Cabral Leads Bertrand Sweep at Speedbowl
Waterford, CT — Taking the lead on lap 11, Randy Cabral breezed to a dominating victory in Sunday’s 25-lap Northeastern Midget Association feature at Waterford Speedbowl’s Finale. It was the six win of the season for Cabral, four of them at the Speedbowl.
It capped a complete sweep for owner Tim Bertrand who moved back into the owners point lead. Jeremy Frankoski (Bertrand 47b) was second on Sunday while Todd Bertrand (Bertrand 48) captured Saturday night’s 25-lap NEMA Lites feature.
Starting fifth, Cabral moved past Erica Santos, the only other leader, in traffic through turns one and two. Only a caution with nine remaining slowed Cabral who posted a fast lap of 12.600 seconds.
Frankoski took full advantage of the yellow. Following the restart, he battled Santos for six laps before passing her out of four with three left. Adam Cantor was fourth with Jeff Abold fifth. Cabral’s winning margin was a “comfortable” 1.547seconds.
“We set up for the bottom,” said Cabral who started fifth. “I got into lapped traffic, went to the outside and it stuck like glue.” Starting fifth, he was third by lap three and passed Jeff Horn for third with 17 remaining.
Frankoski, who started 10th, just missed being involved in the only caution that involved Nokie Fornoro and Horn (they wound up against the third-turn ARMCO). “I just missed Nokie by inches,” he said. “I went by him and when I didn’t hear anything I knew I was OK. I was really lucky.”
“The Bertrand cars have been great all season so this is like a win for me,” says Erica Santos. The top three cars ran sub-13 seconds laps – Frankoski at 12.855 and Erica at 12.938.
The win ended a bad run for Cabral and Bertrand who had an eighth and a “dead last” in the two previous races. That enabled Bob Santos Jr. to move in the point lead.
Experiencing troubles in Saturday’s heat, Bobby Santos III started 24th and drove his father’s #98 to eighth place.
Todd Bertrand grabbed the lead from Anthony Marvuglio with 16 laps left and went on to dominate the NEMA Lites feature. Stephanie Doty got Marvuglio with 13 remaining and held on for second. Russ Wood Jr., Marvuglio and Jesse State completed the top five in the caution-free race.
Pointing out SAT exams kept him from working on the car during the week, Bertrand thanks his father Gil and brother Tim. “Even after having changed a few things,” he said, “the car was just awesome. I’m really glad to be here – it feels great.”
NEMA and the Lites get right back into action Saturday and Sunday at the D.Anthony Venditti Memorial at Seekonk Speedway.
Results: 1. Randy Cabral, 2. Jeremy Frankoski, 3. Erica Santos, 4. Adam Cantor, 5. Jeff Abold, 6. Greg Stoehr, 7. Joey Payne Jr., 8. Bobby Santos III, 9. Mike Keeler, 10. William Wall, 11. John Zych Jr. 12. Jeff Horn, 13. Abby Martino, 14. Doug Cleveland, 15. Jim Miller, 16. Brian Cleveland, 17. Andy Shlatz, 18. Lee Bundy, 19. Matt O’Brien, 20. Barry Kittredge, 21. Paul Luggelle, 22. Nokie Fornoro, 23. Paul Scally, 24. Ronnie Yuhas Jr. 25. Aaron Wall.
NEMA LITES: 1. Todd Bertrand, 2. Stephanie Doty, 3. Russ Wood Jr., 4. Anthony Marvuglio, 5. Jesse State, 6. Jake Stergios, 7. Shawn Torrey, 8. Joey Chick, 9. R.J. Turfano, 10. Kevin Park, 11. Chris Haskell, 12. Paul Lugelle, 13. Steve Powers, 14. Randy Cabral.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR