Big weekend of All Star racing at Fremont

By Brian Liskai

FREMONT, OH – Shane Stewart recorded his first career All Star sprint
win Friday night at Fremont Speedway in the 30-lap feature. It was a
wire-to-wire victory for the Oklahoma driver, who wheeled Junior Holbrook’s
Eagle chassis on Hoosier Tires across the line ahead of Kenny Jacobs.
Stewart became the 22nd different All Star winner this season in 42 races.

“We had a really good car tonight,” Stewart recalled. “It’s my first All
Star win. We’ve been close so many times. It feels really good to win here
at Fremont, this place had a lot of history. I knew Kenny (Jacobs) was
coming and if I could get through one and two that was going to be the key
because in three and four I was really good.”

On the pole for the start was Stewart with Jason Johnson alongside,
followed by Byron Reed, Jeff Shepard, Chad Kemenah and Paul McMahan. Stewart
led the first three laps before a pair of cautions slowed the action. He was
ahead of Johnson and Reed for the restarts and jumped out into the lead
again as Reed took second from Johnson, but Johnson returned the favor a lap
later. Stewart began pulling away from Johnson, and was in heavy lapped
traffic by the tenth circuit.

Shepard passed Reed for third on lap 11, and then disaster struck Reed a
lap later when he was trying to lap Dustin Daggett and Daggett got sideways
slightly in turn three. Reed collided with the Michigan driver and dumped
his machine on its side, bringing out a red. Reed was able to repair his car
and return to the tail of the field for the restart. Stewart again led over
Johnson, Shepard, Jacobs, McMahan and Danny Smith. Eighth starter Jacobs
began challenging Shepard for third and took over that spot with a low
groove move on lap 20. As Stewart pushed out to almost a full straightaway
lead, lap 21 became a disaster for runner-up Johnson as he hit the cushion
at the wrong angle in turn three in Al Harrison’s No. 22 and barrel rolled
into Fremont’s foam-block covered concrete wall. Johnson was uninjured in
the flip.

This put Jacobs second on the restart with Shepard in third, followed by
Kemenah, McMahan and Greg Wilson who had started 13th. McMahan got past
Kemenah for fourth on lap 23 and Stewart saw a three second lead evaporate
again on lap 27 as a brakeless Bobby Clark stopped on the track to bring out
another caution.

This set up a three lap dash to the finish, but Stewart was too strong
and led to the end. Shepard took second on lap 29, but Jacobs battled back
and ducked under Shepard coming off turn four to regain second at the
finish.

“I wasn’t going to beat Shane,” runnerup Jacobs said about the restart
with three laps to go. “I was about as good as anybody in one and two. We
had the wing back so far to try and run the top in three and four. I guess
we were just second best tonight.”

After Shepard it was McMahan in fourth and All Star points leader Kemenah
fifth. Smith was sixth ahead of Kelly Kinser (up from 16th), last starter
Rob Chaney and Phil Gressman.

Dale Blaney was scheduled to start 14th in the A Main, but his engine was
missing when he pushed off for the main. He went to the pits for repairs and
had to start last, and dropped out early.

The Crown Battery heat fell to Bobby Clark, the B&B Products heat went to
Kemenah, the Engler Machine and Tool heat was won by Shepard and the TP
Wings heat fell to Bill Rose. Todd Heller won the Georgia Marketing &
Promotions C Main and Mike Wagner won the United Aluminum Window Sales &
Consulting B Main. The evening was sponsored by Auto Value.

In the Fremont Speedway Dirt Truck feature, rookie Mike Porter made it two wins in a row, as he took the win over Bobby Davis, Steve Sabo, Jeff Dougherty and Matt Lucius.

Time Trials: 1. Paul McMahan, Johnson U2, 12.295; 2. Chad Kemenah, Harble
15k, 12.344; 3. Jeff Shepard, Ashworth 92, 12.380; 4. Byron Reed, B&S 5,
12.408; 5. Jason Johnson, Harrison 22, 12.408; 6. Shane Stewart, Holbrook
8h, 12.410; 7. Danny Smith, Webb 51, 12.439; 8. Kenny Jacobs, Jacobs 6,
12.440; 9. Mike Wagner, Wagner 55, 12.467; 10. Kyle Sauder, Pullins 29,
12.505; 11. John Ivy, Carousel 20, 12.506; 12. Brian Smith, Burmeister 16,
12.513; 13. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 12.529; 14. Dale Blaney, Andrews 72b,
12.540; 15. Phil Gressman, Miller 2, 12.541; 16. Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4k,
12.565; 17. Mark Keegan, Steinbrick 92, 12.582; 18. Butch Schroeder,
Steinbrick 92x, 12.712; 19. Mike Linder, James 3, 12.771; 20. Bill Rose,
Rose 6B, 12.780; 21. Bobby Clark, Clark 8, 12.781; 22. Dustin Daggett,
Daggett 85, 12.847; 23. Barry Ruble, Ruble 63r, 12.848; 24. Dean Jacobs,
Baker 34, 12.849; 25. Rob Chaney, Courtad 9x, 12.884; 26. Troy Vacarro,
Vacarro 7T, 12.905; 27. Lee Jacobs, Jacobs 2, 12.925; 28. Todd Kane, Kane
78, 12.927; 29. Andrew Palker, Palker 57x, 12.958; 30. David Harrison,
Harrison 44, 12.998; 31. Jeremy Campbell, Campbell 10c, 13.013; 32. John
Wisbon, Riehl 55, 13.030; 33. Bruce Robenalt, Robenalt 98, 13.032; 34. Andy
James, James 72, 13.032; 35. Shawn Chaney, Chaney 27c, 13.042; 36. Chad
Blonde, Blonde 5, 13.060; 37. Todd Heller, Heller 14h, 13.130; 38. Doug
Berryman, Berryman 1, 13.228; 39. Jim Dayton, Dayton 2x, 13.253; 40. Alvin
Roepke, Roepke/Ford 99, 13.298; 41. Jason Courtney, Courtney 9c, 13.485; 42.
Chuck Waddell, Waddell 22, 13.503; 43. Mark Imler, Imler 40, 13.538; 44.
Duffy Smith, Mulheim 38k, 13.807; 45. Jeff Hardwick, Hardwick 14, 14.044;
46. Bill Shaw, Shaw 48, 14.300; 47. Jeremiah Keegan, Keegan Y, 14.630; 48.
Joe Laugherty, Laugherty 21J, 14.768; 49. Chuck Wilson, Wilson 31, NT.

Crown Battery Heat (10 laps): 1. Clark 2. M. Keegan 3. G. Wilson 4.
McMahan 5. Johnson 6. Wagner 7. Palker 8. R. Chaney 9. Robenalt 10. C.
Wilson 11. Courtney 12. Hardwick 13. Heller.

B&B Products Heat (10 laps): 1. Kemenah 2. Blaney 3. Stewart 4. Schroeder
5. Daggett 6. Sauder 7. Vacarro 8. Harrison 9. James 10. Waddell 11.
Berryman 12. Shaw.

Engler Machine & Tool Heat (10 laps): 1. Shepard 2. Ivy 3. Linder 4.
Gressman 5. Danny Smith 6. L. Jacobs 7. Campbell 8. S. Chaney 9. Imler 10.
Dayton 11. J. Keegan 12. Ruble.

TP Wings Heat (10 laps): 1. Rose 2. D. Jacobs 3. Kinser 4. Reed 5. K.
Jacobs 6. Kane 7. Roepke 8. Wisbon 9. Blonde 10. Duffy Smith 11. Laugherty
12. B. Smith.

Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Main (10 laps): 1. Heller 2. Berryman 3.
Roepke 4. Dayton 5. Courtney 6. Waddell 7. Imler 8. Shaw 9. Hardwick 10.
Laugherty 11. C. Wilson 12. Duffy Smith.

United Aluminum Window Sales & Consulting B Main (12 laps): 1. Wagner 2.
Sauder 3. B. Smith 4. R. Chaney 5. Vacarro 6. Harrison 7. Kane 8. Campbell
9. Palker 10. James 11. Roepke 12. Robenalt 13. Berryman 14. S. Chaney 15.
Dayton 16. Wisbon 17. Heller 18. Ruble 19. Blonde 20. L. Jacobs.

A Main (30 laps): 1. Shane Stewart 2. Kenny Jacobs 3. Jeff Shepard 4.
Paul McMahan 5. Chad Kemenah 6. Danny Smith 7. Greg Wilson 8. Kelly Kinser
9. Rob Chaney 10. Phil Gressman 11. Mark Keegan 12. Byron Reed 13. John Ivy
14. Dean Jacobs 15. Bill Rose 16. Brian Smith 17. Butch Schroeder 18. Mike
Linder 19. Kyle Sauder 20. Dustin Daggett 21. Bob Clark 22. Jason Johnson
23. Mike Wagner 24. Dale Blaney.

Lap Leaders: Shane Stewart 1-30