Fan Notes from Fremont Ohio Speedweek

Fremont Speedway (Tom Myers)- 6/13/2021- The All Star Circuit of Champions sprint series held the 2nd event for their 39th annual Ohio Sprint Speed Week at Fremont Speedway Saturday June 12th. And for the 2nd night in a row, the Speed Week action was fantastic!

The weather on Saturday was warm and sunny. It was perfect for a race at the picturesque fairgrounds speedway. Since I didn’t have any chores to do in the early afternoon, and since it was such a beautiful day, Dad and I headed out to the track early, around 1:30 or so.

It was a great drive. The crops are growing, the trees have all their leaves, and the countryside was just so green and beautiful to look at. What a sense of freedom you get when you travel west in Ohio. It’s just flat and there are so many farms and old towns to see. And it was as I always remembered it being, when, as a youngster, Dad would take me to the races.

We made great time and before you knew it, we were driving through Bellevue. Bellevue is just a few towns east of Fremont and it is a beautiful old town. I always notice the old mansions that line the main street through the center of town. Route 20 goes right through Bellevue and is a fairly traveled road for folks in Northeast Ohio. I’m going to bring my wife here some crisp, fall morning for sightseeing and picture taking. I mean, some of these century homes are huge and just amazing! If you like chasing history, the many smaller towns in Ohio are a great place to explore.

As we drove through Bellevue, we stopped at a red light and I looked to my left and there was a 30’s something man, wearing a sandwich board and some shorts with the stars and stripes on them, standing at the street corner. The sign said, “Dad Bod Car Wash” and I laughed.

Then the guy saw that my car was covered with dust…. thick dust from the previous evening’s race at Attica. He started pointing at me and pointed about 3 times and was waving for me to get a car wash and laughing. I gave him the thumbs up and laughed as well, but you know, we were on the road to the races so there was no time for a car wash just then!

So we got to the track around 3:30 and got a good parking spot and meandered up to the gate to get in. It was hot but there was a much needed breeze. It really was a perfect day. Once we got in and settled, Dad headed to get a sandwich and I went to the pits.

"Big Nut" Jon Peters There were 44 cars on hand today, still a good car count. I hope they can get over 50 for at least one of these events this week. A few racers that were not at Attica were on hand tonight, including Cole Duncan, Harli White, who was the 360 winner at Limaland the previous evening, Zane Default, Kyle Cappodice, Dan McCarron, Ricky Peterson, Ryan Broughton and Brian Smith. Of note, Brandon Spithaler was driving the Prosser 19 car tonight and for the next couple of races. This way, Barndon explained, he could run more of the races this week. He will be back in his own car for some of the remaining races.

Fremont Speedway is celebrating its’ 70th year of operations this year. If you are a serious race fan, put Fremont Speedway on your bucket list of places to visit. Fremont is one of only two tracks in the country that has a Hall of Fame on the racetrack grounds, the other being Knoxville. And there are plans to expand the museum so they can have more exhibits. They have 8 cars stuffed into the museum currently, and they have additional cars and memorabilia they want to display. This evening’s race will be Fremont’s 35th All Star Speed week event, having the most speed week events only behind Attica and Eldora. The first Speed week event run at Fremont was in 1983. It’s a really neat place to watch a race. It’s historic and picturesque and the racing is always good.

The track was smooth and looked racy, but it quickly dried out during time trials. The first 10-15 cars out had a distinct advantage. Danny Dietrich turned the fastest time of the evening and he was the first one out to time. The drivers could get decent traction off of turn 2 up around the high side, but everywhere else, save for a few small patches of moisture, slicked off and drivers were spinning their wheels and racing their engines off of turn 4. The top 10 qualifiers were Nate Dussel 10th, Greg Wilson 9th, Cole Duncan was 8th, John Ivy was 7th, Tyler Courtney was 6th, Cory Eliason was 5th, Lachlan McHugh was 4th, Stuart Brubaker was 3rd, D.J. Foos was 2nd and Dietrich was the quickest.

There would be 5 heats, with the 4 top finishers going to the A main. The top 2 timers were locked into the dash as long as they transfer from their heat. The heat winner and also the fastest qualifier who transferred from their heat race were also put into the dash. There would be a dash draw and 2 dashes to determine the starting positions in the first 6 rows of the feature. I like the All Star format, I think it mixes it up pretty well. Most of the time, you need to be prepared to pass some cars to have a good starting spot in the feature.

In heat 1, McHugh and Brubaker started on the font, with Foos and Dietrich in row 2, Ivy and Wilson in row 3 and Dussel and Rinehardt and Jordan Ryan at the tail. The finish was McHugh in first, followed by Dietrich, Brubakder and Foos. Dietrich made a few good moves to get into that 2nd spot on a slick, dusty track.

In the 2nd heat, the “Big Nut”, super Ohio State football fan and Fremont resident Jon Peters, had the honor of waiving the green flag. If you have watched an Ohio State football game on TV, you have seen the “Bug Nut”. OH-IO! Go Bucks! Now I want it to be football season…..but that just lasted for a second, because I love sprint car racing!

Cale Thomas The 2nd heat lineup was Peck and McMahon in the front row, Courtney and Eliason in row 2, Andrews and Reed in row 3, Kemenah and McCarron and Zablocki at the tail.

Peck raced away for the win, followed by McMahon, Eliason and Courtney. Not much passing up front in this one.

In heat 3 the starting order was Holmes and Philo in the front row, Harli White and Cole Duncan in row 2, Conley and Leery in row 3, then Zavault, Smith and Nervo. The heat was follow the leader up front with Philo getting the win followed by Tanner Holmes, Duncan and Leery. Harli White slid back and Leery made a nice drive up the 4th. Holmes makes his first All Star A main in only his 8th ever 410 sprint car start.

In heat 4, the first row was Garet Williamson alongside Cale Thomas, 2nd row was Abreu and Wise, 3rd row was Schurenburg and Cappodice, and the last 3 were Madsen, Peterson and Broughton. Last evening’s winner Madsen went out late to time and had a bad time and is in a hole back in the 4th row. On this track surface tonight, it will be hard for him to transfer. Abreu wins the heat with some nifty momentum sweeping around the outside to take the lead. He was followed by Wise and Schurenburg, who moved up nicely and the 4th place finisher was Thomas. Madsen finished 5th and missed the transfer.

The heat 5 lineup was Gee and Spithaler on the front row, Henry and Michael in row 2, Shaffer and Balog in row 3 with Trey Jacobs and Cole Macedo in the last row. Henry wins the heat by racing hard to sweep around Gee and Spithaler, and then Shaffer comes up to 2nd. Henry and Shaffer put on a clinic on a slick dry track. Gee finishes 3rd with Spithaler finishing 4th. Some good drivers missed the transfer in this one.

After the heats, a nice old man came up the stands and sat next to my Dad. Then he started talking with Dad and they talked quite a bit all evening. That was neat, but the funny thing was that, when this nice fellow was talking, I couldn’t understand hardly anything he said, he just didn’t pronounce his words clearly at all. And my Dad, who can’t hear very well anymore and has trouble hearing me talk, even when I talk loudly, also had cotton in his ears. And these two guys were talking away, just shooting the breeze, seemingly with no problem! Ha Ha, I don’t know how!

The track was watered before the dashes and C and B mains. Thank goodness! It did seem that some moisture was coming up through as the sun was setting. And the extra water helped for little while… but after a few racing laps, it didn’t make a huge difference with the traction.

Cole Duncan in Victory Lane at Fremont The first dash finish was Dietrich, Peck, Philo, Henry, Abreu and McHugh. Peck came up from 5th with some nifty driving, McHugh fell back. The 2nd dash finish was Wise, Brubaker, Eliason, Duncan, Foos and Spithaler. This dash finished like it started except Wise, who started outside row 1, beat Brubaker into the first turn and that was it for this dash.

The C main winner was Balog, who came up from 4th and McCarron finished in 2nd. They transferred to the tail of the B main. The B main finish was Greg Wilson winning it, followed by Ivy, Reed and Dussel, who was up from 7th. These 4 transferred to the A main. Madsen and Balog took a provisional to start the A main, but Balog had a tire go flat during the pace laps and had to go to the pits. Under All Star rules, there was no courtesy time to change the tire and Balog missed the start of the feature.

The A main started out kind of boring as Dietrich grabbed the lead from the pole and then raced away. There were 2 cautions on lap 9 that kept Dietrich out of lapped traffic for awhile. Peck hung around in second as Duncan, who started 8th, was slowly creeping up. Another caution on lap 13 preserved Dietrich’s clear track and then the race went green the rest of the way. As the last laps unfolded, Dietrich was slowed down in traffic and Peck kept inching closer. The slick track required much patience and nimble throttle control. Duncan then found his way to Peck’s bumper and passed him on lap 31 for 2nd. Peck didn’t go away and stayed with Duncan as both he and Duncan crept up on Dietrich. More than a few times all 3 cars were together in the same turn with Dietrich barely holding onto the lead and Peck almost passing Duncan. Over the final 2 laps Duncan had gotten so close and was almost able to pass. And then on the last corner Duncan swept around the outside and barely squeezed by Dietrich at the checkers. Wow! The place went wild with applause for Cole, who had raced a masterful race. What a show the top 3 put on for us.

Being from Ohio, I didn’t want Dietrich to win. Burned in my brain are the bad memories of Bobby Allen, Dub May, Steve Smith, Paul Pitzer and Kramer Williamson coming to Ohio and winning all the races back in the 70’s. But I will say, to Danny’s credit, he raced a hell of a race and was very classy in victory lane… as the crowd roared for Cole Duncan. Danny said he loves coming to Ohio and that Ohio puts on the best racing, in his opinion. Thank you Danny, we love to have you come and race with us. You are a great racer and one of the best who has beaten the best. But this night belonged to Cole Duncan, who turned in an awesome performance. Congrats on the win Cole!

Wow, great racing both nights so far. And now it’s onto Wayne County Speedway for Monday’s event. Thank you Fremont Speedway for putting on a great show, and we were out of there at 9:30!. Thank you All Star Circuit of Champions for Sprint Speed week! See you at the next race.