Cantor Calls DAV Win “Biggest Ever”
Seekonk, MA — Calling it “the biggest win of my career,” Adam Cantor won the 25-lap Northeastern Midget Association 25 lap feature Sunday at Seekonk Speedway’s DAV Memorial. It was the second win of the season for Cantor who beat back a persistent William Wall over the final nine laps.
The Wall family celebrated nonetheless, brothers Will (Wall 5) and Aaron (Wall 55) capturing second and third respectively. Nokie Fornoro (Jarret 4) and Erica Santos (Breault 44) completed the top five.
Anthony Nocella won the 25-lap NEMA Lites feature on Saturday.
Cantor, who took the lead on lap six, faced a William Wall restart challenge with 16 laps remaining. He got the jump but couldn’t get away from the youngster. Loose off, Cantor said he “tried babying in into three, but when I did it I could hear Will out there. I had to stay on it.”
“The right rear gave up the last couple of laps,” said Wall. “I couldn’t keep it on the outside. I needed a little more car.”
Cantor, who had troubles on Saturday, did get more car on Sunday morning. “It seems we changed everything but the steering wheel and the driver,” said Cantor’s dad Alan.
Although he fell in behind Santos on the initial green, Cantor “knew I had a good car immediately. I went in pretty deep and it stuck.”
The first yellow ended two battles – Santos and Cantor and William Wall and Nokie Fornoro.
“Erica got me on the restart big time,” said Cantor. “I pride myself on restart ability so I said some not-so-nice things about myself. Still, I felt if I could up to her left rear off two I could go around her.” He took the lead out of four.
William Wall won the battle with Fornoro, moved past Santos for second 10 laps in and was dogging Cantor when the second yellow showed. Aaron Wall, who started ninth, was fourth by that time and moved past Santos on the restart.
Point leader Randy Cabral (Bertrand 47) was sixth and Jeff Abold (Seymour 29), who started 20th because of a driver change, was seventh.
Nocella, winning for the second time at Seekonk this year, got by Ed LeClerc Jr. after the only restart in the Lites event. LeClerc had built a sizable edge before the yellow on lap 13.
Five lengths behind the leader, Joe Mikitarian, LeClerc and Anthony Marvuglio finished second through fourth in a tight bunch. Randy Cabral was fifth.
NEMA’s grand slam finish continues this weekend at Thompson Speedway’s World Series.
NEMA NUGGETS – It was Cantor’s fourth career win but his first at Seekonk…Cantor had the fastest lap in the feature (11.329) while Nocella’s 11.907 was best in the Lites run…In spite of two cautions, the feature was run in nine minutes, a credit to starter Steve Grant.
FINISH:
1. Adam Cantor, 2. Will Wall, 3. Aaron Wall, 4. Nokie Fornoro, 5. Erica Santos, 6. Randy Cabral, 7. Jeff Abold, 8. Greg Stoehr, 9. Russ Stoehr, 10. Barry Kittredge, 11. Mike Horn, 12. Jim Miller, 13. Chris Leonard, 14. Matt O’Brien, 15. Abby Martino, 16. Chris DeRitis, 17. Rich Gerbe, 18. Lee Bundy, 19. Paul Scally, 20. John Zych.
LITES: 1. Anthony Nocella, 2. Joe Mikitarian, 3. Ed LeClerc Jr., 4. Anthony Marvuglio, 5. Randy Cabral, 6. Joey Chick, 7. Pete Skias, 8. Eric Cabral, 9. Josh Woollam, 10. Jay Diamond, 11. Kevin Park.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR