Four wide parade lap.

Santos makes inside pass on Horn for the lead and win.

DAV winner Bobby Santos III with Mrs. Venditti of Seekonk

Seekonk, MA (October 8, 2006): The Northeastern Midget Association (NEMA) joined the celebration of the D. Anthony Venditti Memorial at Seekonk Speedway this weekend with rising superstar Bobby Santos III of Franklin, MA visiting victory lane. Seekonk Speedway has provided the most exciting racing action for the Midgets in 2006-this weekend was no different. Earlier this season both Randy Cabral and Nokie Fornoro had the crowd on their feet with winning moves. On Sunday, it was Santos who stole the show. Santos came from the 23 starting position to take the lead with a daring move on lap 26 to ultimately claim the win.

The victory was the third NEMA win for Santos this season-including the Open competition event at Stafford back in August-for the third different owner. The first win of the season was scored at Stafford Motor Speedway in the family-owned #98s, the second was for his USAC car owner Bob East, also at Stafford, and now the third for the Seymour Family. The win on Sunday continues the dominance of the Seymour car in the D.A.V. Memorial event; bringing the impressive tally to five wins in eight years for the mighty “Spirit of Boston” #29.

Santos, who celebrated his 21st birthday on October 3rd, currently runs the USAC National Sprint and Midget series with wins to his credit in both divisions. The future looks bright for Sunday’s NEMA winner. The young driver is under the microscope of some of racing’s most influential teams.

Next week, Santos will make his ARCA Series debut at Iowa Speedway for Bill Davis Racing with crew chief Tommy Baldwin, Jr. Santos could not have selected a better place to work with Bill Davis Racing. In September, Santos III erased a nine-year old all-time USAC Midget qualifying record at Iowa, qualifying at 143.553 mph to beat Ryan Newman’s 1997 record of 143.265 set at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado.

In true NEMA fashion, the action heated up right from the drop of the green with Pete Pernesiglio, Adam Cantor, and Erica Santos running three-wide for the lead. Pernesiglio got the jump but a spin by Bobby Kuiken stopped the action to set up a restart with the original line-up. It was three-wide again for the lead with another driver in the mix this time. Again, Pernesiglio came out on top of the three-car battle for the lead that now included Corey Cleary and Cantor. Cleary took over second spot with E. Santos and Horn battling for third. Cantor faltered just a bit.

Horn took third from E. Santos and then second from Cleary on lap four. A pair of laps later Horn was the new leader. Joey Payne and Shane Hammond had started their march to the front. Once past E. Santos, Payne set out after Pernesiglio. Meanwhile the lead pack had entered heavy lapped traffic.

Payne dashed into the second spot behind Horn. The top-five on lap 20 now included the hard-charging B. Santos. Horn was leading Payne, Hammond, Santos and Pernesiglio when the caution flew for another spin by Kuiken. Heavy hitters Ben Seitz and Randy Cabral sat inside the top-ten while Nokie Fornoro and Mike Keeler were mired further back in the pack.

The field had a tough time getting back under green as three false starts stalled the action. Once finally back underway, Horn continued to show the way over Payne and now Santos in third. Pernesiglio had troubles on the restart and finally brought out the yellow flag on lap 23. He was able to make repairs and return to action.

A similar scenario as lap 20 was played out on the attempt to restart the race. Later that evening, Horn was fined and put on probation for his involvement.

Payne stayed alongside Horn on the successful restart. The two went wheel to-wheel before Santos also joined the action for the top spot. Horn continued to lead but had his hands full with Santos and Payne.

With Payne on the outside, Santos was able to grab the second spot away then rocketed into the lead on lap 26. Payne followed through moving Horn back to third. Shane Hammond had the best seat in the house in fourth. Late in the race Cabral spun but did not necessitate the yellow flag.

At the checkers it was another exciting win for Santos. Payne came home in the second position over Horn, Hammond and Seitz inside the top five. Keeler and Fornoro came on strong in the end to finish sixth and seventh respectively. Greg Stoehr, B.J. MacDonald and Mike Horn rounded out the top ten.

On Saturday, heat race wins went to Pete Pernesiglio of Lake Grove, NY and Ben Seitz of Monument Beach, MA.

By virtue his fifth place finish, point leader Ben Seitz was able to gain a few more valuable points over rivals Randy Cabral and Nokie Fornoro as the NEMA Midgets head into the final two point races of the season. Next up is the much-anticipated World Series of Racing at Thompson International Speedway on October 13-15, 2006 followed by the “Double-Down Shootout” event at the Waterford Speedbowl on October 29, 2006.

For more information on these great events log on to www.thompsonspeedway.com or www.speedbowl.com.

NEMA NOTE: For the Seymour #29, this was the 5th win in eight years at the DAV Memorial. Two with Bobby Seymour, two with Mark Buonomo, and now one with Bobby Santos. All with Hawk chassis and Autocraft engines.