SELINSGROVE, Pa. — California’s Rico Abreu ran away to the victory in Sunday night’s Pennsylvania Speedweek finale at Selinsgrove Speedway, collecting the trophy in his debut at the fast half-mile.
Abreu led all 30 laps, powering to the lead from the outside of the front row on the initial start and never looking back en route to a $5,000 payday in the Jan Opperman/Dick Bogar Memorial.
Meanwhile, Lucas Wolfe finished seventh to claim his third-career PA Speedweek title and first since 2014.
Abreu passed polesitter Anthony Macri in the first set of corners and set sail briefly, but Macri stayed on Abreu’s bumper once the duo got into lap traffic on the 11th round.
However, Macri’s quest for victory ended shortly after as he slowed to a stop on the frontstretch courtesy of a blown motor.
Once green flag conditions resumed it was all Abreu, who pulled away from second-running Danny Dietrich and opened up a three-second lead with 10 to go before finding slower traffic once more.
Though Dietrich tried to close, and did shave the margin back down to one second, it was all Abreu in the end.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Abreu in victory lane of his first-ever Central PA win. “I felt like track position was a little key there. I’ll have to put this whole thing (PA Speedweek) on my schedule next year, because this was a lot of fun.”
“It was a big learning curve for me, just to get to all these different kinds of tracks. The last time I was in Pennsylvania racing was two years ago. It was an up-and-down week for me; I felt like we had a lot of speed, we just had to show it at the end of these races and tonight we were able to capitalize on that.”
Behind Abreu and Dietrich, Dale Blaney, Blane Heimbach and Greg Hodnett completed the top five.
Of note, all three of Wolfe’s PA Speedweek titles have come with three different teams.
RESULTS: PA Speedweek Finale; Selinsgrove Speedway; July 9, 2017
A-Main (30 laps): 1. 24R-Rico Abreu; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich; 3. 1-Dale Blaney; 4. 12-Blane Heimbach; 5. 27-Greg Hodnett; 6. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss; 7. 24-Lucas Wolfe; 8. 11-TJ Stutts; 9. 3-James McFadden; 10. 07-Ryan Smith; 11. 29-Jason Shultz; 12. 51-Freddie Rahmer; 13. 35-Tyler Walker; 14. 44-Trey Starks; 15. 0-Rick Lafferty; 16. 92-Sammy Walsh; 17. 75-Nicole Bower; 18. 33-Jared Esh; 19. 35-Daryl Stimling; 20. 91-Anthony Fiore; 21. 39-Anthony Macri; 22. 49-Mallie Shuster; 23. 66-Ryan Kissinger; 24. 33-Michael Walter.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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