RPW Column: Four Years In The Making: Kolby Schroder Wins Again At Lebanon Valley; Takes Butch Jelley Memorial
Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Wins are always memorable. Racer’s never take a trip to victory lane for granted and Modified driver Kolby Schroder is no exception. That’s why he was smiling from ear to ear Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway after collecting his first checkered flag in over four years in the Butch Jelley Memorial.
Schroder, who started in the fourth position, used a long green flag run to work his way to the second position and then began to reel in leader Timothy Davis. Lap after lap he kept inching closer to the leader and finally, in lap traffic, he parked himself on Davis’ back bumper, just waiting for an opening.
That opening came on the 20th circuit as the two raced down the backstretch. Schroder showed his nose to the leader and Davis made one mistake in a perfect run to that point, sliding just outside the groove in turns three and four. That was all it took as the Steve’s Auto Repair #99 of Schroder drove on by and began to set sail.
One lone caution with just six laps remaining was not going to deter the young racer from completing the job at hand. When all was said and done, Schroder was standing in victory lane as the winner of the Butch Jelley Memorial feature event.
“Man, it’s been a while,” Schroder said. “It’s about time because we’ve been fast but haven’t had the greatest luck. A lot of seconds and a lot of thirds and my guys really worked hard for this. I’m just glad we were able to get this baby back in victory lane where it belongs.”
Schroder really had to work for this win. When he got to second, the leader was nearly three-quarters of a straight away ahead and he just chipped away and chipped away at that lead until the gap had gone away.
That’s when it was game on.
“Timothy (Davis) was gone and I knew as the race went on, our car would get better and better,” he said. “I was a little bit tight early and we set it up that way so we’d be there at the end rather than the beginning of the race. I knew I had enough time to get to him if I was consistent with my run.”
Did he think he could get around Davis, however?
“I felt like if I could get to him, maybe I could put some pressure on him and see if he could make a mistake,” he said. “He slid up in three and four just a little but and I was able to capitalize to grab the lead and then this car was just on rails the rest of the way.”
On the final restart, Brian Berger was able to slip into the runner-up spot but and eventually, point leader Andy Bachetti, who came on like fire late in the race, worked into third and began their attempts to chase down the leader.
“You never know who’s coming behind you, especially on these restarts,” he said. “There are a lot fast cars here and it’s hard to get a win. You just have to fire as good as possible if you have a restart while leading, hit your marks and keep things rolling.”
Berger was able to come home in the second spot when the 30-lapper was complete. This was his third runner-up run of the 2021 season and he was happy with his finish in the Butch Jelley Memorial.
“This second place is a lot easier to take compared to the other two,” Berger said. “This time we moved up from our starting spot to get to second so we made gains as the race went on.”
Berger’s #60 was good from the drop of the green but it was the restart in the weaning laps that really helped him, however, there was no chasing down the winner.
“We were getting really good near the end of the race but I didn’t have anything for Kolby,” he said. “He was really strong tonight and congratulations to their entire team but I really wanted to get one for Butch.”
There’s a real significant connection between Berger and Butch Jelley, so to win his memorial race would have been a storybook ending.
“I go way back with Butch,” he said. “Butch was one of my favorite drivers as a kid and he drove for my uncle (Bruce Berger), Dick Williams and Bill Kingsley, for many years. In fact, when I started racing in 1990, Butch was driving our other car and he’s the one that took me under his wing and gave me a lot of important information and helped me get my start. I really miss him.”
Bachetti was able to charge late to come home with third and put some added distance between himself, Marc Johnson and Brett Haas in the race for the season-long point title. Davis held on for a well-deserved fourth place finish with Bobby Hackel rebounding from engine problems last week for a very nice fifth place finish.
Speaking of storybook endings, it’s been a whirlwind seven days for Olden Dwyer. Last week, engine issues sidelined the Pownal, VT driver in both the Big Block Modified feature, while leading, and in the Small Block main. The team went to work and tried to get both engines ready to go for this week’s action.
While they weren’t able to get the Big Block set for action, they did get the Small Block ready for competition, and that’s good because Dwyer’s attention was elsewhere as he and his wife, Brooke, became parents for the first time on Monday.
With that, what better way to celebrate a momentous, yet trying seven days than with a trip to victory lane? That’s just what Dwyer did as he passed leader Michael Sabia in the closing laps of the Small Block feature event and went on to score his second win of the 2021 season. However, this one is probably the sweetest of them all to date.
“I’m missing my wife right now and really miss Penelope,” Dwyer said. “They’re both at home and you have no idea how much I wish they were here with me right now.”
Dwyer was quick to give credit to his team for their tireless work and dedication, especially this week, to get the #88 back in shape after the engine troubles recently.
“The guys on this crew really worked hard to get this car to victory lane,” he said. “This thing was a rocket ship tonight. I have to thank my dad (Ron Dwyer) because without him, none of this is possible. I also can’t say enough about Bedell Racing Engines, HigFab Chassis, all our sponsors and just an amazing crew. They really work hard for me and this one’s for them.”
While Dwyer has had some strong showings in both divisions throughout the 2021, he hasn’t had the finishes to show for it. However, adding another tally to the win column makes all the struggles go away.
“We’ve been running well here but just had some really, really bad luck,” he said. “Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.”
Sabia was able to hold on, withstanding a late-race challenge from Frank Harper, to come home in second. Harper finished third with Chris Curtis and Ryan Charland completing the top five.
Point leader Andy Bachetti had a tough night as he was involved in an accident on lap two with Joey Coppola in turns three and four. He was done for the night with significant front end damage and was credited with an 18th place finish.
The ‘Old Buzzard 30’ Jimmy Langenback Memorial Pro Stock feature was contested on Saturday night as well with Chad Jeseo crossing the finish line first with Jason Meltz and Tommy Dean completing the podium. Nick Hilt & Zach Seyerlein rounded out to the top five finishers.
According to track officials, the results are unofficial at this time.
Chris Stalker, Dave Striebel Jr. and Rocco Procopio were the three Pure Stock feature winners with Gary Malloy (Dual) and Tim Meltz (Single) taking home wins in the two 4-Cylinder features.
MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS ( 30 LAPS) 1) Kolby Schroder* 99 2) Brian Berger, 60 3) Andy Bachetti**** 4 4) Timothy Davis 7T 5) Bobby Hackel IV 97 6) Marc Johnson** 3J 7) Kyle Sheldon, 42S 8) Eddie Marshall, 98 9) L.J Lombardo*** 35 10) Brett Haas, 55H 11) Wayne Jelley, X 12) Ryan Darcy* 21 13) Chase Dowling 9 14) Kyle Armstrong, 11A 15) John Ruchel 7 16) Kenny Tremont Jr, 115 17) Paul Gilardi, 87X 18) Dan Humes 0 19) Mike King, 55K 20) J.R. Heffner* 74 21) Josh Marcus, 91M 22) Kenny Aanonsen Jr 42A 23) Olden Dwyer, 88JR
SMALL BLOCK MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (24 LAPS) 1) Olden Dwyer** 88JR 2) Mike Sabia 7S 3) Frank Harper, 25 4) Chris Curtis 35C 5) Ryan Charland, 10C 6) Alan Houghtaling, 250 7) Ray Hall Jr, 72 8) Brian Petrerson 82 9) Sean Mandel 66P 10) John Lutes JR. 21L 11) Montgomery Tremont 115 12) Kevin Petrucci 24 13) Brian Sandstedt, 12S 14) Dan Humes 0 15) Kim Lavoy* 3 16) Ryan Larkin* 39 17) Joey Coppola 94 18) Andy Bachetti*** 4 19) Brandon Lane, 33
PRO STOCKS (UNOFFICIAL) FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Chad Jeseo,*** 25 2) Jason Meltz** 51 3) Tom Dean, 413 4) Nick Hilt** 17 5) Zach Seyerlein* 33 6) Dave Stickles* 55 7) Jay Fitzgerald* 56 8) Steven LaRochelle* 178 9) Shawn Perez, O9 10) Zach Sorrentino, 54S 11) Brian Keough 311 11) Johnny Rivers* 14J 12) Doug Olds 73
PURE STOCK # 1 FEATURE RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Chris Stalker***** 177 2) Dave Striebel 273 3) Scott Kilmer** OO7 4) Craig Coons, 133C 5) Shawn Perez JR. O9 6) Katarina Foster 10 7) Lucas ` 54L 8) Clifford Booth, 17 9) Peter Huntoon, 3
PURE STOCK # 2 FEATURE RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Dave Striebel JR.* 73 2) John Devine*** 24 3) Brian Walsh*** 43 4) Rob Partridge**** 22 5) Franklin Smith, 76 6) Chris Calabro 3C 7) Chris Brown, OO9 8) Mike Dianda 315 9) Dylan Fachini* 35
PURE STOCK # 3 FEATURE RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Rocco Procopio**** 62 2) Jeff Meltz SR.**** 5X 3) Keri Vandenburg* 89 4) Janai St. Pierre** 18 5) Jethro Rossman, 48 6) Wayne Mahar O 7) Jim Dellea, 77 8) Scott Morris, 84
4 CYLINDER SINGLE CAM FEATURE RESULTS (15 LAPS) 1) Tim Meltz*** 515S 2) Bradley Batho* O7s 3) Joe Wolfe 777S 4) Bob Ely XS 5) Joey Batho, 7S 6) Austin McDonald 4S 7) Victor Duncan JR.* 73S
4 CYLINDER DUAL CAM FEATURE RESULTS (15 LAPS) 1) Gary Malloy* 39D 2) Brandon Ely** 5D 3) Doug Howe* 12D 4) Jim Guertin, 7D 5) Steve Burbank, 22D 6) Helina Yeno 313D 7) Lucas Ballard** 54D
