McKean County Raceway
Blair breaks record with sixth series victory
By Mike Leone
Fastrak NortheastEAST SMETHPORT, Pa. (July 5) — Fifth-starting Max Blair of Centerville, Pa., took the lead from Andrew Wylie on the sixth lap and led the rest of Thursday's 25-lap Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC Fastrak Northeast Series feature at McKean County Raceway.
The series points leader won the second round of the five-night Original Pizza Logs Cross the Borders Speedweek for a $1,200 victory in the Cpl. Jason Dunham Memorial. | Slideshow
Blair held off a late charge from Dan Angelicchio of Greensburg, Pa., in setting a single-season record with his sixth victory of the season on the Crate Late Model tour. Mike Pegher Jr. held the previous record at five victories.
"We haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep the last few nights," explained the 22-year-old Blair, who has suffered back-to-back blown motors at Eldora (Saturday) and Expo (Wednesday) Speedways. "We've literally slept five hours in the last week. When the motor blew at Eldora it put me in the fence. It's been a long week and I'm really hoping I didn't hurt another one tonight. We really needed this to keep us going through the rest of Speedweek.”
Angelicchio settled for second with John Lacki third in his first tour start of 2012. Ryan Montgomery, 15, and Chad Wright rounded out the top five while Wylie was part of a lap-14 incident and finished 22nd.
The event’s 49-car field was the highest of the season and second to only Tyler County Speedway's 53 cars on April 17, 2010.
The series heads to Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio, on Friday for the third of five Speedweek events.
Original Pizza Logs Cross the Borders Speedweek: (1) Max Blair, (2) Dan Angelicchio, (3) John Lacki, (4) Ryan Montgomery, (5) Chad Wright, (6) Mike Pegher Jr., (7) Will Thomas III, (8) Matt Latta, (9) Matt Cobb, (10) Chad Ruhlman, (11) Josh Holtgraver, (12) Doug Ricotta, (13) Matt Long, (14) Jamie Brown, (15) John Over, (16) Lauren Longbrake, (17) Butch Lambert, (18) Joe Martin, (19) Damian Bidwell, (20) Bryce Davis, (21) Bobby Rohrer, (22) Andrew Wylie, (23) Jim Frank, (24) Shane Weaver, (25) Kyle Lukon. Heat race winners (among 49 cars): Wright, Blair, Lacki, Martin, Bidwell. Consolation winners: Over, Holtgraver. Dash winner: Pegher. Provisional starter: Lambert. Non-qualifiers’ race winner: Jason Genco.