CABRAL THRILLS in NEMA
FAST WIN at OSWEGO SPEEDWAY
Randy Cabral is a one man
thrill show. He didn’t disappoint the fans at Oswego
Speedway on Sunday night with his demonstration of driving
skills and speed on the way to his fifth win of the season.
Cabral of Kingston, MA tracked down Mendon, MA driver
John Zych and passed him on the final turn to win the 25 lap
NEMA midget feature, part of the Race Of Champions Weekend
at Oswego. The midgets had waited over 24 hours to run their
event, after being rained out on Saturday. They ran an
abbreviated program without heats and only one round of
practice.
Zych himself had reeled in early leader
Michael Barnes of Mexico, NY and wrestled the lead away on
lap 15. Barnes had been the leader since the drop of the
green flag and had opened a sizeable lead on a track he is
very familiar with.
Zych was clicking off laps in
the mid 16’s and turned in the fastest lap of the race at
nearly 137 miles per hour. Once in the lead, he set sail and
was looking for his second win of the season. He was held up
momentarily while attempting to put Bethany Stoehr of
Bridgewater, MA down a lap. The car got loose when he went
high to pass and lost a lot of ground to now second place
runner Cabral. Cabral was able to almost pull up along side
Zych.
Once Zych cleared the lapped car, he again
opened up by 6 lengths. But on the white flag lap he
encountered traffic again, this time a group of 3 cars
running together just in front of him. Hesitating only a
split second to decide how to handle them was all Cabral
needed to charge underneath in turn 3. They raced side by
side out of 4 and Cabral beat him to the line by one-tenth
of a second.
To show how hard he raced all 25 laps,
Zych appeared to lose an engine on the cool down lap,
dropping heavy fluid on the track in a cloud of steam and
smoke. He was forced to stop the car in turn two and missed
the post-race podium celebration on the frontstretch.
Barnes finished third, followed by veteran driver Doug
Cleveland of Sudbury, MA, who recorded his best finish of
the year. Last year’s Oswego winner Seth Carlson of
Brimfield, MA, Raynham’s Paul Scally, Lakeville’s Avery
Stoehr and Pennsylvania’s Ian Cummens followed as the rest
of the cars on the lead lap.
The race went caution
free and took just over 7 minutes to complete.
The
win pads Cabral’s point lead in his quest to win a fifth
NEMA championship. Two races remain on the schedule.
Brothers Scott and Ryan Bigelow of East Hampton, CT were the
dominate cars in the NEMA Lites portion of the night. They
raced into first and second spot early and stayed there to
the end, even after a late race restart.
The only
caution was on lap 17 when Danny Cugini of Marshfield, MA
slowed on the track and was unable to make it back to the
infield pit area. Even with the caution and single file
restart the race was over in less than 9 minutes.
There was a great battle for third between Matt Swanson of
Acton, MA and double-duty driver Randy Cabral. Cabral
challenged on the inside and the outside, even using lapped
traffic as a pic, but young Swanson held him off. Canada’s
Logan Rayvals came on strong from the back in the late
stages, but could only advance to fifth. NJ drivers Ryan
Krachun, Calvin Carroll and Anthony Payne finished sixth,
seventh and eighth, with Deefield NH’s Dennis O’Brien and
Marshfield’s Megan Cugini rounding out the top 10.
Krachun remains the point leader leaving Oswego, with one
more event for the NEMA Lites in 2014.
The next race
on the NEMA schedule is Waterford on the weekend of October
4 and 5. That’s the last one for the Lites. The midgets wrap
up their season on October 18 and 19 at Thompson’s World
Series weekend.
NEMA MIDGETS - OSWEGO - 9/14/14
Pos.
#
Driver
Hometown
Owner
1
47
Randy Cabral
Plymouth, MA
Tim
Bertrand
2
9
John Zych Jr.
Mendon,MA
John Zych
Sr.
3
85
Michael Barnes
-
Michael Barnes
4
87
Doug Cleveland
Sudbury, MA
Doug
Cleveland
5
71
Seth Carlson
Brimfield, CT
Gene
Feigel
6
30
Paul Scally
Raynham,
MA
Paul Scally
7
15a
Avery Stoehr
Lakeville, MA
Russ Stoehr
8
79
Ian Cumens
Lydell, PA
Ian Cumens
9
5b
Bethany
Stoehr
Bridgewater,
MA
MCI Racing/
Greg Stoehr
10
46
Kenney Johnson
Bethany, CT
Jeff Johnson
11 DNF
51
Danny Cugini
Marshfield, MA
D. Cugini
12 DNS
21
Jim Chambers
Atkinson, NH
Mike Chambers
13 DNS
7
Joey Scanlon
Salem, NH
Jim Chambers
NEMA LITES - OSWEGO - 9/14/14
Pos.
#
Driver
Hometown
Owner
1
32
Scott Bigelow
E. Hampton, CT
Scott
Bigelow
2
31
Ryan Bigelow
Kensington, CT
Paul
Bigelow
3
9
Matt Swanson
Acton, ME
Matt Seymour
4
35
Randy Cabral
Plymouth, MA
Glen Cabral
5
94
Logan Rayvals
Brockville, ON, CA
Craig Rayvals
6
29
Ryan Krachun
Neshanic Station, NJ
Mike Krachun
7
24
Calvin Carroll
-
Calvin Carroll
8
21
Anthony Payne
Fairlawn, NJ
Jennifer Scrivani
9
16
Dennis O'Brien
Deerfield, NH
Chris O'Brien
10
41
Megan CuginI
Marshfield, MA
D. Cugini
11 DNF
51
Danny Cugini
Marshfield, MA
D. Cugini
12 DNS
46x
Kenney Johnson
Bethany, CT
Jeff Johnson
NEMA OSWEGO POSTPONED
TO SUNDAY
The
race at Oswego has been postponed till Sunday. Pit
gates open at 7:30 AM & Practice starts at 9:15 AM. Saturday's
program at will run after Sunday's - approximately 4:00 PM. NEMA
and NEMA LITES will be the 1st and 3rd features. Teams
will be allowed to leave shortly after their features.
NEMA NEXT AT BIG
OSWEGO WEEKEND
The NEMA Midgets and the
NEMA Lites will be making one of their longest tows of the
season to one of most challenging tracks on the circuit this
Saturday. NEMA returns to the Oswego Speedway to be part of
the track's Race of Champions Weekend.
The midgets
share the card with the Small Block Supermodified
Championship 50 and RoC Sportsman 100 on day 1 of the 2 day
race weekend. The Supermodified championship race and the
RoC Modified 200 is on Sunday. The Race of Champions event
is the second oldest consecutively run auto race in the
country. Only the Indy 500 has been run longer.
The
5/8 mile oval provides for some fast laps for NEMA. Seth
Carlson of Brimfield, MA set a blistering pace on the way to
his impressive win last year. But the fastest lap was turned
in by Greg Stoehr of Bridgewater, MA turning a 17.116 for an
average of over 131 miles per hour.
All of the top 5
finishers in last year's NEMA feature were cranking out laps
in the low 17's. None were faster than Jim Miller's record
setting lap of 16.94 during their 2012 visit to Oswego.
Miller was also the feature winner.
Many of the
experienced drivers consider Oswego to be a "rhythm track."
If you can set a pace, get out of the groove and do your
passing on the outside you can really gain some ground.
Among those that have followed that philosophy is six
time champion Russ Stoehr of Lakeville, MA. Russ is an 8
time winner there. New Jersey's Joey Payne is a two time
midget winner and multi-time supermodified victor at the
"Steel Palace." Payne just completed a superfast weekend at
the famed Oswego Classic.
Another driver that knows
the quick way around Oswego is Richie Morrocco of
Plainville, MA. He got his first ever NEMA Lite win in his
rookie season last year.
Other past Oswego podium
finishers are also threats to end up in victory lane this
week including Danny Cugini of Marshfield, MA, Christian
Briggs of Mattapoisett, MA and Kensington, CT's Paul Bigelow
in the Lites, as well as Bridgewater's Bethany Stoehr,
Lakeville's Avery Stoehr and Pennsylvania's Ian Cummens in
the midgets.
Add in any of the other 10 winners from
this season and it's anyone's guess as to who will bring
home the trophy.
Points are in consideration for this
race as well. Oswego is the first of the three remaining
races of season for the NEMA midgets and next to last event
for the Lites. There are even bonus points awarded for this
race considering the distance of travel to the venue.
Randy Cabral of Kingston, MA now has a satisfying lead
over Avery Stoehr by virtue of his win in the most recent
race at Star Speedway. It was Cabral's fourth of the season.
The separation is 73 points.
Ryan Krachun of Neshanic
Station, NJ was able to regain the Lites point lead after
his first Lites victory at Star. He sits a comfortable 82
points ahead of 4 time winner PJ Stergios of Candia, NH. The
standings are extremely tight from second to fourth.
Practice for cars of Oswego's day 1 Race of Champions event
is scheduled for 3:30 PM, with qualifying at 5:00 PM.
Pits open at 2:15. Morning practice is not permitted for
NEMA.
