FREMONT, Ohio — Cale Thomas held off a late race challenge to score his second straight 410 sprint car win in as many weeks, opening the 75th Anniversary season of Fremont Speedway Fueled by FriendShip Kitchen Saturday, April 25 with the victory.
Thomas, from Fairland, Indiana, who won the previous week at Attica Raceway Park, had to hold off challenges from Gage Garcia, who led the first 13 laps, and Darin Naida for his fourth career Fremont victory on Level Performance/Gressman Powersports/Fort Ball Pizza Palace Night. Behind Thomas at the checkers were Naida, Bryce Lucius, Garcia and Cap Henry.
Cap Henry’s fifth-place run in the Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprints feature will pad his point lead as he looks to repeat as the champion of the All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads/Kistler Racing Products Attica Fremont Championship Series presented by Baumann Auto Group.
“I was really good on the long green. At the end I was getting tippy on a very technical track. Gage did a good job I just have more laps here than him. I knew what the pace needed to be. I think this is my first time in a sprint car going back to back with wins. In a micro I did it a lot…this is a very humbling sport. We are getting the right pieces around me and it showed tonight,” said Thomas.
Steve Rando looked to be headed to his second Fremont Federal Credit Union feature in as many weeks, leading laps 1-24. But, a red flag on the last lap necessitated a green-white-checkered finish and on the last corner of the last lap Bryan Sebetto got a good run and nipped Rando at the flag stand by .008 seconds for his 29th career Fremont win.
Rando, Paul Weaver, Jamie Miller and John Ivy rounded out the top five.
“I kept missing the bottom and hitting it wrong. We had a really good car all night. Tony Myers came on as the crew chief this year with Josh Wagner. I can’t thank Bobby Clark enough for giving me this opportunity. Was really late in the game when we decided to do this but I’m having a blast. Bobby has given us one of the best race cars in the pits,” said Sebetto.
The Burmeister Trophy Dirt Truck feature saw Dustin Keegan lead the opening six laps before Kent Brewer took over. At the halfway mark sixth starter Keith Sorg, a three-time Fremont track champion, bolted into the lead and then had to hold off several challenges from five-time track champion Shawn Valenti to score his 10th career Fremont win.
Valenti, Jamie Miller, Brewer and Scott Milligan rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 49X-Cale Thomas[1]; 2. 11N-Darin Naida[3]; 3. 32-Bryce Lucius[6]; 4. 16-Gage Garcia[2]; 5. 33W-Cap Henry[5]; 6. 09-Craig Mintz[10]; 7. 45-Keith Sheffer Jr[7]; 8. 19-TJ Michael[12]; 9. 44-Aiden Price[4]; 10. 3-DJ Foos[11]; 11. 15C-Chris Andrews[9]; 12. 28N-Trey Jacobs[15]; 13. 5-Kody Brewer[13]; 14. 41-Thomas Schinderle[16]; 15. 21-Larry Kingseed Jr[8]; 16. 35-Stuart Brubaker[17]; 17. 2X-Gage Etgen[20]; 18. 29-Zeth Sabo[14]; 19. 7M-Brandon Moore[18]; 20. 22M-Dan McCarron[19]
