NEMA’s Randy Cabral 2 for 2 at Speedbowl
Waterford, CT — For the second time in just over a month, the New England Midget Association, visited the Waterford Speedbowl. The weather on these two visits loomed with threatening skies and the infield was full of puddles. However, shortly after getting the cars unloaded and race ready, the grey sky turned blue and was replaced with bright, warm sunshine. Randy was still getting words of encouragement from fans that watched him run to a touching victory on April 10th. He was hoping that his luck would hold out and he would once again claim the checkers.
It was around 5:30 when the first green flag fell for the qualifying heats for NEMA. The first heat pitted the 77 of Shawn Torrey and the 9 of John Zych Jr. in the front row with Chris Leonard’s 22 and Greg Stoehr’s 26b making up the second. Sixth place starter, Randy Cabral’s 47 dove to the inside and grabbed the top spot quickly bringing Stoehr and fifth place starter, 98 of Bobby Santos III with him. Stoehr took over the lead from Cabral, after a caution was shown for Abby Martino, as a fuel pump broke on the 88 and shortened the night run for the car. Shortly afterwards, with a daring first turn move, Santos, III ducked under Cabral grabbing second. Randy claimed third as he crossed the line in front of the 4 of Nokie Fornoro to finish the qualifier. The second heat put Mike Horn (p30) and Erica Santos (44) in the first two spots with Jeremy Frankoski’s 63 and Joey Payne’s 45 in the second row. Miss Santos proved to be the fastest off of the line and once in the lead, she never looked back while Horn, Frankoski, and Payne fought for second. Payne finished second by powering by the 63 and then the p30. Frankoski claimed third and Horn rallied for forth.
After the heats were over, I headed down to the NEMA pits to see if the feature line up was on the board. It wasn’t ready yet, but I did have the chance to meet and talk to a few of the competitors and their crew members. Everyone was very welcoming and informitive. They helped me find the line ups and Linda even found me (!) to make sure that I had the driver roster for the day. Kim made herself available to me all day long and even answered my vast array of questions or found someone that could. I also had the opportunity to spend some time visiting with “Mazda” Pete Pernesiglio. We spoke about his son and former NEMA announcer, Derrick, as well as Pete Jr. If you were near the rear pit area, you could see the #4 team adjusting their car and making it shine while Nokie played “tickle, tickle” with the youngest Pernesiglio before it was time to go back to work.
When the call came to line up for the features, it was time for me to go back to work as well. The 30 of Paul Scally and Zych Jr maded up the front row, Miss Santos and Frankoski were in the second. Stoehr, Payne, Santos III, Cabral, Fornoro and Adam Cantor rounded out the top 10 starting spots. Scally grabbed the lead as soon as the green waved. With six laps in the record books, Frankoski attempted to motor by Paul but got squirrelly and hit the wall in turn one, bringing out the first caution. On the restart, Payne and Cabral filled the front row. The second caution was brought out before the next lap for Horn, who spun in one. Again the green waved and Payne jumped out ahead of the field, however, Cabral was close behind and passed him at the lap 8 mark. In the mean time, Santos III and Stoehr battled it out for fourth resulting in Santos III capturing the spot. As the cars came around to take the half way sign, Torrey got turned around, bringing out the final caution of the night. When Mr Grant waved the green for the final time, Cabral flew off the line quickly opening up a sizeable lead. As the final laps counted down, Cabral proved he was the strongest car of the day by capturing the checkers, Santos III, Payne, E. Santos, and Stoehr crossed the line respectively.
I’d like to say thank you to everyone in NEMA for being so helpful and kind. I completely enjoyed the day. In the near future, I’m hoping to get to meet more of you and get to know you better as well. As always…See you at the races.
Sources: Cathie Tanner