RPW Exclusive: Andy Bachetti Wins Accord Speedway Modified Opener Friday Night
Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – Two of Accord Speedway’s all time leading winners went at it for all 35 laps of Friday’s Opening Night Modified feature.
In the end, it was Andy Bachetti taking the win over Rich Ricci Jr.
The win was #53 for Bachetti at the Ulster County bullring.
“It’s good to be standing in Victory Lane here,” Andy said. “It was a good Opening Night. We drew well and had a decent race car.”
Ricci Jr. led at the start with Bachetti in hot pursuit. Andy was able to make the pass in lapped traffic just past the halfway point of the feature.
“Rich was going to be hard to get by, not sure if I could have gotten him without the lapped traffic.”
Bachetti was able to maintain the lead with a couple of late race restarts to take the win by about a second over Ricci Jr.
Despite the win, Bachetti is looking to make his car better for Accord.
“We gotta get it home and get it back together and see if we can make it a little better.”
Following Bachetti and Ricci Jr. were Dillon Steuer 3rd, Daniel Morgiewicz 4th and Danny Tyler 5th. Finishing in spots 6 thru 10 were Brad Rothaupt, Hunter Lapp, Justin Holland, Cody Higbie and Tyler Johnston.
Joey Bruning took the lead at the drop of the green and led all 25 laps of Friday’s Sportsman feature at Accord.
“It was a great race. We started 2nd and went wide open in the first corner to get by Jackie Brown Jr, Joey said. “From there, I hit my marks and the car seemed to get faster.”
A series of early cautions, including 2 pileups in turns 1/2 slowed the early action, but it helped Bruning.
“The cautions kept us from getting into lapped traffic early, I just kept hitting the marks. Grateful to our sponsors and crew.”
Brown Jr. finished 2nd, 2 1/4 seconds behind Bruning. Jared LaBagh and Eddie Owens had a great race for 3rd with LaBagh prevailing at the end. Owens and Kevin Stevens completed the top 5. Troy Arnold finished 6th, Jeff Higham 7th, Ryan Behrent 8th, Mike Travis 9th and Kevin Murphy 10th.
2023 Pure Stock Co-Champion Jayden Sleight, served notice that he is looking to defend that championship as he powered his way to Friday’s Pure Stock win over Walt Henry.
“It was a great race, I’m very enthusiastic. It was a great time and a great race in general, Jayden said.”
Both Sleight and Henry came through the pack and Sleight made the pass of leader Gary Ronk and held off the challenge of Henry to take the victory.
“I saw Walt and I knew he was behind me. I knew that he wouldn’t give me any breathing room. But I just had to race my race.”
Following Sleight and Henry were Bill Deak Jr. 3rd, Brian Chirico 4th and Ronk 5th. Spots 6 thru 10 went to Wayne Taylor, Robbie Williams, Tom Campfield, John Rood and Aiden Demorest.
A.J. Albreada walked away with the All Star Slingshot feature, leading the whole way. There was a great spirited battle for 2nd between Walt Henry IV and Braxton Dembek that saw Henry IV prevailing. Dembek finished 3rd with Rob Charmello 4th, Derick Brown 5th and Makaela Predmore 6th.
Breanna Reynolds was Friday’s Junior Slingshot winner as she took the checkers over Brayden Marks and Michael Travis Jr.
Action returns to Accord Speedway, next Friday, May 10th. In action will be the Modifieds, Sportsman, Pure Stocks, Slingshots along with the Accord Speedway Vintage Modifieds.
Sponsors for next Friday’s racing are Taylor True Value and Ron’s Auto.
