NEMA - NorthEastern Midget Association

October 17-19, 2014

2014 NEMA Midgets Driver and Owner Champions &
World Series Race Winner: Randy Cabral & Tim Bertrand

CABRAL WINS AT THOMPSON,
CLINCHES CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 19,2014 - Randy Cabral didn't need to win on Sunday to notch another NEMA championship, but you wouldn't have guessed it the way he raced through the field and took the lead in the 25 lap feature at Thompson's World Series. It was his sixth win of 2014. He also added to his record 10 wins at the Connecticut oval, while winning his fifth championship in 7 years.

Cabral, of Kingston, MA. led a Bertrand Motorsports assault, with his teammates finishing second and fifth.

Cabral could have clinched the championship with a decent finish in qualifying, but heats for the midgets were cancelled on Saturday due to a lengthy rain delay. NEMA started Sunday with a 20 minute warm-up session.

It only took Cabral 8 laps to run down and pass early leader John Zych of Mendon, MA. Zych stayed within a few car lengths of Cabral. When the caution came out on lap 14 for a spin by Jim Santa Maria of Burlington, CT, it allowed Zych the opportunity to restart alongside Cabral.

Zych regained the lead until another caution 3 laps later. This one for a slowing Bethany Stoehr of Bridgewater, MA, who had a solid top 5 run going until the car broke. On the restart, Zych's car bobbled and shot to the infield entering turn 1. He slid back up onto the track in the middle of traffic. Everyone was able to get by, but Zych was done due to steering problems, retiring to pit road.

Cabral then opened a comfortable lead, but that was negated by the final caution on lap 21 for an incident involving Scott Bigelow of E. Hampton, CT that landed him against the inside retaining wall just out of turn 4.

The single file restart put second place driver and Cabral teammate for the day Cole Carter right on Cabral's bumper. Carter stayed with Cabral through the first and second turn, but Randy turned up the heat on the backstretch and cruised to victory.

Carter finished second, followed by Danny Cugini of Marshfield, MA in third, Jim Chambers of Atkinson, NH fourth and Cabral teammate Todd Bertrand fifth.

Cabral wins his fifth NEMA championship in 7 seasons, all of which accomplished by driving equipment owned by Tim Bertrand. After starting the season with 2 DNF's, he rarely finished out of the top 3, picking up 5 wins.

He had been point battling another consistent finisher, Avery Stoehr of Lakeville, MA. Stoehr had never finished out of the top 10 all season until Sunday - 7 of those were top 5s with 2 wins along the way.

Champion Cabral and NEMA Lite champion Ryan Krachun of Neshanic Station, NJ will be honored at the annual awards banquet on November 22 in Marlborough, MA.


			Photos by Norm Marx

NEMA MIDGETS - Thompson - 10/19/14

Pos. # Driver Hometown Owner

1 47 Randy Cabral Plymouth, MA Tim Bertrand

2 74 Cole Carter Indianapolis, IN Tim Bertrand

3 51 Danny Cugini Marshfield, MA D. Cugini

4 21 Jim Chambers Atkinson, NH Mike Chambers

5 39 Todd Bertrand Sufield, CT Todd Bertrand

6 44 Russ Stoehr Bridgewater, MA Ed Breault

7 54 Jim Santa Maria Burlington, CT Susan Santa Maria

8 46 Kenney Johnson Bethany, CT Jeff Johnson

9 30 Paul Scally Raynham, MA Paul Scally

10
DNF 32 Scott Bigelow E. Hampton, CT Scott Bigelow

11
DNF 9 John Zych Jr. Mendon,MA John Zych Sr.

12
DNF 87 Doug Cleveland Sudbury, MA Doug Cleveland

13
DNF 44b Bethany Stoehr Bridgewater, MA Ed Breault

14
DNF 35 Andy Schlatz - Glen Cabral

15
DNF 71 Seth Carlson Brimfield, CT Gene Feigel

16
DNF 99 Ryan Bigelow E. Hampton, CT Joe Santa Maria

17
DNS 15a Avery Stoehr Lakeville, MA Russ Stoehr

18
DNS 50 Kevin Park Foxboro, MA Pete Pernesiglio, Sr.

*NEMA MIDGETS PRACTICE ON SAT. 10-18*

WORLD SERIES MEET & GREET

- 10:30 AM Sunday morning (Oct. 19) behind the grandstands at the fan entrance.

-Top 10 in points in NEMA, ISMA, and Thompson
Sunoco Modifieds have been invited to participate.

-Free give-a-ways for kids and adults.

Current Top 5s
Top 10s
from each
division
expected.

NEMA
Randy Cabral
Avery Stoehr
Seth Carlson
Todd Bertrand
John Zych Jr.

ISMA
Jon McKennedy
Ben Seitz
Rob Summers
Jeff Locke
Mark Sammut

Modifieds
Ryan Preece
Keith Rocco
Todd Ceravolo
Keith McDermott
Kerry Malone

Cabral Leads NEMA Field to World Series

The Northeastern Midget Association has long considered Connecticut's Thompson Speedway the ultimate "separate the men from the boys" facility. While any Thompson checkered is a treasure, the World Series is definitely the biggest plum.

Four time champion and current point leader Randy Cabral of Plymouth looms as the man to beat when NEMA makes its annual appearance at the Thompson World Series on Oct. 18/19. Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday Oct. 18 with the 25-lap feature part of the busy Sunday, Oct. 19 agenda.

Ten victories, including five World Series triumphs, make Cabral the all-time Thompson maestro. Last year, Cabral charged to second place, then made a surprise pit stop for an adjustment before the halfway point, and then made a heroic run to the front again but fell short to John Zych and Bobby Santos. Zych’s historic run capped a brilliant championship season for the JZ Motorsports team.

This year, Cabral enters the World Series with a 101 point lead over the young Avery Stoehr. If Cabral is able to start both the heat and feature events, he will wrap up the 2014 Championship.

Thompson’s long Midget history, however, is filled with surprises. Considering the last few years have been some of the most competitive seasons in NEMA’s 60+ year history, it is safe to consider the possibility of another surprise. Cabral’s teammate Todd Bertrand (Bertrand 39), Seth Carlson (Feigel 71), Paul Scally (Scally 30), Avery Stoehr (Stoehr 15B), Zych (Zych 9), Jim Santa Maria (Santa Maria 54) and last week’s winner Ryan Bigelow (SantaMaria 99) are all coming to Thompson with high hopes.

NEMA and Thompson have a relationship that goes back to 1960 when the legendary Dutch Schaefer was the winner. Since then, Thompson has helped write a ton of NEMA history and a credible part of that is World Series related.
Greg Stoehr, driving for John Zahar, passed brother Russ in the closing laps to win in 1994. In 2001, Joey Payne, who like Greg Stoehr started last, passed the same Russ Stoehr on the final lap en route to the checkered. The latter was Gene Angelillo’s 100th NEMA win. A Nokie Fornoro romp in 2010 proved to be the last Midget ride for one of the sport’s greatest competitors.

Cole Carter in NEMA World Series Field

Brockton, MA – Cole Carter, a USAC open-cockpit mainstay and a member of one of America’s premier racing families, will be in the Northeastern Midget Association field at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park for the World Series of Racing on October 18th and 19th.

The son of the legendary “Pancho” Carter, Cole will be a teammate of former series champion and current point leader Randy Cabral in Bertrand Motorsports entries. He’ll steer the #74 driven on occasion this season by 2012 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion and current point leader, Doug Coby. After switching engines for the Waterford Speedbowl finale, Coby looked strong in Sunday's shortened practice session but was unfortunately side lined in a first lap crash when Bethany Stoehr's engine expired.

Carter will join a strong field led by Cabral, the all-time NEMA winner at Thompson, that includes Bertrand Motorsports teammate, Todd Bertrand - who was leading last year's World Series until mechanical failure side lined him, 2013 Champion John Zych, Avery Stoehr, Seth Carlson and Paul Scally.

Among current competitors, Russ Stoehr and Zych are the other previous Thompson winners scheduled to be on hand in the field.

Cole Carter’s racing genes include both grandfathers – Duane Carter and Carl Forberg – and an uncle – the late Dana Carter – as well as his dad Poncho who, in addition to many Midget and Sprint successes, had 17 Indianapolis 500 starts.

Cole has been running USAC periodically over the last fourteen years, climbing to as high as fourth in the 2005 USAC standings. He has also driven Sprints, Silver Crown and Infiniti Pro Series cars. His last start for Bertrand Motorsports resulted in a runner up effort to Cabral in 2010 at the World Series, and podium finishes earlier that season at both Stafford Speedway and Thompson.