Saturday night saw Lebanon Valley Speedway start their 2026 season with chilly and windy weather. Despite all the changes that come with a new season, not much has changed in the Sportsman class.
Tim Hartman Jr. took over the lead from Joey Scarborough on lap 18 and drove away to win the S&G Roofing Spring Fling and the $4000 top prize. It is his first win of 2026 and his 22nd Sportsman victory since the start of 2024.
“I missed all the garbage tonight,” Hartman said after the race. “I was in front of the big ones and missed the little jingles in front of me. I said before the feature that whoever survives was going to win and we were able to survive.”
Scarborough finish second, followed by Chris Crane Jr. AJ Albreada charged from 17th on the grid to finish fourth, while Nick Giardini was fifth.
By virtue of a post-heat redraw, Giardini started from pole in his No. 399. The start of the race took a while to get going. On the initial start, Camron Hotaling spun and hit the inside wall to trigger a yellow. After that, defending Limited Sportsman champion Dylan Holmes spun in turn 4 to bring out another yellow.
A third caution flew for a crash in turn 4 involving Anthony Maxon, Andrew Martell, Mike Engwer and others. The incident ended the night for Maxon, Martell and Justin Miller.
Michael Sabia struggled a little bit early on, but was starting to come into a rhythm when he got a little too low in turn 2. He ended up hitting the inside wall, which broke the left front corner of his car. That ended his night and brought out another yellow.
Through all of this, Hartman was quickly moving up the order. He started 11th and managed to avoid the incidents to get up to third by lap 10.
Scarborough was able to take the lead away from Giardini on lap 11. Hartman followed past into second.
Shortly afterwards, a spin from Cody Cordova brought out another yellow to bunch the field up. The restart saw the biggest incident of the night when seven cars piled up on the frontstretch, bringing out the red flag. Everyone was ok.
After the restart, Scarborough and Hartman pulled away from the pack to settle the score themselves. The four-time champ worked Scarborough over and eventually made the pass stick on lap 18.
Following a subsequent restart, Hartman slowly but surely pulled away over the final 22 laps at a rate of two-tenths of a second per lap to win.
In Pro Stock, Tom Dean started from the pole and led early. He had to deal with Frank Twing early on, then Jay Casey.
However, after a spin for Rich Crane in turn 4 and a second caution on a restart due to a chain reaction crash that eliminated Brian Keough, a new man came into the battle in Jason Casey.
Jason was able to take second from his father on lap 8, then wasted no time getting Dean for the lead a lap later. Fromm there, there were no shortage of minor spins that kept the pack together. Despite that, Jason Casey held on to take his first Lebanon Valley Pro Stock win since 2020.
Jason Casey won by .668 seconds over Twing. Jay Casey was third, then Dean and Denis Gauvreau.
Limited Sportsman saw Brian Walsh start from pole, but John Santolin was on the move from the second row. He was able to get up to Walsh and nearly got in front of him on the first lap before Walsh reassumed control.
Santolin kept up his pressure on Walsh until Walsh made a mistake in turn 4 on lap 7. That was all Spiderman needed to slip past into the lead. From there, Santolin pulled away to take the win by 2.115 seconds over Dan Odell. Matt Humes was third, then Braxton Martin and Walsh.
In Street Stock, Jeff Meltz Sr. started from the pole, but almost immediately lost the advantage to Gary O’Brien. Chris Stalker followed O’Brien past Meltz and immediately put the pressure on for the lead. It took only a couple of laps for Stalker to claim the lead.
Spins from Henry Morris and Peter Huntoon kept the pack close together, but no one could keep Stalker away from the victory.
Behind the No. 2x, Anthony King and O’Brien fought hard for second. On the final lap, O’Brien went too hard into turn 3 and spun, resulting in a multi-car incident. That allowed King to finish second, then Dave Streibel Jr., Bob Sleight and Dave Streibel.
The 4-Cylinder class saw Jock Symonds, visiting from Can-Am Speedway, snatch the lead on the first lap. He then ran away to take the win and $1000. Collin Mills was second, then Jason Peck, Stephen Burka and Tim Meltz.
S&G Roofing Spring Fling Results (40 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Joey Scarborough, 3) Chris Crane Jr., 4) AJ Albreada, 5) Nick Giardini, 6) Craig Wholey, 7) Jeff Higham, 8) Jared LaBagh, 9) Nick Brundige, 10) Cam Van Zandt, 11) Ed Dachenhausen, 12) Josh Sokolic, 13) Owen Lewis, 14) Camron Hotaling, 15) Tavien Blowers, 16) Joe Judge, 17) Keith Johannessen, 18) Raelin Dunham, 19) Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, 20) Mike Engwer, 21) John Agor, 22) Dylan Holmes, 23) Connor Prokop, 24) Cody Cordova, 25) Mike Block, 26) Michael Sabia, 27) Justin Miller, 28) Anthony Maxon, 29) Andrew Martell, 30) Karl Barnes
Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Jason Casey, 2) Frank Twing, 3) Jay Casey, 4) Tom Dean, 5) Denis Gauvreau, 6) Shawn Perez Jr., 7) Rich Crane, 8) Shawn Perez, 9) Paul LaRochelle, 10) Chris Stalker, 11) Richard Spencer, 12) Dave Stickles, 13) Shaine Dowd-Smith, 14) Rick Duzlak, 15) Frank Twing Jr., 16) Brian Keough
Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) John Santolin, 2) Dan Odell, 3) Matt Humes, 4) Braxton Martin, 5) Brian Walsh, 6) Garrett Biagiarelli, 7) Doug Sterling, 8) Dustin Bowen, 9) Fred Kelly, 10) Scott Jennings, 11) Ray Royals, 12) Kyle Burl
Street Stock Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Anthony King, 3) Dave Streibel Jr., 4) Bob Sleight, 5) Dave Streibel, 6) Jeff Meltz Sr., 7) Franklin Smith, 8) Peter Huntoon, 9) Gary O’Brien, 10) Rocco Szemplisnski, 11) Julius Pepin, 12) Henry Morris, 13) David Shepard, 14) Bryan Rennell
4-Cylinder Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Jock Symonds, 2) Collin Mills, 3) Jason Peck, 4) Stephen Burka, 5) Tim Meltz, 6) Chris Hall, 7) Rudy King Jr., 8) Prudence Peterson, 9) Morgan Houghtaling, 10) Dawson Thompson, 11) Kyle Simmons
Phil Allaway
Lebanon Valley Speedway
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