Andy Bachetti Wins Cathy Plotz Memorial, L.J. Lombardo Wins Small Block Title

Andy Bachetti charged up from 10th on the grid to take the lead on lap 12 from Jeff Watson. From there, he held on to win the Cathy Plotz Memorial for his third Small Block Modified win of the year.

“The car was good tonight,” Bachetti said afterwards. “It’s a testament to my team with the carburetor issues all night. Everyone dug in our heels and made it happen.”

Jeff Reis started from the pole, but quickly lost the advantage to Peter Carlotto. Carlotto opened up a decent advantage over the pack while Andy Bachetti quickly moved forward from 10th.

Bachetti was up to fourth by lap 5 and pressuring others around him. Meanwhile, points leader L.J. Lombardo and Jason Herrington were further back, struggling to get past a group of slower cars.

Jeff Watson ran down Carlotto just before the halfway point. Watson tried for multiple laps to get past, but couldn’t get by until Bachetti caught both of them. Watson did eventually take the lead, but Bachetti made short work of both drivers to take the lead and drive away.

Bachetti then drove away to a five-second lead while Lombardo and Herrington made their way forward. The race looked like an easy victory for Bachetti until Lorne Browe stalled and brought the yellow out with three laps to go.

On the restart, Lombardo got past Watson for second with Herrington following suit before Joey Coppola stopped on track to bring out another yellow. That set up a two-lap shootout to determine the winner and the champion.

Bachetti was able to hold on to win by 1.08 seconds over Lombardo with Herrington third. Watson was fourth, then Carlotto. The second-place finish was enough to give Lombardo the Small Block Modified title.

In Sportsman, Karl Barnes started from the pole and ran well early with Chris Lynch giving chase. Meanwhile, Rob Maxon, who had won the Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash earlier in the evening, lost his brakes and crashed hard in turn 1 to bring out the yellow.

On the restart, Barnes jumped the cushion in turn 2, which allowed Bob Fachini to take the lead. The field was extremely bunched up, leading to a bunch of contact. Kevin Ward ended up losing control and spinning into the wall exiting turn 4 to bring out another yellow.

Whitey Slavin slowly moved forward after starting fifth and put the pressure on Bob Fachini after the restart. On lap 6, Slavin was able to take the lead. Further back, 2023 Sportsman champ Tim Hartman Jr. was moving forward as quick as possible.

Barnes’ night came to an end on lap 9 when he collided with Cody Cordova in turn 2 to bring out the third caution. Just prior to the yellow, Hartman had moved up to second.

In the second half of the race, Hartman Jr. ran Slavin down and made multiple moves for the lead, including on the final lap. Slavin was able to hold on for the win by less than a car length over Hartman. Bob Fachini was third, then Gary O’Brien and Brady Cordova.

In Limited Sportsman, Mike Engwer and Bella Pickard started on the front row, but ran into trouble almost immediately. The two drivers collided in turn 1 and spun. Owen Lewis was also caught in the crash. Engwer was able to continue, but Pickard was unable to restart her car and was forced to retire from the event.

Scott Zehnacker inherited the lead as a result of the crash and led on the restart. Limited Sportsman champion-elect Anthony Maxon started at the rear of the field and spent his time moving forward as fast as he could.

Engwer’s night came to an end when he crashed in turn 2 on lap 3. That put Mike Arnold on Zehnacker’s tail. Arnold tried to stick with Zehnacker, but could not do so. Meanwhile, Anthony Maxon immediately drove up to third and challenged Arnold for second. The battle allowed Zehnacker to get away.

Anthony Maxon was able to take second with two laps to go, but it was far too late as Zehnacker took his second win of the year by 1.646 seconds. Arnold ended up third, then Craig Coons and Brian Walsh.

The 4-Cylinder class had two features Saturday night. The first race was a makeup race from August 12th. Here, Jason Peck started from pole in his Honda Civic and was very strong early. However, he could not compete with Jon Shepard.

Shepard ran down Peck and took the lead on lap 3. From there, Shepard ran away from the field to take an easy win. Peck was second, then James Fachini Jr. Joe Wolfe earned his first career Single-cam victory in fourth.

Race No. 2 saw James Fachini Jr. lead flag-to-flag to take the win over Peck, Chris Dyer, Single-cam winner Tim Meltz and Wolfe.

James Fachini Jr. (formerly known as Jim Guertin) won the Dual-cam championship with his performance by 14 points over Peck. Meltz won the Single-Cam title.

In the Cannonball feature, Ammo Wright took the lead from Daniel Coonradt on lap 10. From there, Wright held on to take the win.

Small Block Modified Cathy Plotz Memorial presented by Douglas Industrial Results (24 laps): 1) Andy Bachetti, 2) L.J. Lombardo, 3) Jason Herrington, 4) Jeff Watson, 5) Peter Carlotto, 6) Ryan Larkin, 7) Montgomery Tremont, 8) Jeff Reis, 9) Kiim LaVoy, 10) Mark Pullen, 11) Kevin Petrucci, 12) Joey Coppola, 13) Donny Travaglin, 14) Ryan Charland, 15) Ryan Heath, 16) Lorne Browe, 17) Ray Hall Jr., 18) Brian Sandstedt, 19) Derek Schibi

Note: Chris Curtis was also on-track in this race, but he was running an unapproved engine. As a result, he was not scored and not paid.

Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Whitey Slavin, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Bob Fachini, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Brady Cordova, 6) Anthony Maxon*, 7) Kevin Ames#, 8) Kevin Ward, 9) Scott Duell, 10) Shane Powell, 11) Scott Zehnacher*, 12) Fred Pavia*, 13) Cody Cordova, 14) Karl Barnes, 15) Chris Lynch, 16) Rob Maxon

*- Anthony Maxon, Scott Zehnacker and Fred Pavia are Limited Sportsman drivers who participated in the Sportsman feature. They will not earn points for their finishes.

#- Mike Arnold drove his own No. 76 in the feature as a substitute driver for Kevin Ames. Ames will get credit for Arnold’s finish.

Sportsman Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash Results (4 laps): 1) Rob Maxon, 2) Tim Hartman Jr., 3) Chris Lynch, 4) Gary O’Brien, 5) Brady Cordova, 6) Kevin Ward

Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Scott Zehnacker, 2) Anthony Maxon, 3) Mike Arnold, 4) Craig Coons, 5) Brian Walsh, 6) Harold Robitaille, 7) Owen Lewis, 8) Fred Pavia, 9) Sara Arnold, 10) Mike Engwer, 11) Bella Pickard

4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature No. 1 Results (15 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Jason Peck, 3) James Fachini Jr., 4) Chris Danylieko, 5) Chris Dyer, 6) Mike Duncan

4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature No. 1 Results (15 laps): 1) Joe Wolfe, 2) Tim Meltz, 3) Wayne Russell, 4) Dylan MacLeod, 5) Stephen Burka

4-Cylinder Feature No. 1 Combined Results (15 laps): 1) Jon Shepard, 2) Jason Peck, 3) James Fachini Jr., 4) Joe Wolfe, 5) Tim Meltz, 6) Wayne Russell, 7) Dylan MacLeod, 8) Stephen Burka, 9) Chris Danylieko, 10) Chris Dyer, 11) Mike Duncan

4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature No. 2 Results (15 laps): 1) James Fachini Jr., 2) Jason Peck, 3) Chris Dyer, 4) Chris Danylieko. DNS: Jon Shepard, Mike Duncan

4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature No. 2 Results (15 laps): 1) Tim Meltz, 2) Joe Wolfe, 3) Dylan MacLeod, 4) Stephen Burka, 5) Wayne Russell

4-Cylinder Feature No. 2 Combined Results (15 laps): 1) James Fachini Jr., 2) Jason Peck, 3) Chris Dyler, 4) Tim Meltz, 5) Joe Wolfe, 6) Dylan MacLeod, 7) Stephen Burka, 8) Chris Danylieko, 9) Wayne Russell. DNS: Jon Shepard, Mike Duncan

Cannonball Feature (20 laps): 1) Ammo Wright, 2) Ron Case, 3) Daniel Coonradt, 4) Dawson Thompson, 5) Anthony Johnson, 6) Jacob Hoag, 7) Chris Stalker, 8) Chase Thompson, 9) Evan Denue, 10) Anthony Spath