By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
First and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Prince Evans. Prince was taken from us too soon in a car crash Friday morning and leaves behind his wife, daughter and son, as well as many friends and family. Kudos to everyone at Attica and Fremont for rallying around the family this weekend, raising over $20,000 for the family with the pass the helmet fundraisers. The racing family is big, and tight-knit, and that was proven this weekend. There will be a void in the pit area that won’t ever be filled. If you’d like to support the Evans family, the GoFundMe link is here: https://gofund.me/cb409cfc.
Mother Nature finally let us get a good amount of racing in this weekend, in what is probably the first full weekend of racing in Ohio. Again, finally. Naturally, I could only go racing on Friday this weekend, but I still have thoughts about the races, and you’re going to (maybe) read those thoughts.
AFCS at Attica: Nate Dussel took the early lead, but with Cap Henry also starting on the front row, it would be a tough task keeping Henry behind him. Henry took the lead on lap six and never looked back. Henry picked his way through lapped traffic like a hot knife through butter and took the $4,500 payday over Craig Mintz and Dussel.
Jamie Miller took the AFCS 305 win over Dustin Stroup and Seth Schneider, but he certainly had to earn it. Miller led early, but lost the lead in traffic to Stroup. Miller kept his head down, and an all-out war was being waged for the lead with sliders and cross-overs aplenty. A caution with three laps left gave Miller the lead and clean air, and thats all he needed to score the win, his fourth at Attica on the season.
AFCS at Fremont: Darin Naida found himself running in the second spot for the first 20 laps of the feature event, tailing Craig Mintz. Naida made his winning move on lap 20 and went on to score his first Fremont win over Mintz and Cap Henry. It was Naida’s second win in as many weeks, as he picked up the win at Butler last Saturday.
Jamie Miller swept the weekend in the 305s. He started sixth, and picked his way through the field and nabbed the lead on lap 17, taking the win by two seconds over Dustin Stroup and Blayne Keckler.
Wayne County Finally Races: After getting their first five races rained out, Wayne County Speedway was finally able to swing open their gates for the 2025 season. For the feature, it was the Tyler Gunn show. The 2023 track champion picked up his first win of the 2025 season, leading the entire way. When the checkers flew, Gunn was up by .899 seconds over Brandon Wimmer and Tyler Street
Flick Wins at Sharon: Western PA ace AJ Flick won in convincing fashion near the OH/PA border. He took the lead on lap three from pole-sitter Ryan Smith and set his sights on the checkered flag. He won by nearly two and a half seconds over Smith and Tim Shaffer. That’s Flick’s third win of the season, he’s also collected the checkers at Pittsburgh Motor Speedway and Tri-City Raceway Park.
Rusty Schlenk is a Bad, Bad Man: For the first 22 laps, it looked like Rusty Schlenk’s Attica winning streak was going to end at four races. But, there was a caution that set up a three lap shootout to the checkers. Schlenk was still fifth at the time; where he had been most of the race. Those final three laps, Schlenk just sent it on the top. Fourth, third, and second were easy pickings. Schlenk caught leader Mike Bores and they exchanged slide jobs for the lead as the white flag waved. Going into the final set of corners, Schlenk pounded the top and used the momentum to rocket around Bores in a drag race to the line. It was easily the race of the weekend, and Schlenk’s streak lived to see five wins in a row at Attica in five starts. It might be time to look at a bounty…
Stats, Thoughts, Ramblings:
- Through six races in 2025, Cap Henry has an average finish of 2. Yes, 2. His worst finish so far is third. It’s not like he’s dominating from the front row of the field, either. His average starting position is 6, including a 12-2 run a few weeks ago at Attica. I don’t want to jinx anything, but it may be a long summer for Henry’s competitors.
- Craig Mintz is also having a good start to his season. Four top fives in five starts, including three runner-up’s. The All Star race at Fremont is his lone outlier so far this season. Two of those runner-up’s came during this weekend’s AFCS races. I’m sure Mintz is hungry for that win, though.
- How about Attica’s 305 count the last few weeks? 41, 40 and 38. Where have they come from? The nation’s best support division continues to get stronger and stronger.
- Between Fremont, Sharon, and Wayne County on Saturday, there were 410’s aplenty in the Buckeye state. 37 at Sharon, 22 at Fremont and 21 at Wayne County adds up to 80. If the FAST race at Millstream hadn’t fell victim to flooding, that number could’ve been near or over 100 on Saturday alone.
- Darin Naida reiterated to me on Friday that I was the smartest person he knows, and he wins on Saturday. Not saying there’s a connection, but…
- Anthony Macri scored the win for the Posse at Williams Grove Saturday night, and I’m sure no less than one gallon of beer/person was drank on Beer Hill.
- I really like what Zach Hampton is doing this season on the Outlaw tour. He’s not setting the world on fire, but he’s keeping his nose clean and collecting decent results. I hope he keeps quieting the haters.
- Rico Abreu and Corey Day took the High Limit wins Friday and Saturday at Lakeside and Tri-City (IL). Rico’s win didn’t come without drama, as contact between him and Kerry Madsen caused a pileup that collected Madsen, Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson. Day’s win on a cowboy-up Tri-City was impressive. Flat tires and wall-smacking near the end of the race ended good runs for the likes of Spencer Bayston, Cale Thomas, and and Tanner Thorson, among others.
*update* thanks to confirmation from the man himself, Cale Thomas “didn’t smack no wall.” It was mag box issues according to a post I saw from the Beaver Racing team I saw after I posted the article. - How about the Lucas Oil Late Model race at Fairbury? That is what God imagined when late model racing came about. Jonathan Davenport took the win from the sixth spot- his first Fairbury win since his 2015 PDC triumph- but there was kind of racing only Fairbury can deliver behind him. Once BShepp got into second , the race for the win was on, and Davenport was able to hold BShepp off. I’m extremely jealous of everyone who was there.
- Kody Swanson was in the Stan Courtad 9x machine at Attica Friday night. Interesting.
- Nick Barger took home the win in the 305 race at I-90 Speedway’s season opener Saturday night.
Expect some HUGE news soon.