6.9.18 LeBanon Valley Speedway Results

RACE PRO WEEKLY – WEST LEBANON, NY – It’s

one of the most important events on the calendar for the Modifieds at

the Lebanon Valley Speedway. The JC Flach Memorial, honoring one of

the more likeable drivers ever to strap into a Big Block on the high

banks.

Well, the sixth annual edition of the event saw the checkers go to one

of the most dominant drivers ever to sit behind the wheel of a

Modified, and one of the most consistent this season, that being Brett

Hearn.

Hearn started the feature event from the 15th spot and wasted no time

moving towards the front. By lap three he was in ninth. By lap seven

he was fourth, and on lap 13, he made the move of the race to grab the

second position.

While watching third place Ronnie Johnson trying to work the outside

to get around runner-up man Brian Berger, Hearn made an amazing move

to go three wide with both off of turn two and grabbed second.

After a caution bunched up the field, the Madsen Motorsports #20 made

quick work of leader Elmo Reckner and was never seriously challenged

the rest of the way, taking his second win of the 2018 season at the

Valley.

“We’ve been consistent all year coming from deep in the pack here,

scoring a lot of top four finishes,” Hearn said. “I knew if we did

that the wins would start to come.”

However, on this important night, Hearn didn’t know if he’d get to the

front to keep up his good start to the season.

“I got stalled at around seventh or eighth and then got shuffled on

one of those restarts,” he said. “Ronnie (Johnson) had gone through

traffic really well and I didn’t know if we could as well. Then I was

able to get to fourth and Ronnie and I started catching the two

leaders and things just started to open up for me.”

Even after grabbing career win #103 in Big Block competition at the

Speedway, Hearn was humbled at what he had accomplished Saturday

night.

“This was a great race car and team effort by the entire Madsen

Motorsports team,” he said. “I just want to take a moment and remember

JC. I think this is the second time I’ve won his night and that is

fantastic and very special to me.”

Second place went to JC’s little brother, Keith Flach, who drove the

wheels off his Flach Companies #43 machine. Keith utilized the extreme

outside lane for most of the race to get to the front, after starting

13th.

At one point, you could damn near throw a blanket over the top five as

Reckner, Berger, RJ, Hearn and Flach all tightened up to do battle.

In the end, Flach brought home the runner-up spot followed by Johnson

who worked hard to keep pace with the front two at the end. Reckner

and Kenny Tremont completed the top five.

With his win, Hearn was able to lengthen his point lead over Johnson

by eight markers. He now has a 36-point advantage over the second

generation driver with Tremont another 10 points back.

In the 358-Modified feature, JR Heffner used some lucky breaks to get

through traffic and went on to take his second win in four starts this

season.

After starting in 11th, Heffner go to the top five in quick fashion

and then made some moves that had the fans on the edge of their seats,

including the pass of his teammate and car owner, Steve Hough.

“That was a good race,” he said. “Those guys up front were really

getting it on and I got lucky on the outside and was able to make an

outside in move and get into clean air and I knew we were in good

shape from there.”

From that point on, Heffner just had to hold the steering wheel as,

even with a caution that grouped everyone back up, nobody was catching

him the rest of the way.

“This car is something else,” he said. “Once it gets to clean air,

it’s lights out really.”

Defending track champion in the division, Kenny Tremont, worked his

way through the field Saturday from his 15th starting spot and got to

second, but had nothing for JR. Jason Herrington had another great run

to come home in third followed by Brett Haas in fourth and point

leader Andy Bachetti fifth.

In Pro Stock action, Rob Yetman used a fifth place starting spot to

his advantage, taking the lead from Joe LaFlamme on lap two and went

on to take his second win of 2018 in the class.

Rick Dempsey came home second, right on the back bumper of Yetman, and

gave it everything he had but just couldn’t get around him. Dempsey’s

car appeared to need long runs to gain momentum if he wanted a chance

to get around the 7 car, but with a string of cautions, he never got

that chance.

For Yetman, it was way to get things back on track after a couple of

tough races which has dropped him in the point standings.

“Opening night, we thought we were off to a great start and it was

going to be easy from there” he said. “It got tough. Wrecks and being

in the wrong place at the wrong time so far, but that’s racing. We

want to start up front, but we like to come from the back to see what

the car’s really got.”

Dempsey came home with a solid second place finish followed by Jason

Casey in the #324 (from Canaan, CT), Jay Casey in the #93 (from

Hinsdale, MA) and Richie Crane.

The Pro Stocks are shaping up to have another amazing points battle.

Following Saturday night’s action, Jason is your point leader by eight

markers over Rick Dempsey with Jason Casey just two behind Dempsey.

Jon Routhier is fourth and Rick Duzlak is fifth. The top five are only

separated by 20 points.

Evan Denue and Jeff Meltz Jr. took home the Pure Stock feature event

wins with Tim Meltz winning the 4-Cylinder Single Cam feature and

Chris Vandeputte victorious in the 4-Cylinder Dual Cam.

Modified Results (30 Laps) -1) Brett Hearn, 2) Keith Flach, 3) Ronnie

Johnson, 4) Elmo Reckner, 5) Kenny Tremont Jr, 6) Kolby Schroder, 7)

Wayne Jelley, 8) J.R. Heffner, 9) Andy Bachetti, 10) Eddie Marshall,

11) Chad Jeseo, 12) L.J Lombardo, 13) Kyle Sheldon, 14) Brian Berger,

15) Mike Keeler, 16) Steve Hough, 17) Rob Pitcher, 18) Kyle Armstrong,

19) Mike King, 20) Josh Marcus, 21) Jeff Sukup, 22) Denny Soltis, 23)

Dave McFeeters, 24) Olden Dwyer, 25) Paul Gilardi, 26) Kenny Aanonson,

Small Block Modified Results (24 Laps) – 1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Ken

Tremont Jr, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Brett Haas, 5) Andy Bachetti, 6)

Steve Hough, 7) Timothy Davis, 8) Ricky Davis, 9) Frank Hoard III, 10)

Frank Harper, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Dillion Stuer, 13) Brandon Pitcher,

14) Brian Sandstedt, 15) Chad Pierce, 16) Ryan Charland, 17) Brian

Peterson, 18) Alan Houghtaling, 19) Bryan McGuire, 20) Olden Dwyer,

21) Ray Hall Jr,

Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) – 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Rick Dempsey, 3) Jason

Casey, 4) Jay Casey, 5) Rich Crane, 6) Jason Meltz, 7) Jay Casey, 8)

Rick Duzlak, 9) Jon Routhier, 10) Nick Arnold, 11) Victor Hopkins, 12)

Tom Dean, 13) Tom O’Connor, 14) Ed Bishop, 15) Don Collins, 16) Dave

Stickles, 17) Scott Kilmer, 18) Joe LaFlamme, 19) Brian Keough, 20)

Nick Hilt, 21) Scott Govertsen, 22) Steven LaRochelle, 23) Nick

Reilly, 24) Frank Twing,

Pure Stock #1 Results (10 Laps) – 1) Evan Denue, 2) Dom Denue, 3)

Scott Morris, 4) Shawn Perez, 5) Chris Murphy, 6) Kerri Vandenburg, 7)

Jordan Miller, 8) Adam Schneider, 9) Karen Verhagen, 10) Bradley

Batho, 11) Craig Coons, 12) Rocco Procopio, 13) Tim Meltz,

Pure Stock #3 Results (10 Laps) -1) Jeff Meltz Jr., 2) Ray Hall Sr.,

3) John Devine, 4) Chad Arsenault, 5) Jeff Kreutzinger, 6) Zach

Seyerlein, 7) Ed Hatch, 8) Zach Sorrentino, 9) Jeff Meltz, 10) Mark

Dwyer,

11) Brian Walsh, 12) Al Relyea, 13) Kevin Paul,

4 Cylinder Single Cam Feature Results (15 Laps )-1) Tim Meltz, 2)

James Street, 3) Gary Malloy, 4) Devin Besze, 5) Don Finney, 6) Victor

Duncan Jr., 7) Jim Williams, 8) Nick McCleney

4 Cylinder Dual Cam Feature Results (15 Laps) -1) Chris Vandeputte, 2)

Kenny Stager, 3) Chris White, 4) Connor Hill, 5) John Wright, 6)

Christian Scribner, 7) MIke Duncan, 8) Jim Guertin, 9) Tomm Gomm,