RPW Exclusive: Kenny Tremont Builds On Legacy On Legends Night At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Legends Night. Lebanon Valley. Kenny Tremont. Enough said?

Tremont, the all-time winningest driver at the Valley, put another notch in the belt of his legacy with a dominating performance Saturday night on Legends Night. Several of the track’s historic drivers were honored throughout the evening, but it was the ‘King of the Valley’ who sat on top of the hill on this night.

After a spirited battle between four different drivers which included early leader Kyle Armstrong, Brian Berger, Peter Britten and Tremont, the #115 worked his way both high and low to get to the runner-up position by lap 13.

When the caution flew on that lap, it appeared as if there was going to be a nice family rivalry as Tremont sat poised to the inside of his brother-in-law Berger. However, the battle would never materialize as something went amiss inside the renumbered 606 of Berger and he had to be pushed to the pit area.

That put Tremont on the point with Britten to his inside, but at that point, it was all but done as the West Sand Lake, NY driver held off all challenges the rest of the way to collect his 136th career Big Block win at the Valley.

“Man, getting to victory lane is actually pretty easy when the car works this well,” Tremont said. “It’s actually a ball to drive. This thing was just spot on. My crew did an amazing job and Dan Bedell put a fresh motor in it and that ran really superb. Everything’s just going pretty well right now. I hope we can keep it up.”

Tremont, who padded his point lead over Britten, who finished second, and Andy Bachetti who had a rough night all feature long to finish ninth, has only a handful of races left as he chases yet another Big Block championship at the Valley. He now leads both Britten and Bachetti by 24 points after Saturday.

“We’re certainly going to keep trying and hopefully the luck will continue,” he said. “I’m lucky to have a great group of guys and good support behind me. It’s not easy to do without all of them, that’s for sure.”

Britten was able to bring his Troyer #21A home in the runner-up spot, with JR Heffner finishing third, Keith Flach coming home fourth and Kyle Armstrong, who returned after a vicious accident last Saturday night, finishing in fifth.

The 358-Modified driver, along with many in the pit area, raced with a heavy heart Saturday after the passing of fellow driver Brandon Pitcher last weekend. The class decided to run 17 laps in his honor instead of the normal 24 with Mac Tools dealer Dave Prime and Snap-On Tools dealer Paul Wehnau putting up $500 each to make the winner’s share $1,700.

All of these factors played right into Brian Sandstedt’s hands who held off JR Heffner to score the victory, his first of 2019.

After the 17 laps were complete, all competitors formed a single line and made one more lap, crossing under Rodney Rescott’s double checkered flags in honor of Pitcher.

“It feels really good to get to victory lane, but not really the way I wanted to,” Sansdstedt said. “We’ll definitely take this but we dedicated this win to Brandon. The track was great tonight and I just can’t believe we’re here.”

Sandstedt held off Heffner lap after lap but as the two waged war on the high banks, with the Darcy Constriction #12 getting to the checkers first.

“I didn’t know who that was beside me,” he said. “I just kept trying to high my mark and not mess up. When you hold off JR you’re beating one of the best.”

Heffner was second with Timothy Davis coming home third, Frank Harper fourth and Ricky Davis completing the top five.

One of the highlights of the Pro Stock season each year at the Valley is the event in honor of Jimmy Langenback, one of the best to ever race in the full-fender division. The “Old Buzzard 30” was held Saturday night and it was an eventful race, but in the end, Rick Dempsey came away with his first win in the event honoring the 54L.

Dempsey made the pass of leader Nick Arnold as the laps clicked off and then held off the young campaigner to grab the checkers for his second win of the 2019 season.

“Nick was running real well and I was trying to figure out a way to just get up alongside him if I could,” Dempsey said. “I bumped him going down the frontstretch once or twice to try and mess him up, but he didn’t. He ran a great race and kept it straight…kept it going. He just went a little high going into turn one and I went low, lucky to get a fender on him and it just worked out but he was running awesome.”

In the end it was Dempsey who took the win in this special event for Jimmy Langenback, and he knows just how special of a night it was.

“Everyone you talk to had great respect for the 54L,” he said. “Back when I started in the old Cannonball days, Jimmy was the Pro Stock king. I always rooted for him. Even when I raced against him, I didn’t want him to pass me but I wanted him to do well because I was still rooting for him. It’s just a great way to honor Mr. Langenback.”

After the race, in true 54L nature, Dempsey gave the extra bonus money he earned for winning the feature to the family of Brandon Pitcher. A true sign of sportsmanship and something that should be highlighted as that is something Jimmy would have done. Great job Rick.

One of the big stories of the race was the contact on the frontstretch with only a handful of laps left between Chad Jeseo and Rick Duzlak. Jeseo got into Duzlak and the 29 went spinning. For his part in the incident, officials sent Jeseo to the rear.

Chad wasn’t happy about that and pulled to the starter’s stand to have a word with chief starter Rodney Rescott, who wouldn’t come down off the stand to talk to him. Jeseo preceeded to unbuckle out of his car, taking his helmet off and all his safety equipment off as well. At that time, Duzlak came up behind the 25 and bumped into him, turning the car sideways in the process.

Jeseo got out of his car and went over to confront Duzlak and an altercation between them and several members of other crews ensued. After things cooled down, everyone returned to the pit area and the race resumed.

No word on what will come from this at press time.

Arnold brought his #1 home in the runner-up position, with Jason Meltz coming home in the third position. Jason Casey, who took over the division point lead Saturday, came home fourth with Rich Crane completing the top five.

As part of the Legends night was a special event featuring the Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series and it was a great night for both John Flach Jr. and Danny Wood, as both were able to visit victory lane. How fitting for many in attendance to see both the 77 and 115 (Dan’s car is a gorgeous 1987 Tremont replica) in victory lane on this special evening.

“I just can’t say enough for Laurie Fallis who runs this program and all the tracks and racers and promoters,” Flach said. “I’m just so thankful to be here and be able to do this. It’s been so much fun and I’m going to continue to run with them because this is a great time.”

The car that Flach is racing has a lot of meaning behind it, which made the victory Saturday all that much sweeter.

“This was actually one of JC’s (Flach, his son) cars,” he said. “We had it down in the warehouse. We were saving it and so we brought it out and we had some Small Blocks that Keith (his other son) ran in 2005-2006 so we had one freshened by Billy the Kid and here we are. This is just great.”

For Dan Wood, the theme was the same…fun.

“The Vintage class has just been great,” Wood said. “There’s a lot less stress than regular racing. We just go out and have a good time.”

Wood has a very big connection to the 115 team, which is how he decided to make a replica of Ken’s 1987 Olsen Eagle.

“I got my start in racing in 1980 working on Kathi Tremont’s 320 Sportsman,” he said. “When Kathi stopped racing, I helped Kenny and Chuck (Ely) for a couple of years until I started racing myself. The Tremont’s got me into this and I gained a lot of knowledge from them. I just wanted to pay tribute to Ken and the Tremont’s for all that family has done for me and this is my favorite car he ever had and was the only one, in my eyes, to build.”

John Devine and Ed Hatch were the two victors in the Pure Stock features.

Modified Results (30 Laps) -1) Kenny Tremont Jr, 2) Peter Britten, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Keith Flach, 5) Kyle Armstrong, 6) Kolby Schroder, 7) L.J Lombardo, 8) Kyle Sheldon, 9) Andy Bachetti, 10) Wayne Jelley, 11) Ronnie Johnson, 12) Paul Gilardi, 13) John Ruchel, 14) Josh Marcus, 15) Marc Johnson, 16) Denny Soltis, 17) Matt Pupello, 18) Brian Berger, 19) Mike King, 20) Eddie Marshall, 21) Ricky Davis, 22) Olden Dwyer,

Small Block Modified Results (17 Laps) -1) Brian Sandstedt, 2) J.R. Heffner, 3) Timothy Davis, 4) Frank Harper, 5) Ricky Davis, 6) Ray Hall Jr, 7) Jason Herrington, 8) Demetrios Drellos, 9) Brett Haas, 10) Chris Curtis, 11) Bryan McGuire, 12) Ryan Charland, 13) Andy Bachetti, 14) Olden Dwyer, 15) Guy Sheldon, 16) Alan Houghtaling, 17) Kim LaVoy, 18) Pete Carlotto,

Pro Stock Results (30 Laps) -1) Rick Dempsey, 2) Nick Arnold, 3) Jason Meltz, 4) Jason Casey, 5) Rich Crane, 6) Nick Hilt, 7) Jay Casey, 8) Tom Dean, 9) Doug Olds, 10) Rob Yetman, 11) Adam Schneider, 12) Gary Silkey, 13) Mike Baker, 14) Brian Keough, 15) Don Collins, 16) Chad Jeseo, 17) Phil Arnold, 18) Tony Markou, 19) Rick Duzlak, 20) Tom O’Connor, 21) Steven LaRochelle, 22) Jay Casey, 23) Dan Therrian,

Pure Stock #1 Results (10 Laps) -1) John Devine, 2) Clifford Booth, 3) Janai St. Pierre, 4) Ray Royals, 5) Zack Sorrentino, 6) Ryan Brown, 7) Jim Dellea, 8) Chris Murphy, 9) Tom Gomm,

Pure Stock #2 Results (10 Laps) -1) Ed Hatch, 2) Zach Seyerlein, 3) Brian Walsh, 4) Jeff Meltz SR., 5) Jeff Kreutzinger, 6) Ray Hall Sr., 7) Rob Partridge, 8) Keri Vandenburg, 9) Shawn Perez, 10) Rocco Procopio,