RPW Exclusive: Kolby Schroder Shows Everyone The Way To Lebanon Valley Victory Lane Saturday

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Being out front of the 30-lap DIRTcar Big Block Modified feature Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway wasn’t the place to be through the first third of the event.

Both LJ Lombardo and Kyle Sheldon, who held the top spot at different points during the first 10 laps of the main, both suffered fates that forced them to relinquish the top spot.

Lombardo was a casualty of a right rear tire failure while Sheldon’s charge from sixth to the lead was negated by a broken left rear brake caliper, leaving him with no way to slow the no. 44 down and sent him hard into the turn one wall.

That gave the lead to Kolby Schroder, and while he had a few issues he had to deal with inside his no. 99 car through the rest of the race, none of them were enough to keep him from collecting the opening night win on the high banks.

“I’m not sure if we broke a linkage or what not in the transmission,” Schroder said. “I had to drive half the race holding the car in gear with one hand while steering with the other.”

With the new racing surface and the amount of rain that the area got during the week, officials did a masterful job to even get the races in. However, it did take its toll on what is the new quick lane around the Valley of Speed, the low side.

“I thought we were in trouble when we got here and drew 100 out of 100,” he said. “We just stuck with it and dealt with the track conditions tonight. I know everyone’s trying hard but it was tough out there.”

Schroder acknowledged that things just seem to be clicking right now for he and his DSR team. After a win last week at Albany-Saratoga, and now one to open the season at Lebanon, Schroder is feeling pretty good right now.

“We really stepped up our program this year,” he said. “I think we’ve really got things worked out right now. There’s a lot that goes into this and it’s a lot of work but my team is the best in the business.”

Brett Haas came away with a well-deserved second place finish after driving from 14th while defending champion Andy Bachetti was nipping at his heels in third after starting one spot behind the 55 in 15th.

Chris Curtis and Kyle Armstrong completed the top five.

It was a great night for Curtis all around. Not only did he score a top five in the DIRTcar Big Block feature event, he was able to drive to victory lane in the 358-Modified feature.

Curtis drove from 11th starting spot to third on the first lap, going to the outside of several top competitors in the class, and then grabbed the lead from Jeff Watson as the lap counter clicked three.

From there, nobody had anything left for Curtis who drove on to score the opening night win.

“From the heat race until the feature, this car was like night and day,” Curtis said. “My crew got this thing hooked up so good. Andy (Bachetti) pulled up next to me on a caution like eight laps in and I thought that was it.”

Fortunately for Curtis, Bachetti suffered a flat right rear tire and was forced to the attention of his crew. He would rebound to finish tenth.

“We went door-to-door for a couple of laps and then I saw him in the pits,” he said. “That took a little bit of pressure off of me.”

Watson held on to score an impressive second place finish at the end of the 24-lap main with Ryan Larkin, Brett Haas and Joey Coppola completing the top 5 runners.

Chris Crane Jr. did something very few people have done over the last few years at the Valley in the Sportsman division.

That being a driver who kept Tim Hartman Jr. out of victory lane.

Crane, who started in seventh, quickly got to the front of the field and was able to drive by Brady Cordova on a lap six restart and then went on to score the victory, his first at the West Lebanon oval.

However, it wasn’t that easy as Cordova was nipping at his heels for the entire second half of the 20-lap feature, but the Connecticut campaigner fended off every challenge and went on to win the main event.

“I have to give a big shout out to Brady,” Crane said. “He didn’t touch me once. We were close but I would have raced him the same way. That was a super race and a lot of fun.”

Crane wasn’t just smiling after the race was over. He was actually in shock of his result.

“If you had asked me where my first win this year would have been, Lebanon Valley wouldn’t have been the answer,” he said. “We’ve had bad luck here and little brother (Connor Crane) has been beating up on me so getting the first Sportsman win before him definitely feels good.”

Even being victorious, Crane could tell his car wasn’t as good as it was early on in the event.

“I bent something in the front end of this thing about halfway through, going through those holes in turns one and two,” he said. “It held together and the right rear stayed heated up during the long caution early on. I was worried about that. I wasn’t even coming tonight until about 2pm. I’m glad we chose to race.”

Cordova held on for second with Alex Bell, Hartman and Joey Scarborough rounding out the top five.

The DIRTcar Pro Stock main event featured a great battle nearly the entire 20-lap distance between Frank Twing and Zach Sorrentino. For several laps, the two raced door-to-door for the top spot, never putting a wheel on each other.

In the end, the veteran Twing bested defending track champion Sorrentino to score the victory on Saturday night.

“It’s always a pleasure to run with Zach,” Twing said. “Every time I run with him, it’s clean and it’s fun. Same can be said for Chris Stalker and a lot of the guys in this class.

Sorrentino crossed the line in the runner-up spot with Tommy Dean in third, Shawn Perez Sr. in fourth and Dave Stickles in fifth.

AJ Albreada made it two wins in-a-row in the Limited Sportsman feature with Brandon Lemaire in second, Kevin Groff third, Braxton Martin fourth and Dylan Holmes completing the top five.

Another back-to-back winner to start 2025 came in the Street Stock class as Anthony King found his way to victory lane. He was followed to the finish by Dave Striebel Jr., Jeff Meltz Sr., Doug Sterling and Dave Striebel Sr.

The Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series was also in action this night with the winners being Jack Miller (Modified Division), Merv Blackwell (Sportsman Division), Harry Baldwin (Mystique Division), Mike Wheeler (Antique Division) and Malcum Warner (Late Model).

DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 99-Kolby Schroder[9]; 2. 55H-Brett Haas[14]; 3. 4-Andy Bachetti[15]; 4. 35-Chris Curtis[20]; 5. 11A-Kyle Armstrong[8]; 6. 43F-Keith Flach[4]; 7. 115P-Matt Pupello[18]; 8. 55K-Mike King[23]; 9. 42-Guy Sheldon[24]; 10. 91M-Josh Marcus[22]; 11. 22J-Bubba McPhee[1]; 12. 96-Rob Maxon[17]; 13. 435-Chris Bisson[19]; 14. 10C-Ryan Charland[2]; 15. 115-Montgomery Tremont[25]; 16. 9-Marc Johnson[5]; 17. 35LJ-LJ Lombardo[3]; 18. 74V-John Virgilio[10]; 19. 44-Kyle Sheldon[6]; 20. 33-Brandon Lane[7]; 21. 250-Alan Houghtaling[16]; 22. 74H-JR Heffner[12]; 23. 98-Eddie Marshall[11]; 24. 22E-Mike Engwer[21]; 25. (DNS) 21-Ryan Darcy

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 74V-John Virgilio[5]; 2. 10C-Ryan Charland[1]; 3. 33-Brandon Lane[4]; 4. 21-Ryan Darcy[6]; 5. 22J-Bubba McPhee[8]; 6. 250-Alan Houghtaling[7]; 7. 435-Chris Bisson[3]; 8. 91M-Josh Marcus[2]; 9. (DNF) 115-Montgomery Tremont[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Andy Bachetti[3]; 2. 11A-Kyle Armstrong[1]; 3. 44-Kyle Sheldon[4]; 4. 9-Marc Johnson[6]; 5. 74H-JR Heffner[2]; 6. 96-Rob Maxon[5]; 7. 35-Chris Curtis[7]; 8. 55K-Mike King[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 55H-Brett Haas[6]; 2. 43F-Keith Flach[3]; 3. 98-Eddie Marshall[1]; 4. 35LJ-LJ Lombardo[7]; 5. 99-Kolby Schroder[8]; 6. 115P-Matt Pupello[4]; 7. 22E-Mike Engwer[2]; 8. 42-Guy Sheldon[5]

Hot Laps 1: 1. 74V-John Virgilio, 00:21.136[20]; 2. 55H-Brett Haas, 00:21.252[16]; 3. 11A-Kyle Armstrong, 00:21.310[4]; 4. 35LJ-LJ Lombardo, 00:21.361[1]; 5. 74H-JR Heffner, 00:21.486[23]; 6. 115P-Matt Pupello, 00:21.750[19]; 7. 96-Rob Maxon, 00:21.821[18]; 8. 4-Andy Bachetti, 00:21.823[5]; 9. 22E-Mike Engwer, 00:22.079[17]; 10. 22J-Bubba McPhee, 00:22.113[15]; 11. 21-Ryan Darcy, 00:22.400[21]; 12. 42-Guy Sheldon, 00:22.525[10]; 13. 435-Chris Bisson, 00:22.526[3]; 14. 10C-Ryan Charland, 00:22.527[12]; 15. (DNS) 33-Brandon Lane; 16. (DNS) 250-Alan Houghtaling; 17. (DNS) 91M-Josh Marcus; 18. (DNS) 99-Kolby Schroder; 19. (DNS) 9-Marc Johnson; 20. (DNS) 44-Kyle Sheldon; 21. (DNS) 43F-Keith Flach; 22. (DNS) 35-Chris Curtis; 23. (DNS) 55K-Mike King; 24. (DNS) 98-Eddie Marshall

DIRTcar 358 Modifieds

A Feature 1 (24 Laps): 1. 35-Chris Curtis[11]; 2. 22-Jeff Watson[2]; 3. 39-Ryan Larkin[8]; 4. 17H-Brett Haas[14]; 5. 94-Joey Coppola[12]; 6. 3-Kim Lavoy[4]; 7. 518-Guy Sheldon[6]; 8. 44-Kyle Sheldon[10]; 9. 7C-Brady Cordova[5]; 10. 4-Andy Bachetti[13]; 11. 7CT-Donny Travaglin[3]; 12. 72-Ray Hall Jr[7]; 13. 250-Alan Houghtaling[1]; 14. 7S-Michael Sabia[9]; 15. 519-Joe Pravia[17]; 16. 55-John Kendall[16]; 17. (DNS) 81D-Anthony Dicarlo

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 94-Joey Coppola[8]; 2. 17H-Brett Haas[5]; 3. 4-Andy Bachetti[2]; 4. 7S-Michael Sabia[1]; 5. 39-Ryan Larkin[4]; 6. 7C-Brady Cordova[6]; 7. 7CT-Donny Travaglin[7]; 8. 55-John Kendall[3]; 9. (DNS) 519-Joe Pravia

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 72-Ray Hall Jr[1]; 2. 35-Chris Curtis[5]; 3. 22-Jeff Watson[2]; 4. 518-Guy Sheldon[7]; 5. 44-Kyle Sheldon[6]; 6. 3-Kim Lavoy[8]; 7. 250-Alan Houghtaling[4]; 8. 81D-Anthony Dicarlo[3]

Dirtcar Sportsman

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 711C-Chris Crane Jr[7]; 2. 7C-Brady Cordova[1]; 3. 23-Alex Bell[11]; 4. 22H-Tim Hartman Jr[15]; 5. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[4]; 6. 34-Dylan Grogan[10]; 7. 399-Nick Giardini[3]; 8. 711X-Connor Crane[12]; 9. 98-Craig Wholey[16]; 10. 76-Mike Arnold[14]; 11. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[13]; 12. 19-Owen Lewis[6]; 13. M2-Shawn McPhee[18]; 14. 96-Anthony Maxon[8]; 15. 4NY-Keith Johannessen[19]; 16. 7S-Michael Sabia[9]; 17. 11C-Cody Cordova[2]; 18. 307-Karl Barnes[5]; 19. (DNS) 85-Justin Gozzi

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22H-Tim Hartman Jr[1]; 2. 399-Nick Giardini[6]; 3. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[2]; 4. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[7]; 5. 11C-Cody Cordova[5]; 6. 85-Justin Gozzi[3]; 7. M2-Shawn McPhee[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7C-Brady Cordova[5]; 2. 34-Dylan Grogan[2]; 3. 19-Owen Lewis[4]; 4. 7S-Michael Sabia[3]; 5. 76-Mike Arnold[6]; 6. 98-Craig Wholey[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Alex Bell[2]; 2. 711X-Connor Crane[4]; 3. 711C-Chris Crane Jr[3]; 4. 307-Karl Barnes[5]; 5. 96-Anthony Maxon[1]; 6. 4NY-Keith Johannessen[6]

DIRTcar Pro Stock

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 317-Frank Twing[6]; 2. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[3]; 3. 413-Tom (Tommy) Dean[5]; 4. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[2]; 5. 55-David Stickles[10]; 6. 62-Rocco Procopio[1]; 7. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[11]; 8. 120-Dave Kokindo[8]; 9. 177-Chris Stalker[7]; 10. 29-rick duzlak[9]; 11. 78-Paul LaRochelle[4]

Heat 1 (5 Laps): 1. 317-Frank Twing[2]; 2. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[4]; 3. 78-Paul LaRochelle[1]; 4. 62-Rocco Procopio[5]; 5. 29-rick duzlak[6]; 6. 55-David Stickles[3]

Heat 2 (4 Laps): 1. 177-Chris Stalker[4]; 2. 413-Tom (Tommy) Dean[3]; 3. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[2]; 4. 120-Dave Kokindo[5]; 5. (DNS) 09J-Shawn Perez Jr

Hot Laps 1: 1. 78-Paul LaRochelle, 00:24.664[4]; 2. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino, 00:24.754[3]; 3. 55-David Stickles, 00:24.782[1]; 4. 413-Tom (Tommy) Dean, 00:24.817[8]; 5. 09-Shawn Perez Sr, 00:24.986[5]; 6. 29-rick duzlak, 00:25.001[11]; 7. 62-Rocco Procopio, 00:25.032[2]; 8. 120-Dave Kokindo, 00:26.094[10]; 9. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr, 00:26.095[7]; 10. 177-Chris Stalker, 00:26.096[9]; 11. 317-Frank Twing, 00:26.097[6]

Limited Sportsman

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 22A-AJ Albreada[9]; 2. 756-Brandon Lemaire[4]; 3. 1G-Kevin Groff[2]; 4. 09-Braxton Martin[3]; 5. 27-Dylan Holmes[1]; 6. 04-Chris Humes[6]; 7. 395-Craig Coons[15]; 8. 77-Garrett Biagiarelli[5]; 9. 1I-Daniel Odell[14]; 10. 313-Cam Van Zandt[16]; 11. 48-Ray Royals[10]; 12. 00-Colby Kokosa[11]; 13. 41-Dalton Gamache[17]; 14. 1-Frank Twing Jr[8]; 15. 69-Dakota Green[13]; 16. 03-Harold Robitaille[12]; 17. 43-Brian Walsh[7]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 1G-Kevin Groff[1]; 2. 1-Frank Twing Jr[5]; 3. 43-Brian Walsh[3]; 4. 09-Braxton Martin[2]; 5. 756-Brandon Lemaire[4]; 6. 48-Ray Royals[9]; 7. 03-Harold Robitaille[8]; 8. 1I-Daniel Odell[6]; 9. 41-Dalton Gamache[7]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 22A-AJ Albreada[3]; 2. 04-Chris Humes[1]; 3. 77-Garrett Biagiarelli[2]; 4. 27-Dylan Holmes[4]; 5. 00-Colby Kokosa[7]; 6. 395-Craig Coons[6]; 7. 69-Dakota Green[8]; 8. 313-Cam Van Zandt[5]

Hot Laps 1: 1. 22A-AJ Albreada, 00:22.629[14]; 2. 27-Dylan Holmes, 00:22.934[3]; 3. 756-Brandon Lemaire, 00:23.164[6]; 4. 43-Brian Walsh, 00:23.224[15]; 5. 1G-Kevin Groff, 00:23.365[13]; 6. 1-Frank Twing Jr, 00:23.410[16]; 7. 77-Garrett Biagiarelli, 00:23.535[9]; 8. 03-Harold Robitaille, 00:23.579[7]; 9. 69-Dakota Green, 00:23.635[1]; 10. 04-Chris Humes, 00:23.805[8]; 11. 395-Craig Coons, 00:23.843[5]; 12. 313-Cam Van Zandt, 00:24.024[12]; 13. 48-Ray Royals, 00:24.036[4]; 14. 41-Dalton Gamache, 00:24.758[17]; 15. 1I-Daniel Odell, 00:24.829[11]; 16. 00-Colby Kokosa, 00:24.828[10]; 17. 09-Braxton Martin, 00:24.827[2]

Street Stock

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7-Anthony King[4]; 2. 73-David Streibel[7]; 3. 5X-Jeff Meltz[2]; 4. 46-Doug Sterling[1]; 5. 273-Dave Streibel[6]; 6. 8-Bob Sleight[10]; 7. 711-Jason Barrett[11]; 8. 3-Peter Huntoon[9]; 9. 33-Evan Denue[3]; 10. 76-Franklin Smith[5]; 11. 17-Hannah Stalker[8]

Hot Laps 1: 1. 7-Anthony King, 00:26.719[6]; 2. 5X-Jeff Meltz, 00:26.836[8]; 3. 73-David Streibel, 00:26.982[5]; 4. 17-Hannah Stalker, 00:27.250[7]; 5. 46-Doug Sterling, 00:27.390[3]; 6. 273-Dave Streibel, 00:27.555[2]; 7. 8-Bob Sleight, 00:28.324[9]; 8. 711-Jason Barrett, 00:28.454[10]; 9. 33-Evan Denue, 00:28.455[4]; 10. 3-Peter Huntoon, 00:28.456[11]; 11. 76-Franklin Smith, 00:28.457[1]