Lebanon Valley Speedway’s 2023 Racing Season Set To Conclude This Weekend
Story By: PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY – WEST LEBANON, NY – With Labor Day weekend having come and gone, the local racing season is definitely slowing down here in Upstate New York. Lebanon Valley Speedway is no different.
Saturday night will be the final night of racing at Lebanon Valley for the 2023 season. The Modified and Pro Stock classes are under DIRTcar regulations that state that their seasons must be complete by Labor Day. As a result, they will not be racing.
However, there will still be plenty of action to be had for fans. This weekend will be the Cathy Plotz Memorial presented by Douglas Industrial with the Small Block Modifieds taking center stage.
By all indications, this should be the race of the night. You have a three-way fight for the championship between L.J. Lombardo, Jason Herrington and Andy Bachetti. With a fifth-place finish on Aug. 26, Lombardo took over the points lead by nine points over Herrington.
Bachetti had been leading entering the evening, but his car started faltering late in the feature. That dropped him to a 12th-place finish.
For Lombardo, a nine-point lead means that he would need to finish third or better to win the Small Block Modified championship. For Harrington, if he wins, Lombardo would have to finish fourth or worse for him to win the title.
Bachetti is 12 points behind Lombardo. In order for him to claim his third straight Modified-Small Block Modified championship sweep, he would need to win and have Lombardo finish no better than sixth. If Lombardo were to finish fifth with a victory for Bachetti, then both drivers would share the championship. Such a scenario has only happened once in the Small Block Modified class. Back in 1982, Eddie Marshall and Danny Watson shared the title.
In the Sportsman class, Tim Hartman Jr.’s fifth win of the season last weekend and a crash for Kevin Ward allowed Hartman to wrap up his second straight Sportsman championship at Lebanon Valley.
Behind Hartman is a close race for second. With Ward’s misfortune last weekend, Rob Maxon moved up to second. He has a seven-point lead over Ward, while Gary O’Brien is fourth. Year-end money is on the line and plenty of positions can still change.
In the Limited Sportsman class, it is a similar story. Anthony Maxon’s fifth win of the year last weekend clinched him the class championship. He has a 74-point lead over Craig Coons. Harold Robitaille is third in points, then Brian Walsh and Owen Lewis.
Finally, we have the 4-Cylinder class. They have not raced since July 22. That was not the original plan for the class. The scheduled race on Aug. 12 got wiped out due to rain, then the race scheduled for Aug. 26 was postponed due to a long crash cleanup, fog and the late time of night.
As a result, 4-Cylinder teams will have double features Saturday night in order to determine their champions. The standings in both classes are quite close.
Jim Guertin leads the Dual-Cam points by only four over Bradley Batho, who started the season in the Single-Cam class, but changed to the Dual-Cam class after the first race. Jason Peck is also close.
Tim Meltz has led the Single-Cam class for the entire season in his Honda Prelude. Recently, he acquired a second Prelude and has switched back and forth between the two cars to give himself an extra security blanket. He currently has a 12-point lead over Joey Batho.
The action Saturday night is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET. Tickets are $12 for General Admission (kids 11 and under are $2). Reserved seats are $14, regardless of age and Deck seats are $15. Tower and Rooftop seats are $20. If rain washes out the card before the heats are complete, then hold onto your tickets and you’ll be able to get in for the season opener in 2024 with that stub under the track’s rain check policy.
