FREMONT, Ohio — The Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series featuring non-winged machines, didn’t disappoint in their first appearance of the year at Fremont Speedway. The 25-lap feature went non-stop and when the dust settled Dallas Hewitt took his first Fremont victory.
It wasn’t easy as he took the lead from Tyler Gunn on lap 15 and then held off many challenges from Gunn racing through lapped traffic the final five circuits.
“About 10 to go I was looking for the five to go…it couldn’t come soon enough. The last five laps felt like 15. This is my kind of track. I like them when they get slick to a cushion like this. With the lapped cars you never know where everyone is racing for position and it’s tight here…it was definitely had me a little nervous here getting into the lapped cars. To finally get a win at this track is special,” said Hewitt.
Tyler Gunn finished second, with Ricky Peterson, Matt Westfall and Dustin Smith filling the top five.
Nate Dussel did not have a good Ohio Sprint Speedweek. But, the little family-owned team rolled up their sleeves and went to work and it paid off Saturday, July 18 at Fremont Speedway.
The former two-time 305 sprint champion at “The Track That Action Built” took the lead on lap two and held off several late race challenges from Cole Duncan, including a restart with just six laps to go, and drove to his 24th career victory on Fort Ball Pizza Palace Night in the 410 sprint division.
“To be honest that was the last car I wanted to see behind me on that last restart. I know when the track gets slick how good Cole is. Honestly I never saw anyone and I felt like I made some mistakes…I thought we must be pretty good because I kind of screwed up in three and four a couple of times with lapped traffic and never saw a nose. I knew if I just stayed straight and limit my mistakes I can make six laps around here,” said Dussel.
Cole Duncan, Lee Jacobs, Stuart Brubaker and D.J. Foos completed the top five.
Paul Weaver took the lead from Matt Foos on lap 10 and then held off a late race charge from Jamie Miller to score his third Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 Sprint feature win of the season at Fremont Speedway.
Perhaps the most exciting finish of the night was in the 20-lap Burmeister Trophy Dirt Trucks. Following a caution with just four laps to go, Cory McCaughey and Shawn Valenti traded paint on several occasions including coming to the checkers where McCaughey won by a bumper for his second career victory and his second of the season.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps) 1. 18-Dallas Hewitt[6] ; 2. 68G-Tyler Gunn[4] ; 3. 9X-Ricky Peterson[8] ; 4. 33M-Matt Westfall[10] ; 5. 77-Dustin Smith[2] ; 6. 52-Isaac Chapple[1] ; 7. 0-Steve Irwin[5] ; 8. 00-Thomas Meseraull[11] ; 9. 24L-Lee Underwood[3] ; 10. 2+-Brian Smith[16] ; 11. 9N-Luke Hall[7] ; 12. 07-Ricky Lewis[14] ; 13. 7M-Brandon Moore[20] ; 14. 21-Carmen Perigo[13] ; 15. 81-Lee Jacobs[17] ; 16. 53-Steve Little[9] ; 17. 5M-Mike Moore[15] ; 18. 2-Mike Galajda[19] ; 19. 14-Chad Wilson[23] ; 20. 18D-Bobby Distel[12] ; 21. 49-Brian Ruhlman[22] ; 22. 25-Max Frank[18] ; 23. 31L-Buddy Lowther[21] ; 24. 2DI-Dustin Ingle[24]