MOORESVILLE, N.C. – ARCA Menards Series driver Chase Cabre came back to his dirt-racing roots on Thursday night and collected the Open division outlaw kart victory at Millbridge Speedway.
C.J. Sweatt (Intermediate) also won in outlaw kart action during the second official week of competition at the sixth-mile dirt oval this season. No points were paid out during Millbridge’s return to racing.
Cabre led only one lap during the 20-lap Open feature, but it was the one lap that paid the money.
The Tampa, Fla., native made a last-corner pass of Andrew Wehrli and Gavan Boschele to win from third after Boschele and Wehrli got tangled up while racing for the lead and the win.
Wehrli had led the first 19 laps before a caution flag for the spinning kart of Laci Ferno led to a one-lap shootout to the finish. Boschele lined up on Wehrli’s rear nerf bar and, when the green flag waved, dogged the No. 54 through the first set of corners before making his move in turn three.
Boschele dipped underneath Wehrli for the slide job as Wehrli attacked the middle groove of the race track, but when Wehrli tried to cross back underneath Boschele for the win, the two made contact and got hooked together as a result.
As they slowed to a screeching halt at the base of the fourth corner, Cabre came through to steal the surprising victory.
“Sometimes I’d rather be lucky than good, and it just so happened that it paid off to be lucky tonight,” Cabre admitted in victory lane. “Piglet gave me a great car to be in contention at that moment. It’s crazy, because you can’t see out the right side board of these karts, so all I saw was Boschele driving pretty straight (into the corner) and I saw Wehrli pinch him down. I figured something would happen.
“My only thought was that if I stuck the bottom, I might be alright, and it happened to work out.”
In the Intermediate division, although the world around him changed drastically over the 63-day gap in racing, Sweatt’s dominance of the class remained as a constant.
Sweatt led all 20 laps from the pole after topping qualifying and winning his heat race to make it back-to-back feature victories to open 2020 at the sixth-mile dirt oval.
He dominated the proceedings despite six cautions, ending the main event with a 1.832-second margin of victory over runner-up and longtime friend Colt Currie.
“My dad and Travis had our kart dialed in tonight, for sure. That was really good,” noted Sweatt. “I was a little nervous; Colt caught me by surprise on one of the restarts when he went to the bottom, but I knew I just had to arc it down (into the corner) in order to hold him off, and we were able to get it done.”
Aidan Turner, Will Boprey and Brady Fabian completed the top five. Matt Gould, the son of NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series crew chief Phil Gould, ended up sixth after running as high as third.
The point season will resume at Millbridge Speedway during a Tuesday-Thursday double next week, with Beginner Box Stocks and Box Stocks racing on May 19 and Intermediates, Opens and Micros competing on May 21.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.