Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – The 2023 season has been a struggle for now Hall of Fame driver Eddie Marshall.
Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway, the veteran put it all together, with a little bit of luck on his side.
Marshall started on the front row of the 30-lap Modified main event and was running solidly in second place behind pole sitter Timothy Davis when the leader dropped off on lap eight.
That was all Marshall needed. From that point on, the Ridgefield, CT driver made all the right turns to score his 34th career victory at the Valley oval.
“The car was pretty good tonight,” Marshall said. “We were fortunate to have a good starting position but just because we’ve been having a terrible season so far.
Even though he’s been struggling so far in 2023, Marshall was able to put together a winning run on Saturday in the main even that only saw one caution flag the entire way. However, he doesn’t know if he would have been able to catch Davis if not for his trouble.
“It was good to capitalize on a good starting spot,” he said. “I feel bad for Timothy. If he didn’t have his trouble, I wasn’t getting him. He was running good. I’m not sure what happened to him but he was good. That was a tough break for him.”
With as tough of a season as Marshall has had, he and his team never gave up, continuing to fight and work to find speed, ultimately getting to victory lane.
“We approached things a little different tonight and this car seemed to be better,” he said. “Next week will tell how much better starting further back. The Teo Pro Car handled well and it always goes down the straights well with Kevin Enders engines.”
However, Marshall is very humble when he wins. He’s extremely fast to thank his dedicated crew for their support and dedication, especially when good fortune falls their way.
“This crew’s been working so hard,” he said. “It’s been a tough time so far in 2023 so it was finally good to get a win, especially for them.”
The only thing that sucks with an up front starting spot and being the leader so early, according to Marshall, is knowing how to hard to push.
“It’s hard to tell really where you are when you’re out front,” he said. “I was laboring a little bit here and there but I had relatively-good traction and I knew it was going good down the straightaways. I kept thinking there were guys plenty capable of coming up and going right by me but was hoping we were running well enough to make that a problem for them.”
Another Hall of Famer, in fact from the same 2023 class as Marshall, Mike King, had a stellar finish to come home in the runner-up spot on this night.
If you saw the jubilation from the crew when the feature ended, you would have thought the veteran from Nassau, NY had taken the checkers himself, but alas it was for the second position.
It was a truly great run for the King Fish because Mike was strong all evening long in his #55 PMC machine.
Wayne Jelley, Kenny Tremont and point leader Andy Bachetti completed the top five.
Speaking of Bachetti, through hard work and perseverance, the veteran from Sheffield, MA was able to find victory lane in the caution-filled 24-lap DIRTcar 358-Modified feature event.
After starting dead last in the 20-car field due to issues in his heat race, Bachetti put the power on throughout the feature, sometimes splitting the difference between cars as he pushed towards the front.
Bachetti was able to get to second and used the luck of a lap 17 restart to his advantage, out-dragging leader Alan Houghtaling into turn one and making the blast past for the top spot.
From there, Bachetti did exactly what he’s done nearly 50 times before, as he went on to find victory lane in Small Block Modified competition.
“This was definitely a different race track tonight,” Bachetti said. It was tricky. You have to be pretty patient there and just bide your time. Luckily, we were able to get it done.”
One of the guys he had to race his way by was the guy who maintains his 358-Mod with Brother, Greg, and that was Peter Carlotto who came home with a solid second place finish.
“Pete had a good run tonight,” he said. “I can’t thank him enough for loaning me his car last week and keeping me in the point hunt. My brother and the Carlotto family put a whole lot into this car and it’s good to get them another win.”
Lorne Browe, Jason Herrington and Joey Coppola rounded out the top five when the feature was completed.
The Sportsman feature was in memory of George Marcus, a true legend of the class and the Valley who passed away in 2021.
Marcus had the best seat in the house on this night to watch a simply fantastic finish to the race in his honor between Gary O’Brien and Whitey Slavin.
O’Brien had led the majority of the 20-lap special, fending off challenges from the likes of Tim Hartman Jr., Kevin Ward, Rob Maxon and Slavin. However, it was the final lap that everyone will be talking about.
As the cars entered turns one and two, Slavin got a massive run on the highside, closing ground rapidly on the leader and actually put a nose ahead as the two entered the west end of the speedway.
Both were not giving an inch as they went into turn three, charging hard, door-to-door. As O’Brien went in hard on the bottom, Slavin on top jumped the cushion, got into the loose stuff and rode the wall, very nearly putting his #5 on its roof before coming to rest on all four tires with a collapse front end.
That was good news for O’Brien who was able to beat everyone back to the line to take home his second-career win in the Sportsman class in the George Marcus Memorial.
“It was a really good race tonight,” O’Brien said. “On one of those restarts, I saw Timmy (Hartman) get next to me and I know he’s good. Then Kevin Ward got next to me and I knew they all were around me.”
However, O’Brien was able to get the job done, fending off every single challenge thrown at him.
“Everything just lined up for us tonight,” he said. “This is for Ray Hall and my entire crew. I have to thank Ray a lot the great group of guys we have on this car. I can’t get to victory lane enough for the hard work they put in.”
Ward crossed the line in second by mere inches over Hartman who saw his run of top two finishes snapped. Chris Lynch and Ricky Davis were fourth and fifth, respectively.
The 20-lap DIRTcar Pro Stock feature was truly a memorable one. Several drivers having trouble and having to come back through the field.
One of those drivers was Chad Jeseo who had a flat right rear tire with just six laps remaining. That didn’t faze him as he was able to be right on the back bumper of the leader Zach Sorrentino at the white flag.
Sorrentino had been running an amazing race, at one point actually driving around the 25 and was actually in front of him when Jeseo had his tire problems.
However, it was the last few laps that the fans will be talking about.
Jeseo got to second with two-to-go and jacked up the backside of Sorrentino’s #54 as they charged to the white flag.
The two raced the entire final lap side-by-side, wheel to wheel.
As the exited the final turn, it was a drag race to the checkers. Sorrentino returned a little bump to Jeseo as they came to the line with the Fraser’s Auto #54 coming out on top by a nose.
“I’m speechless,” Sorrentino said. “I saw Chad and then I got behind him and said to myself there’s no way I’m going to catch him. Then, he slipped up trying to get around Steven (Larochelle, who was leading at the time) so I was like okay I got back by him.”
Then, sure enough, the two would battle for the win, with Sorrentino coming out on top.
“I’ll give it to Chad,” he said. “Over the last five laps, he made me run my ass off. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work. I’m out of breath but that was one of the best races I’ve ever been apart of.”
This was Sorrentino’s second win of the 2023 season with Jeseo very nearly stealing it away. He had to settle for second with Rick Duzlak, Dave Stickles and Tommy Dean completing the top five.
The Batho’s swept the Four-Cylinder feature events with Bradley taking the Dual Cam and Joey winning in Single Cam.
MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (30 LAPS) POS DRIVER NAME 1) Eddie Marshall* 2) Mike King 3) Wayne Jelley 4) Kenny Tremont Jr. 5) Andy Bachetti** 6) L.J Lombardo 7) Brett Haas* 8) Marc Johnson* 9) Keith Flach 10) J.R. Heffner* 11) Kyle Armstrong 12) Kolby Schroder 13) Ryan Charland 14) John Virgilio 15) Olden Dwyer 16) Matt Pupello* 17) Tommy Corellis 18) Brian Berger 19) Brandon Lane 20) Kyle Sheldon 21) Ryan Darcy 22) Timothy Davis
358 MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (24 LAPS) POS DRIVER NAME 1) Andy Bachetti** 2) Peter Carlotto 3) Lorne Browe* 4) Jason Herrington 5) Joey Coppola 6) Brian Petrerson 7) Jeffrey Reis 8) L.J Lombardo* 9) Kim Lavoy 10) Montgomery Tremont 11) Ryan Larkin 12) Donny Travaglin 13) Ryan Heath 14) Brian Sandstedt 15) Ray Hall JR. 16) Alan Houghtaling 17) Ryan Charland 18) Olden Dwyer* 19) Kevin Petrucci* 20) Jeff Watson
SPORTSMAN FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) POS DRIVER NAME 1) Gary O’Brein 2) Kevin Ward** 3) Tim Hartman*** 4) Chris Lynch 5) Ricky Davis 6) Rob Maxon 7) Mike Arnold 8) Keith Johannessen 9) Cody Cordova 10) Karl Barnes 11) Dylan Grogan 12) Craig Coons* 13) Alex Palmer-Sawyer 14) Alan Houghtaling 15) Owen Lewis 16) Whitey Slavin* 17) Brady Cordova DQ) Kevin Ames 19) James Galarneau
PRO STOCKS FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) POS DRIVER NAME 1) Zach Sorrentino** 2) Chad Jeseo* 3) Rick Duzlak 4) Dave Stickles** 5) Tom Dean* 6) Brian Keough 7) Katrina Foster 8) Steven LaRochelle 9) Mike Dianda 10) Fred Lee 11) Shawn Perez 12) Dave Kokindo 13) Frank Twing*
4 CYLINDER DUAL CAM FEATURE RESULTS (15 LAPS) POS DRIVER NAME 1) Bradley Batho*** 2) James Guertin 3) Jason Peck 4) Jon Shepard*
4 CYLINDER SINGLE CAM FEATURE RESULTS (15 LAPS) POS DRIVER NAME 1) Joey Batho 2) Joe Wolfe 3) Dylan Macleod 4) Stephen Burka 5) Tim Meltz****