NEMA Visits Monadnock: Cabral After Third Straight
Maybe the toughest stop on the Northeastern Midget Association schedule; Monadnock Speedway tends to be the a great equalizer.
Earlier this year Randy Cabral and the Bertrand #47 had a two-win streak ended at the tricky third mile. They’ll try again Saturday night, NEMA making its third visit to the Granite State venue.
Three in a row has not happened in NEMA since 1993 when Jeff Horn, diving for Bay Hayes, did it at Seekonk (May 29), Star (June 13) and Waterford (June 26). Cabral comes into the race off wins at Seekonk’s Boston Louie and Waterford’s Wings & Wheels.
Joey Payne Jr. and Bobby Santos III won the previous visits to Monadnock this year. Cabral, who has never won at Monadnock, leads Payne by 143 while Bertrand has a 121-point edge on Gene Angelillo in owner points.
Neither Payne or Santos is expected to be at Monadnock. Lou Ciccone Jr. will climb into Payne’s usual ride, the Angelillo #45.
It will be NEMA’s 12th feature of the season. There have been five different winners, Jeff Abold and Greg Stoehr joining Cabral, Payne and Santos. Rookie William Wall, Erica Santos, Cabral’s teammate Jeremy Frankoski and Mike Keeler, now in the Seamon #63, appear ready to join the win list.
“The list is far from complete,” insists NEMA President Mike Scrivani. “There are still some surprises left and there’s no place better than Monadnock for that to happen.”
Nokie Fornoro and Stoehr are the only other active drivers with Monadnock wins.
NOTES: The NEMA record for consecutive wins belongs to the legendary Joe Csiki. He ran off six straight in 1963. Nokie Fornoro, in the Scrivani #22, won five straight in 1981.
Drew Fornoro is the all-time Monadnock winner with 10 including five in a row in 1982 and ’83…Following his checkered at Seekonk on July 16, Jeff Abold now sits, alphabetically anyway, atop the list of all-time NEMA winners. He replaced the late Chuck Arnold, the latter a winner at Norwood Arena on Aug. 29, 1958. That’s 50 years ago this weekend.
Joe Payne and Jeff Horn are still a win short of that magic 20 win mark…Dave Humphrey won the first NEMA date at Monadnock beating Lou Fray and Butch Walsh on July 9, 1972.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR