By T.J. Buffenbarger
Rossburg, OH — (October 11, 2014) — Rico Abreu picked up his second career victory at Eldora Speedway in spectacular fashion on Saturday night during the UNOH Sprintacular with the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions. Abreu passed 2014 All Star champion Dale Blaney and held him off through heavy lapped traffic for the victory. The win was Abreu’s first in a winged sprint car at Eldora after winning a midget car feature during the 4-Crown Nationals last season.
For Abreu the win at Sprintacular was a nice change of momentum for him after suffering two crashes during 4-Crown Nationals three weeks ago at Eldora.
“This is pretty damn cool to get a win here at Eldora, I was terrible at 4-Crown at crashed a lot of stuff. Timid until the feature, but built my confidence back up,” said Abreu in victory lane. “I knew Dale was right there. Once you pass him, he’s going to step it up a little bit.”
Dale Blaney and Randy Hannagan started on the front row for the 30-lap feature. Blaney took the lead on the opening lap and pulled away early with Hannagan trying to keep pace in second position with Greg Wilson passing Christopher Bell for third.
After a caution for Derek Hagar spinning in turn four on lap seven Blaney continued to lead Hannagan and Wilson while Abreu moved Bell back to fourth spot. Shortly after that pass Gary Taylor and Lee Jacobs were in an incident in turn four with Jacobs getting upside down. Jacobs was transported to a local hospital for observation while Taylor was uninjured.
After the open red flag Abreu began to pressure Wilson for third, passing him on lap ten and quickly closing on Randy Hannagan for second. Abreu was able to get a run on Hanngan on the high side of turne one and two, threading the needle between Hannagan and the wall coming off turn two on lap 14 to move into second.
At that point Blaney still had a sizeable lead, but Abreu chipped away at it every lap. On lap 16 Aberu pulled up to BLaney’s back bumper, but Blaney passed two lapped cars to open up some distance between himself and Abreu. That proved to be short lived as Abreu cleared the car quickly and Abreu moved past LBlaney to take the lead.
Blaney continued to keep pace with Abreu through slower traffic and was able to close back in and got a look under Abreu for the lead with five laps to go. Abreu was up to the challenge though maintaining the lead. As Blaney closed with three laps to go Abreu made an incredible move in traffic diving to the bottom of the track in turn three, racing three wide to clear two slower cars at once. Abreu made contact with D.J. Foos on the way by, but kept going and opened up enough of an advantage to hang on for the wins. Blaney finished second with Hannagan, Wilson, and Ian Madsen rounding out the top five.
UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions
UNOH Sprintacular
Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, OH
Saturday October 11, 2014
TIME TRIALS – 1. 14K-Dale Blaney [12.990]; 2. 1ST-Gary Taylor [13.026]; 3. 11N-Randy Hannagan [13.028]; 4. 53-Chris Bell [13.031]; 5. W20-Greg Wilson [13.038]; 6. 24-Rico Abreu [13.081]; 7. 18-Ian Madsen [13.183]; 8. 81-Lee Jacobs [13.206]; 9. 59-Dean Jacobs [13.208]; 10. 9W-Derek Hagar [13.241]; 11. 5T-Travis Philo [13.255]; 12. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [13.256]; 13. 4-Danny Smith [13.267]; 14. 21-D.j. Foos [13.279]; 15. 00-Jim Nier [13.283]; 16. 13-Mark Dobmeier [13.324]; 17. 71M-Paul May [13.379]; 18. 13M- Brandon Matus [13.398]; 19. 24H-Brandon Wimmer [13.399]; 20. 4T-Tyler Courtney [13.411]; 21. 6-Jac Haudenschild [13.461]; 22. 56R-Ryan Myers [13.465]; 23. 09-Chris Andrews [13.497]; 24. 9X-Rob Chaney [13.510]; 25. 55F-Taylor Ferns [13.559]; 26. 59X-Bryan Nuckles [13.606]; 27. 15MH-Mitch Harble [13.654]; 28. 2M-Dustin Daggett [13.738]; 29. 06-Brandy Bower [13.743]; 30. 59J-Kirk Jeffries [13.930]; 31. 99D-Joshua Davis [14.018]; 32. 37-Mark Coleman [14.147]; 33. 76-Davey Jones [14.468]; 34. 33-Brent Matus [14.659]; 35. 91-Cole Thomas [99.999]; 36. 84-Jimmy Stinson [99.999];
HEAT 1 – 1. 6-Jac Haudenschild [1]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson [5]; 3. 59-Dean Jacobs [4]; 4. 14K-Dale Blaney [6]; 5. 4T-Tyler Courtney [2]; 6. 55F-Taylor Ferns [7]; 7. 06-Brandy Bower [8]; 8. 76-Davey Jones [9]; 9. 4-Danny Smith [DNF];
HEAT 2 – 1. 71M-Paul May [2]; 2. 1ST-Gary Taylor [6]; 3. 21-D.j. Foos [3]; 4. 24-Rico Abreu [5]; 5. 9W-Derek Hagar [4]; 6. 59J-Kirk Jeffries [8]; 7. 59X-Bryan Nuckles [7]; 8. 33-Brent Matus [9]; 9. 56R-Ryan Myers [DNF];
HEAT 3 – 1. 11N-Randy Hannagan [6]; 2. 18-Ian Madsen [5]; 3. 09-Chris Andrews [1]; 4. 00-Jim Nier [3]; 5. 13M- Brandon Matus [2]; 6. 5T-Travis Philo [4]; 7. 15MH-Mitch Harble [7]; 8. 99D-Joshua Davis [8]; 9. 84-Jimmy Stinson [DNS];
HEAT 4 – 1. 24H-Brandon Wimmer [2]; 2. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [4]; 3. 13-Mark Dobmeier [3]; 4. 53-Chris Bell [6]; 5. 81-Lee Jacobs [5]; 6. 2M-Dustin Daggett [DNF]; 7. 9X-Rob Chaney [DNF]; 8. 37-Mark Coleman [DNS];
DASH – 1. 14K-Dale Blaney [3]; 2. 11N-Randy Hannagan [2]; 3. 53-Chris Bell [1]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson [5]; 5. 24-Rico Abreu [4]; 6. 1ST-Gary Taylor [6];
B-FEATURE – 1. 5T-Travis Philo [1]; 2. 2M-Dustin Daggett [8]; 3. 55F-Taylor Ferns [5]; 4. 4-Danny Smith [2]; 5. 15MH-Mitch Harble [7]; 6. 59X-Bryan Nuckles [6]; 7. 99D-Joshua Davis [11]; 8. 06-Brandy Bower [9]; 9. 59J-Kirk Jeffries [10]; 10. 33-Brent Matus [DNF]; 11. 76-Davey Jones [DNF]; 12. 56R-Ryan Myers [DNF]; 13. 9X-Rob Chaney [DNS]; 14. 37-Mark Coleman [DNS]; 15. 84-Jimmy Stinson [DNS];
A FEATURE – 1. 24-Rico Abreu [5]; 2. 14K-Dale Blaney [1]; 3. 11N-Randy Hannagan [2]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson [4]; 5. 18-Ian Madsen [7]; 6. 53-Chris Bell [3]; 7. 09-Chris Andrews [22]; 8. 5T-Travis Philo [11]; 9. 4-Danny Smith [13]; 10. 59-Dean Jacobs [9]; 11. 21-D.j. Foos [14]; 12. 24H-Brandon Wimmer [20]; 13. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [12]; 14. 00-Jim Nier [15]; 15. 6-Jac Haudenschild [21]; 16. 71M-Paul May [18]; 17. 9W-Derek Hagar [10]; 18. 4T-Tyler Courtney [17]; 19. 55F-Taylor Ferns [23]; 20. 13-Mark Dobmeier [DNF]; 21. 13M- Brandon Matus [DNF]; 22. 2M-Dustin Daggett [DNF]; 23. 1ST-Gary Taylor [DNF]; 24. 81-Lee Jacobs [DNF];