrong, John Ruchel and Olden Dwyer. That was when he set his sights on leader Andy Bachetti, who had used a third place starting position to his advantage and opened up to a big, big lead.

The Garrity Asphalt #4 was out front and looked to have the race in hand…that was, until the caution flag flew on lap 13, putting the #20 of Hearn on his inside for the restart.

“As soon as we got to second, we got the yellow and that’s what we needed,” he said. “Andy’s tough any time he gets to the front and he started third and got out pretty quick. I wasn’t really watching what he was doing but I can usually shake him down pretty easy.”

Even while Hearn was trying to get to the front, that problem in the rear of the car was on his mind.

“Any time you have a broken shock like this on the right rear, there’s a good chance it could stab the tire and flatten it,” Hearn said. “I know I had a problem but I didn’t know what the problem was and every time I went into the corner I was wondering if the tire was going to go flat or not. We were just super lucky tonight.”

With the win, and Ronnie Johnson finishing sixth on the evening, Hearn was able to retake the point lead. He now leads RJ by 11 markers as the month of August kicks into high gear.

“We’ve had some bad luck the last couple of weeks,” he said. “Some really strange mechanical things and to come back tonight with the win is great. We had been real consistent early on and built up a nice point lead. Then with our issues we lost it but I guess we got it back tonight. Ronnie’s been good here all year so it will be a battle but it’s just time to carry on. This is a great comeback for us.”

Bachetti was able to stay right with Hearn the rest of the way and finished second, only a few car lengths behind him at the checkers. This was a great bounce back for the “Wild Child” who has had a tough couple of weeks at the Valley of Speed.

“The car hasn’t really been good enough to stay up front lately,” Bachetti said. “Tonight, the car was underneath us and I think we’ve got something coming into this month and Mr. DIRT Track USA. That’s definitely a positive for us.”

Kyle Sheldon brought his #42 home with another great run, giving him back-to-back third place finishes. He is quietly having a career-style season and now sits seventh in points, just 29 markers out of the top five. Keith Flach and Kyle Armstrong both had strong nights to complete the top five.

In 358-Modified competition, Kenny Tremont was not to be denied on this night, making an amazing outside pass of leader Jason Herrington in turns one and two with just a handful of laps remaining and the 115 went on to collect his fourth win of the season.

“Jason was really running good tonight,” Tremont said. We were ‘just’ lucky enough to get to the outside of him and thankfully were able to get there before he moved over. Jason was really strong tonight.”

Tremont was fast after starting deep on the field, and had a little extra steam between the frame rails.

“Tonight, we had a new motor from Billy the Kid in the car,” he said. “It really ran well so I have to say thank you to him and all of our sponsors and this amazing crew. They all have been working hard on this car all along and it shows that we’ve got a great team.”

Herrington made it a Rifenburg Construction 1-2 finish on the night, bringing his #1 machine home in the runner-up spot. Even getting passed late in the race and missing out on the win couldn’t keep the smile of his face.

“If you’re going to get beat, get beat by the best and right there’s the best,” Herrington said. “The start of the race, getting all jumbled up with all the cars, got me a little messed up in the head. Once I got my head on straight we were able to move forward and get to the front. But, you never know. It was a good run and we’ll take it.

Ryan Charland, Brett Haas and Andy Bachetti completed the top five in this feature.

Joseph Cappoloa started his season running the Limited Sportsman class at the Accord Speedway. In recent weeks, he and his father have brought their family team to the high banks to get more seat time and to have good friend Kolby Schroder help out to make Joseph a better driver.

Saturday night, safe to say it worked.
Cappoloa started on the pole and ran a strong racing, making smooth, consistent laps and went on to capture his first career Sportsman win at the Speedway.

“Last week, we had some distributor issues with the car that dropped us out,” Cappoloa said. “I think we got things sorted out and we got it to a point where this thing runs now.”

With just three laps remaining, a caution for a very scary accident involving Michael Sabia, John Virgilio and Whitey Slavin, all of which were running in the top six positions, slowed the event. That put the 12C of Peter Carlotto right on the back bumper of Cappoloa for the restart, but the young driver ran like a veteran to get the checkers.

“This is my first year racing,” he said. “I’m an Accord (Speedway) racer coming here and having a blast. I can’t believe the mentality of everyone here and how they race. They’re not out to get you and it’s clean racing.”

Carlotto brought his PMC home in the second followed by last week’s winner Rob Maxon. Chris Lynch and Cody Ochs were fourth and fifth, respectively.

The “Old Buzzard 30” Pro Stock event in memory of Lebanon Valley legendary driver Jimmy Langenback was won by Rob Yetman, but all anyone is going to talk about had to be the multi-car pile-up off of turn two on the second lap that involved nearly two-thirds of the field.

As the cars came off the second corner, the #55 of Dave Stickles was turned in front of the field and everyone began to pile in. The accident included Rick Dempsey, Richie Crane, Jason Casey, Victor Hopkins, Tom O’Connor, Tommy Dean, Jason Meltz, Scott Kilmer, Jay Casey (#93), Frank Twing, Rick Duzlak, Jay Casey (#322) and many more.

When the red flag flew, of the 24 cars that started the feature, only seven had made it through the accident. Several made repairs and were able to come back out and run. Dempsey, Crane, Jason Casey and Hopkins all made it back and finished inside the top 10.

At the one-quarter mark, on a very close restart, Yetman muscled his way by leader Nick Arnold and drove away to his third win of the season, taking the victory in Jimmy’s honor.

Arnold drove an amazing race to come home in the second position, continuing his strong season in his first year on the high banks. Nick Hilt also had a great run to finish third followed by last week’s winner, Chuck Towslee and Dempsey.

Jesse Murphy and John Devine were your two Pure Stock feature winners on the night.

News & Notes…

It was announced via social media just before the night’s action that Mike Keeler and his #55 Modified team have ended their 2018 racing season. Work commitments have made the decision easy for the team who has had a tough year to date.

“Everything is good with our team,” Keeler said. “Motor is good and the car is as well. Our business, Fresh Cut Property Maintenance, is just slamming right now and our equipment needs attention. We’ll be back next year for sure. In fact, we’re already prepping for it.”

Paul Gilardi had an up and down night in his #87x machine. After what appeared to be everything straightened out with his primary engine, the team experienced a steering issue in early night hot laps.

The team changed the steering box and Gilardi raced very well in his heat, finishing second. He was scheduled to start the main from third but pulled in before the green when the oil pressure began to fluxuate.

After the team felt things were okay enough to send him back out, he went to join the race, a couple laps in but officials did not let him on the track. That effectively ended his night.

Bobby Hackel took one of his Big Block race cars and brought it to the Valley Saturday to have some fun. With Albany-Saratoga raining out on Friday, the team made the decision to have some fun. He ended up 20th in the feature’s final rundown.

It looks like Chad Pierce may have run his last race at the Valley. After putting his car for sale on social media a few weeks back, his plan was to finish out the season and hopefully have someone buy the car. Well, looks like one of those two things may have happened.

“I have someone who is interested in the car,” Pierce said. He came and looked at it last week and I should know by Tuesday if he’s going to take it or not. If he does, looks like tonight (Saturday) will be my last race.”

The night was looking very promising for Pierce. He ran strong in his heat and led the first handful of laps in the feature but made change in his line going through turns one and two and looped his car. He collected second-place at the time, Kim LaVoy, and ended up with a flat left rear tire.

The team made the tire change and he went back out but ended up pulling in before the feature was done. Not the way he hoped to finish his season, but it’s been a great ride for the 2012 Sportsman track champion.

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

Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) -1) Ken Tremont Jr, 2) Jason Herrington, 3) Ryan Charland, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Andy Bachetti, 6) Lorne Browe, 7) J.R. Heffner, 8) Timothy Davis, 9) Brian Sandstedt, 10) Brandon Pitcher, 11) Frank Harper, 12) Ricky Davis, 13) Dillon Steuer, 14) Brian Peterson, 15) Steve Hough, 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Olden Dwyer, 18) Chad Pierce, 19) Kim LaVoy, 20) Frank Hoard III, 21) Harold Robitalle, 22) Brandon Lane,

Sportsman Results (20 Laps) -1) Joseph Cappoloa, 2) Pete Carlotto, 3) Rob Maxon, 4) Chris Lynch, 5) Cody Ochs, 6) Chris Curtis, 7) Vinnie Visconti, 8) Harold Robitaille, 9) Mike Gramolini, 10) Scott, McCoy 11) Karl Barnes, 12) Nikki Ouellette, 13) Michael Sabia, 14) K.C. McCoy, 15) John Virgilio, 16) Zach Louster, 17) Whitey Slavin, 18) Alan Houghtaling, 19) Ted Teal,

Pro Stock (The Old Buzzard 30) Results (30 Laps) -1) Rob Yetman, 2) Nick Arnold, 3) Nick Hilt, 4) Chuck Towslee, 5) Rick Dempsey, 6) Steven LaRochelle, 7) Rich Crane, 8) Jason Casey, 9) Victor Hopkins, 10) Jon Routhier, 11) Brian Keough, 12) Don Collins, 13) Dave Stickles, 14) Nick Reilly, 15) Tom O’Connor, 16) Tom Dean, 17) Jason Meltz, 18) Scott Kilmer, 19) Jay Casey, 20) Frank Twing, 21) Rick Duzlak, 22) Jay Casey, 23) Ed Bishop, 24) Doug Olds,

Pure Stock #1 Results (12 Laps) -1) Jesse Murphy, 2) Clifford Booth, 3) Evan Denue, 4) Chris Murphy, 5) Gary O’Brien, 6) Rob Partridge, 7) Don Kennedy, 8) Scott Morris, 9) Karen Verhagen, 10) Jordan Miller, 11) Rocco Procopio,

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