Kenny Tremont Charges to Maynard Forrette Memorial Victory
July 30, 2016
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Story by Phil Allaway
Once again, Lebanon Valley Speedway had to fight the rain in order to get their night of racing in. Sprinkles were felt prior to warm-ups starting and persisted for most of the night. However, the steady stuff didn’t come in until after the Modified feature ended. The Sportsman feature was rained out and will be made up at a future date.
In the Modified feature, Mike Keeler inherited the pole after Olden Dwyer had issues prior to the race. The Connecticut was able to open up a good gap on the pack. Meanwhile, the action was fast and furious further back. Kolby Schroder and Eddie Marshall had incidental contact entering turn 1 on lap 4. However, both drivers were able to continue. Despite the contact, Schroder was able to move forward and move into second on lap 7.
Shortly afterwards, Jeff Sukup had trouble in turn 4 to bring out the first caution in a Modified feature since Jul. 2. That bunched up the field and allowed Schroder a shot at Mike Keeler. It also allowed Kenny Tremont, Jr. to catch up as well.
Going into turn 3 on the restart, Schroder was able to take the advantage away from Keeler. Tremont followed into second and put the pressure on Schroeder. A short battle ensued before Tremont was able to get past and take the lead on lap 13.
From there, Tremont pulled away from the pack to take his second win of the season and 127th of his career. With Brett Hearn retiring due to a driveline issue, it was also a great points night for the West Sand Lake native as well. Afterwards, Tremont was very pleased with his chariot. “I was really happy with the adjustments to the chassis,” Tremont said. “I think that was the difference between last week and this week.”
Behind Tremont and Schroder was Elmo Reckner in third. Eddie Marshall finished fourth, while Keith Flach was fifth.
In the Small Block Modifieds, Kenny Aanonsen, Jr. started from the pole and put on a pretty good display of speed in keeping the rest of the pack back early on. The race was not so good for Frank Harper, who spun on lap 2 and was hit by Alan Houghtaling to bring out a yellow. Harper was able to continue after repairs, but Houghtaling was done for the night.
On the restart, third-place starter Frank Hoard, III began putting pressure on Aanonsen, Jr. for the advantage. Aanonsen, Jr. was able to hold Hoard back for a couple of laps, but the Vermont native was able to take the lead on lap 6.
When Hoard took the lead, Jason Herrington and J.R. Heffner followed past. A couple of laps later, Heffner took second away from Herrington and set off to run down Hoard. Heffner ran down Hoard fairly quickly. Getting past was another story.
Heffner spent a number of laps trying to get past Hoard, but Hoard took away his preferred line. Heffner kept on working the inside until the final lap. After Hoard held him off in turns 1 and 2, Heffner got a run off of turn 4 and just managed to beat Hoard to the line by .016 of a second to take his first Small Block win of the year.
Behind Heffner and Hoard was Tremont in third. Herrington was fourth, while Brett Haas was fifth.
In Pro Stocks, 26 cars took the green flag. Joe LaFlamme started from the pole, but lost control in turn 1 and
spun. The result was a pile-up that involved roughly half the field. A number of notable drivers were involved, including Jay Corbin, Ron Yetman and Jon Routhier. All but Victor Hopkins and Kyle Hosier were able to continue.
Ray Hall, Jr. assumed the lead after the crash, followed by Paul LaRochelle. Shortly after the restart, Paul LaRochelle, using a new setup on his No. 78, was able to snatch the lead away from Ray Hall, Jr.
Ray Hall, Jr. was able to keep pace with Paul LaRochelle over the next few laps as the jumbled field continued to race. Steven LaRochelle was able to pick his way through the pile-up and managed to crack the top 5 by lap 5. Running a similar setup to his father, Steven was able to make short work of those suffering from damage and hold off strong runs from drivers such as Yetman.
On lap 8, Tom O’Connor spun in turn 3 after getting hit by Chuck Towslee. Towslee had bounced into O’Connor after bouncing off of the lapped car of Jeremy Cole. This brought out the second yellow and bunched everyone back up.
On the restart from that incident, Daniel Sanchez spun in turn 1 and collected Rick Dempsey, Rich Crane and more to bring out another yellow. Ray Hall, Jr.’s car failed to come up to speed on the restart and caused a bit of a stack-up.
Unable to figure out what was wrong with his No. 572, Ray Hall, Jr. pulled into the pits to go to the attention of his crew during the third caution. He would not return to the race and was officially classified 22nd. The retirement boosted Nick Hilt, Jr. to second.
Over the second half of the race, Paul LaRochelle was able to hold the rest of the field at bay without too much of an issue to take his second win of the year. Hilt was not far behind, but just edged Rick Duzlak for second. Steven LaRochelle charged up from 22nd on the grid to finish fourth, while Rob Yetman finished fifth in his damaged No. 7.
In Pure Stock Feature No. 1, Zach Seyerlein started from the pole and led early. Bill Deak, Sr. quickly charged up to second, but he accomplished that by switching lanes on the start. As a result, the officials penalized him two spots later on the event.
Deak pressured Seyerlein for the lead until Joe Walcott and Zach Sorrentino collided and slid into the wall in turn 1 to bring out the only yellow of the race. Both drivers were ok, but were done for the day.
Deak served his penalty here, boosting Dom Denue up to second. The final two laps saw Denue pressure Seyerlein for the lead, but then spin out exiting turn 2. The yellow would not come out and Denue had to scramble to finish sixth. Chris Streeter moved up to second as a result.
On the final lap, Streeter made a move to the inside exiting turn 4, but Seyerlein was able to hold off Streeter for the win. Bob Palmer was third, followed by Bill Deak, Sr. and Brian Walsh.
In Pure Stock Feature No. 2, Scott Morris brought the Camaro that he rolled four weeks ago back after significant repairs. According to Morris, the car required some time on a frame straightening machine, a significant amount of time spent beating out fenders, and a number of additional part repairs.
Morris stated that he was going to see how everything worked on his car. Based on the results, everything seemed to be just fine. Morris started from the pole and proceeded to drive away from the pack to take the victory in a caution-free race.
Dennis O’Connor, Jr. finished second, followed by John Devine, Clifford Booth and Shawn Perez.
Pure Stock Feature No. 3 saw Mike Arnold start from the pole and hold off Harold Robitaille going into turn 1. The outside line was bogged down a bit, which allowed Gary O’Brien to quickly move himself up from his sixth starting spot.
It took only a couple of laps for O’Brien to run down Arnold for the lead. Arnold did put up a fight, but O’Brien slipped past on lap 4, bringing Ray Hall, Sr. with him. From that point on, O’Brien pulled away from the pack to take his third win of the year. Ray Hall, Sr. was second, followed by Al Relyea, Jeff Kreutziger and Jason Meltz.
TRUSTCO Bank/Sheldon Oil/Buanno Trucking Maynard Forrette Memorial Results (30 laps): 1) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 2) Kolby Schroder, 3) Elmo Reckner, 4) Eddie Marshall, 5) Keith Flach, 6) Andy Bachetti, 7) Guy Sheldon, 8) J.R. Heffner, 9) Kyle Armstrong, 10) Mike Keeler, 11) Rob Pitcher, 12) Matt Pupello, 13) Chad Jeseo, 14) Mike King, 15) Justin Boehler, 16) Steve Hough, 17) John Ruchel, 18) Brian Berger, 19) Brett Hearn, 20) Jeff Sukup, 21) Dave McFeeters, 22) Kyle Sheldon, 23) Paul Gilardi, 24) Olden Dwyer
Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) J.R. Heffner, 2) Frank Hoard, III, 3) Kenny Tremont, Jr., 4) Jason Herrington, 5) Brett Haas, 6) Steve Hough, 7) Kenny Aanonsen, Jr., 8) Brian Sandstedt, 9) Brett Hearn, 10) Peter Carlotto, 11) Olden Dwyer, 12) Joey Scarborough, 13) Ray Hall, Jr., 14) Ryan Charland, 15) Ricky Davis, 16) Frank Harper, 17) Chad Pierce, 18) Alan Houghtaling. DNS: Kim LaVoy
Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Paul LaRochelle, 2) Nick Hilt, Jr., 3) Rick Duzlak, 4) Steven LaRochelle, 5) Rob Yetman, 6) Daniel Sanchez, 7) Chuck Towslee, 8) Jon Routhier, 9) Rick Dempsey, 10) Jay Corbin, 11) Nick Stone, 12) Tom O’Connor, 13) Joe LaFlamme, 14) Scott Govertsen, 15) Brian Keough, 16) Matt Cross, 17) Bob Camilli, 18) Rich Crane, 19) Jeff Kelmel, 20) Jeremy Cole, 21) Tom Dean, 22) Ray Hall, Jr., 23) Rich Spencer, 24) Victor Hopkins, 25) Kyle Hosier, 26) Hugh Page
Pure Stock Feature No. 1 Results (8 laps): 1) Zach Seyerlein, 2) Chris Streeter, 3) Bob Palmer, 4) Bill Deak, Sr., 5) Brian Walsh, 6) Dom Denue, 7) Tim Thompson, 8) Joe Walcott, 9) Zach Sorrentino, 10) Karen Verhagen
Pure Stock Feature No. 2 Results (8 laps): 1) Scott Morris, 2) Dennis O’Connor, Jr., 3) John Devine, 4) Clifford Booth, 5) Shawn Perez, 6) Kevin Paul, 7) Bill Deak, Jr., 8) Keri VanDenburg, 9) Dave Fachini, 10) Mark Dwyer
Pure Stock Feature No. 3 Results (12 laps): 1) Gary O’Brien, 2) Ray Hall, Sr., 3) Al Relyea, 4) Jeff Kreutziger, 5) Jason Meltz, 6) Larry Perez, 7) Mike Arnold, 8) Jeff Meltz, Sr., 9) Jay Casey, 10) Harold Robitaille, 11) Chris Murphy, 12) Wuggie Burdick
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