by Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
It was a precursor to the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions Speedweek; the invaders found themselves at Attica Raceway Park a week before Speedweek is slated to kick off. It was the All Stars second visit to Attica for the 2022 season. A track that can prove very tricky to some, but can also treat others very well. For Zeb Wise, Attica has been treating him well recently. A heat race win put Wise in the dash, which he won, and that would put him on pole of the 40 lap feature.
Alongside Wise was Cory Eliason, with Hunter Schuerenberg and local Craig Mintz in row two as the green flew. It took a little bit for the race to get into a groove, but off of the initial start, Wise skipped away to a .933 second lead over Eliason by lap two as a yellow came out for a sideways Stuart Brubaker in turns one and two. The restart was short lived, as Parker Price-Miller and Craig Mintz got together and spun as they battled for fifth. Wise would get a few more laps in and build a 1.505 second lead on lap five as the caution flew again for Price-Miller.
Wise again got a great restart and quickly had 1.292 seconds between him and Eliason by lap seven. Eliason was able to reel Wise back in as Wise approached lapped traffic on lap 12, though. Wise went into traffic with a .501 second lead, but Eliason was right on his tail. Wise was able to get Brubaker in between himself and Eliason on lap 14, but that was short-lived and Eliason was hunting Wise again by lap 15.
“I really wasn’t expecting lapped traffic to be like that,” Wise said. It was kind of a weird race track; turns one and two were mainly weird. It was almost better to tuck behind lapped cars than it was to try and get around them.”
On lap 17, war started. Eliason got under Wise in turns one and two to take the lead, but Wise stayed close. On lap 19, Wise and Eliason were battling through traffic when it looked like some contact was made on the front stretch. Wise was able to take the lead going into lap 20, but Eliason countered and took the lead back down the backstretch.
On the following lap, the two were side-by-side once again in turns one and two. Wise threw a slider in turns three and four to retake the lead. They weren’t done, yet. Eliason took another stab at Wise on lap 22 with a slider in turns three and four. Wise was able to scurry away for a moment, but on lap 25, Eliason was back for more fun. Eliason threw another turn three and four slider, but Wise was able to hold his ground and remain in the lead. Eliason was still close enough to show a nose in turns one and two on lap 27. Wise had a small bobble in traffic on lap 29, but was able to stay in the lead as he was still navigating through heavy lapped traffic.
“Cory has always raced me really clean, and I think it showed there. There were times where both of us could’ve pushed the issue a little more than we did, but we both knew who we were racing and raced each other really clean. That was in the back of my mind; how clean he usually races me,” Wise said.
“It was really hard in turns three and four, because if you tried to slide him and you get going across the track so fast, the cushion was so big off turn four, that if you hit it wrong, you were going to be in the fence. I was just trying to calm myself down, while also being aggressive enough to get back to the lead,” Wise said about his battle with Eliason
Everyone was able to catch their breath on lap 31 as the red flag came out after contact between Ian Madsen and Bill Balog sent Balog into Jordan Ryan and Ryan ended up on his side. On the penultimate restart, Eliason had nothing for Wise. Wise was able to get a .977 second lead, but the caution came out once again for Price-Miller.
Eliason had one final shot at Wise, but Wise was too good on the restarts and in clean air. With four to go, Wise enjoyed a 1.491 second lead.
“I had to make sure I was really low off of turn two. I knew three and four would be fairly simple– just run the top and don’t hit the cushion too hard. One and two were really tricky. You had to be way slower than you would ever think, and get off of turn two super low in the grip. Like I said, it was a really weird corner. Usually we can rip the top or the middle, and tonight it was around the bottom. It was a badass race,” said Wise.
Wise caught up to lapped traffic on the white flag lap, but Eliason was too far back to do anything. Wise cruised to his third career All Star win, and his third career Attica Raceway Park win of his career.
“I had to make sure I was really low off of turn two. I knew three and four would be fairly simple– just run the top and don’t hit the cushion too hard. One and two were really tricky. You had to be way slower than you would ever think, and get off of turn two super low in the grip. Like I said, it was a really weird corner. Usually we can rip the top or the middle, and tonight it was around the bottom. It was a badass race,” said Wise.
“That was an awesome race, I had a ton of fun. I can’t say enough about my car and my guys. They worked their asses off and got us really good for the feature. Me and Cory put on a show- at least I think. From my point of view it was a good race, so hopefully it was for them [the fans] too.
The All Stars are back at Attica Raceway Park in one week’s time to kick off the 40th running of Ohio Sprint Speedweek, and Wise, now thrice a winner at Attica, has good reason to believe they’ll be in contention as the sport’s most grueling week starts:
“I’m feeling very good. Really at all of the Ohio tracks we run pretty good at. I’ve never been to Atomic, so that will be new for me. I’m glad we get to race there once before Speedweek. Obviously I’m excited to come for Speedweek after tonight, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow night and come back in a week or so,” concluded Wise.