Andy Bachetti Scores Crucial Double Victory

Andy Bachetti needed a big night at Lebanon Valley Saturday night and he got it.  He was able to snatch the lead away from Olden Dwyer on a lap 18 restart and held on to take his third Modified win of the year.

“It was good,” Bachetti said afterwards.  “We’re just figuring a couple of things out.  We’ll keep going [forward] from here.”

Bachetti won by 1.485 seconds over Dwyer.  Marc Johnson was third, then Kyle Armstrong and Brett Haas.  With one week of regular points remaining, Haas has a seven-point lead over Bachetti.

Dwyer started from the pole and opened up a small lead over Brandon Lane.  Cautions early on kept the field close.  Mike Engwer spun on lap 2, then Eddie Marshall’s recent troubles continued when he stalled on the frontstretch.

Further back, Haas failed to finish in the top-five in his heat and had to start 17th.  Bachetti was 13th on the grid and both drivers were on the move early.  By lap 7, Bachetti was already up to sixth and had the fastest car on the track.  Haas was hung up a little in traffic.

A few laps later, Bachetti was battling the frontrunners and took second from Lane on lap 11.  Dwyer had a three-second lead at the time, but Bachetti was half a second faster.

He had the lead briefly, but a debris caution took it away.  On the restart, Bachetti wasted no time retaking the advantage.  From there, he could not be touched en route to victory.

In the Small Blocks, Alan Houghtaling started from the pole, but there was trouble early.  On the first lap, Brian Sandstedt spun in turn 2 and was hit by Michael Sabia to bring out the yellow.  Both would continue, but were hampered.

Houghtaling was able to hold on to the advantage, while Mark Pullen was able to move up to second.  However, Pullen was holding up Lorne Browe, Kyle Sheldon and Bachetti.  The pack got too close together and contact was made, resulting in Pullen spinning out in turn 1.

Joey Coppola was running seventh at the time and gaining on the leaders.  Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid Pullen and made hard contact with the No. 30.  Coppola came away from the crash sore, but was otherwise ok.  He was angry about the loss of points, though.

On the restart, Houghtaling opened a small lead while picking drivers off, one by one.  By lap 13, he was second and running down Houghtaling for the lead when Houghtaling had a tire issue in turn 2 that brought the yellow.

The issue gave Bachetti the lead.  From there, he drove away to take his ninth Small Block win of the year.  The margin of victory was 3.767 seconds over Sheldon.  Haas was third, then Jason Herrington and Browe.

The Capital District Racing Association made their annual visit to Lebanon Valley for the Sportsman class Saturday night.  Despite a larger-than-normal field, things ended up pretty normal.

By virtue of winning his heat race, Michael Sabia started from pole and led early over Tim Hartman Jr.  A couple of early cautions kept the field bunched up.

On the restart from the second caution, Hartman was able to make the move to the inside exiting turn 2 and made it stick to take the lead.

From there, Hartman gradually pulled away from the field to take his 13th win of the year and 15th straight overall.  Sabia ended up second, then Brady Cordova, Alex Bell and Nick Giardini.

In Limited Sportsman, Harold Robitaille took the lead on lap 3 and held on to take his first win of the year.

Pro Stock teams honored the memory of Steve LaRochelle Saturday night with a special memorial race with $1178 to the winner.  Rocco Procopio started from pole, but almost immediately lost the advantage to Dave Stickles.

Stickles led early on, but Nick Hilt moved up from sixth on the grid to challenge for the lead.  The two drivers raced hard until Hilt snatched the lead on lap 11.

Following a debris caution, the biggest incident of the night broke out.  Procopio spun out on the backstretch on the restart and triggered an eight-car crash.  Everyone was ok, but the field was cut down to 10 cars afterwards.

Following the restart, Hilt was able to hold off a charging Tom Dean by .962 seconds to take his second win of the year.  Jeseo was third, then Zach Sorrentino and Chris Stalker.

In Super Street Stock, Jason Meltz took his first win of the year over his father Jeff.

Modified Feature presented by Marc Johnson’s Sponsors Results (30 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Olden Dwyer, 3) Marc Johnson, 4) Kyle Armstrong, 5) Brett Haas, 6) Kolby Schroder, 7) John Virgilio, 8) Chris Curtis, 9) Kyle Sheldon, 10) Keith Flach, 11) JR Heffner, 12) Brandon Lane, 13) Montgomery Tremont, 14) Mike King, 15) Rob Maxon, 16) Mike Engwer, 17) Timothy Davis, 18) Ryan Darcy, 19) Josh Marcus, 20) Eddie Marshall, 21) Ryan Charland (DNS), 22) Matt Pupello (DNS)

Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) Kyle Sheldon, 3) Brett Haas, 4) Jason Herrington, 5) Lorne Browe, 6) LJ Lombardo, 7) Ray Hall Jr., 8) Jeff Watson, 9) Brian Peterson, 10) Connor Crane, 11) Donny Travaglin, 12) Brian Sandstedt, 13) Alan Houghtaling, 14) Mark Pullen, 15) Joey Coppola, 16) Ryan Heath, 17) Michael Sabia, 18) Ryan Larkin, 19) Peter Carlotto

Capital District Racing Association Sportsman Feature (20 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Michael Sabia, 3) Brady Cordova, 4) Alex Bell, 5) Nick Giardini, 6) Karl Barnes, 7) Dylan Grogan, 8) Craig Wholey, 9) Matt Burke, 10) Chris Crane Jr., 11) Taylor Wason, 12) Dylan Madsen, 13) Kevin Ames, 14) Mike Arnold, 15) Cody Ochs, 16) Colin Clow, 17) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 18) Keith Johannessen, 19) Pat Mann, 20) Justin Gozzi, 21) Alan Houghtaling (DNS), 22) Connor Prokop (DNS)

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Harold Robitaille, 2) Brian Walsh, 3) Scott Zehnacker, 4) Ray Royals, 5) Nick Arnold, 6) John Santolin, 7) Owen Lewis, 8) Colby Kokosa, 9) Chris Humes, 10) Dylan Holmes, 11) Mike Block, 12) Phil Arnold, 13) Garrett Biagiarelli, 14) Brandon Lemaire, 15) Kent Clark, 16) Sarah Arnold, 17) Dan Odell, 18) Braxton Martin

Pro Stock Second Annual Steve LaRochelle Memorial Results (20 laps): 1) Nick Hilt, 2) Tom Dean, 3) Chad Jeseo, 4) Zach Sorrentino. 5) Chris Stalker, 6) Dave Stickles, 7) Tom O’Connor, 8) Beau Ballard, 9) Brian Keough, 10) Dave Kokindo, 11) Shawn Perez, 12) Rocco Procopio, 13) Shawn Perez Jr., 14) Richard Spencer, 15) Paul LaRochelle, 16) Rick Duzlak, 17) Doug Sheely

Super Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Jason Meltz, 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) Dave Streibel Jr., 4) Dave Streibel, 5) Peter Huntoon, 6) Lou Gancarz, 7) Jim Dellea, 8) Keri VanDenburg, 9) Franklin Smith, 10) Doug Sterling