FREMONT, Ohio — Switching a car or getting one “fixed” often times is just what the doctor ordered for a sprint car driver. Such was the case Saturday at Fremont Speedway.
Stuart Brubaker switched chassis — back to an old car of his —Jamie Miller got his car repaired and Randy Hannagan brought a new car out and all three ended up in victory lane at “The Track That Action Built.”
Brubaker, who won the 410 sprint title at Attica Raceway Park last year, had been struggling in 2019. But, he got an old chassis back from a former car owner and it paid off as he held off a charging Cap Henry for his first win of 2019 in the Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprints. It was Brubaker’s seventh career win at Fremont Speedway, but his first in a 410 sprint car, the rest coming on board a 305 sprint.
Cap Henry, Lee Jacobs, Budd Kofoid and Nate Dussel rounded out the top five.
Brubaker remains in the hunt for the $10,000 title in the All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads/Kistler Racing Products Attica Fremont Championship Series (AFCS) Presented by the Baumann Auto Group.
“We’ve struggled all year…we’ve been horrible all year. We switched cars this week and went back to a Maxim. I have to thank the Burmeisters…it’s actually one of my old cars I used to run. I have to thank everybody who helps, Ron, Teresa, mom, dad and Brendan who busted his ass this week to get this car together,” Brubaker said.
For Hannagan a new car and paint scheme reinvigorated the veteran driver as he scored his second career win at Fremont; the first coming last year at the track.
“I have to thank Tyson and Dennis and Fritz and my son Mason and everybody that works on this thing. We’ve had second and second and second and we blew a motor and crashed the car; I spun out in front of the whole field at I-96 and took half of them out and I felt terrible. I usually don’t do stuff like that. We had to put a new car together and we’re just getting it underneath us and it’s coming around. That’s the best this car has felt since I’ve sat in it and I think we have a good rocket ship…we’re back to the red rocket. That black car was possessed or something. This type of track makes you drive a race car. By today’s standards and the way sprint cars with technology you have to have a slick race car so you can race…put the driver back into it. We got on something good tonight,” said Hannagan.
Miller, coming off the best season of his career, has struggled to begin 2019. So the team took the car apart, took the chassis to Tony Beaber in Gibsonburg, Ohio who operates a chassis repair shop, and Miller promptly put the car in victory lane in the Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 Sprints. It’s Miller’s 21st career win at Fremont placing him 29th on the track’s all-time win list.
“This win is due to Tony Beaber. He did an amazing job and it feels like we have our old race car back…like it did last year. I’m hoping you will see me a lot more up here. It was bent in the back and the front was twisted up. We had a pretty bad wreck that last race at Attica last year and it pushed things around and we were struggling with it. It feels pretty good tonight. When you can move around and still pass cars on the slick and get around lapped cars…I could go pretty much anywhere and had good drive and didn’t spin the tires,” said Miller.