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Tri State Outlook.
by Duane Hancock
Eating dirt, talking on the radio, and chicken
sandwiches. Those things would pretty much sum up last
weekend's racing for me.
Friday, the All Star Circuit Of Champions hit
Attica for their 1st visit of the year. 37 cars were
on hand. If you heard or listened yet, I have been
doing some pit reporting for the BAS Broadcasting
shows out of Fremont Ohio. Friday was one of them. I
have a lot of fun doing them and hope people listening
enjoys them too. The only problem I have found, it is
harder than you think to run up and down pit lane,
looking for your interview, and still keeping up whats
happening on the track. So far, I have managed to do
so but it get crazy sometimes in a big pit area like
Attica's.
I am going to try something a little different as
far as writing on the races. I am trying a brief
summary type thing this week. See if you like it
better than the 2 mile long columns i usually write.
The track was in great shape as the cars went out
to qualify. Kenny Jacobs set quick time in the upper
11 second bracket. Not bad for his 1st race in 7
months. The 4 heat races went off without too many
problems. There was some side by side action back in
the pack, as all 4 heat race winners came off of the
front row. Not what you usually see at Attica or an
All Star event but it was still decent racing. The
only real incident was in heat 3 when Chris Andrews
and David Harrison got together. Dustin Daggett, Mike
Linder, Caleb Griffith, and John Ivy won the heats.
The 6 car dash went to Brock Mayes. 17 cars were
lined-up for the B. A huge incident on lap 1 took out
the top 3 cars. Chris Andrews, Brian Paulus, and Bruce
Robenalt were battling 3 wide off 2 for the lead when
Andrews bobbled a little. Paulus tagged Andrews and
then shot into Robenalt, causing Robenalt to flip. All
were Ok but that was not the case for their cars.
After that it was all Gus Wasson in the B. Gus took
the win. I got to interview Gus and he is still in
disbelief that he is driving for Rick Ferkel. Rick was
on of Gus's heroes growing-up and now he is racing for
him. Look for Gus to stay back in the sprint cars.
After a few year in NASCAR's Busch Series, he is back
helping his dad and the dealership and racing sprints.
When its a 40 lap A Main at Attica, more than
likely it is going to be a shootout at the end. I love
40 lap shows at Attica! Note to Rex, lol. The A
started by Ed Neumeister falling off of turn 1. Too
bad for Mark Keegan, as Mark had a great start. Mark
said in his pre-race interview he wanted to just stay
close to the front and be there at the end. Attica's
own, Brandon Martin took the early lead once things
got started. Brandon was looking good but a few others
were hooking-up and getting fast. Brock Mayes took the
lead on lap 11. Lap 24, John Ivy slows with a flat.
Greg Wilson is fast and gets an excellent restart,
taking the lead on lap 26. Its Wilson's race to lose
and at Attica he has owned the place lately. Just as
it looks like another Wilson win, lap 35, Greg
collects the wall coming off turn 4 and flips. I think
many people could not believe what had just happened.
This hands the lead to Brock Mayes, who has a tire
going down. A yellow on the restart and Mayes's tire
just keeps getting worse. Byron Reed is on Brock's
tail for the final 5 laps. Every knows Byron will pass
Brock since his tire is going flat and Byron is tough
at Attica, but will he? Byron trys high, low, in the
middle and can;t get past. White flag, Byron gets a
run off 2, side by side into 3 and 4, off 4, to the
line, close to a photo finish. Brock wins his 1st ever
All Star show. It was still a hometown win as Brock's
house is just 12 miles down the road. Reed, Keegan,
Shane Stewart, from 11th, and Chad Kemenah, from 13th
round out the top 5. Yeap, CK was there despite the 12
hour drive to the Outlaws race on Saturday. A very
good show and the track stayed racy all night. The
only down fall, was not a huge crowd. It was a little
chilly and very windy but man, you missed a good.
Saturday the original plans were to head to Eldora
for the second straight night of All Star action. I
have only been to Eldora once this year due to family
commitments, so I was looking forward to the visit.
Plus, if the track was in the shape they are striving
to achieve, I wanted to say hey to all the nay sayers.
Well, mother nature decided to scratch plan A. Plan B
was check the radar and see how it looks towards
Fremont. It looked like the storms would hit close to
Fremont but not quite in Fremont, so off I go. An
usually trip, I made fly solo for the 1st time in a
while. I had some business to talk anyways that I was
going to do at Eldora but the venue changed to
Fremont. It has been a while since I have spent 95% of
the nights in the pits. I remembered quickly, when you
stand against the fence on the backstretch at Fremont,
you get dirty. The wind was blowing straight into your
face.
32 410's and 42 305's were pit side. This was a
long night, make-up 305 B's, yep 2 of them, and a
make-up 305 A Main were on the card too. The track
started off fairly wet but, turned Fremont hard before
the night was over. Now before all the Fremont
bandwagon starts saying here we go, he's bashing the
track, NO I am not. If you don't know by now that
Fremont is going to get slick, you better open your
eyes. Does it make for bad racing, not usually.
Actually, they usually race pretty tight because they
are all figuring out how to get hooked-up and stay
hooked-up. Is it balls to the walls all out speed, not
usually. Do they still crash as hard, this night YES.
Some nasty crashes in the 305's that we will get to in
a minute.
We will start with the make-up races. The make-up
B's went off without any major deals at all. just all
out racing. Todd Heuerman and Matt Lucius took the
make-up B wins. Even though 305 regular, Ryan
Kirkendall didn't make the A, he still had some great
chicken sandwich's in his hauler that they offered to
share with me. See Ryan is just starting like many,
low budget team, no experienced wrenches or driver but
he is having fun and learning. The team is based about
15 miles from my house and I have known them for years
as huge race fans like myself. Well, most of us have
wanted to go drive a sprint car at some time, so they
went out and bought one. Its a huge learning curve but
at least they are having fun and learning at the same
time. I got to remind them when I am coming back, see
if they have more chicken, it was good! The make-up
305 A was a pretty darn good race. Duane Zablocki
looked strong and jumped to the lead. Duane is a guy
that has started at ground zero a few years back in
the 305's. He has gotten better each time out and now
looks like has a chance at a win. The battle was on
for the lead most of the A. Kevin Lee took it on the
2nd restart, then Zablocki again on lap 2. Lee again
on lap 4, but Zablocki and others on still on Lee's
tail. Lap 9, Heuerman takes a nasty tumble in between
turn 1 and 2. He jumped a wheel and went cage 1st into
the fence. He was OK. Andy Shammo and Bryan Sebetto
was on the move. They pressured Duane in the closing
laps and battled out to the end. Shammo takes the win
after starting 10th. Sebetto, Zablocki, Bill Kraylek,
and Stuart Brubaker rounded out the top 5.
There was 4 heats for the 410 sprints. The only
incident of measure was Brandon Marting crashing in to
the turn 3 wall. Martin was scratched for the night.
Bobby Clark, Paul Weaver, Greg Wilson, and Todd Heller
took the heats. The heats were pretty fair with only
one winner coming off the front row. With the night
before 1st and 2nd place finishers in the A at Attica
in the B at Fremont, and on the front row, it was
going to be tough to get past them. Byron Reed took
the B.
The 30 lap A Main was paying $2500 to win. Greg
Wilson took advantage of his pole position and took
the early lead. Lap 3, Mark Keegan gets a great run
off 2 and takes the lead. Keegan looks strong as
Wilson just hang behind some getting ready for
traffic. The track was getting slicker as A went on
and that is what Dale Blaney needed. Dale car
hooked-up and could run 3 different grooves, past
traffic and working on Wilson and Keegan. Blaney and
Keegan are wheel to wheel for 3 laps. Lap 21, Blaney
takes the lead. Just after they past the stripe for
lap 21. Keegan falls off the top of turn 2, wait so
does Wilson. The 2nd and 3rd place cars just dropped
over the bank. This put Byron in 2nd. Blaney cruised
the final 9 laps and took the win over Reed, Mike
Linder, Lee Jacobs, and Brock Mayes. A pretty good A
Main with some excellent side by side racing for the
lead between laps 18 and 21.
The regular show 305 heats were full of action.
Jimmy McGrath took a wild ride down the backstretch in
heat 2. The yellow flew and he climbed a tire, taking
a ride. He all but cleared the fence. Just a very
small part of his car hit the fence pole sending him
back on the track. How do I know, I just walked away
from that spot 5 minutes before that and seen the
wreck happen standing in Bruce Robenalt's hauler. In
heat 4, Shawn Colvin trashed his racer going into turn
1 on the start. How Craig Mintz and other didn't get
collected too, I don't know. Mintz for sure won the
good hands driving award of the night. Dustin Dinan,
Matt Ferrell, Sebetto, and Brad Bowman took the heat
wins. The Computer Man Dash went to Bryan Sebetto. The
2 B main went to Matt Merrill, see Ross I got them
right this time, j/k buddy, thanks for paying
attention and letting me know, and Kevin Lee.
The regular 305 A Main for the night looked to be
all Brad Bowman. Brad shot from the pole to the lead
and was covering the field until they entered traffic.
Craig Mintz was taking the night off form the 410s to
have some fun in a 305 and was closing fast. Plus,
Andy Shammo was looking to make it 2 for 2 and was on
the move from his 9th place starting spot. Mintz tries
but can't get past. Now the front 3 are pretty much
nose to tail in traffic. Bowman shoots to the inside
of Ferrill to put him a lap down, contact, Bowman's
front end is broken, Mintz, Shammo, and Sebetto all go
off the top of turn 2 to miss the accident. This gives
Mintz the lead with 5 to go. Shammo is fast and now
has a shot on a clean track ahead. Mintz gets a good
restart as Andy tries to get past. They battle and on
lap 23, Shammo takes the lead. Shammo sweeps the
night. Mintz, Ryan Lowe, Sebetto, and Dinan round out
the top 5. A very good A Main.
In closing, I would like to remember Scott Seaton.
Scott ran the AVSS and HOSS pavement sprints in
Michigan and Indiana. I have watched Scott for years
but never really got to know him. I think I said hi or
something like that a few years back at Angola one
night but that was about it. Even thought I didn't
know Scott, I knew he was a good person from what
others had said about him. Scott died the way many
would probably want, fast and painless, but it is
still the part of this sport that is hard for
everyone. RIP Scott, God Speed!
UPCOMING
FRIDAY:
KISS Gas City IN, AVSS M-40 MI, SOD Hartford MI, MSA
Birch Run MI
Saturday: KISS North Vernon IN, Sod Thunderbird MI
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