By Aaron Fry
Bradner, Ohio’s Nate Dussel won the 2022 Ti22 Performance FAST On Dirt series title. Last night, he returned to his old stomping grounds, to prove he was still a contender with the touring drivers. With help from Fausey Farms, Industrial Movers, S&S Hauling, NuFarm, VRF Specialties, Berrier Fabrication and Kistler Engines, he was able to park it in victory lane.
Twenty-four winged sprint cars signed in for the show with ARP Fasteners qualifying seeing Zane DeVault in the Lane Racing 4 lay down the quickest overall time in group 1 with a 13.440 second lap. Logan McCandless was fastest in group 2 at 13.525 and Danny Sams leading group 3 with a 13.452.
The three heat races ran caution free as Ricky Peterson won NAPA of Fremont heat one over DeVault. ALLmobility of Dayton, Ohio heat 2 was won by Emerson Axsom who held off McCandless for the win. In the All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads third heat race, Nate Dussel checked out and cruised to the win over Danny Sams.
With sponsorship help from The Dirt Life and Slingin’ Dirt Productions and the generosity of the Moran family, the decision was made to start all 24 cars in attendance. The Victory Fuel redraw put DeVault and McCandless on the front row with Peterson and Sams in the second row. Dussel would begin his winning drive from the fifth spot alongside Axsom.
At the drop of the green flag, McCandless rocketed to the early lead with DeVault in hot pursuit. A dog fight among the other four redraw cars took place for many laps as they fought for the third spot. The 30-lap main event was clean until lap 8 for a stalled car. A second caution flew on lap 9 for a spin. A third caution would come out on lap 18 for an incident involving Brandon Wimmer tagging the wall off turn 4.
Race-long leader Logan McCandless would bring out a late race caution but did not take his car to the work area, and it appeared to race officials that something had broken. A few laps after the restart, cars began to starve for fuel. In 14 seasons of traditional sprint car racing and 7 with winged 410 cars, this was the quickest “fuel situation” (35 minutes of combined yellow/green time) the tour director had ever seen. The red flag was immediately displayed and all cars were allowed to fuel up, including the 2 who stopped before the red was displayed, and all cars were given their spots back to the last previously completed lap.
With only 3 laps remaining in the race, Dussel would lead the rest of the way with DeVault running a solid second and Emerson Axsom completing the podium. Defending tour champion, Brandon Spithaler, maintained a steady drive for fourth while Dale Blaney charged from 13th to round out the top 5. The rest of the top 10 included Cole Duncan, Jake Hesson, Jeremy Weaver, Bobby Elliott and Keith Baxter.
The FAST On Dirt owner/promoter is reviewing the feature this week and changes will be implemented. Sprint car fuel cells have grown smaller while engines more powerful and consuming more fuel than ever. This has created a new challenge that will be addressed.
Up next for the FAST sprint cars is this weekend’s doubleheader. Saturday, May 4th at Michael’s Mercer Raceway in Mercer, Pennsylvania and a Sunday, May 5th race at the newly revived Tri-City Raceway Park in Franklin, Pennsylvania.
BOS SCORE
FAST on Dirt
Muskingum County Speedway
Dresden, OH
4-27-24
ARP Fasteners Qualifying
Group 1: 1. 4-Zane DeVault 13.440, 2. 2-Ricky Peterson 13.483, 3. 5-Jeremy Weaver 13.571, 4. 11c-Kory Crabtree 13.622, 5. 15-Mitch Harble 13.716, 6. 32B-Dale Blaney 13.779, 7. 22-Brandon Spithaler 13.812, 8. 4x-Bradley Ashford DNQ
Group 2: 1. 29-Logan McCandless 13.525, 2. 27-Emerson Axsom 13.668, 3. 15K-Creed Kemenah 13.692, 4. 22-Cole Duncan 13.969, 5. 59-Bryan Nuckles 14.111, 6. 5E-Bobby Elliott 14.298, 7. 1B-Keith Baxter 14.348, 8. 83x-Nate Reeser 14.901
Group 3: 1. 24D-Danny Sams III 13.452, 2. 1-Nate Dussel 13.569, 3. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek 13.849, 4. 2-Nathan Skaggs 13.903, 5. 81-Lee Jacobs 13.939, 6. 5J-Jake Hesson 13.994, 7. A79-Brandon Wimmer 14.031, 8. 00-Anthony Gaskins 15.868
NAPA of Fremont – Heat 1: 1. 2-Peterson[1] ; 2. 4-DeVault[4] ; 3. 5-Weaver[2] ; 4. 22-Spithaler[7] ; 5. 32B-Blaney[6] ; 6. 15-Harble[5] ; 7. 11c-Crabtree[3] ; 8. 4x-Ashford[DNS]
ALLmobility of Dayton – Heat 2: 1. 27-Axsom[1] ; 2. 29-McCandless[4] ; 3. 15K-Kemenah[2] ; 4. 59-Nuckles[5] ; 5. 22-Duncan[3] ; 6. 5E-Elliott[6] ; 7. 1B-Baxter[7] ; 8. 83x-Reeser[8]
All Pro Aluminum Heads – Heat 3: 1. 1-Dussel[1] ; 2. 24D-Sams[4] ; 3. 11N-Jedrezejek[2] ; 4. 5J-Hesson[6] ; 5. 2-Skaggs[3] ; 6. A79-Wimmer[7] ; 7. 81-Jacobs[5] ; 8. 00-Gaskins[8]
MPD Racing – A Main: 1. 1-Dussel[5] ; 2. 4-DeVault[1] ; 3. 27-Axsom[6] ; 4. 22-Spithaler[10] ; 5. 32B-Blaney[13] ; 6. 22-Duncan[14] ; 7. 5J-Hesson[12] ; 8. 5-Weaver[7] ; 9. 5E-Elliott[17] ; 10. 1B-Baxter[20] ; 11. 11N-Jedrezejek[9] ; 12. 81-Jacobs[21] ; 13. 2-Peterson[3] ; 14. 29-McCandless[2] ; 15. 15K-Kemenah[8] ; 16. 4x-Ashford[22] ; 17. 00-Gaskins[24] ; 18. 11c-Crabtree[19] ; 19. A79-Wimmer[18] ; 20. 15-Harble[16] ; 21. 24D-Sams[4] ; 22. 59-Nuckles[11] ; 23. 83x-Reeser[23] ; 24. 2-Skaggs[3]
Helms & Sons Construction – Hard Charger: 1B-Keith Baxter
Helms & Sons Construction – Hard Luck : 29-Logan McCandless