Miller gets by Gibsonburg’s Mintz for $10,000 payday

Seven years ago Parker Price Miller won his first 410 sprint car feature at Fremont Speedway and followed that up with his first career win with the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 a week later.  

Saturday, the Kokomo, Indiana driver, who is being treated for a type of Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, had a pep talk from hall of famer and his former crew chief Rick Ferkel who told him to be thankful for  the victories in his young life. 

The pep talk from the hall of fame driver worked as Miller took the lead with just eight laps to go on night two of the 40th Annual Cometic Gasket Ohio Sprint Speedweek presented by Hercules Tires and drove to the $10,000 payday on Kistler Engines/Kistler Racing Products Night at Fremont.

“Seven years is too damn long I can tell you that. My first ever 410 win was with Rick Ferkel here in 2015 and then the next week we won our first All Star race together at Wayne County. Just happy to be here. I have to thank Kevin Osmolski…no one knows this in the stands but earlier today when we were changing motors he took a pretty hard hit to the head. If it were me or anyone else we probably would have went to the hospital,” Miller said. 

“He had a pretty big gash but he manned up and made the car good for us. Everyone that makes this possible….man this thing was throttling  great tonight, This is probably one of my most proud wins. 

“I was really patient, stuck the bottom, stayed committed down there, didn’t let anything else bother me and just kept trucking.  I’m really proud of this one and will remember it forever,” added Miller 

Gibsonburg’s Craig Mintz, a former Fremont track champion, took the lead from Chris Andrews with 15 laps to go, surrendered the lead to Miller with eight laps left and had two shots at Miller on two late restarts, settled for second.

“Second sucks. We come here to win races but to run second to Parker…that’s a really good team. My team busted their butts…I apologize I couldn’t beat him but they were really stoked and any time I can get those guys happy and get my sponsors happy and put on a show for you guys…that’s what we are here for,” Mintz said.

“I was good in the middle but just couldn’t get by a few lapped cars. That’s the bad part about leading… you don’t know where anyone is at and Parker snuck by me and that was all she wrote,” said Mintz beside his No. 09.

Current All Star point leader and defending speedweek champion Tyler Courtney put a bad couple of races behind him with a third place finish.

“To come here and statistically one of our worst tracks so to come here and get better and run third on a pretty slick Fremont like we are used to is encouraging. Congrats to Parker and that team. They’ve been busting their tails and have had a sort of up and down season like us. It’s good to have our NOS Energy Drink car going in the right direction and hopefully have a great rest of the week,” said Courtney.

Fremont’s Jamie Miller took the lead with eight laps to go in the Burmeister Trophy Dirt Truck feature from race long leader Ben Clapp and survived two cautions with just two laps to go to claim his third division win of 2022 and fourth at Fremont this season as he also owns a 305 sprint win. The victory is the 34th of his career at the track.

“This thing is just so easy to drive anyone could win in it,” said Miller beside his No. 4M.

Andrews led the first 20 laps of the 35 lap All Star A-main before Mintz took control for six laps when Price Miller made his move to the front. A green, white, checkered finish was necessary when a caution flew on lap 3r. Price Miller hit his marks and drove to the win over Mintz, Courtney, Cap Henry and Chris Windom.

Night 3 feature goes to 19-year-old

Though Zeb Wise is from Angola, Indiana, he has taken a shine to Ohio dirt tracks. 

The 19-year-old won his second Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobile 1 feature in the past 10 days, leading all 30 laps Sunday, June 12 at Fremont Speedway on night 3 of the 40th Annual Cometic Gasket Ohio Sprint Speedweek presented by Hercules Tires.

For Wise it marked his second career win at Fremont and his fourth career All Star win and came on the inaugural Chuck and Shirley Kear Classic on Baumann Auto Group Night at “The Track That Action Built.”

“I wanted to win an All Star show at Fremont Speedway for a long time. Ever since I started racing with the All Stars this is a track that always treated me well. To win in front of all these great fans….there’s so many people here. My car was so good. I don’t know how close Cap (Henry) was at the end but traffic got hairy. Guys were running both lanes and I couldn’t go where I wanted. My car was just good enough that it worked wherever I wanted. 

Hats off to Wayne, Derek, my dad, Conner…everyone back there in the pits worked their asses off. After the dash I was worried. I didn’t think we had the car to win. I thought the 4 car (Henry) was the car to beat. Damn I love Ohio…we always run so good here,” said Wise.

Republic, Ohio’s Cap Henry padded his point lead in the speedweek standings with a great second place finish.

“We had a really good car. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough to beat the 10 car. We have the speedweek point lead which is cool and hopefully we can keep it up there. Zach, Brett all those guys are doing a great job and the Blake’s Hard Cider, Tony Elliott Foundation, Premier Planning Car has been pretty good. We struggled for awhile but we’re getting better,” said Henry.

Visalia, California’s Cory Eliason came on strong late to take the third finishing position.

“We struggled last night and dug ourselves a hole in qualifying but my guys worked hard. I keep telling Rizzy every time we go to a new place he hasn’t raced at before we struggle our first night but then we have a note book and come back the second night and we’re much better. I feel like we’re gaining speed and it’s definitely tracks I don’t normally excel at. I want to get my guys a win this week. We’re putting ourselves in the right position to win,” said Eliason beside his Rudeen Racing, Rayce Rudeen Foundation, Hager Realty, Elliott’s Custom Trailers and Carts, Fatheadz Eyewear backed machine.

At the drop of the green Wise established himself as the car to beat, racing out to a commanding lead while the battle for second was entertaining involving Henry and Kyle Reinhardt. Reinhardt slipped over the edge of turn four on lap six and tipped over for the only stoppage of the 30-lap feature. 

Craig Mintz got by Henry on lap eight for second just after the restart while Wise pulled away. Wise hit heavy lapped traffic by lap 16 and Henry used that traffic to regain second on lap 18. With 10 laps to go Wise had a commanding two second lead over Henry, Eliason, Justin Peck and Mintz. 

Wise got mired down in traffic with two cars racing in front of him but Henry had to contend with the same issue and could not close on the leader as Wise drove to the win.

In the Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 Feature, Seth Schneider grabbed the early lead after battling with Kelsey Ivy. Schneider soon had to contend with Kasey Jedrzejek and eighth starter Paul Weaver. The trio battled hard in lapped traffic and contact was made as Schneider went off turn three with a flat front tire. Weaver took command and drove away to his first win of the season at Fremont. It’s the 65th career win at the track for the Fremont, Ohio driver which places him third on the all-time win list.

“I feel bad about Seth…I didn’t hear him outside of me. It was a racing deal. We had the car too tight…I’m wore out,” said Weaver beside his Steve Brown’s B&B Drain Service, Hampshire Racing Engines,  M&L Excavating, Seagate Sandblasting, Fostoria Mod Shop backed #31.

Fremont Speedway will be back in action Saturday, June 25 on Vision Quest Night with the All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads/Kistler Racing Products Attica Fremont Championship Series 410 Sprints presented by the Baumann Auto Group along with the Great Lakes Super Sprints 360 sprints and the 305 sprints. Prior to the night’s racing the Fremont Speedway Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will take place.

Keep up to date with Fremont Speedway by going to www.fremontohspeedway.com or on Facebook at www.facebook/FremontSpeedway or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FremontSpeedway.

About the Baumann Auto Group – www.baumannautogroup.com

In an era of continuous change, the Baumann Auto Group is celebrating over 65 years of successfully serving the community. Buck Baumann is proud to continue his father Al’s vision with the same tradition of trust and family atmosphere in the dealerships that are in Fremont, Tiffin, Port Clinton, Oregon and Genoa. Baumann Won’t Be Beat is more than a slogan, we don't compromise honesty and ethics, we proudly employ high quality people and we care about our loyal customers.

The Baumann Auto Group has an exceptional sales and service team. So not only can you purchase your new vehicle from Baumann's, but they will keep it running smoothly with continued service maintenance. If you should have an unfortunate accident, Baumann’s body shop is a well-known "direct repair" facility for numerous insurance companies, performing collision repairs on all makes and models.