NEMA’s Cabral World Series Winner
Thompson, CT – Randy Cabral got away on a restart with six laps left and went on to capture the Northeastern Midget Association 25-lap feature Sunday at Thompson Speedway’s World Series. It was the third win of the campaign for the Cabral/Bertrand #47 team which takes a commanding 88 point lead into this weekend’s season finale at Lee USA Speedway’s Ocktoberfest.
The fourth and last caution put an end to a classic Cabral/Russ Stoehr (Dumo’s Desire 45) duel that highlighted the middle of the race. Stoehr held on for second with Jeff Horn (Horn A1) claiming a hard-earned third. Mike Horn (Horn 93x) emerged from a battle with Jim Miller (Miller 3m) to claim fourth.
It was the tenth career Thompson NEMA victory for Cabral.
Using the bottom, Cabral, coming from the 14th s starting spot, took the lead on the first restart from pole sitter Anthony Marvuglio with 12 laps gone. Two laps later yellow showed again and Stoehr, coming from 12th, went around both Miller and Marvuglio to take second on the ensuing restart. By the next lap, Cabral and Stoehr were side by side.
Stoehr did get the jump on the third restart. “I was settled in for second,” said Cabral. “The 45 takes off so fast on restarts. I was lucky I guess.”
“The car was pushing off the pedal on the last restart,” said Stoehr, pointing out “I didn’t want to run into him so I had to let him go.” Cabral did open up a five-car gap quickly and went on to win by eight tenths of a second despite Stoehr turning an 18.234 on lap 23.
Cabral said he used the same line employed by close friend Dave Richardi en route to winning the Pro 4 feature on Saturday night over the final circuits. His fastest lap (18.113), however, came on the fourth circuit, part of a rush to the front. He passed Jeff Horn for third on lap three. After a three lap side-by-side battle with Miller he claimed second on lap 10. The second fastest lap of the race, an 18.170, belonged to Miller and it came during the battle with Cabral.
When the first caution showed, Cabral was seven car lengths behind Marvuglio.
Battling a tight car, Jeff Horn turned in a heroic effort running through the leaders throughout. He made a bid for second before finishing a second behind Stoehr in third.
RESULTS: 1. Randy Cabral, 2. Russ Stoehr, 3. Jeff Horn, 4. Mike Horn, 5. Jim Miller, 6. Greg Stoehr, 7. John Zych Jr., 8. Lee Bundy, 9. Bethany Stoehr, 10. Andy Barrows, 11. Brian Cleveland, 12. Bobby Santos III, 13. Keith Botelho, 14. Jim SantaMaria, 15. Anthony Marvuglio, 16. Derek Pernesiglio, 17. Todd Bertrand, 18. Anthony Nocella, 19. Phil DiMario, 20. Joey Payne, 21. Paul Scally.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR