The Northeastern Midget Association rolled into the Wrenn family’s LEE USA Speedway this past Saturday for the annual Oktoberfest event.
A packed racing card highlighted NEMA and the NEMA Lites as the stars of the evening. In the Lites, seven time champion Randy Cabral came from eighth place to win the Lites division, after Jim Santa Maria suffered a heartbreaker in lapped traffic. In the NEMA division, four time champion Ben Seitz, returning to competition for Bertrand Motorsports, came from fifth place and beat back a late race restart against teammate Avery Stoehr to take down his sixteenth NEMA victory, moving him into eighteenth on the all time win list.
In the Lites feature event, Jim Santa Maria jumped out into the lead from his pole starting position. Santa Maria started clicking off consistent laps, with NJ’s Richie Coy in tow. Further back, eighth place starter Randy Cabral, driving the BNR/Seymour #1 was charging to the front, as was PJ Stergios, and Joe Bailey in the Scrivani 21. As the laps progressed, Cabral moved into second past Coy, and it was Santa Maria, Cabral and Coy at the front. Cabral started to reel in Santa Maria, as the duo was approaching lapped traffic, and Stergios moved past Coy into second on lap fifteen. As Santa Maria approached a lapped car on lap 23, he made contact, and the caution flag flew. Santa Maria retired his car for the evening, and on the restart, Cabral would out duel Stergios and go on to take down the victory. Stergios was second, followed by Bailey, Coy, Kyle Valeri, Chase Locke, DJ Moniz, Drew Eldridge, Tiani Kibbe, and Santa Maria.
“It feels great to be back in victory lane at LEE, and with the Seymour’s,” said Cabral. “Driving three cars this evening was a huge advantage for me, I was really able to keep up with the track. The whole LEE team did a great job putting on another awesome Oktoberfest,” said Cabral.
In the NEMA feature, Mike Horn jumped out into the lead from the start. Behind Horn, four time Champion Ben Seitz was on the move, coming from the fifth starting position. By lap four, Seitz was second, and on lap five the caution lap flew for Todd Bertrand. Bertrand pitted to inspect his machine and returned at the rear of the field. On the restart, Horn got the jump, but Seitz battled around him headed into turn two. Further back, 2019 champion Avery Stoehr bolted into second, and began to hunt down Seitz. Stoehr came within a carlength of Seitz, and the caution would fly on lap eighteen for a Jake Trainor flat tire. On the restart, Seitz would pull ahead of Stoehr and go unchallenged and on to victory. Stoehr was second, followed by Randy Cabral, Todd Bertrand, Chase Dowling, Jake Trainor, Mike Horn, Paul Scally, Matt Merry and Doug Cleveland.
“It’s really sentimental to get back to victory lane with NEMA in a #17, the number I won four championships with back in the early 2000 era,” said Seitz. “We’ve worked hard on this car the last few events to dial it in, and I’m really excited to finish out the year strong. I think we’ll be a real contender in the remaining events,” said Seitz.
NEMA heads to the World Series of Racing at Thompson Speedway this coming weekend.
NEMA Results
NEMA Lites Results
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