By Scott Hall
FREMONT, OH – Jason Johnson scored his first career Ohio Speedweek win Thursday night at Fremont Speedway. The Haulmark All Star sprint car feature was round number five of Ohio Speedweek and the 40 lap race was run in front of the largest crowd in the 52 year history of Fremont Speedway. Tuesday’s Fremont winner Dale Blaney was second and Jeff Shepard third.

   “The HTI crew did another great job tonight,” the elated Johnson exclaimed after his third win of 2003. “Shane Wisbon, Al and the guys had the car great. The track started rubbering up and you usually don’t see that here.” His Kistler powered Harrison Trucking Eagle Chassis rode on Hoosier tires.

    Dean Jacobs and Mark Keegan brought the 24 car field to the green flag and entering turn one, Jacobs and Keegan made contact and both spun, with Keegan’s left rear riding over Jacobs’ right rear. Jacobs has a flat front tire and was able to continue after changing the tire. That put Mike Linder on the pole for the restart and Linder took the lead over Johnson, who now started third with John Ivy next. Johnson began cutting into Linder’s lead, and he dove low going down the backstretch to move under Linder and into the lead on lap eight.

   Ivy and Linder began battling for second as Johnson pushed out to a nice lead with Kyle Sauder joining the battle for third. There were side by side battles for position all over Fremont’s black racing surface, with Sauder grabbing second from Ivy on lap 13. By now Johnson was in dense lapped traffic, allowing Sauder to whittle away at his lead.

   Ivy began to move back in on Sauder, and the pair were side by side on laps 17 and 18, with Ivy regaining second on lap 19. Sauder regained the position a lap later making the order at the halfway point Johnson, Sauder, Ivy, Byron Reed and Blaney, who started 13th.

   Lap 22 saw Ivy regain second, with Blaney into third by lap 27. Blaney moved in on Ivy and after two laps side by side Blaney took second for good on lap 31, with Shepard now battling Ivy for third. Shepard and Byron Reed both got past Ivy as Johnson was maintaining a quarter lap advantage, which was erased by the only caution of the event on lap 35 for a Jody Keegan stall.

   This set up a five lap dash to the finish, with Johnson and runnerup Blaney separated by a lapped car for the restart. Johnson rocketed back into the lead when the green reappeared and Blaney tried vainly to catch the leader, but Johnson won by a quarter lap.

   “I ran the same setup and I did on Tuesday,” Blaney recalled after finishing second. “There wasn’t much passing up front and I’m glad to get second right now,” the winner of the last two Speedweek shows recalled.

   “Blaney passed me and I thought ‘heck I’m following him,” Shepard, who finished third, said. “To run third behind those two guys is pretty good since we weren’t good the last couple of nights.”

   Reed was fourth after starting 16th, with Ivy fifth. Kemenah was sixth, followed by 15th starter Kelly Kinser, 21st starting Kenny Jacobs, 23rd starting Greg Wilson, last starter Rob Chaney and Linder faded to 11th at the finish.

   The Crown Battery heat fell to Kemenah, the B&B Products heat went to Kelly Kinser, the Engler Machine and Tool heat was won by Byron Reed and the TP Wings heat fell to Johnson. Ryan Coniam won the Outerwears Pre-filters C Main and Greg Wilson won the United Aluminum Window Sales & Consulting B Main. Dean Jacobs captured the Haulmark Dash and Kyle Sauder, aboard the Miller Rigging No. 2, was the Huggins Cams Fast Time qualifier.

   Ohio Speedweek action continues Friday night at Limaland Motorsports Park in Lima and concludes Saturday night at the Portsmouth Raceway Park in Portsmouth.

   Fremont's Brian Smith captured his first career feature win in the 305 sprints, leading all 25 laps. Second went to Castalia's Caleb Griffith with Fostoria's Jamie Miller third; Castalia's Matt Karbler fourth and Gibsonburg's Roger Shammo rounding out the top five.

Huggins Cams Time Trials: 1. Kyle Sauder, Miller 2, 13.455; 2. John Ivy, Carousel 20, 13.485; 3. Andrew Palker, Palker 57x, 13.487; 4. Jason Johnson, Harrison 22, 13.510; 5. Todd Heller, Heller 14h, 13.584; 6. Mike Linder, James 3, 13.667; 7. Mark Keegan, Steinbrick 92, 13.670; 8. Dean Jacobs, Pullins 29, 13.713; 9. Jody Keegan, Keegan 60, 13.730; 10. Hud Horton, Mossbarger 80, 13.735; 11. Jeff Shepard, Ashworth 92, 13.755; 12. Alvin Roepke, Roepke/Ford 99, 13.766; 13. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 13.899; 14. Tim Hunter, Hunter 2H, 13.967; 15. Dale Blaney, Andrews 72b, 13.970; 16. David Harrison, Ludwig 10, 14.124; 17. Scott Euler, Euler 27, 14.155; 18. Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4k, 14.272; 19. Byron Reed, B&S 5, 14.283; 20. Shane Stewart, Chilcut 4m, 14.335; 21. Bill Shaw, Shaw 48, 14.399; 22. Bobby 
Clark, Clark 8, 14.402; 23. Larry Riehl, Riehl 55, 14.419; 24. Lee Jacobs, Jacobs 2, 14.468; 25. John Wisbon, Burmeister 16, 14.469; 26. Kenny Jacobs, Grove 70, 14.487; 27. Andy James, James 72, 14.516; 28. George Prosser, Thompson 5T, 14.582; 29. Jim Dayton, Dayton 2x, 14.650; 30. Todd Kane, Kane 78, 14.780; 31. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 14.845; 32. Matt Lucius, Lucius & Ludwig 1a, 14.881; 33. Jason Dukes, JT 3, 14.938; 34. Scott Kraylek, Kirian 
21, 14.945; 35. Bill Rose, Rose 6, 14.957; 36. Brandon Martin, Martin 11m, 15.157; 37. Ryan Coniam, Coniam 6c, 15.233; 38. Craig Mintz, Sabo 8s, 15.242; 39. Rob Chaney, SC Racing 9x, 15.280; 40. Brock Mayes, Mayes 11, 15.294; 41. Bruce Robenalt, Robenalt 98, 15.561; 42. Bob Distel, Distel 18, 15.565; 43. Aaron Middaugh, Middaugh 91, 15.702; 44. Scott Groves, Gforce 54, 15.840; 45. Barry Ruble, Ruble 63r, 15.948; 46. Dustin Dinan, Dinan 6x, 17.366; 47. Bob Lime, Lime 91, 18.076.  

Crown Battery Heat (10 laps): 1. Kemenah 2. J. Keegan 3. Heller 4. Dayton 5. Wisbon 6. Coniam 7. Euler 8. Dukes 9. Sauder 10. Ruble 11. Shaw 12. Robenalt.

B&B Products Heat (10 laps): 1. Kinser 2. Clark 3. Ivy 4. Linder 5. K. Jacobs 6. Horton 7. Hunter 8. Mintz 9. Kraylek 10. Distel 11. Kane 12. Dinan.

Engler Machine & Tool Heat (10 laps): 1. Reed 2. Shepard 3. Chaney 4. Blaney 5. M. Keegan 6. Wilson 7. Rose 8. James 9. Lime 10. Palker 11. Middaugh 12. Riehl.

TP Wings Heat (10 laps): 1. Johnson 2. Roepke 3. L. Jacobs 4. D. Jacobs 5. Stewart 6. Harrison 7. Prosser 8. Mayes 9. Martin 10. Groves 11. Lucius.   

Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. D. Jacobs 2. Ivy 3. M. Keegan 4. Kemenah 5. Johnson 6. Shepard.

Outerwears Pre-filters C Main (10 laps): 1. Coniam 2. Mintz 3. Distel 4. Martin 5. Mayes 6. Lime 7. Ruble 8. Robenalt 9. Middaugh 10. Dinan 11. Groves.

   United Aluminum Window Sales & Consulting B Main (12 laps): 1. Wilson 2. Sauder 3. Hunter 4. Harrison 5. Dukes 6. Rose 7. Coniam 8. Distel 9. Horton 10. Mintz 11. Kraylek 12. Palker 13. Martin 14. Riehl 15. Shaw 16. Euler 17. Lucius 18. Kane 19. James 20. Prosser.

Haulmark A Main (40 laps): 1. Jason Johnson 2. Dale Blaney 3. Jeff Shepard 4. Byron Reed 5. John Ivy 6. Chad Kemenah 7. Kelly Kinser 8. Kenny Jacobs 9. Greg Wilson 10. Rob Chaney 11. Mike Linder 12. Alvin Roepke 13. Kyle Sauder 14. Todd Heller 15. Tim Hunter 16. Lee Jacobs 17. Bobby Clark 18. Dave Harrison 19. John Wisbon 20. Jim Dayton 21. Dean Jacobs 22. Mark 
Keegan 23. Jody Keegan 24. Shane Stewart.   

Lap Leaders: Mike Linder 1-7, Jason Johnson 8-40.

305 SPRINT RESULTS:

Heat 1 (top 4 to A): 1. Phil Burroughs; 2. Craig Kays; 3. Matt Karbler; 4. Joe Laugherty; 5. Dan Hammond

Heat 2 (top 4 to A): 1. Scott Miller; 2. Steve Edwards; 3. Jamie Miller; 4. Matt Ferrell; 5. Mark Whaley

Heat 3 (top 4 to A): 1. Bill Kraylek; 2. Roger Shammo; 3. Daniel Smith; 4. Ryan Lowe; 5. Josh Hill

Heat 4 (top 4 to A): 1. Caleb Griffith; 2. Brian Smith; 3. Andy Shammo; 4. Mark Whaley; 5. Mike Riehl

B-main (top 2 to A): 1. Mike Riehl; 2. Bob Dawson; 3. Jason Hill; 4. Ryan Myers; 5. Jerrid Potter; 6. D.J. Oliver; 7. Josh Hill; 8. Bryan Grove; 9. Tim Wyckoff; 10. Chris Gilbert; 11. Matt Merrill; 12. Jeff Dougherty

B-main (top 2 to A): 1. Mark Whaley; 2. Brian Sebetto; 3. Dustin Keegan; 4. Dan Hammond; 5. Mike Oberdorf; 6. Jim Taddeo; 7. Brad Schlechtey; 8. Barry Cole; 9. Ed Psurney; 10. Paul Hemrick Jr. 11. Jerromy Keegan; 12. Chuck Dagg

A-Main (25 laps): 1. Brian Smith; 2. Caleb Griffith; 3. Jamie Miller; 4. Matt Karbler; 5. Roger Shammo; 6. Daniel Smith; 7. Brian Sebetto; 8. Steve Edwards; 9. Joe Laugherty; 10. Bill Kraylek; 11. Ryan Lowe; 12. Mark Whaley; 13. Mike Riehl; 14. Bob Dawson; 15. Scott Miller; 16. Craig Kays; 17. Matt Ferrell; 18. Andy Shammo; 19. Mark Whaley; 20. Phil Burroughs