Macedo continues climb to top of point standings at Speedway
Cole Macedo solidified his spot Saturday at the top of the Fremont Speedway 410 point standings and the All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads/Kistler Racing Products Attica Fremont Championship Series.
The Lemoore, California native took the lead in the feature with just 10 laps to go and stormed to his fourth division win of the year on Madison Motors Night.
Morning rains presented a very challenging racing surface at Fremont, but Macedo credits his crew chief Steven Linder for making the right calls on the set-up to get him comfortable.
"Steven and the guys gave me a great race car," Macedo said. "When we had that red, I told my guys we’re going to be OK because I felt like I hadn’t run 100% yet. Once I felt like it was time to pull the trigger, I kicked it into 100% and it worked out."
Macedo has five total wins at Fremont this year with Ray Brooks Racing team – four in the Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 sprints and another in 360 sprint competition – to run his career victories at the track to nine. Macedo has seven total sprint car victories this year, including wins at Wayne County Speedway and Attica Raceway Park.
He's only a few points out of the lead at Attica while leading the standings in the AFCS and Fremont as he chases a trifecta of championships.
Fostoria's Shawn Valenti led all 15 laps of the Burmeister Trophy Dirt Truck feature to score his third win of the year in that division. He then led all 25 laps of the Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 sprint A-main for his second victory of the year in that division.
He has 72 career feature wins at Fremont, just four behind Art Ball atop the all-time list.
"Jeff Babcock and the guys have really worked hard to get back to victory lane with this truck," Valenti said. "We knew with the rains it was going to be a challenging track. That truck race was good enough, 25 laps on this in the sprint.
"I’m wore out. I have to thank Jeff Riehl on the sprint car. We go through some times of struggles and he sticks by my side. Rick and Noah Eberly for their help."
For the first time in the track’s history, the USAC Midwest Thunder Midgets paid a call to Speedway. When the checkers flew, Findlay's Drew Rader stood in Victory Lane.
"I’ve had relatives race here and I came here a lot as a kid," Rader said. "It made this place a notch on the belt that I really wanted to achieve."
Speedway is host Saturday to AFCS 410 and 305 sprints, the Great Lakes Super Sprints (360s) and dirt trucks.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Rader wins first ever USAC Midwest Thunder Midget race at Fremont
