Randy Cabral may have missed his calling. Now two-for-two after a dominating performance in the Northeastern Midget Association 25-lap feature Saturday night at Waterford Speedbowl, he should consider motivational speaking. He’s good at finding reasons to win.

Grabbing the lead from Joey Payne Jr. on a lap two restart, Cabral absolutely ran away in the Bertrand #47. Only a yellow with 12 to go delayed Cabral’s rush to victory. He again powered away from Payne. His time for lap 16 was a sizzling 12.742 seconds.

“Pretty good,” understated Cabral who had a half straightaway on Bobby Santos III at the checkered. Santos cleared sister Erica on the last restart and took second from Payne in the backstretch with three left. Erica Santos and Greg Stoehr completed the top five.

“I hope I didn’t stink up the show,” said Cabral, insisting he did not know just how far back Payne and Santos were. “You don’t give those guys anything,” he said. “You run every lap like it was the last one.”

Aware it was Mothers Day eve, Cabral “really wanted to win for [owner} Tim. His mother Marilyn passed away over the winter. He was so strong through that ordeal and I wanted this for Tim, for Gil and for Marilyn.”

He “wanted it” as well for Deb Marvuglio, the late Shane Hammond’s mother, and for his own mom Marie “who has put up with a lot from me.”

It was the 15th career win for Cabral, tying him with Joey Coy, one of his “all-time heroes. I grew up watching Joey Coy. I idolized Joey Coy and to tie him is unbelievable.” It was also his sixth Speedbowl, tying him in that category with Drew Fornoro.

Starting 10th, Bertrand told Cabral he would be “ecstatic” with a top five. Payne, who started sixth, and Cabral moved through a second lap scramble to first and third respectively with Erica Santos second.

The car, Cabral said, “went away in the heat” and Bertrand made two “very small changes (he put some air pressure in the right rear and took a tiny bit of rebound out of the left rear) for the feature." Late in the race, he “thought my right rear was going away because the car was skating around on me. I think it was actually my not driving it in hard enough. The harder I drove it in, the better it handled."

Monadnock Speedway is the next stop for NEMA on Saturday night, May 24.

Source: Pete Zanardi, NEMA Public Relations
Photo: Keith Cyr, RaceDogPhotography