Kyle Sheldon was able to take the lead from Josh Marcus on lap 10, but just barely held off Andy Bachetti on the final lap Saturday night to take his first Big Block win of the year.
“I was lucky enough that [Bachetti] gave me enough room on the outside that I…Hs enough momentum against the cushion to carry me past,” Sheldon said afterwards. “I bounced off the wall. I bounced off of him. Luckily, I kept it in one piece.”
Bachetti was second, followed by Brett Haas and J.R. Heffner. Marc Johnson was fifth.
Mike King started from pole, but lost the lead to Marcus on the first lap. Marcus was able to hold his position up front pretty well. Kyle Sheldon started fifth started and made his way up the order.
By lap 6, he was up to second and slowly running down Marcus. Once there, he battled with the No. 91m for a couple of laps before making the move to take the lead. Marcus was able to hold onto second until lap 14, when Heffner got past. However, Marcus ran over one of Heffner’s rear wheels, resulting in a mechanical failure that put him out.
The race’s sole caution came out with 13 laps to go when Alex Bell slowed to a stop on the backstretch. That brought a number of players into contention, including Bachetti.
Bachetti was able to take second from Heffner on lap 23 and ran down Kyle Sheldon as quick as he could. On the final lap, Bachetti dove to the inside in turns 3 and 4. Kyle Sheldon ran as hard as he could on the outside, even clipping the outside wall exiting turn 4, but managed to hold on for the win.
In the 358 Modifieds, Mark Pullen started on pole after winning his heat, but Guy Sheldon snatched it away on the first lap. He then opened up a big lead on the pack.
Meanwhile, Bachetti started from 15th and quickly moved up the order. By lap 10, he was able to take second from Alan Houghtaling.
A lap later, Brian Whittemore slowed with a flat right rear tire to bring out the race’s sole caution. That put Bachetti alongside Guy Sheldon for the restart. It took only a turn once the race restarted for Bachetti to get the lead.
Once out front, Bachetti ran away from the pack to win. The margin of victory was 4.74 seconds over Guy Sheldon. Jeff Watson was third, then Haas and Kyle Sheldon.
In Sportsman, Cody Cordova started from pole, but lost the advantage after an early caution to Craig Wholey. Wholey was able to open up a small gap over a battle pack led by Ed Dachenhausen.
Then, things got a little weird on lap 9. Andrew Martell spun by himself to bring out the yellow. Wholey spun to avoid. However, the officials ruled that since the caution was already out, Wholey would be able to retain the lead.
The yellow brought Tim Hartman Jr. back into the mix. On the restart, Nick Brundige took second from Dachenhausen, but lost that to Hartman three laps later.
Following a second Martell spin, Hartman took the battle directly to Wholey. With three laps to go, he made the pass in turn 2 and held on for his sixth win of the year. Wholey was .244 seconds back in second, then AJ Albreada, Brundige and Connor Prokop.
Limited Sportsman saw Doug Sterling start from pole and lead flag-to-flag to take his first Limited victory. Braxton Martin was 1.064 seconds back in second, then Kyle Burl, John Santolin and Dan Odell.
The Pro Stock class celebrated the memory of former racer, vendor and RaceProWeekly owner Bobby Chalmers Saturday night with a special memorial event. Shawn Perez Jr. started from pole and led early in a start-and-stop feature.
A multi-car crash in turn 4 brought out a yellow on lap 3 when Shawn Perez, Jay Casey, Jason Meltz, Frank Twing and others. Twing was done for the night.
Points leader Jason Casey was able to take the lead on lap 4, but Rick Duzlak was on a roll after coming from the rear. Duzlak tried to go for the lead in turn 1, but had contact with Jason Casey, resulting in both drivers spinning out.
That gave the lead back to Shawn Perez Jr., but Tom Dean was able to get past him for the advantage on lap 6. From there, Dean was able to hold all comers to win the inaugural Bobby Chalmers Memorial. Jason Casey was second, then Shawn Perez Jr., Bastien Caron and Jason Meltz.
In Street Stock, Gary O’Brien took his fourth straight victory with a last-lap pass on Dave Streibel Jr. Jeff Meltz Sr. was third, then David Shepard and Jay Pepin. CJ LaVair won the Claverack Well & Pump Service 4-Cylinder Feature.
Jamie Scott Automotive Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Kyle Sheldon, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Brett Haas, 4) J.R. Heffner, 5) Marc Johnson, 6) Matt Pupello, 7) Kyle Armstrong, 8) Kolby Schroder, 9) Chris Curtis, 10) Eddie Marshall, 11) Keith Flach, 12) Guy Sheldon, 13) Brandon Lane, 14) Alan Houghtaling, 15) Montgomery Tremont, 16) Mike Engwer, 17) Mike King, 18) Alex Bell, 19) Josh Marcus, 20) John Virgilio
358 Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Guy Sheldon, 3) Jeff Watson, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Kyle Sheldon, 6) Brady Cordova, 7) Mark Pullen, 8) Joey Coppola, 9) Joey Bonetti, 10) Garrett Poland, 11) Donny Travaglin, 12) Nick Perez, 13) Brian Berger, 14) Mike Engwer, 15) Ray Hall Jr., 16) Kim LaVoy, 17) Joe Pravia, 18) Brian Whittemore, 19) Harold Robitaille, 20) Montgomery Tremont, 21) Alan Houghtaling
Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr, 2) Craig Wholey, 3) AJ Albreada, 4) Nick Brundige, 5) Connor Prokop, 6) Ed Dachenhausen, 7) Anthony Maxon, 8) Owen Lewis, 9) Nick Giardini, 10) Cam Van Zandt, 11) Dylan Holmes, 12) Cody Cordova, 13) John Agor, 14) Karl Barnes, 15) Andrew Martell
Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Doug Sterling, 2) Braxton Martin, 3) Kyle Burl, 4) John Santolin, 5) Dan Odell, 6) Ray Royals, 7) Dalton Gamache, 8) Brian Walsh, 9) Matt Humes, 10) Matt Jordan, 11) Dustin Bowen, 12) Travis Bernard, 13) Garrett Biagiarelli
Pro Stock Inaugural Bobby Chalmers Memorial (20 laps): 1) Tom Dean, 2) Jason Casey, 3) Shawn Perez Jr., 4) Bastien Caron, 5) Jason Meltz, 6) Bruno Cyr, 7) Dave Stickles, 8) Shaine Dowd-Smith, 9) Ryan Crellin, 10) Richard Spencer, 11) Brian Keough, 12) Jay Casey, 13) Shawn Perez, 14) Frank Twing Jr., 15) Rick Duzlak, 16) Chris Stalker, 17) Frank Twing
Street Stock Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Gary O’Brien, 2) Dave Streibel Jr., 3) Jeff Meltz Sr., 4) David Shepard, 5) Jay Pepin, 6) Anthony King, 7) Dave Streibel, 8) Peter Huntoon, 9) Keri VanDenburg, 10) Rocco Szemplinski, 11) Franklin Smith, 12) Mike Dianda
Claverack Well & Pump Service 4-Cylinder Feature (15 laps): 1) CJ LaVair, 2) Matthew Martin, 3) Stephen Burka, 4) Ken Tourville, 5) Morgan Houghtaling, 6) Prudence Peterson, 7) Logan Hatch, 8) Dale Sirois
Phil Allaway
Lebanon Valley Speedway
Authors
Discover more from The Racing Times Magazine
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
