Early NEMA Win Key in Cabral’s Objective
Randy Cabral is not given to exaggeration. The Northeastern Midget Association hot shoe keeps a tight reign on his expectations.
“I want to win at least one race,” says Cabral who will be in the Bertrand #47 for the third straight year. “Ever since my second year in NEMA (2000) I’ve won at least once. I’d like to keep that streak going.”
NEMA starts its very ambitious 19-race agenda at Thompson Speedway’s Icebreaker on April 5-6 and heads to Waterford Speedbowl for the Budweiser Modified Nationals April 12-13. NEMA will help Seekonk Speedway open its season on May 4. “They are the best Midget tracks in the East,” Cabral insists. “I’ve had side-by-side battles at all three.”
Eleven of Cabral’s 12 wins have come at those three tracks, four each at Thompson and Waterford. He won the closers at the latter two last year, his effort in the Speedbowl’s “Finale” near flawless. The team has made few changes. “The car was so good we didn’t want to touch it,” Cabral says.
“Hopefully we can get the win in the first three races and then go back to having fun like we did last year,” continues Cabral who followed his father Glen into the sport. He has, in fact, done that the past two years.
Cabral is part of a NEMA cast that includes Erica and Bobby Santos III, veterans Joey Payne Jr. and Nokie Fornoro, Adam Cantor and youngsters Jeremy Frankoski and Chris Leonard.
His first win came in the 2000 Boston Louie at Seekonk in family-owned equipment but it was the Thompson Icebreaker victory in 2001 that ignites him still. “I’ve been watching races there since 1988, watching my dad,” he explains. “It’s a special place and I’ve always wanted to race there so to actually win there was unbelievable.”
When it comes to his best race, however, only the Boston Louie win compares with last year’s “Finale” at Waterford. “I couldn’t do anything wrong at Seekonk,” he says. “The car was nothing fancy. We bought it that year, pulled it out from under a tarp, put a motor in it and went racing. Seven races in we won.”
He says people tell him he drives Waterford all wrong. “’You can’t go into one that way,’ they say,” he explains. “You’re wrong and you need to do it this way.’ I tell them I can’t get my way out of my system and I’ve been pretty successful with the way I do it.”
Thompson, he insists, is “very intimidating” and “demands respect.” He’s sure “people don’t realize the speeds we go there. When things happen they happen really big.”
He’s made four-wide passes on both the bottom and the top at the Speedbowl “and there’s no other track where you can do that,” he adds.
While speeds have definitely increased it’s the improved competition that makes NEMA “the premier touring division in New England,” he says. “When I got my first win people said there were maybe 10 cars that could win a NEMA feature. Now there are 20-25 and everybody is so hungry.”
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR