Abold Impressive in Boston Louie Win
Seekonk, MA – Setting fast time “kind of put the pressure” on Jeff Abold. “After time trials, I knew I just had to give them a win,” said Abold who drove the Seymour-family 29 to victory in Saturday’s 13th annual Northeastern Midget Association Boston Louie Memorial at Seekonk Speedway.
Abold, who set fast time with a blistering 10.859 seconds run, came from 16th to take the lead away from Cole Carter on an 18th lap restart. Carter (Bertrand 74) was the only other leader in the 29-lap event. It was the first Midget ride of the season for Abold, 20, who called it “the biggest win of my career.”
It was a “sweep” for the Seymour family that sponsors the event that honors the memory of the legendary car owner “Boston” Louie Seymour. “We were fast all day,” was classic understatement by Abold.
Carter held for second. Nokie Fornoro (Jarret 4), William Wall (Wall 5) and a fast closing Randy Cabral (Bertrand 47) filled out the top five. Adam Cantor’s streak of top fives ran out with a sixth. It was a strong run for Wall who set second fast time (11.216), started 15th and caught the leaders in the closing laps.
The second and final restart was a rough one, Carter and Abold “banging wheels” down the front chute. “Just good close racing,” offered Abold who admitted “we touched wheels a couple times. We both wanted to win pretty bad.”
“I pushed it as long as I could without wrecking both of us,” said Carter, who started on the inside of the second row and had a wide edge when the first caution showed on lap 16. “It was hard racing. I had just led 16 laps and I didn’t want to give it away.”
Abold had just moved past Adam Cantor for second when yellow showed wiping out Carter’s straightaway lead. Carter, who was in traffic by lap seven, had several lapped cars between him and the rest of the field. “In USAC they leave the lapped cars where they are on restarts,” said Carter. “They don’t do that in NEMA and that may have hurt us.” Still, he was well aware “everybody was coming.”
Going back a lap, Abold reverted back to third on the restart. He quickly grabbed second on the green and was still there when yellow showed again two laps later.
Abold, who now has two wins and a second in his last three Seekonk starts, moved into third on lap 12 displacing Fornoro. He needed less than 10 laps to catch a battle that included Cantor, Fornoro and John Zych Jr. “It seemed like all of a sudden I caught right up,” said Abold. “The cars ahead of me were fading and my car was getting stronger.”
Admitting “the cautions were my friends,” Abold nonetheless believed he “probably could have caught him [Carter] without them. We were fast all day. We could run anywhere.”
Results: 1. Jeff Abold, 2. Cole Carter, 3. Nokie Fornoro, 4. William Wall, 5. Randy Cabral, 6. Adam Cantor, 7. Jeff Horn, 8. Chris DeRitis, 9. Russ Stoehr, 10. Russ Stoehr, 11. John Zych Jr., 12. Chris Leoanrd, 13. Greg Stoehr, 14. Jim Miller, 15. Erica Santos, 16. Doug Cleveland, 17. Paul Scally, 18. Abby Martino, 19. Matt O’Brien, 20. Neil Blatt, 21. Eddie LeClerc Jr. DNS – Tim Heath, Jake Stergois.
Time Trials: 1. Jeff Abold (10.859), 2. William Wall (11.216), 3. Russ Stoehr (11.225), 4. Jack Stegois (11.234), 5. Randy Cabral (11.273), 6. Greg Stoehr (11.296), 7. Nokie Fornoro (11.317), 8. Jim Miller (11.330), 9. Chris Leonard (11.391), 10. Adam Cantor (11.401), 11. Jeff Horn (11.443), 12. John Zych Jr. (11.547), 13. Erica Santos (11.550), 14. Chris DeRitis (11.550), 15. Cole Carter (11.616), 16. Tim Heath (11.648), 17. Abby Martino (11.687), 18. Paul Scally (11.781), 19. Doug Cleveland (11.781), 20. Lee Bundy (11.899), 21. Matt O’Brien (11.934), 22. Neil Blatt (12.263), 23. Eddie LeClerc Jr. (12.404).
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR