Story By: PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY – WEST LEBANON, NY – The off-season is officially over.
This weekend, Lebanon Valley Speedway will start their 2024 season with the annual Lid Lifter.
Sayer’s Auto and L&M Motors will sponsor the season opener with $3000 on the line for the winner of the Modified feature. Modifieds will be joined by the Sportsman, Pro Stock and Super Stock classes. Small Block/358 Modifieds will not be racing for points Saturday night, but it is possible that a couple of teams may be in attendance for additional track time.
Last weekend, teams had the chance to shake down their new and/or returning cars during warmups. The weather was quite nice to start with temperatures in the low to mid-60s. However, as the day continued on, the clouds came in and the temperatures dropped.
In the Modified class, Paul Gilardi was fastest in the first session with a lap at 20.923 seconds. The lap was .031 seconds faster than Marc Johnson. Eddie Marshall, who is entering his 45th year of racing at Lebanon Valley, was third, then Keith Flach and Olden Dwyer.
The second session saw Andy Bachetti go fastest in his New No. 4, but with a lap at 21.237 seconds as traffic was rather heavy at the time. Marshall was second, then Kyle Armstrong, Johnson and Flach.
In the Small Block Modifieds, the fastest driver was Lorne Browe with a lap at 21.435 seconds in the opening session. That lap would have been good enough for ninth in the Modified class.
In Pro Stock, Zach Sorrentino was fastest in both sessions. He was the only Pro Stock to dip into the 23-second bracket. Rocco Procopio also got some of his first laps in his new Pro Stock entry.
There were a couple of teams that had extremely limited time on-track. Tremont Racing’s No. 115 effectively got no track time. They showed up to warmups late and barely had time to do much more than roll around the track.
Joey Coppola showed up with two cars. One was the car that they finished the 2023 season with. The other was a brand-new car that they were going to shakedown. The plan was to see which car was better. The better car will serve as their full-time car at Lebanon Valley.
Unfortunately, the new car (in all black with no decals) had some teething issues early. The older chassis was solid, leading the pack in the second Small Block Modified session. The team has indicated that if they choose to go with the new chassis, they would switch the bodies over so that the team’s blue and black scheme would be on the car.
The warmups ultimately were declared complete after only two runs for each class due to rain that moved into Lebanon Valley. The track had a number of teams go out on the track to help keep the surface run in, but it was just wasn’t enough as the rain picked up to the point where the track was no longer raceable. By that point, the temperatures that were in the mid-60s prior to on-track action had dropped to around 45 degrees.
New for 2024, you can buy all tickets online at lebanonvalley.com. Previously, only Reserved tickets and tickets for the tower were available online. Tickets are the same prices as last year. General Admission tickets are $12, Children under 12 are $2 while babies remain free.
Reserved tickets for the upper rows of the grandstand are $14, while Tower and Rooftop tickets are $20. Reserved, Tower and Rooftop seats are the same price, regardless of age. All tickets except children’s tickets bought online are subject to a $1.50 convenience fee. The fee is $1 for children’s tickets.
Despite all tickets being available online, you can still buy all tickets at the box office each week. The ticket booths and the grandstand gate open at 5 p.m. ET. There will be no convenience fee at the booth. Tower and Rooftop tickets are subject to limited availability. The Party deck add-on will be available once again as well.
Racing will get underway at 6 p.m. ET Saturday night.