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Saturday - August 8th, 2009

#29 IN THE PROGRAM
 #1 IN YOUR HEART

Seekonk, MA - Setting fast time “kind of put the pressure” on Jeff Abold. “After time trials, I knew I just had to give them a win,” said Abold who drove the Seymour-family #29 to victory in Saturday’s 13th annual Northeastern Midget Association Boston Louie Memorial at Seekonk Speedway.

Abold, who set fast time with a blistering 10.859 seconds run, came from 16th to take the lead away from Cole Carter on an 18th lap restart. Carter (Bertrand #74) was the only other leader in the 29-lap event. It was the first Midget ride of the season for Abold, 20, who called it “the biggest win of my career.”

It was a “sweep” for the Seymour family that sponsors the event that honors the memory of the legendary car owner “Boston” Louie Seymour. “We were fast all day,” was classic understatement by Abold.

Carter held for second. Nokie Fornoro (Jarret #4), William Wall (Wall #5) and a fast closing Randy Cabral (Bertrand #47) filled out the top five. Adam Cantor’s streak of top fives ran out with a sixth. It was a strong run for Wall who set second fast tie (11.216), started 15th and caught the leaders in the closing laps.

The second and final restart was a rough one, Carter and Abold “banging wheels” down the front chute. “Just good close racing,” offered Abold who admitted “we touched wheels a couple times. We both wanted to win pretty bad.”

“I pushed it as long as I could without wrecking both of us,” said Carter, who started on the front row and had a wide edge when the first caution showed on lap 16. “It was hard racing. I had just led 16 laps and I didn’t want to give it away.”

Abold had just moved past Adam Cantor for second when a yellow showed, wiping out Carter’s straightaway lead. Carter, who was in traffic by lap seven, had several lapped cars between him and the rest of the field. “In USAC they leave the lapped cars where they are on restarts,” said Carter. “They don’t do that in NEMA and that may have hurt us.” Still, he was well aware “everybody was coming.”

Going back a lap, Abold reverted back to third on the restart. He quickly grabbed second on the green and was still there when yellow showed again two laps later.

Abold, who now had two wins and a second in his last three Seekonk starts, moved into third on lap 12 displacing Fornoro. He needed less than 10 laps to catch a battle that included Cantor, Fornoro and John Zych Jr. “It seemed like all of a sudden I caught right up,” said Abold. “The cars ahead of me were fading and my car was getting stronger.”

Admitting “the cautions were my friends,” Abold nonetheless believed he “probably would have caught him [Carter] without them. We were fast all day. We could run anywhere.”

Time Trials: 1. Jeff Abold (10.859), 2. William Wall (11.216),
3. Russ Stoehr (11.225), 4. Jack Stegois (11.234),
5. Randy Cabral (11.273), 6. Greg Stoehr (11.296),
7. Nokie Fornoro (11.317), 8. Jim Miller (11.330),
9. Chris Leonard (11.391), 10. Adam Cantor (11.401),
11. Jeff Horn (11.443), 12. John Zych Jr. (11.547),
13. Erica Santos (11.550), 14. Chris deRitis (11.550),
15. Cole Carter (11.616), 16. Tim Heath (11.648),
17. Abby Martino (11.687), 18. Paul Scally (11.781),
19. Doug Cleveland (11.781), 20. Lee Bundy (11.899),
21. Matt O’Brien (11.934), 22. Neil Blatt (12.263),
23. Eddie LeClerc Jr. (12.404).

Seekonk, MA – Wearing his late brother’s gloves, Anthony “The Bug” Marvuglio drove to a dominating victory in the caution-free 29-lap NEMA Lites feature at the Boston Louie Memorial at Seekonk Speedway. It was his first ever-Midget win.

It was an emotional win for the brother of Shane Hammond, who died at Thompson two years ago. The motor in the Cabral 35 actually expired on the final lap. Starting on the front row, he led the entire event, often by more than a straightaway.

“Shane loved this track so much,” said Marvuglio, in his second season with the Lites. “I wanted to bring him along for the ride.”

A fast closing Shawn Gosselin (Gosselin #26) was second followed by Stephanie Doty (Doty #09), Joe Mikitarian (Mikitarian #9) and Jake Smith (Smith #93).

“I drove as hard as I could going into one and two on the start,” said Marvuglio. “I knew I had to get in there ahead of the #93 (Smith.) He “stayed right on it” throughout, not even lifting when he was first aware that the motor was going heading into three of the final circuit. “It would have not gone another lap,” he said.

He was “not aware” of Gosselin’s late charge, “There was no looking back,” he said. “I wanted this badly. I looked up at the scoreboard on like lap 10 and he wasn’t there yet.”

When Gosselin grabbed second with 19 left, Marvuglio was picking his way through traffic. “The traffic concerned me a little,” said Marvuglio. “I just looked at it as passing cars for the lead.”

2009 Boston Louie Memorial Classic Race Format

NEMA Midgets:

3 Warm ups

Time Trials will be taking place during the last warm up – Formula 1 style. No more than 6 cars on the track at a time for time trials.

Time trial lineups will be based upon the fastest transponder times from warm-ups. The fastest 6 cars will run together, the next six, and so on.

Time trial results will be based upon the fastest single lap for each car.

2-3 heats will be run and the heat race invert will be determined after time trials. The typical heat race invert over the last two years has been somewhere between 20 and the total number of cars present.

The number of cars out of each heat that qualify will be based upon the feature invert.

There will be a feature invert and it will be an even number - between 10 and 16.

If, for example, a #12 invert, the fastest out of the qualified cars would start 12th, the second fastest 11th, the third fastest 10th, and so on. The 13th – 15th fastest would start 13th – 15th, heads up, and so on…

If, for example, a #16 invert, the fastest out of the qualified cars would start 16th, the second fastest 15th, the third fastest 14th, and so on.

NEMA Lites:

2 Warm ups

Time Trials will be taking place during the last warm up – Formula 1 style.

Time trial results will be based upon the fastest single lap for each car.

2 heats will be run and the heat race invert will be determined after time trials. There will be a heat race invert, to be decided after time trials.

There will be a feature invert as well – to be announced after the heat races.