FORT WAYNE, Ind. — In the return of the 100-lap distance to the famed Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Ohio’s Cap Henry authored a dominant performance of epic proportions.
After earning the pole for the grand finale of the 27th Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales, Henry took off like a shot and never trailed during the Burco Molding Race to 100 for the headlining national midget division.
Henry led every lap en route to a $4,000 victory, earning his second career Rumble in Fort Wayne triumph in the top class as part of a one-two sweep by Joe Liguori Racing.
Though the race was split into three segments – providing air quality breaks near the one-third and two-third benchmarks, respectively – there was never a point where it felt like Henry wasn’t in control.
He fended off Russ Gamester through the first 75 laps, then pulled away late after young Kasey Jedrzejek shuffled Gamester out of the mix, creating a final battle for the runner-up honors between Jedrzejek and Henry’s car owner Joe Liguori.
A spin by fifth-running Derek Bischak right after the white flag set up a green-white-checkered finish, pushing the race one lap beyond its scheduled distance, but Henry easily pulled away from Liguori to a .618-second margin of victory.
Henry drew the No. 1 pill early in the night and officially secured the feature pole by winning the Ohio Supermodified Sprint Series Dash. It was that moment that made him believe he could control the proceedings the way that he did come race time.
“I said [before the race] that [the field] didn’t want me starting pole and setting the pace,” Henry noted. “I guess now, you can see why just a little bit.”
The only true nervous moment for Henry all night came with 10 laps left, when he was passing the slower car of Chris Neuenschwander and got into Neuenschwander’s No. 3 with his right front tire.
It could have been disastrous, but Henry barely missed a beat and continued to lead with no discernable damage to his red No. 41.
“I thought I was there and I was trying to get out of [that situation],” Henry admitted. “To be honest with you, I thought the thing was going to blow up with 30 to go, so at that point I was running the dog crap out of it to try and make sure … if I was going to blow up, I at least wanted to have a big lead when I did.
“Luckily it didn’t happen and we were able to hold on. This is such a cool moment. … I remember being a little kid in this building and watching the 100 lappers, and I didn’t think I’d ever win one. I didn’t think I’d ever win a midget race in here, period. So just to come in here and have this good a race car, it shows how hard everyone on this [No.] 41 car works.”
There was also emotion in Henry’s voice, reflecting on the first win for Liguori’s team since the loss of former team owner Randall ‘Slim’ Williams earlier in the year.
“Man, we lost Slim this year, and I really miss him,” said Henry as tears welled in his eyes. “He was such a big part of this Joe Liguori Racing deal and it means a lot to win one for him like this. I hope he’s watching and proud of what we did here.”
Liguori got to third in the final quarter of the race, chasing Jedrzejek through traffic, before making the pass for second coming to 12 laps left and settling in well behind his teammate.
Even with the final caution giving his a chance at Henry’s bumper, Liguori tipped he had no real offense with how strong Henry was all race long.
“It’s funny; I’ve been coming here for about 20 years and won the thing a couple of times, but I’d never finished second before tonight,” Liguori said. “It’s cool to get another one-two for this team, though. We did that last year in the Saturday show, when I won and Cap ran second.
“Racing Kasey was fun and I did everything I could to be as clean as possible, but it is indoor racing and you’ve got to use the bumpers at times. I’d expect the same in return,” Liguori added. “I needed that yellow to get to Cap, but as I was chasing him, I burned the brakes off my car and had nothing left on that green-white-checkered. It was all his race at that point.”
Jedrzejek crossed third in his best Rumble midget showing in three attempts, with Gamester fading to fourth and Jakeb Boxell finishing fifth to earn Rookie of the Race honors.
Saturday’s headliner was the first 100-lap midget race in Fort Wayne in more than two decades.
Meanwhile, the 600cc micro sprint features Saturday night weren’t all about John Ivy the driver, as they’ve been in so many years past at the Rumble. They were, however, about Ivy the car owner.
Ivy’s driver Tyler Shullick swept both the winged and non-winged micro features to cap off the Rumble, pushing his weekend record to three-for-four and his career Rumble win total to six between the two micro sprint classes.
The 25-lap non-winged leg saw Shullick capitalize after race-long leader Brent Busz was spun by then runner-up Dillon Nusbaum with nine laps left, as the pair battled for the top spot into turn one.
Nusbaum was sent to the rear for the contact along with Busz, elevating Shullick to the lead from third and allowing him to run off by 1.163 seconds in the end.
Dylan Woodling, Brian Busz, Friday winner Larry Joe Sroufe, and Joss Ross completed the top five.
The winged micro 25-lapper was dominated by three John Ivy-owned race cars, with Ivy’s daughter Kelsey Mange racing to the early lead from the outside of the front row and setting the pace for the first 14 circuits.
A caution for a spinning Tylar Rankin gave Shullick a chance, though, and he darted past Mange on the 11-to-go restart and never gave up command again.
Three more cautions inside of five to go created a few nervous moments, but Mange and Ivy hung on to second and third, respectively, to complete an incredible night for their organization overall – with Shullick leading the way.
In addition to the three major classes, 16 grassroots divisions between go-karts, quarter midgets, and mini wedges also competed on Saturday.
Headlining that list of winners was Dustin Heath, who topped the 360 Clone class in the traditional Limbacher Memorial go-kart race, and triple Saturday quarter midget victor Weston Kudner.
Kudner’s scores came in the Animal Combined, Senior Honda, and Light 160 divisions.
On-demand replays of every lap from the 27th Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales are available through Pit Row TV, a member of the SPEED SPORT Network.
The finish:
Feature (101 laps): 1. 41-Cap Henry [1]; 2. 8UP-Joe Liguori [5]; 3. 75-Kasey Jedrzejek [6]; 4. 46-Russ Gamester [4]; 5. 96-Jacob Boxell [9]; 6. 6H-Ayrton Houk [12]; 7. 99C-Mario Clouser [11]; 8. 31-Derek Bischak [7]; 9. 3-Chris Neuenschwander [14]; 10. 36-Jim Anderson [10]; 11. 24B-Shawn Bonar [8]; 12. 92-Ricky Peterson [3]; 13. 49H-Sam Hinds [13]; 14. 59-Bryan Nuckles [2].
