FREMONT, Ohio — It was déjà vu at Fremont Speedway to kick off the 16th annual Jim and Joanne Ford Classic with the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1.
Danny Dietrich executed a last-corner, last lap pass to win the series’ speedweek event in June at the track. New Jersey’s Kyle Reinhardt drove around Parker Price Miller on the last corner of the last lap to take the $6,000 win Friday by.093 seconds.
It was Reinhardt’s first Fremont win and only his second All Star victory coming in the series’ 135th visit to “The Track That Action Built.” Reinhardt and Price-Miller battled side by side and exchanged the feature lead several times over the last two thirds of the race.
Price-Miller led laps 1-13 with Reinhardt holding the point on lap 14 only to see Price Miller back out front on lap 15. Reinhardt regained the lead from laps 16 through 26 before Price-Miller in heavy lapped traffic drove back into the lead to set up the last-lap excitement.
Price-Miller raced home in second, followed by Tim Shaffer, Kerry Madsen and Zeth Sabo rounding out the top five.
“I knew I had a great car right from the start. We made some passes in the dash…me and Bryan always talk about it…you have to be in the dash to put yourself in a position to win one of these races,” Reinhardt said. “Everyone is so good and getting two spots in the dash was huge and I got two guys right at the start and that’s what made my race. I could just wait and try to be patient behind Parker. I know he’s always been good here.
“It was a fun race and I was just trying to bide my time and wait until we got into lapped traffic and it worked out perfect for me. But the lapped cars were just about as fast as we were and I just basically handed it back to him. I just had to get up on the wheel and I saw the white flag and I just put it all out there. I got real balled up in one and two and he stumbled on the bottom and gave me just enough to get around him.”
Price-Miller felt he just chose the wrong line the last lap.
“We were really good,” Price-Miller said. “I felt like we were just as good as Kyle…we were both really good and you need that to put on a race like that. I kind of changed my line a lot once he got around me. I knew if I stayed with him once we hit lapped traffic it would get dicey and I got by him and I don’t know if I should have just run the top in three and four or what.”
The Burmeister Trophy Dirt Trucks put on a hell of a show as well with side by side and even three wide racing at times for the lead. Cory McCaughey led laps 1-7 before Shawn Valenti took over, leading laps 8-18. It was seventh place starter and former two-time Fremont truck champion Keith Sorg who stole the show, taking the lead at the white flag and holding on for his sixth career Fremont win.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 45-Kyle Reinhardt[4]; 2. 9P-Parker Price Miller[1]; 3. 49X-Tim Shaffer[5]; 4. 55-Kerry Madsen[6]; 5. 29X-Zeth Sabo[8]; 6. 26-Zeb Wise[9]; 7. 4-Chris Windom[14]; 8. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[7]; 9. 09-Craig Mintz[2]; 10. 42-Sye Lynch[3]; 11. 99-Skylar Gee[11]; 12. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[13]; 13. 5-Byron Reed[12]; 14. 35-Stuart Brubaker[19]; 15. 33W-Cap Henry[22]; 16. 70-Kraig Kinser[24]; 17. 23-Cale Thomas[17]; 18. 32B-Dale Blaney[23]; 19. 32-Bryce Lucius[21]; 20. 1-Nate Dussel[15]; 21. 29-Carl Bowser[18]; 22. (DNF) 12-Brian Lay[20]; 23. (DNF) 16-DJ Foos[16]; 24. (DNF) 50YR-JJ Hickle[10]