FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Austin Nemire’s ill-fated relationship with the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum began to take a turn for the better last year, when he made both Rumble in Fort Wayne features for the first time in his young career.

Though he didn’t get the finishes he wanted to in either race – coming home 10th and 14th on Friday and Saturday, respectively – Nemire recognized that simply making both shows was a big accomplishment.

This year, however, the 19-year-old from Sylvania, Ohio, wants more.

Nemire has never finished inside the top five in a Rumble feature, and he has yet to better the sixth-place result from his rookie year in 2013 that continues to stand as his best finish inside the Allen County Ware Memorial Coliseum.

He knows that there’s one way to fix both of those statistics: win one of the two features during this weekend’s 21st annual Rumble in Fort Wayne.

“I want to park on the frontstretch and celebrate in victory lane as badly as anyone here, I think,” Nemire told SPEED SPORT. “I was telling my dad on the way down here that we just haven’t been able to put together a qualifying run here … and that’s half the battle. If you get buried in qualifying, it makes for a really long weekend and a tough hole to dig yourself out of.

“I’m really optimistic, though. If we can get the little issues that we’ve had with the motor worked out and get heat into it like we need to, then all it will take is a solid qualifying effort and I think we’ll be pretty good when Friday and Saturday night roll around.”

Nemire has been a frontrunner at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in the past, but circumstances have been his nemesis in each of his five prior Fort Wayne appearances.

“We’ve always had speed here; it has just been one thing or another that keeps biting us,” said Nemire. “That’s indoor racing for you, though. There’s a lot of luck that goes into it and that’s something that we just haven’t had over the past few times that we’ve been here. It’s about catching the right breaks.”

A myriad of mechanical issues and bad luck have plagued Nemire’s indoor efforts over the past three years, specifically sporadic ignition and heating issues – along with a late-race flat tire – during last year’s action.

Nemire has shaken all of that off, however, and he’s only focused forward entering this weekend’s race.

“Any time you can come into a race with less stress on your shoulders is a good thing, and we’ve got both eyes focused straight out the windshield this weekend,” Nemire noted. “I’ve got a little bit of confidence built up from last year, with making both shows, because we had struggled so much in the years before that. Ending on a flat tire instead of a

“I’m really excited about this go-round in Fort Wayne. I think we can make some noise.”