FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Friday’s opening act of the 26th annual Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales had a common thread throughout the night: first-time winners snapping long losing streaks inside the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
Nowhere was that theme more prevalent than in the 50-lap national midget headliner, as Ohio’s Cap Henry put the bridesmaid title to rest with his first Rumble victory in 10 feature starts.
Henry, who had finished second three times previously in Fort Wayne midget action, used a stellar late-race restart to propel his red-and-black No. 41 past defending Friday night winner Ryan Flores and into victory lane.
Following a red flag with 19 laps left for diminishing air quality inside the building, Henry combined a strong launch with a run into turn one as Flores’ brakes faded to make the pass for the win stick.
Once he got to the front, Henry pulled away by 1.085 seconds en route to the win, becoming the third straight first-time winner in the last three national midget main events at the Rumble.
It was an improbable comeback, considering that Henry’s evening started with a battery issue that prevented him from qualifying and forced him to start last in his heat race before he rallied to transfer into the feature.
“I couldn’t have drawn this up,” admitted Henry in victory lane. “When the thing wouldn’t run in qualifying, I thought, ‘Oh, we’ll just work on it, see what we can get back and aim for tomorrow,’ but during the warm-up laps for the heat race I really felt like it still had something in it to give.
“I knew if we could make the show [at that point], it would be big,” he added. “We weren’t as good as [Ryan] Flores was in the feature, but we got some luck with his brakes running out. He was never able to get back to me after I drove past him, and it was what it was at the end. We’ve had a lot of luck go the other way before, so to get a little bit back this time around feels really good.
“To add a midget win to the list of things I’ve done here at the Rumble is pretty cool.”
Aside from the second-half stoppage, just two other incidents necessitated yellow flags. The first was a turn-three skirmish between Kyle Hamilton and Ricky Peterson on lap three, and the second was a solo spin by Travis Welpott with 13 laps completed.
Even with no brakes in the final laps, Flores hung on for second, giving the NASCAR Cup Series champion pit crew member for Team Penske back-to-back top two finishes in Rumble competition.
“I felt the brake pedal first under red and it went right to the floor,” Flores recalled afterward. “I was able to pump it up a bit as everything cooled off, but it was really challenging once we went back to green because these midgets are so sensitive with stopping power going into the corners on this flat track.
“I really had no defense when Cap tagged me with the bumper, and it got me out of shape enough that I couldn’t stop him once he made the move,” Flores continued. “It’s cool to come out here to the Rumble and be a contender for the second year in a row. I’ve had so much success indoors [in TQ midgets], but there’s nothing like the big shows in this building.”
Henry’s teammate Joe Liguori, who won last year’s Saturday finale for his first Rumble victory, completed the podium ahead of Joey Payne and five-time Rumble winner Russ Gamester.
Ohio teenager Kasey Jedrzejek started the night by setting the fastest time (7.603 seconds) in qualifying.
Welpott, Anderson, Fedorcak, and Liguori topped their respective heat races, while Gamester and Peterson split the pair of last chance qualifiers.
Henry nearly doubled up by winning the winged 600cc micro sprint main that closed the night, but tangled with the lap car of Bill Dunham coming to the white flag in that 25-lap contest and lost the lead to his team owner, John Ivy.
Ivy went on to pull away during a green-white-checkered finish for his 24th career Rumble in Fort Wayne micro victory, with Tyler Shullick and Henry giving Ivy’s three-car operation a sweep of the podium.
“We all race hard, but sometimes it’s about being where others aren’t, and I happened to see the wreck materializing and jumped to the outside just fast enough for it to stick,” Ivy said. “Sometimes I’d rather be lucky than good; these young guys are winning more … but I’m not done quite yet.”
Tyler Gunn and Nate Franklin filled out the top five in the winged 600cc micro feature.
The non-winged 600cc micro race was commanded by 14-year-old Easton Zent, who assumed the lead on lap 9 of 25 after early pacesetter Brian Busz hit an infield tire in turn three and flipped his No. 75b.
Busz was unable to continue, leaving Zent out front for the final 17 laps while fending off persistent pressure from Tyler Gunn, who came home second by .264 seconds.
Ivy crossed the finish line third, followed by Michael Busz and Larry Joe Sroufe.
Josh McKnight (Clone 400) and Steven Berlin (Senior Caged) both reached Rumble victory lane at long last during Friday’s go-kart features, ending winless droughts of 18 and 16 years, respectively.
Other go-kart winners during day one of the Rumble included double victors Alex Smolders (Clone 360, Clone 330) and Dylan Trost (Junior Champ, Junior 3), Devin Hammond (Senior Predator), and Keilan Calderwood (Kid Kart).
Kyle Santora (Senior) and Jaydyn Christle (Junior) split the night’s mini-wedge main events, while Lukas Waber (Animal Combined, Senior Honda), Grayson Hathaway (Heavy Honda), Nolan Elliott (Junior Honda), Aiden Slightom (Heavy 160), and Weston Kudner (Light 160) were all victorious in quarter midget action.
An on-demand replay of day one from the 25th Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales is available through Pit Row TV, a member of the SPEED SPORT Network and the Rumble’s exclusive broadcast partner.
The finish:
Feature (50 laps): 1. 41-Cap Henry [2]; 2. 15F-Ryan Flores [1]; 3. 8UP-Joe Liguori [3]; 4. 2-Joey Payne [7]; 5. 46-Russ Gamester [9]; 6. 6-Ayrton Houk [8]; 7. 97-Mike Fedorcak [4]; 8. 59-Bryan Nuckles [13]; 9. 99H-Kyle Hamilton [12]; 10. 36-Jim Anderson [5]; 11. 49G-Rylan Gray [11]; 12. 5X-Justin Peck [14]; 13. 92-Ricky Peterson [10]; 14. 18-Travis Welpott [6].
