RPW Exclusive: No Denying Kolby Schroder Saturday At Lebanon Valley For Big Block Win One Of ’24

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – There was no denying Kolby Schroder Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway in the DIRTcar Big Block Modified feature.

Schroder had seven career wins in the division entering the night with five of them coming in the month of August.

Now, you can make that six of eight as the Staatsburg, NY driver took home the win in a caution-free event Saturday night.

“Somehow, it always keeps us until August to get in victory lane here,” Schroder said. “We made crazy changes on the car tonight. We were wrenching on the thing until right before we went out for the feature and they were the right calls.”

Schroder has been one of the more consistent cars at the Valley this season, with only one finish all season outside the top 10. Nearly half of those were in the top 5 but the trip to victory lane had eluded the 99 team until Saturday.

“We’ve had a really good year here at the Valley,” he said. “We hadn’t finished out of the top 10 until last week when we were running in the top five and broke a motor. This is a nice bounce back.”

The win was a big relief for Schroder who is still in the hunt for the Lebanon Valley DIRTcar Big Block Modified championship in 2024. With the victory, he now sits 31 points behind Brett Haas in third and is just 19 behind second place Andy Bachetti. He’s now also five ahead of Marc Johnson.

“It’s nice to get in victory lane and stop Haas from getting another one,” he said. “We’re good friends but he’s been winning a lot so it’s nice that we were able to take one from him at least.”

On Saturday, Schroder made the move from his fourth starting spot early to get around poles sitter Brandon Lane on lap ____ and was simply gone, gapping the field in traffic and pulling out to a nearly two-second victory of runner-up Keith Flach.

“We’ve been coming through the field every week and passing a lot of cars,” he said. “We’ve been missing just a little something and I thought we were going to be in trouble again tonight.”

Why’s that?

“We had a terrible noise in our car the second half of the race,” he said. “One time, into turn three, it started squealing and I almost got into the wall but I saved it. Then, I just slowed down my pace some as it sounded like it was coming from the right rear. It was making me a little bit nervous but this Steve’s Auto Repair Bicknell hung on. We’ll figure it out.”

Flach brought the familyo-owned 43 home with a solid second place finish with Kyle Armstrong third, Marc Johnson fourth and point leader Brett Haas, racking up another solid run with a fifth at the finish.

Sixth in the main event was 14th starter Andy Bachetti as he tries keeps pace with Haas for the point title and attempts to keep both Schroder and Johnson behind him.

While it wasn’t a win in the Big Blocks, the Sheffield, MA driver put in another winning performance in the 358-Modified feature. Bachetti passed fellow Bay State campaigner Ryan Larkin near the halfway mark of the 24-lap event to take home win number eight of the season and regain the track point lead.

It wasn’t with a little bit of controversy though as there was a red-flag during the event for a non-racing emergency at the track. While stopped, Bachetti got out of his number 4 and removed some mud from the right rear of his car in turns one and two.

Track officials decided to put him to the rear for that and while he still came back to win, Andy wasn’t happy.

“I’m honestly not real sure why they put me to the rear,” Bachetti said. “I think they need to get their facts and rules straight. You can get out and work on your race car, under a red flag, as long as there are no tools, per the DIRTcar rulebook.”

That meant the Garrity Asphalt Bicknell was would have to charge like crazy if Bachetti wanted another victory and he was able to get the job done.

“This car’s just awesome and I can’t say enough about the guys working on this thing,” he said. “This car was just really good tonight and it showed what kind of team we have here.”

Larkin drove a great race but came up just one spot short. The 39 was second at the checkers with Bachetti’s closest competitor for the point crown, Joey Coppola, placing third at the finish. Jason Herrington and Brett Haas rounded out the top five.

Can you guess who won the 20-lap Sportsman feature? Yup, he did it again for the 12th time this season.

That driver was Tim Hartman Jr. who drove around leader Alex Bell as the race neared the midway point and that was all she wrote for the rest of the field as the Mike Parillo-owned DKM won, yet again, at the Valley in 2024.

“Tonight was an interesting race track with how slippery it was,” Hartman said. “Fortunately, we made the right adjustments and we got some awesome breaks during the feature and it’s cool to get another one.”

The success the 22 team has enjoyed at the Valley this year has been pretty astonishing and it’s not lost on Hartman.

“It’s just unbelievable what we’ve been able to do this year at this place,” he said. “Really, anywhere we go, because we’re doing really well at Malta, too. I’m just so grateful to be in the position I am with the people that support my racing efforts. This is beyond my wildest dreams.”

Bell was able to bring his race car home in second on the night with Keith Johannessen, Michael Sabia and Brady Cordova completing the top 5.

Just before the halfway point of the 20-lap Pro Stock feature, it looked like the win was going to be settled between leader Rocco Procopio and send place Chad Jeseo.

That all took a turn in turns three and four on lap 11 as Procopio looped his #62 right in front of the field and collected Jeseo, Nick Hilt, Dave Stickles and the two Perez’s, Shawn Sr. and Shawn Jr.

While this was happening, fourth place man Chris Stalker was able to sneak under everyone and take the top spot.

While all were able to continue, nobody was touching Stalker’s 177 once he was out front as the former Street Stock champion cruised to his second career win in the division.

“I got lucky as I was in the right place at the right time with that accident,” Stalker said. “Then, it was just smooth sailing. The car was hooking up good. It was biting good tonight and I’m glad we were able to get it back to victory lane again.”

The win just reaffirmed that Stalker is getting the hang of the Pro Stocks now, but it’s also giving the driver a big boost of confidence.

“I didn’t expect to get to victory lane this year,” he said. “I didn’t think we’d get one and now we have two. This has been a big learning curve going Street Stock to Pro Stock but my team has been putting a good car under me and I’m just excited.”

Owen Lewis is starting to like victory lane as he scored his third-straight win in the Limited Sportsman feature over Ray Royals, Colby Kokosa, Scott Zehnacker and Brian Walsh.

Jeff Meltz Sr. held off his son, Jason, to score another Super Street Stock feature win, his sixth of the season. Dave Striebel Jr. was third with Lou Gancarz and Jim Dellea completing the top five.

DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 99-Kolby Schroder[4]; 2. 43F-Keith Flach[5]; 3. 11A-Kyle Armstrong[12]; 4. 9-Marc Johnson[11]; 5. 55H-Brett Haas[13]; 6. 4-Andy Bachetti[14]; 7. 74H-JR Heffner[10]; 8. 74V-John Virgilio[15]; 9. 7T-Timothy Davis[3]; 10. 35-Chris Curtis[20]; 11. 115P-Matt Pupello[8]; 12. 33-Brandon Lane[1]; 13. 96-Rob Maxon[18]; 14. 115-Montgomery Tremont[17]; 15. 91M-Josh Marcus[6]; 16. 55K-Mike King[9]; 17. (DNF) 22E-Mike Engwer[21]; 18. (DNF) 10C-Ryan Charland[2]; 19. (DNF) 88D-Olden Dwyer[16]; 20. (DNS) 42S-Kyle Sheldon; 21. (DNS) 98-Eddie Marshall

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11A-Kyle Armstrong[6]; 2. 43F-Keith Flach[3]; 3. 91M-Josh Marcus[4]; 4. 55K-Mike King[5]; 5. 33-Brandon Lane[2]; 6. 88D-Olden Dwyer[1]; 7. 98-Eddie Marshall[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 55H-Brett Haas[6]; 2. 42S-Kyle Sheldon[4]; 3. 74V-John Virgilio[7]; 4. 74H-JR Heffner[5]; 5. 7T-Timothy Davis[3]; 6. 115-Montgomery Tremont[1]; 7. 35-Chris Curtis[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Kolby Schroder[3]; 2. 9-Marc Johnson[5]; 3. 4-Andy Bachetti[6]; 4. 115P-Matt Pupello[4]; 5. 10C-Ryan Charland[2]; 6. 96-Rob Maxon[1]; 7. 22E-Mike Engwer[7]

Hot Laps 1: 1. 4-Andy Bachetti, 00:21.003[7]; 2. 35-Chris Curtis, 00:21.551[18]; 3. 55H-Brett Haas, 00:21.652[10]; 4. 11A-Kyle Armstrong, 00:21.657[20]; 5. 99-Kolby Schroder, 00:21.786[17]; 6. 115P-Matt Pupello, 00:21.816[19]; 7. 42S-Kyle Sheldon, 00:21.861[1]; 8. 115-Montgomery Tremont, 00:22.335[6]; 9. 91M-Josh Marcus, 00:22.387[15]; 10. 33-Brandon Lane, 00:22.430[4]; 11. 96-Rob Maxon, 00:22.461[12]; 12. (DNS) 74H-JR Heffner; 13. (DNS) 9-Marc Johnson; 14. (DNS) 43F-Keith Flach; 15. (DNS) 74V-John Virgilio; 16. (DNS) 88D-Olden Dwyer; 17. (DNS) 7T-Timothy Davis; 18. (DNS) 10C-Ryan Charland; 19. (DNS) 55K-Mike King; 20. (DNS) 98-Eddie Marshall; 21. (DNS) 22E-Mike Engwer

358 Modifieds

A Feature 1 (24 Laps): 1. 4-Andy Bachetti[14]; 2. 39-Ryan Larkin[5]; 3. 94-Joey Coppola[13]; 4. 1-Jason Herrington[11]; 5. 17H-Brett Haas[10]; 6. 22-Jeff Watson[8]; 7. 72-Ray Hall Jr[4]; 8. 82-Brian Peterson[9]; 9. 7CT-Donny Travaglin[17]; 10. 14-Lorne Browe[7]; 11. 35C-Connor Crane[19]; 12. 12S-Brian Sandstedt[16]; 13. 44-Kyle Sheldon[12]; 14. 30-Mark Pullen[3]; 15. 6R-Ryan Heath[2]; 16. (DNF) 7S-Michael Sabia[15]; 17. (DNF) 12C-Peter Carlotto[6]; 18. (DNS) 250-Alan Houghtaling; 19. (DNS) 3-Kim Lavoy

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Jason Herrington[8]; 2. 94-Joey Coppola[9]; 3. 3-Kim Lavoy[1]; 4. 72-Ray Hall Jr[3]; 5. 39-Ryan Larkin[4]; 6. 82-Brian Peterson[7]; 7. 6R-Ryan Heath[2]; 8. 7S-Michael Sabia[6]; 9. 7CT-Donny Travaglin[5]; 10. 35C-Connor Crane[10]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Andy Bachetti[9]; 2. 44-Kyle Sheldon[8]; 3. 12C-Peter Carlotto[4]; 4. 17H-Brett Haas[7]; 5. 22-Jeff Watson[6]; 6. 14-Lorne Browe[5]; 7. 30-Mark Pullen[2]; 8. 12S-Brian Sandstedt[3]; 9. (DNF) 250-Alan Houghtaling[1]

Sportsman

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22H-TIM HARTMAN[12]; 2. 23-Alex Bell[2]; 3. 4NY-Keith Johannessen[5]; 4. 7S-Michael Sabia[11]; 5. 7C-Brady Cordova[9]; 6. 98-Craig Wholey[4]; 7. 32X-Scott Duell[17]; 8. 307-Karl Barnes[7]; 9. 85-Justin Gozzi[3]; 10. 76-Mike Arnold[15]; 11. 12-MATT BURKE[1]; 12. 16-Nikki Ouellette[16]; 13. 711C-Chris Crane Jr[13]; 14. 34-Dylan Grogan[14]; 15. 399-Nick Giardini[10]; 16. 43-Kevin Ames[6]; 17. 3G-Peter Lorenzo III[8]

Heat 1 (7 Laps): 1. 22H-TIM HARTMAN[7]; 2. 98-Craig Wholey[3]; 3. 3G-Peter Lorenzo III[5]; 4. 85-Justin Gozzi[2]; 5. 34-Dylan Grogan[8]; 6. 399-Nick Giardini[6]; 7. 43-Kevin Ames[4]; 8. 76-Mike Arnold[1]; 9. 32X-Scott Duell[9]

Heat 2 (7 Laps): 1. 12-MATT BURKE[1]; 2. 4NY-Keith Johannessen[3]; 3. 23-Alex Bell[2]; 4. 7S-Michael Sabia[6]; 5. 7C-Brady Cordova[5]; 6. 307-Karl Barnes[4]; 7. 711C-Chris Crane Jr[8]; 8. 16-Nikki Ouellette[7]

DIRTcar Pro Stock

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 177-Chris Stalker[10]; 2. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[7]; 3. 413-Tom (Tommy) Dean[8]; 4. 25-Chad Jeseo[4]; 5. 62-Rocco Procopio[1]; 6. 17-Nick Hilt[9]; 7. 55-David Stickles[2]; 8. 32-Richard Spencer[15]; 9. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[6]; 10. 52-Tom O’Connor[3]; 11. 311-Brian Keough[12]; 12. 120-Dave Kokindo[14]; 13. 4-Michael Dianda[16]; 14. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[5]; 15. (DNF) 29-rick duzlak[11]; 16. (DNF) 78-Paul LaRochelle[13]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 62-Rocco Procopio[1]; 2. 17-Nick Hilt[8]; 3. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[3]; 4. 55-David Stickles[2]; 5. 413-Tom (Tommy) Dean[5]; 6. 29-rick duzlak[4]; 7. 78-Paul LaRochelle[6]; 8. (DNS) 4-Michael Dianda

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 177-Chris Stalker[5]; 2. 52-Tom O’Connor[3]; 3. 25-Chad Jeseo[8]; 4. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[2]; 5. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[4]; 6. 311-Brian Keough[7]; 7. 120-Dave Kokindo[1]; 8. 32-Richard Spencer[6]

Hot Laps 1: 1. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino, 00:24.149[10]; 2. 78-Paul LaRochelle, 00:24.500[13]; 3. 177-Chris Stalker, 00:24.579[2]; 4. 311-Brian Keough, 00:24.609[11]; 5. 413-Tom (Tommy) Dean, 00:24.621[6]; 6. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr, 00:24.658[5]; 7. 62-Rocco Procopio, 00:24.683[9]; 8. 09-Shawn Perez Sr, 00:24.720[3]; 9. 55-David Stickles, 00:24.784[7]; 10. 32-Richard Spencer, 00:24.806[12]; 11. 52-Tom O’Connor, 00:25.002[1]; 12. 120-Dave Kokindo, 00:26.005[8]; 13. 4-Michael Dianda, 00:28.858[14]; 14. 29-rick duzlak, 00:28.859[4]

Limited Sportsman

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 19-Owen Lewis[8]; 2. 10-Ray Royals[4]; 3. 00-Colby Kokosa[9]; 4. 143-Scott Zehnacker[6]; 5. 43-Brian Walsh[15]; 6. 27-Dylan Holmes[14]; 7. 25B-Jasen Brewer[1]; 8. 1I-Daniel Odell[13]; 9. 77-Garrett Biagiarelli[5]; 10. 04-Chris Humes[16]; 11. 250-Chip Martin[12]; 12. 03-Harold Robitaille[3]; 13. 756-Brandon Lemaire[2]; 14. 1-Frank Twing Jr[11]; 15. 128-Kent Clark[18]; 16. F1-Fred Pavia[10]; 17. 6S-John Santolin[7]; 18. 09-Braxton Martin[17]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 6S-John Santolin[6]; 2. 25B-Jasen Brewer[1]; 3. 10-Ray Royals[3]; 4. F1-Fred Pavia[8]; 5. 00-Colby Kokosa[7]; 6. 77-Garrett Biagiarelli[5]; 7. 1I-Daniel Odell[9]; 8. 27-Dylan Holmes[4]; 9. 43-Brian Walsh[2]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 143-Scott Zehnacker[5]; 2. 19-Owen Lewis[6]; 3. 03-Harold Robitaille[2]; 4. 756-Brandon Lemaire[1]; 5. 1-Frank Twing Jr[8]; 6. 250-Chip Martin[9]; 7. (DNF) 04-Chris Humes[4]; 8. (DNF) 09-Braxton Martin[3]; 9. (DNS) 128-Kent Clark

Hot Laps 1: 1. 27-Dylan Holmes, 00:23.354[4]; 2. 1-Frank Twing Jr, 00:23.402[17]; 3. 143-Scott Zehnacker, 00:23.421[11]; 4. 25B-Jasen Brewer, 00:23.463[2]; 5. 756-Brandon Lemaire, 00:23.552[5]; 6. 43-Brian Walsh, 00:23.576[3]; 7. 19-Owen Lewis, 00:23.596[6]; 8. 00-Colby Kokosa, 00:23.629[7]; 9. 6S-John Santolin, 00:23.749[12]; 10. 03-Harold Robitaille, 00:23.750[10]; 11. 04-Chris Humes, 00:23.751[8]; 12. F1-Fred Pavia, 00:23.829[16]; 13. 1I-Daniel Odell, 00:23.959[15]; 14. 77-Garrett Biagiarelli, 00:24.053[13]; 15. 128-Kent Clark, 00:24.054[18]; 16. 09-Braxton Martin, 00:24.055[1]; 17. 250-Chip Martin, 00:24.056[14]; 18. 10-Ray Royals, 00:24.057[9]

Super Street Stock

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 5X-Jeff Meltz[9]; 2. 51-Jason Meltz[11]; 3. 73-David Streibel[10]; 4. 08-Lou Gancarz[5]; 5. 77-Jim Dellea[12]; 6. 245-Evan Denue[7]; 7. 46-Doug Sterling[1]; 8. 3-Peter Huntoon[4]; 9. 76-Franklin Smith[3]; 10. 89-Kerianne Vandenburg[2]; 11. 273-Dave Streibel[8]; 12. (DNF) 27-Ray Hall Sr[6]; 13. (DNF) 915-Adam Osborne[14]; 14. (DNS) 711-Jason Barrett

Hot Laps 1: 1. 273-Dave Streibel, 00:26.230[3]; 2. 73-David Streibel, 00:26.330[8]; 3. 77-Jim Dellea, 00:26.558[12]; 4. 5X-Jeff Meltz, 00:26.743[10]; 5. 51-Jason Meltz, 00:27.064[14]; 6. 27-Ray Hall Sr, 00:27.127[7]; 7. 245-Evan Denue, 00:27.335[5]; 8. 3-Peter Huntoon, 00:27.493[4]; 9. 89-Kerianne Vandenburg, 00:27.520[9]; 10. 46-Doug Sterling, 00:27.728[2]; 11. 711-Jason Barrett, 00:27.729[13]; 12. 08-Lou Gancarz, 00:27.726[6]; 13. 915-Adam Osborne, 00:27.725[11]; 14. 76-Franklin Smith, 00:27.724[1]