Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Two weeks ago, Kyle Armstrong was involved in a massive multi-car accident during the Bryan Goewey Memorial event at Lebanon Valley Speedway.
Not only did he severely damage the machine he was racing, he missed out on the chance to capture the lucrative $10,000 payday, which was won by Brian Berger.
Saturday night was another big first place prize on the line as the track put up $5,000-to-win thanks to Rifenburg Construction. This time, Armstrong wasn’t going to let anyone stand in his way as the Connecticut campaigner went on to score his first victory of the 2022 season, and beat Berger in the process.
“This was a long time coming,” Armstrong said. “We’ve had a lot of races in the bag over the last couple of years and something breaks here and there. Finally, luck went our way.”
Armstrong started the 30-lap DIRTcar Big Block Modified feature from the third spot and made quick work of inside front row starter Mike King before one lap was complete.
He then went to work on leader Brandon Lane in the 33. By the time the lap counter clicked three, Armstrong was number one. This was a position he would never relinquish, even being hounded by both Brian Berger and Eddie Marshall.
“We had a fast car tonight and pulled it off,” he said. “I knew some guys would be coming and I tried up high a little bit earlier in the event. I just didn’t feel like there was enough grip up there.”
That’s when Armstrong moved back to the bottom and began to click off perfect laps, time and time again, as he chased the $5,000 payday.
“I figured if I was good on the bottom, and didn’t lose the lane, we would be in good shape,” he said. “This was a great surface tonight and luckily we got it done.”
Being a family team, Armstrong and his crew have been working hard to keep things going week after week and that’s what makes any victory that much sweeter.
“I have to give a huge thank you to my Mom, my Dad and my wife for putting up with all the long hours and not being home all the time,” he said. “I also have to thank all of our amazing sponsors, my crew and everyone that helps us out. They’re the reason we got to victory lane tonight.”
Second on the night was Brian Berger who was chasing yet another big paying feature event win on the high banks this season. Berger captured the JC Flach Memorial for $5,000 and then Bryan Goewey Memorial for $10,000. Adding another $5,000 to the bank account would have been magical for Berger but he came up one spot short.
Eddie Marshall put in a solid run on Saturday to come home in the third spot with point leader Andy Bachetti in fourth and Kyle Sheldon rounding out the top five.
“I’m amazed the old girl could get it done!”
That was a quote from DIRTcar 358-Modified winner Brian Sandstedt after leading all 24 laps en route to his first victory of the season.
A massive multi-car pileup on the first lap in turn two took out several top runners including LJ Lombardo, Olden Dwyer and last week’s winner, Alan Houghtaling. Also involved in the wreck was Andy Bachetti but he was able to continue.
Bachetti started at the tail of the field and hustled his way to the front, getting to fourth place at the finish. However, without the aid of another caution the rest of the event, fourth was the best he could do.
Through the middle part of the race, Sandstedt held the top spot but both Ryan Charland and Frank Harper were nipping at his heels, just waiting for an opening to grab the lead.
That never came, as Sandstedt ran a perfect race to take the checkers.
“This is a 2008 PMC with a lot of parts we have from out back of the shop and what not,” Sandstedt said. “She may not be pretty but without Garry Waters, Darcy Construction, Bemiss Trucking, a perfect race track and Rifenburg sponsoring tonight, we wouldn’t be here.”
Even though he had the best starting position in the feature event, did Sandstedt believe he had the car capable of winning?
“I was just waiting on all of the big guns to come and get me,” he said. “I was just hanging on for the ride and we did it.”
Charland came home with another second place finish. While he’s happy to run well, the Massachusetts racer is craving the chance to get into victory lane for the first time in his career.
“We had a good run tonight but, man, we want to win,” Charland said. “If only I had a little more stagger to get me through turns one and two, who knows what might have happened. All in all, it was still a solid night.”
Harper brought the Paul Wehnau Snap-On #25 home in third place Saturday with Bachetti in fourth and Jason Herrington in fifth.
Last Saturday night, Rick Duzlak halted Chad Jeseo’s five-race win streak in the DIRTcar Pro Stock division. Jeseo missed out by mere inches on that night.
This week however, Jeseo regained his spot at the head of the class by capturing his eighth victory of the 2022 season.
Until a lap 11 caution for second place man Chris Stalker who spun in turn four, collecting Tommy Dean who had been running fourth, the feature looked to be Zach Seyerlein’s to lose. He had built up a solid lead over the rest of the field and was running a perfect race.
Unfortunately for Seyerlein, the caution bunched everyone up and put Jeseo on the inside of the 33 for the restart.
Over the next four circuits, the two battled nose-to-tail and then door-to-door, but one small slip by Seyerlein in turns one and two on lap 14 gave Jeseo the opening he needed. The defending champ took the lead away and never let go until Rodney Rescott threw the checkered flag.
“Man, I felt bad taking the win away from Zach,” Jeseo said. “At least this time I didn’t pop a tire on him. I still feel so bad about that from the last time we battled for the win.”
Jeseo had his Quick Dump Enterprises #25 running to perfection on Saturday night. After starting towards the rear of the field, he bided his time but used every bit of track to his advantage.
“What an awesome track tonight,” Jeseo said. “It was a little slippery in the middle but had a lot of bite on the top. All-in-all, we’ll take as many as we can get.”
Seyerlein had to settle for second while Steven Larochelle, Nick Hilt and Zach Sorrentino completed the top five.
Probably the best race of the night was in the Street Stock division. Some of the hardest battles each week come from this class and Saturday was no exception.
As the field took the white flag, Chris Stalker held the lead with Dave Striebel Jr. right on his back bumper. As the two went down into turns three and four, the 73 of Striebel poked his nose inside the Stalker automobile.
The two came off the fourth corner side-by-side but Stalker had more momentum, running the high side, to beat Striebel to the line by inches.
“I think he definitely would have gotten me with one more lap,” Stalker said. “This is a great class and we’re running for points so I was just hoping for a top five tonight. Getting the victory makes tonight so much better.”
Following Stalker and Striebel to the finish was Brian Walsh in third, Scott Morris in fourth and Evan Denue in fifth.
Karl Barnes captured the Limited Sportsman main event win with Victor Duncan (Single Cam) and Gary Malloy taking victories in the Four Cylinders.
MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS 1) Kyle Armstrong* 11A 2) Brian Berger* 60 3) Eddie Marshall* 98 4) Andy Bachetti*** 4 5) Kyle Sheldon 42S 6) Brett Haas 55H 7) Olden Dwyer* 88JR 8) Marc Johnson** 9J 9) Mike King 55K 10) Brandon Lane 33 11) Kenny Tremont Jr.* 115 12) Kolby Schroder 99 13) John Virgilio 74V 14) L.J Lombardo 35 15) Dylan Gibson 22 16) Kenny Aanonsen JR. 42A 17) Keith Flach 43 18) Josh Marcus 91M 19) Timothy Davis 7T
358 MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS 1) Brian Sandstedt 12S 2) Ryan Charland 10C 3) Frank Harper 25 4) Andy Bachetti*** 4 5) Jason Herrington* 1 6) Peter Carlotto 12C 7) Jeff Watson 22W 8) Ray Hall JR. 72 9) Brian Petrerson 82 10) Ryan Larkin 39 11) Kevin Petrucci* 24 12) Montgomery Tremont 115 13) Kim Lavoy 3 14) Angelo DiCarlo 81D 15) Mark Pullen 30 16) Rob Maxon (SPORTS) 96 17) Colin Clow(SPORTS) 25C 18) Bob Fachini (SPORTS) 728 19) Alan Houghtaling* 250 20) L.J Lombardo* 35 21) Olden Dwyer 88JR
PRO STOCK FEATURE RESULTS 1) Chad Jeseo******** 25 2) Zach Seyerlein 33 3) Steven LaRochelle* 178 4) Nick Hilt* 17 5) Zach Sorrentino 54S 6) Chris Stalker 177 7) Dave Stickles 55 8) Brian Keough 311 9) Scott Kilmer OO7 10) Tom Dean 413 11) Tom Gomm 32
STREET STOCK FEATURE RESULTS 1) Chris Stalker*** 177 2) Dave Striebel JR.*** 73 3) Brian Walsh* 43 4) Scott Morris 84 5) Evan Denue* 245 6) Katarina Foster 10 7) Jeff Meltz SR. 5X 8) Rob Partridge 22 9) Franklin Smith 76 10) Dominic Hilt 17H 11) Chris Brown OO9 12) Gary O’ Brien* 57 13) Dom Denue** 145 14) Ryan Brown O10 15) Daniel Coonradt 74 16) Craig Coons 133C 17) Jake Gomm 23DD 18) Jim Dellea 77
LIMITED SPORTSMAN FEATURE RESULTS 1) Karl Barnes** 307 2) Kevin Ames** 43 3) Matt Jordan 5MJ 4) Frank Twing JR. 1T
4 CYLINDER SINGLE CAM FEATURE RESULTS 1) Victor Duncan JR. 73S 2) Bradley Batho* O7s 3) Joe Wolfe 777S 4) Joey Batho, 7S
4 CYLINDER DUAL CAM FEATURE RESULTS 1) Gary Malloy*** 69D 2) Garrett Biagiarelli 343D 3) Steve Burbank 22D 4) Jon Shepard* 99D