Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Everything just seemed to fall into place for Matt Pupello Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway.
Pupello, who’s made his return to the Valley of Speed in 2023 after a few years away, didn’t win his heat race and, if you ask him, wasn’t quite as good as he had hoped during the eight lap qualifier.
Even with that, his #42 ran strong and he was able to finish third.
That put him in the handicap and gave him an inside front row starting spot alongside Kenny Aanonsen Jr. and that was a spot that fit right into the Pupello’s plan of attack.
From the drop of the green in the 30-lap DIRTcar Modified feature, the East Schodack, NY driver rocketed to the number one spot, using the inside lane on Aanonsen to his advantage and then set sail.
With only one caution during the entire feature, on lap six for Olden Dwyer who slowed, to slow his momentum, Pupello had to fend off Kyle Armstrong for nearly two-thirds of the event.
He did just that, and was able to record his first victory at the track since July 2019.
“I was hoping it was going to come together tonight but I didn’t feel a whole lot of speed in the heat race,” Pupello said. “So I made a couple of adjustments and it still really wasn’t perfect in the feature. It was a little bit of a handful to drive up by the wall.”
Pupello could tell he had to work hard during the feature if he wanted any shot at the win on Saturday.
“I knew they were right there on me,” he said. “However, I was looking at the lap counter more than I wanted to the whole race watching it count down. I’m just really thrilled to be here in victory lane tonight.”
Even though, in Pupello’s mind, the car wasn’t perfect, he was able to hold off Armstrong and third place LJ Lombardo the entire way. For more than half the event, those three drivers were tightly grouped at the front of the field and looked like they were going to settle things amongst themselves.
One false move on Matt’s part and Armstrong or Lombardo could have capitalized. That chance never came as driver #42 was able to hold off any challenge that came his way.
“During the mid-night hot laps, I practiced running in on the bottom of (turns) one and two, hoping I could run by Kenny on the start and just get away,” he said. “I couldn’t really enter where I wanted to. The track’s a little choppy on the top in one and that almost got me in the heat race, up into the fence.”
That made him change his way of thinking throughout the feature.
“I was kind of moving my line all over the place,” he said. “I was entering below where it was rough, moving up to it, and same on the backstretch. I had to come down, get away from where it was rough and get back up so it wasn’t a racing line I was all that happy with but it worked out.”
The interesting thing about Pupello’s return to racing in 2023 is the powerplant under the hood of his PMC Race Car. It’s an engine that was build and is owned by none other than Ken Tremont Sr.
“I have to thank Big Ken for letting me run this motor this year,” he said. “I can’t thank him enough for letting me use it. It got me back racing and tonight it paid off.”
Armstrong and Lombardo finished second and third with Andy Bachetti, who drove from row seven, making his way to fourth and veteran Mike King recording a solid fifth place finish.
In 358-Modified competition, Kevin Petrucci did seem to have the perfect night at the Valley.
Petrucci was able to win his heat race, capture the checkers in the special dash for cash event and then put it all together to record his second career checkered flag in the division.
“Man, that was a run tonight,” Petrucci said. “It’s been a terrible season for us but the track was perfect tonight. I got this thing up on the outside, slowed down a little bit, turned the car and it was right to the floor again. We were fast tonight.”
Fortunately for Petrucci, he did start up front because he could dictate how the event would go for him. However, it also meant he was able to avoid trouble that could come into play during an event.
That was the case as guys like Andy Bachetti, Jason Herrington Lorne Browe, all of which were involved in an early-race incident and were either eliminated from the contest or had to come from the rear.
That wasn’t an issue for Petrucci on Saturday.
“When you’re out front, you don’t really know what’s going on behind you,” he said. “Last week was a real heartbreaker for us. I thought we might have been here in victory lane last race but we just didn’t get the finish we thought we should.”
Petrucci had to hold off the 72 of Ray Hall Jr. for nearly the entire race. Hall came home second with Joey Coppola finishing third.
Jason Herrington rebounded from the accident in the early part of the race to bring his #1 home in fourth and point leader LJ Lombardo completed the top five.
Andy Bachetti drove his Garrity Asphalt #4 from the back twice after incidents to finish in seventh.
The official starting line-up had Whitey Slavin starting the Sportsman feature in the fifth position. When the cars lined up, the driver on the pole, Kevin Ames, dropped to the rear due to a brake issue in his #43.
That put Bob Fachini in the number one spot for the original start. However, handling problems didn’t allow Fachini to take advantage of his fortune.
The driver who did, however, was Slavin, as he was able to grab the lead, practically at the drop of the green flag. This was a spot he’d never relinquish as Slavin went on to capture his first win of 2023 and became the only driver not named Hartman or Ward to win this season.
“The boys worked their butts off with this thing the last couple of weeks,” Slavin said. “I really have to thank this team for all their hard work. There’s a lot of people that have helped along the way and I appreciate it so much.”
Last year, it appeared to be a two-horse race for the championship between Slavin and Tim Hartman Jr. This year, Slavin states he’s not running for points but that doesn’t mean his car isn’t capable of winning on any given night.
“Tim’s fast but you have to throw Kevin (Ward) in there and there’s a handful of drivers who can run well here,” he said. “It’s not just us three but two-tenths around here, if you’re faster than someone, really shows at this track. Tonight was our night.”
Hartman came home second with another strong showing for his MRP Services #22 and was able to lengthen his points lead. Brady Cordova finished in third with Gary O’Brien and Kevin Ward rounding out the top five.
Pro Stock feature winner Tommy Dean started on the inside front row but that didn’t mean he led every lap.
Dean had to work his way around leader Fred Lee to grab the top spot, and did so on lap three.
From that point on, though, the race belonged to the Massachusetts campaigner as Dean went on to score his first win of the 2023 season.
“This really feels good,” Dean said. “Week in and week out, we’ve been good. We’ve been there in the hunt and tonight, we got it done.”
There was nobody that was touching Dean’s #413 on this night as he was able to take the victory handily.
“I really have to thank Chris and Angie Stalker,” he said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here. They put a motor in this thing and it was fast. Thanks to my wife, my daughter, all of my sponsors and my crew who bust their tails week in and week out. It feels good to finally put it in victory lane.”
Chad Jeseo drove to a solid second place finish on the night with Rick Duzlak, Steven LaRochelle and Dave Stickles completing the top five.
Harold Robitaille captured his first Limited Sportsman feature event win. Robitaille started on the pole and led every lap en route to the convincing victory.
Alex Palmer-Sawyer was second with Anthony Maxon, Frank Twing Jr. and Scott Zehnacker completing the top five.
Jeff Meltz Sr. won the hotly-contested Street Stock feature event with Chris Stalker, Rocco Procopio, Dave Striebel Sr. and Jr. close in tow at the finish.
MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (30 LAPS) 1) Matt Pupello* 2) Kyle Armstrong 3) L.J Lombardo 4) Andy Bachetti* 5) Mike King 6) Keith Flach 7) Marc Johnson* 8) Kolby Schroder 9) Brian Berger 10) Brett Haas* 11) Kenny Tremont Jr. 12) John Virgilio 13) J.R. Heffner* 14) Brandon Lane 15) Ryan Darcy 16) Kyle Sheldon 17) Eddie Marshall 18) Wayne Jelley 19) Ryan Charland 20) Josh Marcus 21) Dave Mcfeeters 22) Olden Dwyer 23) Kenny Aanonsen JR. 24) Timothy Davis
358 MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (24 LAPS) 1) Kevin Petrucci* 2) Ray Hall JR. 3) Joey Coppola 4) Jason Herrington 5) L.J Lombardo* 6) Kim Lavoy 7) Andy Bachetti* 8) Brian Sandstedt 9) Ryan Larkin 10) Ryan Charland 11) Peter Carlotto 12) Jeffrey Reis 13) Donny Travaglin 14) Ryan Heath 15) Montgomery Tremont 16) Alan Houghtaling 17) Lorne Browe* 18) Jeff Watson 19) Mark Pullen 20) Olden Dwyer
SPORTSMAN FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Whitey Slavin* 2) Tim Hartman** 3) Brady Cordova 4) Gary O’Brein 5) Kevin Ward** 6) Karl Barnes 7) Cody Cordova 8) Kevin Ames 9) Rob Maxon 10) Bob Fachini 11) Alan Houghtaling 12) Chris Lynch 13) Jim VanZandt
PRO STOCKS FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Tom Dean* 2) Chad Jeseo* 3) Rick Duzlak 4) Steven LaRochelle 5) Dave Stickles** 6) Zach Sorrentino* 7) Fred Lee 8) Jason Casey 9) Jay Casey 10) Frank Twing 11) Brian Keough 12) Mike Dianda 13) Dave Kokindo 14) Tom O’Connor
LIMITED SPORTSMAN FEATURE RESULTS (15 LAPS) 1) Harold Robitalle* 2) Alex Palmer-Sawyer 3) Anthony Maxon* 4) Frank Twing JR.* 5) Scott Zehnacker 6) Brian Walsh* 7) Owen Lewis 8) Mike Engwer 9) Kent Clark 10) Craig Coons* 11) Matt Jordan 12) Jason Manchester 13) Becky Belisle 14) Billy Brandt
STREET STOCK FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Jeff Meltz SR.* 2) Chris Stalker*** 3) Rocco Procopio* 4) David Striebel 5) Dave Striebel JR. 6) Ed Hatch 7) Ray Royals 8) Milo Campbell 9) Kerri Vandenburg 10) Lou Gancarz 11) Don Kennedy 12) Peter Huntoon 13) Franklin Smith 14) Jim Dellea 15) Mike Dianda