Story By: PHIL ALLAWAY / LEBANON VALLEY SPEEDWAY – WEST LEBANON, NY – John Virgilio moved up to the Modified class at Lebanon Valley a little over a year ago.
Since then, the protégé of J.R. Heffner has shown flashes of brilliance along with mechanical issues.
Saturday night saw him take the lead on a lap 12 restart and hold on to take his first career Lebanon Valley Modified win and took home a check for $5,000 on Rifenburg Construction Tommy Corellis Night.
Marc Johnson was second, then Kolby Schroder, Olden Dwyer and Heffner.
“It was really good. We’ve had a lot of bad luck in recent weeks, fluke things.” Virgilio said afterwards. “We finally got the failures worked out and we were able to execute tonight.”
By virtue of finishing in the top five in his heat race, Tommy Corellis started from the pole. The first lap did not go well. Timothy Davis was able to get past entering turn 1. Corellis didn’t want to give up the lead and ran a little too hard through turn 2 and brushed the wall. Additional issues brought out the yellow.
In that scrum, Brandon Lane took over the lead with Ryan Darcy giving chase. Darcy and Lane battled back and forth for the lead before Darcy took it on lap 10. Virgilio followed Darcy past into second. Shortly afterwards, Kolby Schroder cut his right rear tire to bring out a yellow.
After another caution, Virgilio got a great run into turn 1 that allowed him to take the lead. A series of mechanical issues kept the field close to Virgilio. Then, Darcy went hard into the wall exiting turn 2 while fighting for second to bring out the seventh caution. Darcy was ok, but his night was over.
When the race restarted, Virgilio was able to drive away from the pack. Dwyer inherited second after the caution, but had Johnson on his tail.
Johnson took second away with seven laps to go, but could do nothing with Virgilio, who coasted to victory. Schroder took third from Dwyer with a last-lap pass.
In the Small Block Modifieds, Alan Houghtaling started from the pole and very quick early on. Joey Coppola, who started fifth, quickly moved up to second, the recent braking woes clearly in the past.
The two drivers ran away from the pack to decide the race between themselves. Coppola was able to wrestle the lead away from Houghtaling on lap 10. Houghtaling then scrubbed the wall exiting turn 4, allowing Coppola to get away.
Coppola had nearly a five-second lead when L.J. Lombardo cut his right rear tire and brought out a yellow. Andy Bachetti was running fourth and set to go over the lead, but his car simply didn’t want to get up to speed. After two false restarts, he went to the rear and nursed the car to a 14th-place finish.
Following a spin for Brian Sandstedt, Coppola was able to pull away to take his first win of the year. Jeff Watson was second, then Jason Herrington, Peter Carlotto and Ryan Larkin.
The Sportsman class saw Rob Maxon take the lead on lap 2 from pole sitter Kevin Ames and attempt to pull away from the pack. In recent years, the class has been a battle between Tim Hartman Jr. and Whitey Slavin, but that wasn’t so Saturday night. Hartman had two flat tires and ended up seventh.
The closing laps of the race saw Slavin drive up to Rob Maxon in an attempt to snatch the victory, but the veteran racer held on for the victory. Slavin was second, then Kevin Ward, Chris Lynch and Gary O’Brien.
In Limited Sportsman, Alex Palmer-Sawyer won the 15-lap feature on the track. However, his car came up 17 pounds light at the scales. As a result, Palmer-Sawyer was disqualified and Anthony Maxon was awarded his third win of the year. Owen Lewis was second, then Craig Coons, Dylan Grogan and Brian Walsh.
The Pro Stock feature saw Frank Twing sweep around Shawn Perez on a lap 5 restart to take the lead entering turn 1. A late caution due to an incident on the backstretch involving Katarina Foster bunched up the pack with five laps to go, but Twing held on for his second win in three weeks. Steven LaRochelle was second, then Chad Jeseo, Dave Stickles and Tom Dean.
In Street Stock, Dave Streibel Jr. took the lead on the first lap and held on for his second straight win. Keri VanDenburg won the Cordova Heating & Plumbing Dash.
MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (30 LAPS) 1) John Virgilio* 2) Marc Johnson* 3) Kolby Schroder 4) Olden Dwyer 5) J.R. Heffner* 6) Brett Haas* 7) Kyle Sheldon 8) Wayne Jelley 9) Kyle Armstrong 10) L.J Lombardo 11) Brandon Lane 12) Ryan Charland 13) Mike King 14) Tommy Corellis 15) Andy Bachetti** 16) Ryan Darcy 17) Eddie Marshall* 18) Brian Berger 19) Timothy Davis 20) Matt Pupello* 21) Kenny Tremont Jr. 22) Keith Flach
358 MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (24 LAPS) 1) Joey Coppola* 2) Jeff Watson 3) Jason Herrington 4) Peter Carlotto 5) Ryan Larkin 6) Donny Travaglin 7) L.J Lombardo* 8) Brian Petrerson 9) Kim Lavoy 10) Ryan Charland 11) Kevin Petrucci* 12) Brian Sandstedt 13) Jeffrey Reis 14) Andy Bachetti** 15) Alan Houghtaling 16) Ryan Heath 17) Olden Dwyer* 18) Montgomery Tremont 19) Lorne Browe* 20) Ray Hall JR.
SPORTSMAN FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Rob Maxon* 2) Whitey Slavin* 3) Kevin Ward** 4) Chris Lynch 5) Gary O’Brien* 6) Ricky Davis 7) Tim Hartman*** 8) Brady Cordova 9) Karl Barnes 10) Kevin Ames 11) Joe Pravia 12) Alan Houghtaling 13) Cody Cordova
PRO STOCKS FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Frank Twing** 2) Steven LaRochelle 3) Chad Jeseo* 4) Dave Stickles** 5) Tom Dean* 6) Zach Sorrentino** 7) Shawn Perez 8) Tom O’Connor 9) Brian Keough 10) Ryan Crellin 11) Mike Dianda 12) Katrina Foster 13) Dave Kokindo 14) Fred Lee
LIMITED SPORTSMAN FEATURE RESULTS (15 LAPS) 1) Anthony Maxon*** 2) Owen Lewis 3) Craig Coons* 4) Dylan Grogan 5) Brian Walsh* 6) Matt Jordan 7) Allyson Papp 8) Ira Doull 9) Adam Schneider 10) Kent Clark 11) Frank Twing JR.* 12) Mike Engwer 13) Harold Rabitalle* DQ) Alex Palmer-Sawyer
STREET STOCK FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Dave Striebel JR.* 2) Jeff Meltz SR.* 3) Ray Royals 4) Kerri Vandenburg 5) Peter Huntoon 6) Lou Gancarz 7) Franklin Smith 8) Josh Bussino