ARCA Midgets: Travis Miniea grabs victory in Toledo

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

September 18, 2001

TOLEDO OH – Travis Miniea took off from the ninth starting position and never looked back. The Sharon, Ohio youngster, in his Penn-Ohio Self Storage Esslinger Hawk, methodically worked his way forward just in time to win the 30-lap ARCA Auto Value Midget Series/NAMARS feature event Saturday afternoon at Toledo Speedway.

“We went with a softer tire than everyone else, and it paid off,” said Miniea in victory lane. “The new pavement is so smooth, and the cars were sticking so well, I think everyone thought they’d need a real hard tire to make it last. But the way we were set up, the softer compound was the trick. We’d like to thank all the people who came out to watch; right now we’re thinking about all those people who died, and their families.”

Outside polesitter Brandon Hartsell led at the onset with Steve Thinnes and current ARCA Midget Series point leader AJ Davis trailing. Hartsell, Thinnes and Davis went wheel-to-wheel for several rounds while Richey Jacobs, who started seventh, and Teddy Beach, who started eighth, raced towards the front with Gary Harrell and Miniea in tow. Beach, who set a new Midget one-lap track record earlier in the day, soon maneuvered his way into the lead and was beginning to distance himself from the pack before mechanical troubles forced the Donnelsville, Ohio driver from competition near the halfway point. With Beach gone from the mix, Jacobs charged into the lead before mechanical gremlins also knocked him from competition ten laps shy of the finish. By now, Hartsell was back in command until Miniea raced by on the high-side taking over the lead four laps from the finish, one he would not relinquish.

Hartsell finished second recording his career-best ARCA Midget finish in front of Thinnes in third, Harrell in fourth and three-time ARCA Auto Value Midget Series champion Gene Lee Gibson in fifth. Davis fell back to sixth in the final running order ahead of BJ Manson in seventh. Sondi Eden finished eighth with Dave Baumgartner and Matt Brun trailing in ninth and tenth respectively.

Text provided by ARCA

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