Late Race Pass Paves Way For Wilson, Mintz Earns Third Podium Finish To Extend Points Lead
By Brian Liskai – Fremont Speedway Public Relations
(Fremont, OH) Greg Wilson spent a month in the west racing on unfamiliar tracks. He said, simply put, he got his butt kicked. But, he learned and couldn’t wait to get back to Ohio to familiar surroundings. The Benton Ridge, Ohio driver put his new knowledge to great use Saturday at Fremont Speedway.
Wilson passed Cole Duncan coming to the white flag and went on to score an exciting victory in the Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprints on Adkins Sanitation and Fence Night. The win, coming on a Kistler Racing FAST (Fremont Attica Sprint Title) Championship Series night, is the 10th career win for the two-time All Star champion.
“This is one of the toughest places in the country. This race track…when it’s like this you can race on the thing and the guys did an awesome job prepping the thing tonight and opening up the entry to the corner. I’m speechless…hell I haven’t been in victory lane in two years,” said an excited Wilson beside his Hercules Tires/All Star Plumbing Heating and Cooling/DNC Hydraulics backed machine.
“We made a gutsy call in the pits. We hired a young kid from Washington and I was looking at him and I said screw it let’s go for this win. We changes some stuff around and I got the wing back and got lucky,” added Wilson in the Engine Pro Victory Lane. “The good Lord was looking out for us and gave us a caution there at the end. I finally got a trophy for my youngest child. My oldest daughter…we won right away after she was born.”
Bryan Sebetto and Craig Mintz, both former Fremont track champions, would bring the 410 sprint field to the green for their 30-lap feature, with Mintz grabbing the early lead with Sebetto hounding him to the outside. Cole Duncan would slip into third with Brian Smith, Dean Jacobs, D.J. Foos, Todd Heller and fast qualifier Wilson in tow. Sebetto’s challenge for the lead would come to an end on lap four when he went to the infield with mechanical woes, moving Duncan into second.
With six laps in, Mintz held a two-car length lead over Duncan while Smith, Foos and Wilson were locked in a fantastic battle for third. Foos would take the third spot on lap seven with Wilson moving into fourth. Mintz continued to lead Duncan by a couple of car lengths as Foos, Wilson and Smith battled for third. Wilson would eventually take third on lap 12 as the leaders prepared to race into lapped traffic.
Mintz would catch the back of the field at the half-way point as Duncan and Wilson closed. The lead trio of Mintz, Duncan and Wilson would dice through traffic and would be three wide on lap 17, with Duncan driving low to take the point and bringing Wilson into second. Duncan and Wilson would then race side by side over the next nine laps with Foos, Smith and Brad Bowman giving chase.
The event’s only caution flew with five laps to go when Broc Martin stopped on turn four with mechanical issues. The running order was Duncan, Wilson, Mintz, Smith, Foos, Caleb Griffith (up from 14th) and Chris Andrews (up from 17th). With a clear track and only a handful of laps remaining it appeared Duncan was headed to his second career Fremont win. When the green flew he pulled away slightly from Wilson as Mintz ran comfortably in third while Foos, Smith, Griffith and Andrews battled for fourth.
As they raced out of turn two headed to the white flag lap, Wilson got a tremendous bite on the bottom of the track and erased Duncan’s three car length advantage. Wilson dove low into turn three and he and Duncan raced side by side to the white, with Wilson holding a nose wing lead. Wilson would stay glued to the bottom groove and would lead going down the back stretch, but Duncan charged to his outside the final two turns. Wilson would keep his car straight and rocket off the corner to the checkered. Duncan, Mintz, Foos and Smith would round out the top five.
Night #4: Kistler Racing Products F.A.S.T. Championship Series presented by KS Sales & Service
Fremont Speedway – 4/27/12 – 410 Sprints (33 Cars)
[#]-Starting Position
Qualifying
1. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.003; 2. 53-DJ Foos, 13.015; 3. 55-Brad Bowman, 13.030; 4. 9X-Brandon Martin, 13.115; 5. 35-Stuart Brubaker, 13.208; 6. 14H-Todd Heller, 13.232; 7. 9-Dean Jacobs, 13.261; 8. 46AU-Stuart Williams, 13.272; 9. 22-Cole Duncan, 13.285; 10. 2+-Brian Smith, 13.286; 11. O9-Craig Mintz, 13.312; 12. 24H-Bryan Sebetto, 13.314; 13. 45L-Brian Lay, 13.338; 14. 29-Kyle Sauder, 13.348; 15. 40DD-Caleb Griffith, 13.363; 16. 27P-Paige Polyak, 13.377; 17. 2M-Dallas Hewitt, 13.393; 18. 5T-Travis Philo, 13.422; 19. 9Z-Duane Zablocki, 13.475; 20. 16-Chris Andrews, 13.477; 21. 60-Jody Keegan, 13.598; 22. 10X-Dustin Stroup, 13.722; 23. 83M-Broc Martin, 13.742; 24. 5R-Byron Reed, 13.746; 25. 23D-Devon Dobie, 13.839; 26. 51-Roger Campbell, 13.856; 27. 23-Jimmy Light, 13.909; 28. 14-Chad Wilson, 13.969; 29. 7-Troy Kingan, 14.227; 30. O6-Brandy Bower, 14.554; 31. 32M-Derek Hastings, 14.771; 32. 50B-Mike Burns, 14.786; 33. 22B-Ryan Broughton, 99.000
Heat 1 (8 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 60-Jody Keegan[1] ; 2. 2M-Dallas Hewitt[2] ; 3. 22-Cole Duncan[4] ; 4. W20-Greg Wilson[6] ; 5. 35-Stuart Brubaker[5] ; 6. 45L-Brian Lay[3] ; 7. 22B-Ryan Broughton[9] ; 8. 23D-Devon Dobie[7] ; 9. 7-Troy Kingan[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 5T-Travis Philo[2] ; 2. 2+-Brian Smith[4] ; 3. 53-DJ Foos[6] ; 4. 14H-Todd Heller[5] ; 5. 29-Kyle Sauder[3] ; 6. 10X-Dustin Stroup[1] ; 7. 51-Roger Campbell[7] ; 8. O6-Brandy Bower[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 9Z-Duane Zablocki[2] ; 2. O9-Craig Mintz[4] ; 3. 9-Dean Jacobs[5] ; 4. 83M-Broc Martin[1] ; 5. 40DD-Caleb Griffith[3] ; 6. 55-Brad Bowman[6] ; 7. 32M-Derek Hastings[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 16-Chris Andrews[2] ; 2. 27P-Paige Polyak[3] ; 3. 24H-Bryan Sebetto[4] ; 4. 5R-Byron Reed[1] ; 5. 9X-Brandon Martin[6] ; 6. 46AU-Stuart Williams[5] ; 7. 14-Chad Wilson[7] ; 8. 50B-Mike Burns[8]
B-Main (12 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 55-Brad Bowman[1] ; 2. 9X-Brandon Martin[2] ; 3. 35-Stuart Brubaker[3] ; 4. 40DD-Caleb Griffith[7] ; 5. 29-Kyle Sauder[6] ; 6. 46AU-Stuart Williams[4] ; 7. 45L-Brian Lay[5] ; 8. 10X-Dustin Stroup[8] ; 9. 23-Jimmy Light[11] ; 10. 23D-Devon Dobie[9] ; 11. 51-Roger Campbell[10] ; 12. O6-Brandy Bower[14] ; 13. 22B-Ryan Broughton[17] ; 14. 32M-Derek Hastings[15] ; 15. 14-Chad Wilson[12] ; 16. 50B-Mike Burns[16]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. W20-Greg Wilson[8]; 2. 22-Cole Duncan[4]; 3. O9-Craig Mintz[2]; 4. 53-DJ Foos[7]; 5. 2+-Brian Smith[3]; 6. 40DD-Caleb Griffith[14]; 7. 16-Chris Andrews[17]; 8. 14H-Todd Heller[6]; 9. 55-Brad Bowman[11]; 10. 5R-Byron Reed[20]; 11. 9-Dean Jacobs[5]; 12. 27P-Paige Polyak[9]; 13. 5T-Travis Philo[15]; 14. 9Z-Duane Zablocki[16]; 15. 35-Stuart Brubaker[13]; 16. 2M-Dallas Hewitt[10]; 17. 9X-Brandon Martin[12]; 18. 60-Jody Keegan[18]; 19. 83M-Broc Martin[19]; 20. 24H-Bryan Sebetto[1]
Hard Charger: 16-Chris Andrews[+10]