RPW Exclusive: Kenny Tremont Starts 2019 At Lebanon Valley In Victory Lane; Peter Britten Strong In Debut

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Opening night at Lebanon Valley Speedway was one people will remember for a while. There was rain, even a bit of snow at times, and with another caution, possibly a newcomer to the high banks stealing the Modified feature event win.

However, it was the ‘King of the Valley,’ Kenny Tremont, taking the checkered flag for the 133rd time in his career.

Tremont, through the luck of the draw, started on the pole after winning his heat race, and got out to an early lead and really set sail after the victory. Even with a late caution that bunched the field up, the all-time winningest driver at the Valley showed he still has it and held off the field to bring home the wire-to-wire win.

“Man this car really ran great tonight,” Tremont said. “It ran really good right out of the box in the heat, which we won, and that put us on the pole for the feature. Our whole night went really well.”

While you’d think the race was a cakewalk for Tremont with him starting on the pole, but lap traffic made things hairy through a the middle part of the race where there was a long green-flag run.

“Everyone’s knocking the rust off from the winter,” he said. “It was tough, but we’re all probably not really on our A-game just yet.”

Tremont is hoping that this win can propel him and his team into a good season. With starting it out the best way possible, could he be on his way to yet another track title?

“We’ll take this win and hopefully we can build on it throughout the season,” he said.

It was almost a Cinderella story on Saturday night, well, a Batman story, as first-year regular at the speedway, Peter Britten, was the show on the evening. Britten was able to get to the runner-up spot at the finish in his maiden voyage, but was apologetic after making contact with LJ Lombardo to get the second position.

“I went over to LJ after the race and apologized to him,” Britten said. “I just pushed up down in three and four when I was trying to make the pass on the last lap and got into him. I got the spot but it’s not the way I wanted to get it. I feel bad for that.”

Britten started in the eighth position and made quick work of several of the cars in front of him, getting to the top five in quick fashion. He then proceeded to pick off different competitors one-by-one, ultimately getting by Lombardo on the final corner.

“This was a great run for us and a great way to start our campaign here,” he said. “Tremont had a good run and congratulations to him, but hopefully this is a sign of great things to come for all of us on this team.”

After starting in the fourth position, Kyle Armstrong was up to third late in the event and was feeling the pressure from Britten as the two encountered lap traffic. One car, the 87x of Paul Gilardi, was in front of the 11A.

As the two entered the third turn, on the cold and slippery track conditions, Armstrong and Gilardi hooked bumpers and both turned hard right, careening into the wall at a high rate of speed.

Armstrong, who has debuted a brand new Bicknell machine for weekly competition at the Valley this season, was not happy with Gilardi and showed his displeasure to him after the accident, as words were exchanged up in the corner.

LJ Lombardo’s third place finish was a great run for the Connecticut racer in the first run with his new PMC Chassis car. Lombardo started on the front row with Tremont and was sitting in second until the final turn when he was passed by Britten.

The Paul Wehnau Snap-On machine was fast all evening, winning his heat race and staying up front all feature long. Look for some great things from this team this season.

Andy Bachetti and another newcomer to the high banks, Marc Johnson, rounded out the top five. Bachetti, running his three-race old Bicknell chassis at the Valley this season, was another driver who worked his way through the pack. Starting in 11th, Bachetti was able to get by Johnson on the final restart and brought his car home fourth.

Johnson, who took over for Chad Jeseo in the Scott Hamlin Racing car this season, gave PMC Race Cars two top five finishes Saturday. This was a great way for the former Albany-Saratoga Speedway champion to get his 2019 season going at the Valley and this was another car that was fast all feature long.

After jumping out of his Big Block, Bachetti went to work with his Jim Winchell-owned #17 Small Block Modified and put a hurting on the field. Bachetti easily cruised to the opening night win over Brett Haas and JR Heffner.

“I have to thank Jimmy for putting this deal back together this year,” Bachetti said. “We had a good starting spot tonight and I didn’t know about the Haas kid. He was pretty fast tonight so if I was going to have a shot, I had to get out early and get going.”

Bachetti did just that, making the pass on the Mildred Elley #55 of Haas early in the feature and turned several quick laps on the cold, slick surface, getting a good lead on the rest of the field and going on for the win.

After a caution the initial start for the Kim LaVoy #3 who had trouble, Bachetti was able to use that to his advantage with the pass on Haas who started on the pole.

“That restart was key for us,” he said. “We got going on the bottom there and it took a little bit to get the heat in the tires, but from there we were able to set sail.”

Bachetti, who was able to capture his fourth opening night win for the division in his career, will not be a regular 358-Modified competitor this season. He’ll run this car every Friday night in Ulster County at a speedway he knows very well.

“We’re going to run this car at Accord Speedway this season,” he said. “We’re going to hit-or-miss some shows here with it as well, but overall, a real good night tonight. This is a good feeling for the guys on this car. It’s a good way to get things rolling in the right direction this year.”

Second place went to the 55 of Brett Haas. Haas, as stated earlier, started on the pole, and after getting passed by Bachetti, never let the leader out of his sights.

JR Heffner, Jason Herrington and Ray Hall rounded out the top five.

Defending Pro Stock track champion Rob Yetman was able to capitalize on his pole starting spot to win the Pro Stock feature on Saturday, but it wasn’t without some serious pressure in the form of Cannan, CT’s Jason Casey.

Casey stayed with Yetman from the drop of the green flag and the two were side-by-side with two laps remaining. However, Yetman fended off the challenge to collect yet another opening night win.

“I thought we had a good handle on the car after the heat race, but man, it got so slick out there, I was hanging on,” Yetman said. “I know Jason was getting underneath me a couple times and I was like, ‘oh boy.”

While they raced close for several laps, Casey never put a wheel on the Yetman machine, and raced wheel-to-wheel with him for many laps. After the race, the winner had high compliments for the driver of the 324.

“Jason is great to race with as is his father,” he said. “He’s come a long way and is definitely going to be a contender here.”

Casey brought his bright yellow machine home in second followed by Jason Meltz in third. Rich Crane and Jason’s father, Jay Casey, rounded out the top five.

Jeff Kreutzinger and Dom Denue were the two Pure Stock feature event winners on the night. What’s cool for Denue is on this night, he got to race his father, John, for a good portion of the event. Usually he races against his brother, Evan, but on this night, it was his dad.

Jon Sheppard (Single Cam) and James Street (Dual Cam) were the winners in the 4-Cylinder divisions.

Modified Finish: 1) Tremont, Kenny Jr 2) Brittan, Peter 3) Lombardo, L.J 4) Bachetti, Andy 5) Johnson, Marc 6) Johnson, Ronnie 7) Flach, Keith 8) Sheldon, Kyle 9) Schroder, Kolby 10) Heffner, J.R. 11) Jelley, Wayne 12) King, Mike 13) Berger, Brian 14) Marcus, Josh 15) Armstrong, Kyle 16) Gilardi, Paul 17) Marshall, Eddie 18) Ruchel, John 19) Hackel, Bobby 20) Davis, Ricky 21) Soltis, Denny 22) Dwyer, Olden 23) Hough, Steve 24) McGuire, Ken

358-Modified Finish: 1) Bachetti, Andy 2) Haas, Brett 3) Heffner, J.R. 4) Herrington, Jason 5) Hall, Ray Jr 6) Harper, Frank 7) Davis, Timothy 8) Davis, Ricky 9) Curtis, Chris 10) Browe, Lorne 11) Dwyer, Olden 12) Johnson, Nathan 13) Peterson, Brian 14) Hough, Steve 15) Sandstedt, Brian 16) Ochs, Cody 17) Aanonson, Kenny 18) Hoard, Frank III 19) LaVoy, Kim 20) Houghtaling, Alan

Pro Stock Finish: 1) Yetman, Rob 2) Casey, Jason 3) Meltz, Jason 4) Crane, Rich 5) Casey, Jay 6) Dempsey, Rick 7) LaRochelle, Steven 8) Jeseo, Chad 9) Rivers, John 10) Reiley,Nick 11) Arnold, Nick 12) Scneider, Adam 13) Silkey, Gary 14) Dean, Tom 15) Hilt, Nick 16) Duzlak, Rick 17) Keough, Brian 18) Collins, Don

Pure Stock #1 Finish: 1) Kreutzinger, Jeff 2) Hatch, Ed 3) Devine, John 4) Hall, Ray Sr 5) Seyerlein, Zach 6) Perez, Shawn 7) Vandenburg, Kerri 8) Walsh, Brian 9) Kennedy, Don

Pure Stock #2 Finish: 1) Denue, Dom 2) Meltz, Jeff 3) Brown, Ryan 4) Denue, John 5) Partridge, Rob 6) Eichstedt, Mike 7) Booth, Clifford 8) Coons, Craig 9) Procopio, Rocco

4-Cylinder Single Cam Finish: 1) Sheppard, Jon 2) Batho, Joey 3) Bierce, Chris 4) Batho, Bradley 5) Williams, Luke 6) McClendon, Nick

4-Cylinder Dual Cam Finish: 1) Street, James 2) Williams, Jim 3) Ely, Brandon 4) Duncan, Mike 5) Burbank, Steve 6) Guertin, Jim 7) Wright, John 8) Miner, Rob 9) Suriner, Lauren 10) Tubbs, Jeff 11) Hillard, Marcus