Sean Zemunik
There would be four heats with the top five locking into the feature. After that, two dashes, five cars each. One dash would determine the starting order of the inside row and the other the outside row. While wandering the pits before the heat races, I noticed Andrew Paulker’s car had about 100 names scribbled on it with a black sharpie. Evidently there was an autograph session when the gates opened and kids got to write their names on his car. That was pretty cool I thought. Brad Haudenschild was in a different car this evening…a blue twenty-three numbered car that looked pieced together. Normally he races the yellow thirty-eight car….but he demolished that car while leading the A-main of the Speedweek show here. I was told that they will have the regular car back soon, just haven’t had enough time to get it back together. Brad will need that yellow car because it’s fast…and he’s on the pole for the Mansfield make-up feature with the All Stars in October.
It had been cloudy all day and it looked like it could rain at any time……but by heat race time the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. In the first heat, Dean Jacobs took the win followed by Saldana, Ryan Smith, Paulker and Jordan Harble who bested his brother Mitch by one spot. Saldana was working good both low and high. The heat two finish was Spithaler, T.J. Michaels, who was looking so much better, Trevor Baker, Tyler Esh and Ryan Myers. In heat three, Sean Zemunic put on quite the driving demonstration as he had a left front tire and wheel come off on the final lap. As his wheel came off in turn three, he somehow wrestled the car and didn’t lift…willing it home for a fourth place finish! The finish in heat three was Max Stambaugh, Jordan Ryan, Lee Jacobs, Zemunic and Caleb Helms. Local favorite Brad Haudenschild finished sixth, missing the transfer. In heat four, track Champion Danny Mumaw makes a bonsai move entering turn three to take first away from Caleb Armstrong. On the last lap Chad Kemenah would get by Armstrong for second place by with a hard diamond move off of turn four. Mumaw wins followed by Kemenah, Armstrong, Cole Duncan, and Danny Smith. Duncan has been on a tear recently, winning the OSCS race here a few weeks back and also winning the All Star Speedweek final at Atomic just a week ago today.
I went back to the pits after the heat races to see what happened with Sean Zemunic and his wayward front wheel. By the time I walked up to his hauler the crew had a new front axle on it. I spoke up and said to Sean that I thought he did a great job driving….just getting that car to the finish line in fourth and not losing a spot. He smiled and said he had his arms crossed up just holding onto it and didn’t lift off the gas. We talked about how his performance has improved dramatically this year over last year. He attributed that to laps in the car and figuring out how to tune it. So far this season, Sean has been fast every night and making the A mains. He won his heat at Atomic last Saturday and was fifth in his dash. He told me he tries to race a lot at Wayne County because it’s a tough track and a great place to learn and get laps. He said that he started racing years ago when he was younger but had to stop because of lack of funds. Just in the last few years, he has been able to gather the funds to come race in the USA. He plans on racing here until the end of July and then heading home. He will not race in Australia but will save money for his trip back here next spring. He indicated that they are on a tight budget and to demonstrate, he showed me a wing panel that didn’t match the rest of the wing. Sean’s father travels with him and turns the wrenches. I asked Sean if he had plans to race at Knoxville someday and he said they need to work on their motors before they could try that. He doesn’t want to go there and run poorly, he said.