Fan Notes from Saturday Attica All Stars

Darin Naida (Tom Myers) 4/15/23 – The All Stars opened up their 2023 points schedule with Friday and Saturday races at Attica Raceway Park for the Core and Main Spring Nationals. I wasn’t able to attend Friday, but I did make it for Saturday’s race, my first for 2023.

The Friday race was a hard fought contest with Craig Mintz coming home the victor after barely getting his nose ahead of Zeb Wise at the checked flag! Hunter Schuerenburg, Brent Marks and Parker Price-Miller rounded out the top 5. On Friday 41 cars were in the pits. Saturday’s car count was lower because of other events in Ohio but the 30 car field on Saturday was stout.

Racing in Saturday’s show on the new clay surface, included Friday’s winner Mintz, along with newcomers Cole Duncan and Corbin Gurley. All Star Champion Tyler Courtney was again competing with fellow All Star runners Wise, Schuerenburg, PPM, Tim Shaffer, Chris Windom, (who is driving the 4 car that Henry drove last year), and All Star rookie of the year contenders J.J. Hickle, Conner Morrell, Scotty Thiel, and Zeth Sabo. Among the other racers on hand Saturday were former All Star Champion Greg Wilson, former All Star runners Cap Henry and T.J. Michael, freelancers Skylar Gee and Friday’s 4th place finisher Brent Marks. There were also some young racers in the pits, guys we should keep our eyes on. I was impressed with Darin Naida, Bryce Lucius and Creed Kemenah. All 3 of these kids have hardly any 410 experience, yet they stomped the gas pedal and showed veteran like car control all evening. Lucius, who was the 6th fastest qualifier, had a dash spot locked up on the final lap of his heat. He was coming around turn 3 for an easy 2nd place finish…but slowed to a stop with a mechanical failure and finished last, sending him to the B main. Naida has the benefit of the Linder brothers, who are wrenching on Darin’s black 7n…and no doubt coaching the young man along. Creed Kemenah, of course, has multi-time All Star champ Chad guiding him, so it looks like we will be seeing all 3 of these youngsters competing for wins soon.

Chris Andrews Local racers on hand included Chris Andrews with his new team, Stuart Brubaker, Travis Philo, Kyle Capodice and Byron Reed. Reed will be retiring from racing after this season. Absent was D.J. Foos, who sustained burns on his lower legs in a fuel fire during competition on Friday. He is doing well and we hope to see him racing again soon. Get well soon D.J.!

The weather was hot and partly cloudy, with a good breeze from the west. The track was watered quite a bit but ended up drying out half way through time trials. Unlike Friday, Cale Thomas got his qualifying laps in and was the fastest timer. After time trials for the 410’s and 305’s, the track was watered and run in again. There were 3 heats, each heat had 10 cars and the distance was 8 laps. The top 6 would transfer to the A main.

In heat 1, the winner was Morrell, followed by Shaffer, Thomas, Thiel, Naida and Gee. In the 2nd heat, your winner was Schuerenburg followed by Courtney, Wise, PPM, Windom and Mintz. Marks finished 7th and would go to the B main. In the last heat, Gurley got over the turn 4 banking and made contact with the front stretch wall and rolled it a few times. He would not return. On the restart Andrews spun in turn 2 ending his heat. The finish to heat 3 was T.J. Michael getting the win followed by Henry, Hickle, Reed, Philo and Duncan.

Bryce Lucius I got to talking with a young man and his son, who were sitting next to me in the stands. I didn’t ask his name since we were just chatting. Evidently, he has recently moved to the Dayton, Ohio area from Brewerton, New York. He said he is making his way around to all the Ohio dirt tracks and that Saturday was his first time to Attica. He said he had many tracks close by him in New York, mostly running Big Block Modifieds. He was lamenting the fact that many of the tracks in Ohio are further away than he is used to travelling. He also shared that he likes following the All Stars because he likes the competitive races they put on. Over the years, it’s been really cool to get to talk with folks at the races. The conversations are always interesting. I am sure many of the readers have had a great experience talking to and sharing stories with a stranger that you sat next to at the races.

The dash winner was Thomas, followed by Wise, Schuerenburg, Morrel, Hickle and Michael. The B main finish was Lucius, Marks, Andrews, Brubaker, Wilson and Kemenah. These made up the last 3 rows of the feature. Zeth Zabo used a provisional to start at the tail.

Brent Marks went from the B to win the feature at Attica Saturday (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com) The track was dry and got really dusty during the 35 lap feature that paid $6,000 to the winner. At first, the top was fast but some started using the low groove early on in the race. Marks, who started 20th, immediately moved forward and found himself in 8th by lap 5. Thomas grabbed the early lead and was followed by Wise, as Schuerenburg and Hickle and Shaffer battled it out. 4th starting Morrell faded quickly. As Thomas was leading with Wise in 2nd, Schuerenburg, racing in the 3rd position, would spin and collect 7th running Shaffer on lap 17. Now Courtney was up to 4th with Marks in 5th. Marks was moving forward using the bottom in turn 1 and 2 and the top and bottom in turn 3 and 4. He clearly was the fastest car now. Hickle found himself in 6th with Henry and PPM behind him. When the race restarted, Wise reeled in Thomas and passed him for the lead on lap 22 as Marks moved by Courtney into 3rd. On lap 28 Marks gets by Thomas for 2nd and then passes Wise for the lead on lap 29. Marks would go on to win followed by Wise and Courtney, Thomas, Henry, Hickle, PPM, Philo, Mintz and Windom.

That was a good race, although hard to see the cars coming out of turn 4 because of the dusty conditions.

In victory lane, Marks said it was good he was in the B main because that got them more laps and from that his crew had a better idea of how to set up the car for the feature.

A Thank You goes out to Attica Raceway Park and to the All Star Circuit of Champions, for a great show. See you at the next race!