Kyle Sheldon Is ‘King Of The Track’ For 2017 At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – After two straight rainouts at the Lebanon Valley Speedway, fans and racers alike were ready to get back to action. For one driver in particular, Kyle Sheldon, the night ended perfectly with a trip to victory lane.

Sheldon used a front row starting spot to his advantage and then parleyed it into the title of “King of the Track.” It was a win that the team greatly needed.

“This was huge for our entire team,” Sheldon said. “My guys work so hard to make this car go and I’m thankful I was able to give them something for their dedication.”

The Sheldon Oil #42 rocketed to the top spot early and it just seemed like he wasn’t letting go of it. The PMC Chassis machine was on rails from the drop of the original green flag and it paid off big time.

“Our car was definitely great tonight,” he said. “We were very fortunate that we could capitalize on an up front starting spot.”

With the up front start comes a few previous weeks of bad luck. It’s not something Sheldon is happy about, but winning $5,000 sure is.

“Unfortunately, our season has been a bit off par, so the win tonight is extra sweet,” he said. “On the initial green, I felt like Kolby (Schroder) was going to outrun us, but we were able to get out nose ahead and never look back.”

One final caution bunched up the field, but luckily Sheldon kept his composure and went on to take the win.

“The late race caution was what we didn’t need, that’s for sure,” he said. “Luckily, our car was great and we were able to stay smooth until the end.”

One of the best parts of Sheldon’s first win in a couple seasons is that it was done with a spec AFR aluminum head engine in the car. This was the first victory for this engine combination ever on the valley high banks.

Second place at the finish was Keith Flach. Flach looked to have one of the fastest cars as the race went on, and may have needed more time to catch the winner. All-in-all, the Ravena Rocket was happy with a runner-up finish.

“We’re gaining on it each time we go out,” Flach said. “I think the late caution hurt us more than it helped, but it was definitely a good points night as we have quite a gap to make up.”

When pressed if he thought he had anything for Sheldon, Flach didn’t have a definitive answer.

“It’s really tough to say,” he said. “Our car got a little tighter on the right front after the restart and the top seemed better than the bottom. Even with a good car, it would have been tough to pass Kyle.”

Third place finisher Kolby Schroder was extremely excited to bring his #99 home with a podium finish. After starting out 2017 strong, Schroder has had his ups and downs this season. Saturday night, was an up.

“This is a big shot in the arm for the entire team, that’s for sure,” Schroder said. “We always have room to improve but it was a real solid points night.”

The young pilot ran most of the feature in the number two position, attempting to hunt down the Sheldon machine. However, late race problems allowed Flach to pass.

“Our right rear tire started to come apart late in the race,” he said. “That made us lose a little speed so we couldn’t hold on to second. Overall, it was a good night.”

Even with the tire issue, Schroder is another one who doesn’t know if he would have been able to catch the winner on this night.

“I made a mistake in turn three and lost some ground,” he said. “I charged to catch up and was running him (Sheldon) down when the tire seemed to just give up. We probably could have gotten to him if the tire stayed together, but passing him would have been hard.”

Brett Hearn and Brian Berger rounded out the top five. For Berger, fifth was a great run given the problems his #60 team faced just before the main event.

“Our car fell off just a bit as the race went on,” he said. “We found a bad torsion bar that we had to change right before the feature. We were way too loose and blistered our right rear, so I’m happy. I was a bit rusty tonight. Need to get back in a rhythm. Keith and Brett were strong.”

To say Peter Carlotto was excited to grab his first career 358-Modified win at the Valley of Speed would be an understatement.

The Massachusetts racer used a good starting spot as well and was able to hold off the likes of Houghtaling, Harper, Haas and Tremont to score his first career win in the division.

“I can’t believe we got a win here,” he said. “I’ll never forget this night.”

Carlotto and his team, led by crew chief Greg Bachetti, were pumped to finally get the monkey off their back in a division that has been dominated by Kenny Tremont.

“The car was good all race long and I was just lucky to start off from the pole,” he said. “Seems like that’s the only way you can win in this class, unless you’re Kenny or JR. Those guys are tough.”

Houghtaling brought his #250 home second followed by Frank Harper, Brett Haas and Tremont.

The King of Dirt Sportsman series rolled into the Valley on Saturday night, and at the end of the 30-lap feature it was defending track champion Jeff Watson who took home the win.

Watson made a mid-race pass of leader Chris Lynch on a restart and was never really challenged the rest of the way as he took home top honors.

“Lynch was having a lot of trouble on restarts,” Watson said. “I think his car was laying down and I was watching him that entire caution. I knew his car was going to push up on the restart. I felt I needed to be along side of him and luckily we had a good restart and I had a push so it worked out great.”

The move of the night for Watson, however, was his pass of Lynch. It was the move he made on one of the top dogs on the King of Dirt trail.

“What about that pass on Rocky (Warner),” Watson said with a laugh. “I never get to do that and it probably won’t ever happen again all year.”

With the victory, Watson is now a guaranteed started for the Dirt Track World Championships in Charlotte later this year.

“We get to race the invitational race in Charlotte,” he said. “I’m very excited about that, if we can afford to go to it.”

Michael Sabia finished second followed by Lynch, John Virgilio and Rob Maxon. Lynch’s problems appear to be in the carburetor area as the engine would load up on restarts which didn’t let Chris fire very well.

“From the middle of the race on it just wasn’t good at all on restarts,” Lynch said. “Once we got going I could get back to my rhythm, but restarts it just bogged down wicked. It’s a shame too. We had a good car.”

Jon Routhier withstood accidents and challenges from all competitors to take home his second win of the 2017 season in the Pro Stock class. The Canaan, CT driver came through an early race multi-car pileup to hold off Jason Meltz for the victory.

“Our car was perfect tonight,” he said. “Our open motor loves a tacky track. I’m not quite sure what happened in turn one. I think the 413 got sideways up there, but we were lucky enough to come out okay.”

Meltz brought his #51 Ghent Wood Products machine home in the number two spot followed by Eddie Bishop, Rob Yetman and Rick Dempsey.

Pure Stock features went to Shawn Perez, Tom Murphy, and Jeff Kreutzinger.

News & Notes…
One noticeable driver missing from the Modified ranks on Saturday night was Kyle Armstrong. The Connecticut driver was in the pits, but without a car.

On Friday evening, Armstrong was hit head-on about a quarter of a mile from his home. He has a broken nose, swollen left eye, burns from the air-bag deployment and is extremely sore all around. However, that appears to be the extent of his injuries and feels very lucky.

The driver, who going into the evening sat eighth in track points, was looking for clarification on a driver swap role for the night. He was trying to decipher if he was to start the feature in a car if he could jump out at the first caution, have a relief driver finish the race and he would receive the points.

Kyle did end up bringing his 11A out for the feature event, starting the event before relinquishing the seat to former Modified Rookie of the Year Jeff Watson. However, as the driver swap was taking place, track officials would not allow Watson to drive the car, so Armstrong parked it for the rest of the feature.

Andy Bachetti’s evening started out rather tough as rear end problems sidelined the primary #4 machine. According to crew chief Travis Corbett, the team didn’t want to take any chance, so the best option was to pull out the back-up.

The car they ran on Saturday was the same machine that Bachetti ran at Albany-Saratoga Friday night. He brought it home in the 13th position.

LJ Lombardo picked up some new signage for the blank quarter panels on his #35 Modified. Snap-On Tools dealer Paul Wehnau has come on board to help this team.

Lombardo’s crew chief is Robbie Albreada. Albreada is also head wrench on Frank Harper’s #25 358-Modified. Who’s Frank’s major sponsor? Snap-On Tools dealer Paul Wehnau.

This is just another way to show how teams and sponsors are helping each other when needed.

Cody Bleau’s night came to an end in his Sportsman #173 before it even began. Another competitor made contact with the Greg’s Towing machine while the cars made laps under caution during the early night warm-ups.

The contact resulted in Bleau’s engine over-revving and, causing severe damage to it.

Bleau tried to find a ride for the night as he was up in the top 10 of King of Dirt points. However, after no luck, Bleau made his way to Fonda to work with the Shaun Pangman team.

Appears the decision paid off. Cody finished eighth in the Modified main at the “Track of Champions.”

Saturday July 15 , 2017 – West Lebanon, NY – Rifenburg Construction Presents – Modified Results (30 Laps) – 1) Kyle Sheldon, 2) Kolby Schroder, 3) Keith Flach, 4) Brett Hearn, 5) Brian Berger, 6) Chad Jeseo, 7) Paul Gilardi, 8) Elmo Reckner, 9) Steve Hough, 10) J.R. Heffner, 11) Wayne Jelley, 12) Eddie Marshall, 13) Andy Bachetti, 14) L.J Lombardo, 15) Mike King, 16) John Ruchel, 17) Rob Pitcher, 18) Matt Pupello, 19) Ken McGuire, 20) Denny Soltis, 21) Brett Haas, 22) Mike Keeler, 23) Kenny Tremont Jr, 24) Kyle Hoffman, 25) Kyle Armstrong, 26) Olden Dwyer,

Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) -1) Pete Carlotto, 2) Alan Houghtaling, 3) Frank Harper, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Ken Tremont Jr, 6) Demetrios Drellos, 7) J.R. Heffner, 8) Brandon Pitcher, 9) Bryan McGuire, 10) Chad Pierce, 11) Ray Hall Jr, 12) Timothy Davis, 13) Brian Sandstedt, 14) Allison Ricci, 15) Kim LaVoy, 16) Dillon Steuer, 17) Ryan Charland, 18) Michael Sabia, 19) Sean Mandel, 20) Jason Herrington, 21) Frank Hoard III, 22) Kenny Aanonson, 23) Brian Peterson,24) Olden Dwyer,

Sportsman Results KING OF DIRT (30 Laps) -1) Jeff Watson 2) Micheal Sabia 3) Chris Lynch 4) John Virgilio 5) Rob Maxxon 6) Rocky Warner 7) Whitey Slavin 8) Scott Duell 9) Chris Curtis 10) Frank Hoard Jr. 11) Cody Hunt 12) Adam Pierson 13) Nick Plumstead 14) Kevin Ward 15) Rich Ricci Jr 16) Chad Edwards 17) Kevin Chaffee 18) Brian Pessolano 19) Nikki Ooellette 20) Lem Atkins 21) Andrew buff 22) Harold Robitalle 23) Alan houghtaling 24) James Kraus 25) Robbie Knipe 26) Matt Burke 27) Milton Mann 28) David Schilling 29) Chris Kokosa 30) Mike Barrett 31) Vinny Visconti 32) Jack Lehner DNS) Bobby Deleon DNS) Cody Ochs DNS) Mike Gramolini DNS) Cody Bleau

Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) -1) Jon Routhier, 2) Jason Meltz, 3) Ed Bishop, 4) Rob Yetman, 5) Rick Dempsey, 6) Jay Corbin, 7) Steven LaRochelle, 8) Rick Duzlak, 9) Chuck Towslee, 10) Joe LaFlamme, 11) Hugh Page, 12) Henry Warner, 13) Scott Govertsen, 14) Brian Keough, 15) Rick Spencer, 16) Tom Dean, 17) Nick Reilly, 18) Don Collins, 19) Dan Cote, 20) Jeff Kelmel, 21) Nick Hilt, 22) Todd Hoffman,

Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) -1) Shawn Perez, 2) Brian Walsh, 3) Chris Streeter, 4) Scott Morris, 5) Jordan Miller, 6) Brian Vandenburg, 7) D.J. Reilly 8) Luke Van Allen, 9) Evan Denue, 10) Karen Verhagen

Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) -1) Tom Murphy, 2) Lou Ganczar, 3) Mike Eicchstedt, 4) Mike Arnold, 5) Joe Walcott, 6) Larry Perez, 7) Wuggie Burdick, 8) Kerri Vandenburg 9) Clifford Booth, 10) Andrew Bostwick,

Pure Stock #3 Results (10 Laps) – 1) Jeff Kreutzinger, 2) Jeff Meltz Jr, 3) Ed Hatch, 4) Bill Deek Jr, 5) Jeff Meltz, 6) John Devine, 7) Tim Thompson, 8) Gary O’Brien, 9) Ray Hall Sr, 10) Dom Denue, 11) Jesse Murphy, 12) Zach Seyerlein,