Andy Bachetti Doubles Down to Break Hearn’s Strong Hold

West Lebanon, NY: Brett Hearn has been the dominate driver in the Big Block Modifieds at the Valley of Speed since the beginning of the season, but his quest for 5 in a row came to an end, thanks to the Wild Child. For the fans in the stands, that wasn’t the only excitement that the night of racing at the legendary high banks had to offer.

Albany Times Union and Wohrle presented the night’s racing action, along with a special $2,000 to Win Budget Sportsman Shootout, plus a Pro Stock extra distance Power Play Series event.

It comes as no shock that Brett Hearn has been dominating as of late. And this year at the Valley of Speed, he has clearly put himself in the position of the man to beat when it comes to the Big Block Modifieds. So as the 30 lap feature event took to the speedway, everyone was gunnin’ for the #20H.

Kim Lavoy and Wayne Jelley brought the field to the green, but the caution came out quickly as a couple of cars got into a jingle in turn 2. The field regrouped, and started again with the #34L of Lavoy still out front. Eddie Marshall powered his way into the lead by lap 4, and held strong till the caution flew again on lap 12.

That put the #34B of Andy Bachetti right on the heels of Marshall on the restart. And by lap 16, Bachetti took over, and powered away from the field. Hearn battled his way through the field, getting to the runner up spot by lap 22, but could not run down Bachetti’s #34B.

At the checkers, Andy Bachetti captures his first for 2013, followed by Hearn, Marshall, Keith Flach and J.R. Heffner.

In the Small Block Modified feature, Steve Hough drove his #34 to the lead by lap 3, but handed it over to the #34B of Bachetti on lap 20, giving Andy Bachetti 2 Modified wins in one night. Hough had to settle for 2^nd, followed by Jason Herrington, Chad Pierce, and Wayne Jelley.

The 25 Lap Pro Stock Power Play Series presented by Tinkers took to the fast half mile earlier in the night. The #23 of Chuck Towslee controlled the top spot early on holding off challenges all racing long. But handling faded late in the event, giving the lead to the #322 of Jay Casey by lap 16.

But Casey’s hold on first soon ended as the #8 of Jay Corbin used a lap car pick to power out front by lap 22, and checked out on the field. Corbin took the win followed by Casey, Robbie Speed, Towslee, and Jason Casey.

The Budget Sportsman Feature was action packed from start to finish with a special 2^nd Annual $2,000 Andrew Sherman Cup. Robbie Knipe powered his #18 out front early of the stacked 39 car field. But the biggest player in the event was the caution flag, as it flew early and often.

The first was on lap 2 with multiple cars tangling in turns 3 and 4. That brought out a brief red flag. Once the green silk flew again, Knipe and Robbie Speed’s #4NY battled it out up front while the field behind them was like an angry beehive of action.

Caution slowed the race again on lap 9, then again on lap 11, and again on 12. With all that going on, the #1 of Tyler Dipple quietly took over the top spot from Knipe. A scaring wreck on lap 15 brought the field to another red flag as the #25 of Colin Clow and #74 of Chris Lynch came together causing Lynch to spin wildly down the front stretch making heavy contact with the outside wall and several other cars. All drivers were checkout and ok, but Lynch’s night was over, and Clow was DQ’d for rough driving.

When racing resumed, Dipple was out front, with Tommy Johnson’s #45 hot on his heels. But Johnson could not muster enough to get to Dipple, as the #1 checked out on the field. At the checkers, Tyler Dipple crossed the line first, followed by Johnson, Knipe, Jake Jelley, and Josh Gaylord.

At the conclusion of the race, and official mechanical protest was placed on the #1 of Dipple, therefore the finish is considered ‘Unofficial’. The outcome of that protest will be posted on our website by mid-week.

Earlier in the night, the racing got started off with some great racing action in our Purestock class as Shawn Perez captured PS#1, Jay Casey scored the win in PS#2, while Ray Hall Sr held on to win in PS#3.

Next Saturday May 25^th, it’s All Star Tractor Trailer Training and Buanno trucking presenting the $3,000 to Win Maynard Forrette Memorial plus another visit by the 4 Cylinders! Then on June 1^st; it’s Keybank and Doherty Brothers Construction presenting NYSSCA Night with a special All Season’s Power $1,000 To Win Budget Sportsman Shootout!

More Fun, More Racing……. More Lebanon Valley!

Times Union and Wohrle Foods Big Block Modified Feature (30 Laps): 1)Andy Bachetti, 2)Brett Hearn, 3)Eddie Marshall, 4)Keith Flach, 5)J.R. Heffner, 6)Mark Flach Jr, 7)Kenny Tremont Jr, 8)Bobby Hackel, 9)Rob Pitcher, 10)Kolby Schroder, 11)Donnie Corellis, 12)Kyle Armstrong, 13)Kyle Sheldon, 14)Wayne Jelley, 15)Matt Pupello, 16)Mike King, 17)Jack Brown, 18)Steve Hough, 19)Kim LaVoy, 20)John Ruchel, 21)Kyle Hoffman, 22)Brian Berger, 23)Denny Soltis, 24)Nick Hotaling, 25)Paul Gilardi

Small Block Modifieds (24 Laps): 1)Andy Bachetti, 2)Steve Hough, 3)Jason Herrington, 4)Chad Pierce, 5)Wayne Jelley, 6)Steve Meilleur, 7)Brett Haas, 8)Alan Houghtaling, 9)Brian Sandstedt, 10)Chad Jeseo, 11)Jeff Kelley, 12)Matt Quinn, 13)Ryan Charland, 14)Sean Mandell, 15)Kenny Aanonsen JR, 16)Ryan Darcy, 17)Marc Pullen, 18)Robert Rowe, DNS)Kim LaVoy, DNS)Olden Dwyer

Pro Stock Power Play Series (25 Laps): 1)Jay Corbin, 2)Jay Casey, 3)Robbie Speed, 4)Chuck Towslee, 5)Jason Casey, 6)Paul LaRochelle, 7)Victor Hopkins, 8)Nick Hilt, 9)Frank Twing, 10)Tom Harkins, 11)Brian Keough, 12)Tom O'Connor, 13)Milo Campbell, 14)Todd Pelkey, 15)John Santolin, 16)Jason Meltz, 17)Rick Duzlak, 18)Danny Sanchez, DNS)Mark Dupree, DNS)Don Kennedy, DNS)Chris Claus, DNS)Tony DeRose

$2,000 2^nd Annual Andrew Sherman Cup Budget Sportsman **Unofficial Due To Protest** (20 Laps): 1)Tyler Dippel, 2)Tommy Johnson, 3)Rob Knipe, 4)Jake Jelley, 5)Josh Gaylord, 6)John Virgilio, 7)Robbie Speed, 8)Scott Duso, 9)Matt Pappa, 10)Brian Peterson, 11)Todd Lane, 12)Frank Hoard, 13)Jack Speshock, 14)John Aumick, 15)Greg Catlin, 16)Ryan Darcy, 17)Brandon Pitcher, 18)Whitey Slavin, 19)Zeb Catlin, 20)Michael Sabia, 21)Alissa Cody, 22)Mike Verhagen, 23)Ricky Davis, 24)Brett Wright, 25)Chris Lynch, 26)Cody Ochs, 27)Courtney Campbell, 28)Ray Hall Jr., 29)Greg DeCamp, 30)Rob Maxon, 31)Jim Bemiss, 32)Brandon Page, 33)Alan Houghtaling, 34)Peter Carlotto, 35)Milo Campbell, 36)Timothy Davis 2nd, 37)Brandon Lane, 38)Keith Johannessen, DQ)Colin Clow

Purestock 1 (8 Laps): 1)Shawn Perez, 2)Chris Streeter, 3)Jeff Meltz Sr., 4)Mike Eichstedt, 5)Tom Murphy, 6)Gary O'Brien, 7)Hunter Sanchez, 8)Luke Valli, 9)Shawn Lancey, 10)Matt Cross, 11)Wuggie Burdick, 12)Raymond Mandel, 13)Dennis O'Connor JR, 14)Cody Mead, 15)Mike Sanchez, DNS)Brian Walsh,

Purestock 2 (8 Laps): 1)Jay Casey, 2)John Felarecki, 3)Richard Puff, 4)Phil Sherman, 5)Clifford Booth, 6)John Devine, 7)Dan Olds, 8)Ron Johnson, 9)Gary Vandenburg, 10)Joe Cheneil, 11)Bob Palmer JR, 12)Dave Stickles, 13)Jeff Kreutzinger, 14)Scott Morris, 15)Jeff Meltz

Purestock 3 (12 Laps): 1)Ray Hall Sr, 2)James Hatch, 3)Daniel Sanchez, 4)Ed Hatch, 5)Al Relyea, 6)Doug Olds, 7)Lloyd Tomlin, 8)Dan Cote, 9)Steven LaRochelle, 10)Jeremy Closson, 11)Keri Vandenburg, 12)Pete Wiegand, 13)Bob Brown, 14)Jim Groncki, 15)Lou Ganczar