Zych Wins Race, Claims Championship
Thompson, CT — John Zych Jr. won the 25-lap Northeastern Midget Association 25-lap feature Sunday at Thompson Speedway’s World Series. He captured the 2013 driving championship as well in a series of acts worthy of a classic script.
En route to his fifth win of the season, Zych (Zych 9) inherited the lead when a leaking Todd Bertrand fell victim to a black flag. He then beat back two restart challenges from Randy Cabral (Bertrand 47) who had a five-point edge atop the standings going in.
“I absolutely didn’t want that,” said Zych, “knowing the way Randy runs here. But I always felt it was in my hands.” He was, in fact, “thankful” that winning the championship came down to such a challenge.
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[October 19] by Paul Fohlin
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Cabral, who won the last two championships, was actually nipped for second at the line by Bobby Santos III (Cantor 7ny) giving Zych a 17- point bulge in the final standings. Brothers Russ (Dumo’s Desire 45) and Greg Stoehr (Stoehr 26b) completed the top five.
Zych’s dad has the same edge over Tim Bertrand atop the owner standings.
Pointing out his car “wasn’t perfect,” Zych kept the hammer down and was 1.4 seconds ahead of the Santos/Cabral duel. He was always aware of the five point difference.
The first restart challenge came with 16 to go. Zych and Cabral ran side-by-side into one, Zych coming out of two with the edge. Cabral actually led into three (“I knew he would be there,” said Zych) before the eventual winner exited four with a lead he quickly enlarged.
Five laps later yellow showed again. On the single file restart, Cabral again made a bid in three but Zych ran away with what was the quickest lap of the day, a sizzling 17.734.
“I didn’t hand it to John and I feel good about that,” summed up Cabral, pointing out “I think everything went the way it was supposed to.”
Cabral came back from a pit stop on lap nine when initial leader Avery Stoehr (Breault 44a) spun. “I was way too tight,” he said. “I was afraid of doing too much and I wound up not doing enough.” Zych took advantage of Cabral’s early handling woes with a pass three laps in and was sitting fourth when Avery spun.
He had climbed to third when yellow showed and, on the caution Bertrand, was black flagged. The hose had come out of the overflow bottle. He went back out only to have the bottle fall out on his return. Prior to that, Bertrand had turned a 17.827 lap, prompting the question; did Zych have enough to run him down?
Zych, who responded with a smile and a nod, reported he was having some water problems late himself.
NEMA NUGGETS – Members of NEMA since 2007, the Zychs, both former high school and college basketball players, are the first “new” champions since 2008 when Cabral and Bertrand won the first of their four crowns… Both Cabral and Bertrand (“They were better than us today”) expressed happiness for a team that they helped a lot over the years…Santos, who posted an 18.128, also on the 21st lap, also praised the Zychs…Santos and Avery Stoehr were heat winners Saturday…The Cantor team is expect to call it quits (there’s a for sale sign on the car) while the 45 crew had nothing definite to say about their rumored end after 33 seasons…Derek Pernesiglio, who finished 11th in the family 80, had a busy weekend starting with his Fox Sports assignment at Road Atlanta on Friday evening. He flew to Boston and rented a car, arriving at Thompson early Saturday morning. He “got back into his reporters’ clothes” and did the Whelen Modified Race which will be on Fox Sports One on Sunday, Nov. 3.
RESULTS: 1. John Zych Jr., 2. Bobby Santos III, 3. Randy Cabral, 4. Russ Stoehr, 5. Greg Steohr, 6. Jim Chambers, 7. Paul Scally, 8. Bethany Stoehr, 9. Paul Bigelow, 10. Kenny Johnson, 11. Derek Pernsiglio, 12. Doug Cleveland, 13. Seth Carlson, 14. Ian Cumens, 15. Todd Bertrand, 16. Avery Stoehr, 17. Joey Payne, 18. Kevin Park, 19. Antthony Nocella.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR