By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
- Mother Nature wreaked havoc this weekend in Ohio. Fremont was the only track to complete a 410 race on Saturday, with Wayne County and Sharon raining out. Attica completed qualifying before a pop-up storm hit the track, ending the night. The lingering rain and cooler temps on Saturday morning forced Wayne County and Sharon’s hand.
- Aussie Brock Hallett took his first career win in the US on Saturday at Fremont with the AFCS. He led every lap, and won by 1.2 seconds over Cap Henry, who started eighth. Seventh-starting Sean Rayhall rounded out the podium. Hallett has said that Fremont was his favorite US track, and it showed Saturday night.
- Drivers like DJ Foos and Nate Dussel probably didn’t want to see Attica rain out on Friday. Attica and AFCS points leader Cap Henry was slated to start last in his heat race before the rains came. It could’ve been a good opportunity to cut into his lead.
- Speaking of points, Henry is up by 61 points over DJ Foos in the Attica standings, and 122 points up of Foos in the AFCS standings. Henry only enjoys a 53 point lead over Zeth Sabo in the Fremont standings.
- As of 8:53 Sunday night, I believe the last car has been able to get out of Butler’s parking lot. That’s a good problem to have, that place was packed and they had cars parked everywhere. The Amish even showed up and were buying merch and talking to drivers and crews. Oh to be a fly on the wall.
- Mother Nature was not kind to this year’s edition of Western PA Speedweek. Things got rained out on Wednesday at Mercer, Friday at Lernerville, and Saturday at Sharon. Thursday’s race at Pittsburgh was won by Brandon Spithaler, and Sunday’s race at Tri-City is going green now. There’s a lot of work that goes into that series, and it’s unfortunate that Mother Nature impacts more races than not.
- It’s weird saying that I feel bad for Brad Sweet, (cue everyone saying “oh, please. He’s won so many championships and started his own series, blah blah blah,” but he did get the shaft Saturday at Butler. Through no fault of his own, he didn’t scale after the feature because he thought he finished off the podium because the flagman lost count of laps. But that P25 finish now has him second in High Limit points, six back of Tyler Courtney. That’s a huge swing.
- More All-Star driver news, even though they’re only one race into their season: Justin Clark is out of the Seeling 97 machine, and Trey Jacobs is in for the All Star campaign. I’m unsure of Clark’s plans now, but he seemed to be running better in his family-owned 78 car anyways. It’s also worth noting that Cale Thomas is back in the Demyan-Rudzik 49x for the 2025 season, but I’m also unsure if they’re planning on the All Star tour still.. Can anyone say musical chairs?
- That big news I alluded to a few weeks back came to light today; Matt Tifft has bought Mansfield Speedway and will revive it, with racing tentatively slated for 2026. The important thing to note here is that Tifft bought the facility and isn’t leasing it like former promoter Cody Sommer. OhioDirt will be interviewing Tifft on Monday.
- Clayton Vanderploeg won the Northeast Iowa Renegade Sprints feature on Friday night at Fayette County Speedway, his first career feature win.