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 FREMONT, OH (5-26-12) By Brian Liskai – Dale Blaney survived a lengthy red and a caution late in the race to score his 87th career University of Northwestern Ohio All Star Circuit of Champions victory to open the double-header weekend at Fremont Speedway Saturday, May 26.
For Blaney, it was his third UNOH All Star win of 2012 and 13th career victory at “The Track That Action Built” on Kear’s Speed Shop Night. It was the 100th appearance of the UNOH All Stars at Fremont Speedway and Blaney is second to Jack Hewitt in the number of series victories at the track with 8.
“You never know…the wins could stop tonight…you never know. The way it’s going we’ve been running really, really well this year. I don’t think we’ve had a night where we’ve been disappointed. Last Saturday we weren’t real good, but we will take fourth for not being very good. I love my guys, George, Troy, Bobby…Junior and Rick were here. It’s pretty awesome to have all those guys working on it…they give me a great car every night,” said Blaney beside his Ti22 Performance backed machine.
“I love coming here to Fremont…I’ve had a lot of success here and I’m looking forward to coming back tomorrow,” said Blaney of Sunday’s $10,000 to win finale. “Sitting in the race car you don’t even think about what it pays. Hopefully we’ll get here, draw a decent number, qualify well and take it from there. If this was a 50 lapper tonight it would have gotten interesting. The track changed a whole bunch toward the end. Fifth laps tomorrow…it will be fun.”
Just like they did earlier this year at Attica, Blaney and former Fremont track champion Craig Mintz battled early for the lead. Mintz led laps 1-6 before Blaney drove under him. Mintz would stay close to Blaney and at one time early in the event when they were racing in traffic, there was a tremendous battle between those two, Tim Shaffer and Bryan Sebetto.
“It’s just hard to be George (Fisher, owner of Blaney’s car) and Dale and that car…they are just good and Dale doesn’t make many mistakes,” said Mintz of his second place run. “I would have liked to have gotten into lapped traffic and had a little race there but that #2 just kept getting smaller, smaller and smaller.”
“These guys behind me…my dad and Brad and Kemp and my fiancée and Kevin Shammo and all my sponsors, Real Geese Decoys, Erie Shore Propane, KS Sales and Service, Kistler Engines, Wasserman Construction…these guys put this car here and I just put my foot on the floor,” added Mintz.
After being involved in a tangle with Brandon Martin while battling for third on lap 21, which sent Martin flipping violently into turn four with his wing flying into the stands (no one was seriously hurt…a few fans were taken to the hospital for a check-up), Sebetto would get a last lap pass of Phil Gressman to finish third.
“That was 100 percent my fault. I ran it in there…we were just racing hard. That’s what you get with a one lane race track…everyone is fighting to run in the same place. I feel bad for Brandon…we’ve been racing together since we were kids in go-karts. He’s one of the last guys I’d do that to…I don’t ever want to do that to anyone. I feel bad and I apologize. I know he’s mad and I deserve the criticism…that was a pretty crappy move,” said Sebetto beside his Hammer Pallets, Gressman Powersports, JLH General Contractors, Meggit Powdercoating backed machine.
“We don’t have to change anything on this car for tomorrow…it was good enough to get up there and race with Craig and Dale but I just kept screwing up and blowing it through the cushion,” added Sebetto.
Blaney and Mintz would bring the field to the green for the 30-lap feature with Mintz grabbing the lead with Blaney glued to his rear bumper while Shaffer raced into third and Sebetto and David Gravel in tow. Mintz and Blaney would pull away from a tremendous battle for third between Shaffer and Sebetto with Danny Smith grabbing fifth.
The leaders would race into lapped traffic by the 7th circuit with Blaney driving under Mintz for the lead while Sebetto and Shaffer closed. Shaffer would do a 360 spin in turn two on the eighth lap to bring out the caution. Blaney and Mintz would pull away on the restart with Sebetto now battling 10th place starter Brandon Martin for third with Smith continuing to run fifth.
On lap 12, Todd Heller made contact with another car and slammed into the turn two soft wall to bring out the red. Heller was taken to the hospital for a precautionary check.
On the ensuing restart Blaney and Mintz would again pull away from the battle for third between Martin, Sebetto and Phil Gressman. By the 17th lap the leaders again raced into lapped traffic with the running order Blaney, Mintz, Martin, Gressman and Sebetto. Sebetto would drive back around Gressman into fourth on the 19th lap and began racing Martin hard for third.
On the 21st lap, the caution would fly for Andrew Palker who spun in turn two. On the restart, Blaney and Mintz would pull away with Martin and Sebetto still racing hard for third. As the drove into turns three and four, Sebetto and Martin got together, with Martin taking a nasty flip with his top wing flying over the tall front stretch fence into the stands. A few fans received bumps and bruises and were taken to the local hospital for a check up while track crews worked to repair the fence. Martin was uninjured.
Also in that incident, Brian Smith got upside down on the back stretch and was not injured. With nine laps to go when the green came back out and a clear track ahead of him, Blaney would pull away slightly from Mintz while Sebetto and Gressman battled for third. Sebetto would slide off the top side of turn two on lap 24, dropping back to fifth.
A Dean Jacobs spin on lap 25 would give Mintz one more shot at Blaney. Blaney would drop the hammer on the restart and pulled away to a three car length lead with Gressman, Smith, Sebetto and Gravel in tow. Sebetto would get around Smith with two laps to go to take fourth. As Blaney drove to the win over Mintz, Sebetto would slide in front of Gressman for the third spot coming to the checkered as Gravel would take fifth.
For the complete results click read more.
Fremont Speedway - 5/26/2012
University of Northwestern Ohio All Star Sprints (35 Cars)
[#]-Starting Position
Qualifying - Kistler Racing Engines
1. 54-Cap Henry, 12.990; 2. 2-Dale Blaney, 12.998; 3. 55-Brad Bowman, 13.025; 4. O9-Craig Mintz, 13.048; 5. 4-Danny Smith, 13.147; 6. 83-Tim Shaffer, 13.150; 7. 89G-David Gravel, 13.240; 8. 24H-Bryan Sebetto, 13.241; 9. 14H-Todd Heller, 13.256; 10. 3-Pete Miller III, 13.266; 11. 5R-Byron Reed, 13.272; 12. 5K-Adam Kekich, 13.272; 13. 53-Phil Gressman, 13.329; 14. 9X-Brandon Martin, 13.349; 15. 19-Stevie Smith, 13.372; 16. 45-Paul McMahan, 13.378; 17. 3L-Mike Linder, 13.408; 18. 14K-Cole Duncan, 13.417; 19. 57X-Andrew Palker, 13.423; 20. D4-Danny Holtgraver, 13.498; 21. 12-Jarred Ridge, 13.512; 22. 2+-Brian Smith, 13.518; 23. 44W-Austen Wheatley, 13.523; 24. 9Z-Duane Zablocki, 13.539; 25. O-Lee Jacobs, 13.592; 26. 16-Chris Andrews, 13.628; 27. 35-Stuart Brubaker, 13.669; 28. 83M-Broc Martin, 13.697; 29. 60-Jody Keegan, 13.747; 30. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.847; 31. 14-Chad Wilson, 13.850; 32. 46AU-Stuart Williams, 13.923; 33. 97-Dean Jacobs, 13.995; 34. 5T-Travis Philo, 14.037; 35. 17-Marty Perovich, 14.039
Kear's Speed Shop Heat 1 - (10 Laps - Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 53-Phil Gressman[3] ; 2. 3L-Mike Linder[2] ; 3. 14H-Todd Heller[4] ; 4. 4-Danny Smith[5] ; 5. 97-Dean Jacobs[9] ; 6. 54-Cap Henry[6] ; 7. 60-Jody Keegan[8] ; 8. 12-Jarred Ridge[1]
All Pro Aluminum Heads Heat 2 - (10 Laps - Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 14K-Cole Duncan[2] ; 2. 2+-Brian Smith[1] ; 3. 83-Tim Shaffer[5] ; 4. 9X-Brandon Martin[3] ; 5. 2-Dale Blaney[6] ; 6. 3-Pete Miller III[4] ; 7. 16-Chris Andrews[7] ; 8. W20-Greg Wilson[8] ; 9. 5T-Travis Philo[9]
Dragon Rac Fuels Heat 3 - (10 Laps - Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 57X-Andrew Palker[2] ; 2. 44W-Austen Wheatley[1] ; 3. 5R-Byron Reed[4] ; 4. 19-Stevie Smith[3] ; 5. 89G-David Gravel[5] ; 6. 35-Stuart Brubaker[7] ; 7. 14-Chad Wilson[8] ; 8. 55-Brad Bowman[6] ; 9. 17-Marty Perovich[9]
Kinsler Fuel Injection Heat 4 - (10 Laps - Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. D4-Danny Holtgraver[2] ; 2. 45-Paul McMahan[3] ; 3. 9Z-Duane Zablocki[1] ; 4. 24H-Bryan Sebetto[5] ; 5. O9-Craig Mintz[6] ; 6. 83M-Broc Martin[7] ; 7. 5K-Adam Kekich[4] ; 8. 46AU-Stuart Williams[8]
Outerwear's Performance Products Dash - (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 6 starting positions of A-feature
1. 2-Dale Blaney[2] ; 2. O9-Craig Mintz[1] ; 3. 24H-Bryan Sebetto[6] ; 4. 83-Tim Shaffer[5] ; 5. 4-Danny Smith[3] ; 6. 89G-David Gravel[4]
B-Main - MSD Ignitions (12 Laps - Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 55-Brad Bowman[2] ; 2. 54-Cap Henry[1] ; 3. 5K-Adam Kekich[4] ; 4. 35-Stuart Brubaker[8] ; 5. 16-Chris Andrews[7] ; 6. 3-Pete Miller III[3] ; 7. W20-Greg Wilson[11] ; 8. 83M-Broc Martin[9] ; 9. 60-Jody Keegan[10] ; 10. 14-Chad Wilson[12] ; 11. 5T-Travis Philo[14] ; 12. 46AU-Stuart Williams[13] ; 13. 12-Jarred Ridge[5]
UNOH A-Main - (30 Laps)
1. 2-Dale Blaney[1]; 2. O9-Craig Mintz[2]; 3. 24H-Bryan Sebetto[3]; 4. 53-Phil Gressman[9]; 5. 89G-David Gravel[6]; 6. 4-Danny Smith[5]; 7. 54-Cap Henry[11]; 8. 5R-Byron Reed[8]; 9. 3L-Mike Linder[16]; 10. 83-Tim Shaffer[4]; 11. D4-Danny Holtgraver[19]; 12. 45-Paul McMahan[15]; 13. 55-Brad Bowman[12]; 14. 97-Dean Jacobs[24]; 15. 14K-Cole Duncan[17]; 16. 44W-Austen Wheatley[21]; 17. 9Z-Duane Zablocki[22]; 18. 5K-Adam Kekich[13]; 19. 9X-Brandon Martin[10]; 20. 2+-Brian Smith[20]; 21. 57X-Andrew Palker[18]; 22. 35-Stuart Brubaker[23]; 23. 14H-Todd Heller[7]; 24. 19-Stevie Smith[14]
Hard Charger: 97-Dean Jacobs[+10]
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The UNOH College of Applied Technologies' High Performance Department's reputation for producing highly-educated graduates means your diploma or associate degree will give you a distinct advantage in a competitive workplace.The University of Northwestern Ohio invented the high performance/motorsports program in 1992 and has been training students with the latest technology available in the industry since. 
The All Stars are one of the premier sprint car sanctioning bodies in the USA. It is owned by an Illinois businessman, and now in their 30th year of operation, the All Stars take pride in their reputation of providing highly competitive, fair, exciting racing for outlaw sprint cars with many different winners in a year. About 400 drivers participate in All Star races yearly in front of an average of 5,000 spectators per event. Currently 40+ races are scheduled in numerous states, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Kansas. 
Ohio Sprint Speedweek proves to be one of the most competitive weeks in racing during the 2010 All Star season. Tough battles happened in the 2010 Ohio Sprint Speedweek season, as it included nine straight nights of racing action in the buckeye state, it challenged the best of the best, but young David Gravel- DDR Motorsports was crowned the 2010 champion.