FREMONT, Ohio -– Nate Dussel was feeling upset about his racing fortunes as of late. Then a phone call with long time sponsor and family friend Bill Berrier Saturday morning put things into perspective.
The Bradner, Ohio, driver used lapped traffic to take the lead in the Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprint feature on lap five and sliced through lapped traffic on a heavy Fremont Speedway Saturday to earn his second feature win of the season and the $5,000 payday on Kistler Engines/Kistler Racing Products Night.
Dussel and Duane Zablocki brought the field to green for the 30-lap 410 sprint feature with Zablocki grabbing the early lead over Dussel, Stuart Brubaker, D.J. Foos, Caleb Griffith, Cap Henry and Trey Jacobs. The leaders raced into heavy lapped traffic by the fifth circuit and Dussel used it to grab the lead.
Dussel began to pull away, slicing through lapped traffic like a surgeon with Brubaker taking second on lap 12 with Zablocki, Henry, T.J. Michael, Dean Jacobs and Tim Shaffer in pursuit. The first race stoppage came on lap 20 when Caleb Griffith tumbled in turn two; he was OK.
After allowing drivers to put on more helmet tear-offs, the race resumed with but only for a lap when something broke on Trey JacobsÂ’ mount. On the restart Dussel pulled away again with Henry, Michael, Foos and Dean Jacobs giving chase.
Dussel hit his marks perfectly the remaining eight laps and drove to the win over Brubaker, Henry, Michael and Foos.
““I had a pretty tough conversation with Bill Berrier this morningÂ…, you know his wife is going through hell right now,” Dussel said. “I was pretty pissy about how we’Â’ve been running and last night and I thought, ‘Grow up dude thereÂ’’s people fighting way bigger fights than weÂ’re fighting.’ This is for Bill and CathyÂ… hope it lifts their spirits a little bit,”” said Dussel in the Engine Pro Victory Lane.
Henry, who earned the 2020 Attica Raceway Park track championship, wrapped up the 2020 All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads/Kistler Racing Products Attica Fremont Championship Series Presented by the Baumann Auto Group with his third place finish.
““Things kind of went our way there that last little bit at the end,” Henry said. “We got lucky and started on the front row of the heat race and got through the heat race. It was hard to pass but we knew we were okay starting there in the feature and just had to run our race. I canÂ’t say enough about Zack, Brett, Jim, Conner and all the girls behind this deal. Everyone puts in so much time and effort and this is really special.”
Paul Weaver inherited the lead in the Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 Sprint feature with three laps to go when Shawn Valenti pulled off the track. Weaver went on to score his fifth win of the season at Fremont – his 12th overall in 2020 with seven wins at Attica –- and it was his 56th career win at Fremont, putting him seventh on the all-time win list. The victory also gave Weaver the NAPA of Bryan AFCS Presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales championship.
Eighteen-year-old Austin Black looked like a seasoned veteran, leading all 20 laps and holding off former track champion Kent Brewer and Jim Holcomb for his first win in the Burmeister Trophy Dirt Trucks. After an opening lap yellow, the feature went non-stop and Black not only was battling to maintain the lead but had to do so in heavy lapped traffic the last half of the race.