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Max Blair Inches One Step Closer To $50,000 With $2,000 Mercer Victory In Night 1 Of The $250,000 FASTRAK Grand Nationals
By Mike Leone
October 4, 2008
Mercer, PA…The FASTRAK Late Models closed out their sophomore season in the Northeast with the running of Night 1 of the $250,000 Grand Nationals on a cold Saturday night at Mercer Raceway Park that saw the temperature dip into the 30s by night’s end. Twenty-seven of the 43 eligible racers were on hand from western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and western New York.
Max Blair is one step closer to $50,000. The Centerville, Pa. racer has already won the $10,000 National Weekly Point Championship and the $5,000 Northeast Touring Series Championship. Saturday night, Blair passed veteran Dick Barton to win the 30-lap $2,000 feature in the kickoff of the $250,000 FASTRAK Grand Nationals for the Northeast Region.
“This is awesome I don’t even know what to say, but I can’t wait to go down south,” expressed Blair. “I’m shaking; this is the best thing and the biggest race I’ve ever won. Definitely the highlight of my whole career. If I can go down and compete with those boys I’ll be happy, but man is this the way to start it out. When I started this year I wanted to win and race or two. I never ever dreamed it would work out the way it did this year. The year I’ve had is a once in a lifetime season and I’ll probably never have one again. I’m just enjoying every second of it.”
Mike Pegher, Jr. overtook John Lacki at the start for the early lead. Barton and Blair started fourth and fifth and raced under Lacki for second and third respectively on lap two. After a caution with two laps completed, Barton and Blair took over the top two spots from Pegher. Blair hounded Barton diving under the leader and the two raced side-by-side on laps five and seven. Tom Snyder, Jr., who started sixth, became a contender when he grabbed fourth from the fading Lacki on lap eight.
The laps ticked off under green flag conditions. Barton caught lapped traffic on lap 14. Fast qualifier, Bobby Powell, came from eighth to take fourth from Snyder on lap 14. It was a five-car race up front as all of the top five were potential winners. Barton stretched out his lead in lapped traffic on lap 15. The 14 laps of green flag conditions ended when Andy Buckley spun bringing out the caution with 16 laps completed.
Powell and Snyder had a great battle going for fourth as the two kept swapping the position back and forth. Third place Pegher got sideways on lap 19 and a 10-car melee ensued. Most of the cars suffered minor damage and would restart. When racing resumed, Blair again got alongside Barton and the two raced side-by-side on lap 19. Blair made his winning move as he went up top in turns three and four and came out with lead coming off the outside of turn four. Snyder got back by Powell for third on lap 21.
The last 10 laps went green-to-checkered. Blair pulled away on lap 22 and went on for his third Mercer win of the year and biggest of his career in his Specialty Products/Loney Timber/Moody Welding/Eagle Hoist & Winch-sponsored #111. “Dad (Robbie) skipped the Big Kahuna ($12,000 MACS show in Cumberland, MD) tonight and even considered bringing his car here tonight, but I didn’t want my deal on the back burner and he said ok. He never asked a question and just said I’m going to go and help you. The number one cool thing about winning this race is I passed Dick Barton. He’s one of the best drivers in the country and that makes this 10 times more special if I hadn’t had to pass him.”
Barton, who finished fifth in the 2007 Grand National points, set himself up nicely with a run for the $50,000 with his second place finish. Snyder held on to third and will look to improve on last year’s 18th place Grand National finish. Dennis Lunger, Jr. and Butch Lambert had solid runs in fourth and fifth after starting 11th and 13th respectively. Completing the top 10 were Steve Hollabaugh, Powell, Jay Watson, Brian Booher, and Kevin Meadows. Heat winners were Lambert, Watson, and Jim Frank. Rusty Moore won the B main. Powell set fast time with a lap of 17.594.
FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Grand Nationals Night 1 (30 laps $2,000 to-win): 1. MAX BLAIR (111) 2. Dick Barton (Nielson 28B) 3. Tom Snyder, Jr. (1F) 4. Dennis Lunger, Jr. (Schwartz 17L) 5. Butch Lambert (27) 6. Steve Hollabaugh (3H) 7. Bobby Powell (Bidwell B1D) 8. Jay Watson (7x) 9. Brian Booher (Hoover 00H) 10. Kevin Meadows (Welsch 49) 11. Chris Haines (35H) 12. Dan Angelicchio (14) 13. John Lacki (7) 14. Bob Diver (23) 15. Andy Buckley (Robinson 34R) 16. Chris Angelicchio (54) 17. Rusty Moore (17M) 18. Alex Anderson (Woodard 22x) 19. Dave Lyon (14L) 20. Mike Pegher, Jr. (Geisler 1C) 21. Carl McKinney (6M) 22. Mike Anderson, Jr. (72) 23. Jim Frank (14*) 24. Dereck Frank (16*) DNQ: Bob Kish (5), Gary Miller, Jr. (1m), Chad Myers (01).
Lap leaders: Mike Pegher, Jr. (1-2), Dick Barton (3-18), Max Blair (19-30)
Fast qualifier: Bobby Powell 17.594
Heat winners: Butch Lambert, Jay Watson, & Jim Frank
B main winner: Rusty Moore
Car count: 27
2008 FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series associate sponsors thus far are Race 1, Fame RV Center, Yoder’s Performance Specialty & PRC, Bullitt Chassis, and Fred Beans Parts.
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