SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Ending a drought that extended more than a year with the Short Track Super Series, Andy Bachetti drove to victory lane on Saturday at Selinsgrove Speedway during the Icebreaker event.
Bachetti won the first trip for the series to the Central Pennsylvania half-mile. It was also Bachetti’s first win on the Velocita-USA South Region presented by Design for Vision and Sunglass Central.
“We’ve struggled a lot lately, but this feels good. It’s good to run up front and have fun again,” said a relieved Bachetti in victory, accepting his $5,000-plus winner’s share.
Bachetti drew the pole in the Beyea Custom Headers Redraw and had J.R. Heffner alongside him when the field came to Series Starter Joe Kriss’ green flag. It was Heffner who jumped out to the lead and led the opening eight laps before the first yellow of the race came out.
When the race went back to green, the race for third was the eye-catcher. Kyle Coffey had the sport and was facing challenges from Anthony Perrego and Larry Wight.
The race went non-stop from the lap-six yellow through lap 34 of the 40-lap main event.
The battle up front began to intensify at the halfway mark. Heffner was fading as the likes of Bachetti, Coffey, Perrego, and Wight were all rapidly catching Heffner’s back bumper.
It was Bachetti who was the first to strike, sliding underneath of Heffner and leading lap 23. Heffner’s fade continued, as each of the other top-five runners were able to get by Heffner before the lap-34 yellow.
Another yellow with two-laps to go gave the likes of Coffey, and Perrego an opportunity to take a swing at Bachetti, but the Bay State driver held on to get the monkey off his back, and return to STSS glory, the sixth win of his career.
Perrego took second away in the Brian Smith-owned No. 44 and Matt Sheppard followed him through in his Hurlock Auto & Speed No. 9s to grab a podium finish.
Mat Williamson grabbed a fourth-place finish in the Behrent’s Performance Warehouse No. 3. Coffey earned his first STSS top-five.
The STSS Belmont’s Garage South Region Crate 602 Sportsman feature was won by Grant Hilfiger. It was Hilfiger’s second career STSS win, his first since the Sunshine Swing in 2020 at Florida’s All-Tech Raceway.
Hilfiger started on the pole of the 25-lap main event and led every lap of race that featured only one yellow, to collect the $1,600 payday.
The finish:
Andy Bachetti, Anthony Perrego, Matt Sheppard, Mat Williamson, Kyle Coffey, Larry Wight, Billy Pauch Jr., Tyler Dippel, Mike Mahaney, Ryan Watt, Ryan Godown, Erick Rudolph, Mike Gular, Max McLaughlin, J.R. Heffner, Duane Howard, Peter Britten, Matt Stangle, Jessica Friesen, Craig Von Dohren, Jimmy Horton, Brandon Grosso, Michael Maresca, Danny Bouc, Tim Buckwalter, Frank Cozze, Danny Creeden, H.J. Bunting, Brandon Hightower, Billy Van Pelt, Chad Brachmann.