Story by:
By Brian Liskai
05/05/2001:
FREMONT, Oh. - Mark Keegan knows every inch of Fremont
Speedway...and he needed all of it Saturday, May 5, to hold off a hard-charging
Byron Reed to take the 410 sprint feature on Willies Sales and Service-Torro
Lawn Mower Night.
Keegan, aboard the Steinbrek #92,
started fourth in the field, after having to qualify for the feature through the
B-Main. He grabbed the lead from pole sitter Bobby Teeple on lap 3 and, using
the high groove, built a substatial lead until he encountered lapped
traffic about a third into the 30-lap affair. Meanwhile, Reed, who started
14th, steadily worked his way toward the front. A restart with two laps
remaining bunched the field, and Keegan and Reed ran side-by-side through one
and two and into three and four, with Keegan holding Reed off for the win. It
marked the second straight week Reed charged toward the front to nail the
runner-up spot.
"We put a spacer on the right rear and
jacked some weight around on the red (for an easy John Ivy roll on the initial
start). And it helped tighten the car up a little. Boy, I hated to see that
yellow...I knew Byron was right there...I had my hands full those last two
laps," said Keegan, an eight time track champion at Fremont.
With the win, Keegan moves closer to
the fourth place spot on the all-time career feature win list at Fremont
Speedway. He has now taken 52 feature wins, just two behind fourth place Herbie
Robinson and just six behind third place Jim Linder.
Behind Keegan and Reed was Tim
Shaffer in the Dwight Reidling #9, Todd Heller, fast qualifier Rob Chaney, Todd
Kane, Jim Dayton, David Harrison, USAC regular Bill Rose and Bob
Lime.
Heat wins went to Chaney, Reed, Kane
and Jim Nier. Rose won the B-Main.
The fans got their money's worth in
the 305 sprints. Defending track champion Bryan Scott fought his way through the
pack and nipped Bobby Foster at the line for his second straight win. Scott
pinched Foster up toward the front stretch wall as the two raced toward the
checkered.
"That was a great race. Bobby and I
raced each other hard all last year and I knew I was in for a fight. Bobby made
a little bobble out of turn four with two laps to go or I don't know if I could
have caught him. We we came out of four ont he last lap, I just went for it,"
said Scott. "It's always fun racing Bobby because I know he'll race me
clean."
Behind Scott and Foster were Dustin
keegan, Bill Kraylek, Doug Berryman, Mike Oberdorff, Chris Lang, Scott Kraylek,
Jerrid Potter and Brock Mayes.
Heat wins went to Shawn Chaney, who
took a nasty flip in the feature (he was okay), Dustin Keegan and Foster. Brock
Mayes won the B-Main.
Fremont's Steve Sabo picked up where
he finished the 2000 season...winning races. Sabo, who won the final six
features in 2000 at Fremont, has now claimed the first two of the 2001 season.
Jeff Dougherty was second followed by Greg Summit, Rich Farmer, Dan Roepke, L.J.
Connors, Rex Haubert, Brian Arnold, Linda Sabo and Bill Hay.
Truck heat race wins went to Sabo and
Farmer.
Racing resumes at "The Track That
Action Built" next Saturday, May 12 with Wendy's Old-Fashioned Hamburgers Night
paying $2,500 to win for the $410 sprints; $500 to win for the 305 sprints and
$300 to win for the dirt trucks. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. with racing beginning
at 7:30 p.m.
FREMON SPEEDWAY, May 5, 2001
410 sprint qualifications: 1. Rob Chaney(9x), 13,34; 2. Bill
Rose (6B), 13.66; 3. Todd Kane (78), 13.75; 4. Todd Shaffer (9), 13.89; 5. Mark
Keegan (92), 14.07; 6. Todd Heller (14h), 14.11; 7. Jim Dayton (2x), 14.11; 8.
Bobby Teeple (8t), 14. 13; 9. John Ivy (20), 14.19; 10. Bob Lime (91), 14.19;
11. David Harrison (44), 14.21; 12. Jack Hewitt (16), 14.22; 13. Jason Dukes
(3), 14.25; 14. Byron Reed, 14.27; 15. Jim Stinson (84), 14.31; 16. Jim Nier
(00), 14.32; 17. Dick Byerly (0), 14.35; 18. Eric Hysong, (72), 14.37; 19. Bruce
Robenalt (98), 14.41; 20. John Wisbon, (16) 14.47; 21. Alvin Roepke (99), 14.62;
22. Troy Vaccaro (7t), 14.64; 23. Trent Walters (27), 14.69; 24. Bill Shaw (48),
14.84; 25. Tony Beaber (3t), 14.86; 26. Jim Dues (63), 15.08; 27. Norton
Southard (00), 15.10; 28. Danny Shaffer (04), 15.12; 29. Jody Keegan (K60),
15.16; 30. Josh Keegan (3), 15.20; 31. Ricky Ferkel (0), 15.41; 32. Joe
Laugherty (21J), 16.03.
Heat 1: 1. Rob Chaney; 2. Alvin Roepke; 3. John Ivy; 4. Jason
Dukes; 5. Mark Keegan.
Heat 2: 1. Byron Reed; 2. Eric Hysong; 3. Todd Heller; 4. Bob
Lime; 5. Bill Rose.
Heat 3: 1. Todd Kane; 2. David Harrison; 3. Jim Stinson; 4.
Bruce Robenalt; 5. Trent Walter
Heat 4: 1. Jim Nier; 2. Jack Hewitt; 3. Tim Shaffer; 4. John
Wisbon; 5. Bobby Teeple.
B-Main: 1. Bill Rose; 2. Mark Keegan; 3. Jim Dayton; 4. Bobby
Teeple; 5. Jody Keegan; 6. Troy Vaccaro; 7. Tony Beaber; 8. Jim Dues; 9. Ricky
Ferkel; 10. Trent Walter; 11. Norton Southard; 12. Josh Keegan; 13. Bill Shaw;
14. Joe Laugherty; 15. Dick Byerly.
A-Main (30 laps): 1. Mark Keegan; 2. Byron Reed; 3. Tim
Shaffer; 4. Todd Heller; 5. Rob Chaney; 6. Todd Kane; 7. Jim Dayton; 8. David
Harrison; 9. Bill Rose; 10. Bob Lime; 11. Eric Hyson; 12. Jack Hewitt; 13. John
Wisbon; 14. Jim Stinson; 15. Alvin Roepke; 16. Jim Nier; 17. Bruce Robenalt; 18.
Bobby Teeple; 19. Jason Dukes; 20. John Ivy.
305 sprints:
Heat 1: 1. Shawn Chaney; 2. Eric Lynd; 3. Bryan Scott; 4. Lee
Potter; 5. Chris Lang.
Heat 2: 1. Dustin Keegan; 2. Bill Kraylek; 3. Mike Oberdorf;
4. Doug Berryman; 5. Ron Bordner.
Heat 3: 1. Bobby Foster; 2. Scott Kraylek; 3. Craig Mintz; 4.
Ryan Lowe; 5. Andy Stout.
B-Main: 1. Brock Mayes; 2. Jerrid Potter; 3. Keith Whaley; 4.
Roger Shammo; 5. Mark Lang; 6. Rick Ridenbaugh; 7. Matt Merrill; 8. Jim
Moore.
A-Main (20 laps): 1. Bryan Scott; 2. Bobby Foster; 3. Dustin
Keegan; 4. Bill Kraylek; 5. Doug Berryman; 6. Mike Oberdorff; 7. Chris Lang; 8.
Scott Kraylek; 9. Jerrid Potter; 10. Brock Mayes; 11. Ryan Lowe; 12. Roger
Shammo; 13. Craig Mintz; 14. Keith Whaley; 15. Eric Lynd; 16. Mark Lang; 17. Ron
Bordner; 18. Andy Stout; 19. Lee Potter; 20. Shawn Chaney.
Dirt trucks:
Heat 1: 1. Steve Sabo; 2. Danny Roepke; 3. Greg Summit; 4. Rex
Haubert; 5. Jeff Dougherty.
Heat 2: 1. Rich Farmer; 2. John Rhoades; 3. Brian Arnold; 4.
Jeremy Cogar; 5. Linda Sabo
Feature: 1. Steve Sabo; 2. Jeff Dougherty; 3. Greg Summit; 4.
Rich Farmer; 5. Dan Roepke; 6. L.J. Connors; 7. Rex Haubert; 8. Brian Arnold; 9.
Linda Sabo; 10. Bill Hay; 11. Greg Harmon; 12. Todd Keegan; 13. Jeremy Cogar;
14. Jim McGrath; 15. Bruce Beard; 16. Bryan Lehmann; 17. Andy Maynard; 18. Joe
Hartlaub.
