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Heffner Not a Bridesmaid Anymore – Wins Race and Championship
Saturday September 1, 2007
By: Rodney Rescott
West Lebanon , NY : What was looking like a year of being shut out of the winners circle at the Valley of Speed finally came just when he needed the most. Averill Park , NY ’s J.R. Heffner put all the pieces together and coincidentally, on the last night of points for the Big Block Modifieds.
Sheldon Oil Services, JH Financial, and Triple Nickel presented the season finale for the Modifieds under clear skies and a cool night. The points battle came down to just three coming into the season capper. J.R. Heffner held a slim 1 point lead over Eddie Marshall, with defending point champ Andy Bachetti just 3 points back. This set up a tension filled event for everyone.
As the near capacity crowd looked on, the Sheldon Oil 30 lap feature was under way. At the point was the Mighty Matt Quinn who took control of the field early. The first caution flew at lap 2 as the field got bunched to due to a slowing #518 of Kyle Sheldon. Everyone made it through unscathed.
But at the front, Mark Flach, Jr. just completed the pas by Quinn to take over out front. Further back in the field, Kenny Tremont Jr, was lead the charge to the front, but marred deep in traffic, and was quickly overtaken by Heffner, Marshall and Bachetti.
On lap 7 Hector Stratton’s #87 slowed going down the back chute which brought out the caution again, with Flach still in control. But that brought the big guns closer to the front, and soon, Heffner leapfrogged past Matt Quinn and Mike King to take over the second position.
At the halfway point, Heffner’s A. Colarusso & Sons, P.J.R. Contracting, Miller Automotive, JPM powered #74 made his move past Flach, and checked out on the field. Taking control of the field, and the points battle, it was Heffner’s to lose. But Mr. Consistency was just that, he settled in and just a big cushion between himself and 2nd place runner Flach.
There was no late race drama this time around, as Heffner captured his first win of 2007, and his first Big Block Modified Point Championship. “These guys worked so hard all year… I just wanted to get them a win.” Heffner explained in victory lane. “I am just so excited right now.”
To cap off his night, he did was Bachetti did in 2006, and captured the Modified Titles, in both the Big Blocks and 358’s. He drove the Goodemote Construction #5 to a 6 point advantage over last years champ Andy Bachetti.
Following Heffner across the line in the feature was the #77F of Flach. Andy Bachetti got to 3rd, followed by Matt Quinn, with Kenny Tremont rounding out the top 5.
With the Championship celebration out of the way, the rest of the divisions still have 2 weeks left to crown their champs. So the Sportsman Division took to the speedway for their 20 lap feature event. At the green Chad Pierce took the early lead. But the field was slowed several times early for minor incidents. The worst being heavy contact between the #87 of Neil Stratton and the #122 of Wayne Keys, causing the two to ricochet into the #11 Don Miller who crashed hard into the outside wall.
Miller was done for the night, but the other two cars raced on. But at the front, Pierce was still in control, but the defending champ Jeff Watson was hot on his heels. And by lap 9, Watson took over the top spot, and took the midnight train to Georgia .
Once Watson got out front, everyone else was fighting for 2nd on back. At the checkers, Watson’s #22 took the win, his 2nd of 2007, and padded his point lead with just two weeks left. 2nd at the stripe was the #16 of Kyle Hoffman, followed by Kory Sandstedt, Chris Kokosa, and Chris Tryon to complete the top 5.
The Pro Stocks point battle is also a close one with Kevin Arnold holding just a 61 point margin over the 5th place car of Jay Casey.
At the green of their 20 lap feature, Mike Slauson’s J and M Automotive #225 took the early lead, but the hungry pack stayed glued to his rear bumper. The early movers were the defending champ Rob Yetman in his second return to the Valley of Speed , along with Kevin Arnold, Robbie Speed, and Mike Middleton.
After a few short cautions Arnold had made it to the front of the field, and began to check out on the field. Robbie Speed’s #24 faded on lap 8 with mechanical issues to end his night early. But everyone else stayed on task, and battled to the front of the field.
But at the checkers, Arnold powered his #76 to the win, and added to his point lead. 2nd over the line was Chris Crews, followed by Mike Middleton, Jason Casey, and Jay Corbin.
Arnold leads Corbin in the points by 37 markers, Middleton by 66, Speed by 68, and Paul LaRochelle slides into 5th 95 points out.
In the Limited Pro Stocks, George Miles, Jr, came from behind during an earlier incident to take the checkers. John Santolin, Mark Stevens, Joe Mennite, and Rob Maxon completed the top 5.
A special 4th Annual Boomer's Performance $1,000 Purse Pure Stock Classic 20 lap feature was also on tap. Tom Harkins #04 backed his earlier win, by taking home the trophy in the Boomer’s Classic. Matt Humes, Jay Casey, Al Relyea, and John Chapman completed the top 5.
In the Pure Stocks, the following drivers took home checkers: PS#1 Dave Stickles, PS#2 Doug Olds (his first career win), and Tom Harkins in PS#3.
In the 4 cylinders, Phil DeFiglio captured his 20th win (combined) this season in the Double Cam class, while Chris White captured the Single Cam class.
The Coor’s National 200 Weekend is upon us, and tickets are going fast. This coming Friday and Saturday September 7th, and 8th, all the cars and stars of the weekly Lebanon Valley classes, along with the evasion of the outsiders for the DirtCar series for the 358 modified Race of Kings, and the Coor’s National 200.
For more details, ticket info, and schedule of events, go to our website at www.LebanonValley.com, or contact the Speedway Offices during normal business hours at (518) 794-9606, (518) 794-9965.
Saturday September 1, 2007 - Sheldon Oil Services, JH Financial & Triple Nickel Present The Final Points Race of the Season for Modifieds - Modified Results (30 Laps) - 1 J. R. Heffner, 2 Mark Flach Jr, 3 Andy Bachetti, 4 Matt Quinn, 5 Kenny Tremont, 6 Eddie Marshall, 7 Mike King, 8 Brian Berger, 9 Jeff Trombley, 10 Guy Sheldon, 11 Steve Hough, 12 Keith Flach, 13 Russ Reckner, 14 Dave McFeeters, 15 Wayne Figler, 16 Skippy Fox, 17 Paul Gilardi, 18 Kyle Sheldon, 19 Rich Salisbury, 20 Mark Pullen, 21 Ryan Larkin, 22 John Ruchel, 23 Kenny Aanonsen, 24 Link Pettit, 25 Hector Stratton, 26 John Hewitt, 27 Pierre LaGrange
Sportsman Results (20 Laps) - 1 Jeff Watson, 2 Kyle Hoffman, 3 Kory Sandstedt, 4 Chris Kokosa, 5 Chris Tryon, 6 Alan Houghtaling, 7 Danny Sanchez, 8 Art Collins, 9 Frank Harper, 10 Chad Pierce, 11 Neil Stratton, 12 Carmon Carnibucci, 13 Kyle Armstrong, 14 Brian Sandstedt, 15 Kolby Schroder, 16 Wayne Keyes, 17 Josh Gaylord, 18 Kevin Petrucci, 19 Kim Lavoy, 20 K. C. Goewey, 21 Don Miller, 22 Earl Thitchener, 23 Ed Harkin, DNS Steve Richmond
Pro Stock Results (20 Laps) - 1 Kevin Arnold, 2 Chris Crews, 3 Mike Middleton, 4 Jason Casey, 5 Jay Corbin, 6 Rob Yetman, 7 Ed Bachand, 8 Chad Jeseo, 9 Paul LaRochelle, 10 Jon Routhier, 11 Victor Hopkins, 12 Justin Herron, 13 Dave Teidman, 14 Johnny Rivers, 15 Don Collins, 16 Rick Dempsey, 17 Wayne Hall, 18 Nick Hilt, 19 Jay Casey, 20 Mike Stebbins, 21 Robbie Speed, 22 Jim Langenback, 23 Mike Slauson
Limited Pro Stock Results (10 Laps) - 1 George Miles Jr, 2 John Santolin, 3 Mark Stevens, 4 Joe Mennite, 5 Rob Maxon, 6 Jay Kretuziger Jr, 7 Gary Ashley, 8 Dale Kennedy, 9 Wuggie Burdick, 10 Dave Colwell, DNS Nick Hilt
Pure Stock #1 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Dave Stickles, 2 Richard Puff, 3 John Chapman, 4 Rob Partridge, 5 Lynn Wesley, 6 Robert Hammell, 7 Johnny Lane, 8 Kirk Stanaway, 9 Chris Streeter, 10 Shannon McDermott, 11 Dan Olds, 12 Howard Madsen, 13 Joe Walcott, 14 Phil Bink, DNS Jeff Kreutziger
Pure Stock #2 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Doug Olds, 2 Ron Hoyt Jr, 3 Jim Fachini, 4 Harold Tarantino, 5 Karl Castagna, 6 Joe Chenail, 7 Chris Keller, 8 Lloyd Tomlin, 9 E. J. Legeyt, 10 Gary VanDenburg, 11 Steve Hatch, 12 Cord Becker, 13 Tom Davies, 14 Mark Intelisano, 15 John Quiqley, 16 Chris Murphy, 17 Paul Engwer, 18 Rich Roger
Pure Stock #3 Results (8 Laps) - 1 Tom Harkins, 2 Matt Humes, 3 Jesse Murphy, 4 Jay Casey, 5 Phil Wood, 6 Lou Ganzar, 7 Pete Weigand, 8 Al Relyea, 9 Dave Streibel, 10 Tim Sayers, 11 Ed Hatch, 11 Mike Eichstedt, 12 Eric Sbrega, 13 Dave Houser, 14 Ray Hall Sr.
4th Annual Boomer's Performance $1,000 Purse Pure Stock Classic (20 Laps) - 1 Tom Harkins, 2 Matt Humes, 3 Jay Casey, 4 Al Relyea, 5 John Chapman, 6 Rob Partridge, 7 Johnny Lane, 8 Robert Hammell, 9 Ron Hoyt Jr, 10 Lynn Wesley, 11 Jim Fachini, 12 Karl Castagna, 13 Chris Keller, 14 Richard Puff, 15 Lou Ganzar, 16 Harold Tarantino, 17 Joe Chenail, 18 Doug Olds, 19 Phil Wood, 20 Dave Stickles, 21 Pete Weigand
4-Cylinder Results (20 Laps) - Dual Cam Results - 1 Phil Defiglio, 2 Bill Tossbach, 3 Steven Loomis, 4 Matt Mooradian, 5 Terry McNamara, 6 Todd Bartley,
7 Mark Burke, 8 Cody Speed, 9 Tim Warren, 10 Tim Sayers, 11 Tyler McCagg, 12 Frank Sorrento
4-Cylinder Results (20 Laps) - Single Cam Results - 1 Chris White, 2 Shawn Perez, 3 Jim Williams, 4 Jethro Rossman, 5 Adam Petell, 6 Brett Davis, 7 Brian Brennan, 8 Jeff Ledoux, 9 Don Curley, 10 Kevin Tompkins, 11 Kevin Winters, 12 Michale Pierce, 13 Brett Van Buren, 14 Mark Intelisano, 15 Jermaine Cassano
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