Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway was going good for Josh Marcus…until it wasn’t.
Marcus had won his qualifying heat after a spirited battle with the winningest driver in the track’s history, Kenny Tremont. That put him on the inside of the front row for the 30-lap DIRTcar Big Block Modified feature.
While not having a winning run in the early part of the feature, the Connecticut campaigner was still solidly inside the top 10 as the race surged towards the one-third mark.
That’s when things went south as Marcus charged towards turn three.
“I got together with someone coming off one of the corners and I think my left rear tire began to go down because of it,” Marcus said. “Going down the backstretch, I got on my brakes to enter turn three and the car just turned right, hard into the wall.”
That hard impact put Marcus’ #91M into a series of violent back-and-forth rolls. He was then clipped by fellow competitors Kolby Schroder and Eddie Marshall. Those two impacts actually put Marcus’ back on all four wheels.
While banged up, he emerged from his car uninjured but then had to face the inevitable realization that he had a severely damaged race car for the second time in as many years.
“The chassis is toast,” he said early Sunday morning. “I think we’re done for the season. We just don’t have the funds to put anything together right now.”
Marcus confirmed that on Monday evening.
“We were having a good until we weren’t,” he said. “After assessing the damage to the car, the frame of the car is beyond repair. We’ve decided to call it quits for the rest of the year.”
The outpouring of support for the Marcus Bros. team since the accident has been amazing, and Josh is grateful for that support.
“I want to thank everyone who has reached out about my well-being and all the kind words,” he said. “I also want to thank everyone who has gotten us this far. We couldn’t do it without you guys.”
Nearly A Career Night For “Johnny Law”
John Virgilio was running a super race on Saturday night, leading the Big Block feature.
However, as lap counter clicked 20, there was a new man at the front and his name was Andy Bachetti.
Unfortunately, Virgilio’s #74 came up lame as he exited the fourth turn, bringing out a caution and ending what looked like a sure shot at his first career Modified win.
“We broke a left rear suspension birdcage,” Virgilio said. “When it broke, everything shifted and it knocked the car out of gear.”
With no warning, Virgilio slowed and brought out the caution. Once he gathered his bearings about what had happened, he got the car back in gear and limped to the attention of his crew on pit road, but the damage was already done.
When the race was complete, the A. Colarusso Bicknell was credited with a 17th place finish, but that didn’t indicate just how good John was on Saturday.
“I think we were in the top three in speed all night long,” he said. “The car was good in the feature but we didn’t get the result we wanted. We’ll come back.”
One variable that all of the teams seemed to be dealing with on Saturday was keeping Hoosier Tires on their cars. Unfortunately, several drivers in all divisions dealt with tire failures.
Was Virgilio concerned about this?
“My right rear tire was still in pretty good shape,” he said. “I could see a lot of debris on the track and I just did what I could to avoid it.”
Andy Bachetti went on to score his second win of the 2023 season Saturday. However, when Virgilio had his troubles, the Garrity #4 was on his back bumper.
“I knew I could pick the pace up on entry to both corners,” he said. “I was trying to stay smooth and hit my marks until I felt like I needed to pick it up.”
Does John think he could have held off Bachetti?
“I saw Andy show his nose in turns one and two,” he said. “That’s when I knew I had to pick it up so I went into three a little harder than I had been. It felt good I didn’t see him under me, but as I was exiting the turn four is when the car broke.”
Roller Coaster Of A Night For Haas
Brett Haas truly had what they call a roller coaster of a night on Saturday at the Valley.
First, the rear end broke in his #55 during the third qualifying heat race which put the team behind the eight ball from the start.
“It was truly an eventful night from the first green flag we saw,” Haas said. “We ended up breaking the jackshaft in the rear. My crew busted their butts to get it changed in time for the feature.”
That hard work paid off as the results for the Big Block Modified feature will show that Haas finished ninth. However, he had to work for that finish as the #55 may have passed the most cars during the event.
Here’s why.
Haas had worked his way up from the 21st starting position to challenge for a top five running spot when the right rear on his Dave Prime Mac Tools car deflated with just five laps remaining.
After the tire change, it was an all out assault by Haas on the field to try and get back as many spots as he could.
“We had a bad fast car in the feature,” he said. “It was slightly overshadowed by the late-race flat tire but it was still a great comeback.”
Salvaging as many points as he could, Haas now sits ninth in the standings, just 20 behind Kyle Sheldon who’s fifth and just 29 behind third place JR Heffner.
If his on-track trials and tribulations wasn’t enough, Haas also caught a piece of a broken engine valve in his left shoulder during the feature, leaving a bruise on his upper arm.