RPW Column: Is GPS Needed For Berger? Haas Getting Stronger? Tough Night For Harper: Notes From Saturday At Lebanon
Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Finishing second can be pretty cool. Doing it four times in one season without getting a victory is nice, but probably eats at you.
How about this. Doing it while trying to grab a checkered flag that you haven’t been able to achieve since 2016 may drive some people out of their minds.
For Brian Berger, that’s the type of stretch he’s on right now. The last time the Phaze3 Racing team visited victory lane was August of 2016. In 2021, they haven’t had the season they were hoping for due to a multitude of issues. However, this year has been highlighted by those four runner-up finishes, including last Saturday night to his brother-in-law Kenny Tremont.
“Someone told me I might need GPS to find victory lane,” Berger said with a laugh. “My mother even called me on Sunday and said, ‘I know you’re disappointed, but’. To be honest, at this point, I’m really not. I’m pretty grateful for the good runs we’ve had.”
Saturday’s feature event went green-to-checkered. Does Berger feel he might have had a shot at Tremont if he was aided by a caution flag?
“I may have if I had the opportunity to restart on the inside of him,” he said. “Honestly, if I had something for him, I should have been able to get by him without a yellow. My right rear tire gained too much heat and grew too big. I got loose as the race went on.”
There’s one driver, though, that he feels was praying for a caution.
“I think Brett Haas would have benefited more by a yellow,” he said. “Who knows? Maybe he would have been able to get up to us and get us both.”
Berger feels like Haas’ schedule during the 2021 racing season, running other tracks, has helped him immensely on the Valley’s high banks this year.
“He’s racing a lot this year, just like Andy Bachetti does,” he said. “You can see that both of them have confidence. Brett’s run lots of laps on many different tracks and that helps. That also allows him to run hard at Lebanon.”
Brian stated that he has an idea about this due to his own personal experience this season.
“Racing at both Albany-Saratoga and Lebanon Valley this year has been big for me,” he said. “I’m feeling much more confident in my own driving…even from where I was at the beginning of the year.”
Speaking of Haas, does he feel the same way as Berger? Would a caution have helped him Saturday?
“I don’t think it would’ve hurt,” Haas said. “I can’t say what if because it didn’t happen. However, we needed just that little bit of help to regroup the field.”
Lucky for him, Haas was able to finish ahead of the two drivers he’s chasing for the 2021 Big Block Modified championship. He finished fourth while point leader Bachetti finished seventh and second-place man Marc Johnson came home 13th. That allowed him to close within 36 of the Wild Child and just six of the White Knight.
Is Haas thinking about the championship?
“The plan is also just to finish each race and move forward,” he said. “We had a really good piece on Saturday and have had a good balance pretty much all season.”
Now he looks at the final handful of races with hopes of closing things out strong.
“Running as well as we have is definitely a confidence boost heading into the next couple of weeks,” he said. “We just need to keep applying the pressure and see where things shake out but I am so proud of this team. Everyone’s worked so hard and it’s showed.”
Another driver who had a solid night on Saturday was Kyle Sheldon. The driver for the Alex Thomson-owned team nearly won his heat race and rolled from P5 at the start of the main.
Sheldon kept his nose clean all night and parked his #42 right where it started…fifth…at the finish.
“We had a good run Saturday and we’re getting closer,” Sheldon said. “I feel like that win is just around the corner for us. My team is working extremely hard each week and Alex puts everything he has into our car. It would me a lot if I could get to victory lane for the team.”
Ryan Darcy never even made it to the feature to try and chase his second-career Big Block Modified win.
While running in a qualifying position in his heat, the MRB Darcy #21 came up lame off of turn two on near the finish.
“Our rear end blew apart,” Darcy said. “We misread the track a bit but our car was close and I think we could have been good in the feature.”
When the driveline failure occurred, did it cause any other problems?
“No, luckily we didn’t spin the motor too many RPM’s,” he said. “The rev box we have protected the engine, thankfully.”
While many of the drivers in the Modified field Saturday had Big Block experience, both Haas and Darcy are still relatively new in the division. John Virgilio has a handful of starts under his belt, albeit in limited capacity.
Last week, he was given the keys to the Kevin Starchek-owned S&S Asphalt Paving #9, normally piloted by Chase Dowling.
Dowling had a commitment on the asphalt with the Tri Track Open Modified Series at Monadnock Speedway so he couldn’t make it to the Valley. That was okay as he took home the win in New Hampshire and it was okay for Virgilio who was given a complete night to race a Big Block Modified in top-notch equipment.
“I definitely learned a lot,” Virgilio said. “That was my first full night, from hot laps to feature, in a Big Block so I can’t be too disappointed.”
Virgilio kept his nose clean all evening and the Bicknell home in the 15th position.
“I’ve run a decent amount of Big Block cars before,” he said. “However, most of them were just for a few laps here and there so it was nice to have a chance to run their car from start to finish.”
Did he feel any pressure to perform in the potent ride?
“It was a little nerve-racking knowing I was running the best equipment money can buy tied in with a top notch crew,” he said. “As a new driver, I was basically the weakest link, but we were eighth quick in the middle-of-the-night warm-ups and 11th quick in the feature. That makes me feel good.”
Virgilio was pulling double duty on Saturday as he also had to run his own Sportsman as they were on the card as well. With a very healthy point lead, the three-time and defending champion in the class had to fight just to get to an eighth place finish at the end of the feature.
Once the race was complete, he figured out why.
“We had a right rear brake caliper that was hung up,” he said. “That ended up baking the pads and the brake rotor. These cars aren’t too fast when that happens but at least we know and this is an easy fix.”
A driver who Virgilio was trying to catch in last week’s feature was Rob Maxon who brought the Campbell Builder’s #96 home second to Whitey Slavin. Rob knew he had a tough road ahead of him with Slavin starting on the pole.
“We didn’t have anything for Whitey on Saturday,” Maxon said. “I told my guys that he was going to be tough to beat from the pin. We were too loose in the middle of the corners to I had to wait too long to get back to the throttle.”
At one point in the feature, Maxon felt like he was on his game to try and challenge for the lead.
“I timed that one restart perfectly and actually had to wait for Whitey to get back by me at the flagstand so I didn’t get penalized,” he said. “Then, we went into turn one and I was in the lead. We touched a little and I had to pedal it a bit so he could get back up along side.”
When this occurred, Maxon made a split-second decision that ultimately cost him the race win.
“Our contact was a racing deal, but I didn’t want to get the lead that way,” he said. “After that, we had nothing for him. He was good and we were off just a little but it was good to see him get a win. Their team has had a tough season.”
Two weeks ago, Olden Dwyer had a whirlwind week. He started out on a high, becoming a father for the first time. His week ended with his #88 358-Modified parked in victory lane.
Last Saturday night, Dwyer proved it wasn’t a fluke as he backed up that win with a solid second place finish to Ryan Larkin.
“We’ve really go the Small Block car on rails right now,” Dwyer said. “Things are just clicking with that program and my team is riding the high.”
With the good runs Dwyer’s put together as of late, it’s easy to see just how confident he’s getting at the Valley this season.
“I actually feel the best I ever have behind the wheel,” he said. “It really helped getting that win a few weeks ago and things have started to get better with our Super DIRTcar Series program as of late. We’ve gotten faster on the tour but just had some bad luck.”
All of that translates into making Olden and the team extremely excited.
“Our Valley stuff is fast and we are very happy with it,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to race against these guys each week with fast cars.”
For the last few weeks, Dwyer has been without his Big Block Modified at the Valley due to engine problems. This week, fans will get to see him pulling double duty in both classes.
“I’m not going to have my good motor back the rest of this season,” he said. “However, I will have an engine in our car on Saturday that I know will be able to compete.”
While Dwyer had a good run in the 358-Modified main on Saturday to finish second, Frank Harper was caught up in a bad situation which severely hurt his chance at a top finish as well as the chassis of his #25.
On an early race restart, chief starter Rodney Rescott didn’t like the way things looked and didn’t throw the green. Through a chain reaction of events, Harper’s Paul Wehnau Snap-On Tools machine got hooked into the first turn wall and effectively ended his night.
“I was behind Olden on the restart,” Harper said. “When the caution came out, he checked up for something ahead of him. I ran into his car and Chris Curtis ran into me. Then, I was along for the ride.”
While he was able to make it back out into the race, completing enough laps to come home 14th for points, there was a massive amount of damage to his car which will make for a long week in the shop.
“Pete Chuckta (PMC Race Cars) said it’s the worst he’s ever seen,” he said. “Honestly, outside of the chassis, I think I’ve only got a couple bent radius rods if you can believe that. We should be ready to go for this week.”
Coming up on Saturday at the Valley is Halloween in August. There will be a driver meet & greet on the frontstrech with a trick-or-treat for the kids. Anyone child who arrives in costume will get into the races for FREE. All weekly divisions will be in action as well as Sportsman.
Also, it was released on Tuesday that the make-up 4-Cylinder from a few weeks back will now be run on the make-up Eve of Destruction night, Tuesday, August 24th.
RPW Photographer Lucas Ballard (Dual Cam) and Bradley Batho (Single Cam) currently hold the point leads in each 4-Cylinder division with the season winding down.
