Freemont race report

FREMONT, OH - Mark Keegan brought the house down with a hometrack victory Tuesday night at Fremont Speedway in the All Star sprint Budweiser 40 Ohio Speedweek feature. Keegan's first All Star win of the season paid the eight-time track champion $6,000 to win in front of a sold-out grandstand. Byron Reed had the fastest car on the track until his nose wing broke, affecting his handling and giving the lead back to Keegan. Reed's runner-up finish earned a thunderous ovation from the partisan crowd.

"I was running the middle and the bottom and we were pretty good. When it came to lapped traffic, everyone was on the bottom and they held me up. When I saw Byron I knew I had to do something, so I went to the top and it worked," was how Keegan explained the closing stages of the event. "Adam and Willy Steinbrick are the best. Fisher Performance, Kistler Engines and American Racer tires were awesome," the jubilant winner added.

"When my wing first broke, it wasn't hurting me that bad. But when it flipped up I couldn't even see where I was going," Reed recalled of his hairy ride the final few circuits. "I was glad the race was over before I hit somebody."

Kelly Kinser started on the ButlerBuilt Hot Seat pole with Mike Wagner alongside. Rob Chaney and Keegan made up row two ahead of Dean Jacobs and Shane Stewart. Kinser got a great start and grabbed the initial lead over Wagner and Keegan. Kinser was running his usual low groove, with Wagner having to try and hold off Keegan. Laps four, five and six saw Keegan and Wagner side-by-side, with Keegan diving under Wagner for second on lap seven as the leader Kinser entered lapped traffic. Keegan was all over Kinser in dense lapped traffic, running nose to tail for the next three laps. Keegan went up on the high groove coming off turn four to pass Kinser and lead lap 11. Shane Stewart began making his presence known, moving up to challenge Kinser for second on lap 13. They battled for two laps tooth and nail before Stewart got by on lap 15.

Lap 18 saw the red emerge for Kraig Kinser's spinout, and in the process Boston Reid hit Kinser and flipped. At the same time, Jody Keegan and Stewart collided in turn two and spun, knocking Stewart from second. For the restart, Keegan led Kinser, Wagner and Dean Jacobs. Keegan stretched his advantage as Reed moved up into contention after starting 12th. Wagner took second from Kinser on lap 25, then Reed also got by Kinser a lap later. Lap 28 saw Reed alongside Wagner, and he took over second on lap 29. Reed was really on the move in the low groove, and was only three car lengths back in lapped traffic behind Keegan. Lap 35 saw Reed make a dive for the lead, but Keegan held on. Reed repeated the move to lead lap 36, but then his front wing mount broke and his car was a handful to control, allowing Keegan to get past again to lead lap 37. As Reed struggled to see after his wing flipped up, Keegan took the checkered followed by Reed and Wagner.

"We timed really decent," Wagner said of third, his best placing of the season. "The track was really fast tonight. We just needed a good finish for our crew and our sponsors."

Jacobs was fourth with Johnson fifth and Phil Gressman sixth after starting 15th. Kinser finished seventh, winning the Team Simpson Racing Lucky Seven award ahead of Chad Kemenah, Rob Chaney and Travis Rilat, who started 21st.

The K-T Equipment heat went to Kenny Jacobs, the JB Enterprise Racing Products heat to Tyler Walker, the Crown Battery heat to Billy Pauch and the Engler Machine & Tool heat fell to Jerrod Hull. Dean Jacobs bicycled in turn one of the first heat and smacked the outside wall hard. Jim Dayton hit the wall and flipped in the same heat. Both were okay. Mike Linder won the Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Main, then in the B, Todd Kane smacked the front chute wall and flipped hard, with Doug Kekich also flipping. Later in the B, Troy Vacarro executed a nasty end-over-end flip in turn three. All were uninjured. The B Main winner was D. Jacobs and Kelly Kinser captured the Haulmark Dash.

Time Trials: 1. Shane Stewart, Holbrook 8h, 12.912; 2. Dean Jacobs, Daugherty 7r, 13.012; 3. Mark Keegan, Steinbrick 92, 13.025; 4. Rob Chaney, Courtad 9x, 13.053; 5. Mike Wagner, Wagner 55, 13.080; 6. Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4k, 13.089; 7. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 13.102; 8. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 13.108; 9. Todd Kane, Pullins 29, 13.118; 10. Kraig Kinser, Kinser 11k, 13.130; 11. Alvin Roepke, Roepke/Ford 99, 13.133; 12. Boston Reid, Keppel/Devine 9, 13.170; 13. Jason Johnson, Elden 22e, 13.190; 14. Byron Reed, B&S 5, 13.308; 15. Rodney Duncan, Harrison 22, 13.385; 16. Chris Knopp, Neiderer 10n, 13.402; 17. Phil Gressman, Reidling 9, 13.443; 18. John Wisbon, Burmeister 16, 13.460; 19. Billy Pauch, J&M 55, 13.462; 20. Jerrod Hull, Webb 51, 13.481; 21. Kenny Jacobs, Jacobs/Honecker 6, 13.483; 22. Tyler Walker, Ashworth 92, 13.513; 23. Chuck Wilson, Wilson/Jones 55, 13.532; 24. Billy Wilburn, Wilburn 0, 13.574; 25. Travis Rilat, Archer U2, 13.617; 26. David Harrison, Harrison 44, 13.645; 27. Danny Smith, Baker 4, 13.757; 28. John Ivy, Carousel 20, 13.787; 29. Tommy Burns, Burns 7c, 13.794; 30. Troy Vacarro, Vacarro 7T, 13.822; 31. Jody Keegan, Keegan K60, 13.842; 32. Hud Horton, Mossbarger 95, 13.883; 33. Roger Campbell, Jr., Campbell ZL1, 13.935; 34. Jim Dayton, Dayton 2x, 13.950; 35. Todd Heller, Heller 14h, 13.962; 36. Lee Jacobs, Jacobs/Honecker 2, 13.999; 37. John Hawk, Seeling 97, 14.028; 38. Mike Linder, Brewer 3, 14.096; 39. Bruce Robenalt, Robenalt 98, 14.120; 40. Lee Potter, Potter 28, 14.127; 41. Barry Ruble, Ruble 63r, 14.291; 42. Bob Distel, Distel 18, 14.298; 43. Doug Kekich, Kekich 19, 14.322; 44. Todd King, King 97T, 14.328; 45. Mark Wilkins, Cove 48, 14.337; 46. Jason Courtney, Courtney 9c, 14.480; 47. Chad Levingston, Levingston 74L, 14.700; 48. Jon Webb, Webb 7w, 14.939; 49. Bob Lime, Lime 91, NT.

K-T Equipment Rental Heat (10 laps): 1. K. Jacobs 2. Gressman 3. Wagner 4. Johnson 5. Stewart 6. Rilat 7. Kane 8. Hawk 9. Burns 10. Ruble 11. Campbell 12. Wilkins.

JB Enterprise Racing Products Heat (10 laps): 1. Walker 2. Reed 3. Wisbon 4. Kraig Kinser 5. Kelly Kinser 6. Harrison 7. Vacarro 8. Linder 9. Courtney 10. Distel 11. Dayton 12. D. Jacobs.

Crown Battery Heat (10 laps): 1. Pauch 2. M. Keegan 3. Roepke 4. J. Keegan 5. Smith 6. Robenalt 7. G. Wilson 8. Heller 9. Kekich 10. Levingston 11. C. Wilson 12. Duncan.

Engler Machine & Tool Heat (10 laps): 1. Hull 2. Reid 3. Chaney 4. Knopp 5. Ivy 6. Kemenah 7. Wilburn 8. L. Jacobs 9. Potter 10. Horton 11. King 12. Webb.

Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. K. Kinser 2. Wagner 3. Chaney 4. Johnson 5. Reed 6. M. Keegan.

Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Main (12 laps): 1. Linder 2. Hawk 3. Kekich 4. Potter 5. Courtney 6. Ruble 7. Distel 8. Webb 9. Levingston 10. King 11. Robenalt.

B Main (15 laps): 1. D. Jacobs 2. Duncan 3. Kemenah 4. Rilat 5. Harrison 6. G. Wilson 7. Burns 8. C. Wilson 9. L. Jacobs 10. Campbell 11. Horton 12. Hawk 13. Vacarro 14. Kane 15. Linder 16. Kekich 17. Wilburn 18. Potter 19. Dayton - DNS.

A Main (40 laps): 1. Mark Keegan 2. Byron Reed 3. Mike Wagner 4. Dean Jacobs 5. Jason Johnson 6. Phil Gressman 7. Kelly Kinser 8. Chad Kemenah 9. Rob Chaney 10. Travis Rilat 11. Alvin Roepke 12. Danny Smith 13. David Harrison 14. Greg Wilson 15. John Ivy 16. Jerrod Hull 17. John Wisbon 18. Chris Knopp 19. Tyler Walker 20. Kenny Jacobs 21. Jody Keegan 22. Billy Pauch 23. Shane Stewart 24. Kraig Kinser 25. Boston Reid 26. Rodney Duncan.

-All Star