Max Blair Celebrates Stateline's 61st Anniversary With A $6,100 Pay Day!

July 21, 2017

BY ALLEN SEYBERT
BUSTI, N.Y. - 61 laps for 61 years. Max Blair turned it into $6,100.
Thursday, on the 61st Anniversary of the opening of Busti, N.Y.'s Stateline Speedway, Blair was the first finisher out of 24 of the best Super Late Model drivers in the area, winning the $6,100-to-win Overhead Door Super Late Model Special on the one-third mile oval.
The Rusted Nutz RUSH Pro-Mod Series and Wellington Log Homes Street Stocks classes were on hand as support classes, running non-points features. Dennis Lunger earned his seventh win of the season in the Rusted Nutz RUSH Pro-Mod race and David Shagla Jr. was the winner in the Wellington Log Homes Street Stocks event.
Blair started on the outside of the front row alongside pole sitter Chad Valone, but was leading by the exit of turn two and immediately began putting distance between himself and the rest of the early top five - Valone, Dave Hess Jr., Matt Lux and Chub Frank. With five laps on the board, Hess Jr. dispatched Valone for second, becoming Blair's closest competitor before the first yellow on lap six for a spinning Chris Hackett - the fastest qualifer in time trials held earlier in the evening.
When the race resumed, Hess Jr. made a daring three-wide pass of Blair and Valone and briefly took the lead for one lap before Blair went back in front. Brady Wonderling was also an early mover in the race, climbing as high as third and B-Main top two finishers - Doug Eck and David Scott - were also making passes early. Blair stretched his lead until a second yellow for a stalled John Lacki on lap 15.
Hess Jr. was able to again pass Blair on the lap 16 restart, but this time Hess' #44 machine stayed out in front and appeared to be pulling away from the competition. Hess' bid for the victory came to an abrupt halt on lap 28 when he suddenly slowed in turn four and headed to the pits with an apparent mechanical failure.
After the restart, the number 1 was wild at the front of the field with Blair's #111 leading Chub Frank's #1, Matt Lux's #111, Wonderling's #Z1 and Jared Miley's #H1 all running in the top five. With Hess off the track, Blair began putting space between himself and the rest of the field and the race resumed with a lengthy green flag run.
Blair's lead swelled to nearly four seconds with 15 to go and it became apparent that the rest of the field would need a caution to seriously challenge him. That yellow never came and Blair cruised to his sixth Overhead Door Super Late Model victory of the season, capturing the $6,100 check in the process. Frank ended up in second, Miley was third, Lux was fourth and Eck was fifth with Wonderling, John Lobb, Scott, Bump Hedman and Charles Powell Jr. completing the top 10.
With 30 Overhead Door Super Late Model drivers in attendance, a B-Main Feature was necessary to determine who would be the 19th through 24th entrants into the 61-lap main event. Doug Eck won the 20-lap race with David Scott, Steve Kania, Rich Gardner, Matt Latta and Bump Hedman also advancing.
Earlier in the night, three group qualifying was held to determine the starting order for the heat races. Chris Hackett was the overall fast qualifier, winning Group A with a run of 16.338 seconds. He was awarded $250 donated by Magnum Graf-X Signs and Shirts for the accomplishment. Matt Lux won Group B with a time of 16.698 seconds and Max Blair won Group C, lapping the track in 16.669 seconds. The Overhead Door Super Late Model races were won by Hackett, Brady Wonderling and Blair.
Chad Carlson and Scott Gurdak led the 11-car field to the green for the Rusted Nutz RUSH Pro-Mod series feature with Carlson gaining an early edge with a strong outside move. While Carlson tried to scoot away, it was the season's dominant driver - Dennis Lunger - moving into the runner-up spot. On the fourth lap of the event, Lunger dove to Carlson's inside and the two drivers would run side-by-side for two laps before Lunger ultimately emerged with the top spot.
Lunger's lead slowly grew before a brief red flag for a scary flip by Jared Silvis slowed the action with seven laps to go. Silvis was ok, but the race was delayed nearly ten minutes before things resumed. When they did, Lunger did what he has done so often this year, pulling away from the competition for his seventh victory in nine attempts in 2017. Chad Carlson held on for second with Steve Dixon, Jason Covey and Justin Carlson rounding out the top five. Lunger and Chad Carlson were the heat race victors.
David Shagla Jr. jumped into the early lead in the Wellington Log Homes Street Stocks feature with Victor Earle Jr. and Brian Crandall in hot pursuit. Shagla's lead had swelled to a large amount by the end of lap 7 when the always quick John Boardman began moving up, taking third and challenging Earle for second. Boardman couldn't put too much attention on Earle, however, as fourth-place Chris Couchenour was nipping on his heels when the first caution waved on lap 11 for the stalled machine of Bill Reeves in turn two.
That closed the field up to Shagla's bumper, but Shagla used the speed of the high line to continually thwart the advances of his competiton. Boardman finally broke clear into second with four laps to go and began to close on Shagla before a yellow came out with four laps to go. The yellow didn't slow down Shagla who made all the right moves and earned his second Wellington Log Homes Street Stock feature win of the year. Boardman settled for second, Earle was third, Couchenour was fourth and Luke Rutsky rounded out the top 5. Shagla and Boardman were the heat winners.
With racing completed Thursday this week, there will be no racing at the track this Saturday evening. Racing resumes Saturday, July 29, with a Rusted Nutz RUSH Pro-Mod special feature highlighting a night that will also include all other six divisions of racing.

RESULTS
Thursday July 20, 2017
STATELINE SPEEDWAY 61ST ANNIVERSARY
at Stateline Speedway- Busti, N.Y.
OVERHEAD DOOR SUPER LATE MODELS (30 cars)
Time Trials: 1. Chris Hackett 16.338, 2. Dave Hess Jr. 16.438, 3. Max Blair 16.669, 4. Chad Valone 16.682, 5. Matt Lux 16.698, 6. Jake Finnerty 16.717, 7. Greg Oakes 16.799, 8. David Scott 16.859, 9. Doug Eck 16.886, 10. John Volpe 16.908, 11. Charles Powell Jr. 17.155, 12. Brady Wonderling 17.253, 13. Jared Miley 17.263, 14. Steve Kania 17.294, 15. John Lacki 17.371, 16. Dutch Davies 17.376, 17. Chub Frank 17.378, 18. Brayton Santee 17.456, 19. Rick Tripodi 17.466, 20. Bob Dorman 17.526, 21. Darrell Bossard 17.532, 22. Jason Dobson 17.553, 23. Matt Latta 17.586, 24. Rich Gardner 17.601, 25. Bump Hedman 17.679, 26. John Lobb 17.836, 27. Cody Egner 17.902, 28. Dave Lyon 18.012, 29. John Weaver 18.525, 30. Ward Schell No Time

Heat 1 (10 laps, 10 cars, Top 6 advance to A-Main): 1. Chris Hackett, 2. Dave Hess Jr., 3. Chad Valone, 4. Jared Miley, 5. Greg Oakes, 6. John Lacki, 7. Doug Eck, 8. Cody Egner, 9. David Scott, 10. Jake Finnerty DNS
Heat 2 (10 laps, 10 cars, Top 6 advance to A-Main): 1. Brady Wonderling, 2. Matt Lux, 3. John Lobb, 4. Dave Lyon, 5. Charles Powell Jr., 6. Rick Tripodi, 7. Steve Kania, 8. Breyton Santee, 9. Jason Dobson, 10. Matt Latta
Heat 3 (10 laps, 10 cars, Top 6 advance to A-Main): 1. Max Blair, 2. Chub Frank, 3. John Volpe, 4. Bob Dorman, 5. Darrell Bossard, 6. Dutch Davies, 7. Bump Hedman, 8. Rich Gardner, 9. John Weaver, 10. Ward Schell DNS

B-Main Feature (10 laps, 12 cars, Top 6 advance to A-Main): 1. Doug Eck, 2. David Scott, 3. Steve Kania, 4. Rich Gardner, 5. Matt Latta, 6. Bump Hedman, 7. Brayton Santee, 8. Jason Dobson, 9. John Weaver, 10. Cody Egner, 11. Ward Schell DNS, 12. Jake Finnerty DNS

A-Main Feature (61 laps, 24 cars): 1. Max Blair, 2. Chub Frank, 3. Jared Miley, 4. Matt Lux, 5. Doug Eck, 6. Brady Wonderling, 7. John Lobb, 8. David Scott, 9. Bump Hedman, 10. Charles Powell Jr., 11. Bob Dorman, 12. Chris Hackett, 13. Matt Latta, 14. Rick Tripodi, 15. Dave Hess Jr., 16. John Volpe, 17. Chad Valone, 18. Dave Lyon, 19. Dutch Davies, 20. John Lacki, 21. Greg Oakes, 22. Steve Kania, 23. Rich Gardner, 24. Darrell Bossard

RUSTED NUTZ RUSH PRO-MODS (11 cars)
Heat 1 (8 laps, 6 cars): 1. Dennis Lunger, 2. Steve Dixon, 3. Scott Gurdak, 4. Jason Covey, 5. Dennis Hagg Jr., 6. Jared Silvis
Heat 2 (8 laps, 6 cars): 1. Chad Carlson, 2. Ryan Scott, 3. Justin Carlson, 4. Matt Harvey, 5. Zach Johnson
Feature (20 laps, 11 cars): 1. Dennis Lunger, 2. Chad Carlson, 3. Steve Dixon, 4. Jason Covey, 5. Justin Carlson, 6. Matt Harvey, 7. Scott Gurdak, 8. Ryan Scott, 9. Dennis Hagg Jr., 10. Jared Silvis, 11. Zach Johnson

WELLINGTON LOG HOMES STREET STOCKS (17 cars)
Heat 1 (8 laps, 9 cars): 1. David Shagla Jr., 2. Anthony Marotto, 3. Brian Crandall, 4. Victor Earle Jr., 5. Bill Reeves, 6. Tyler Dynys, 7. Bill Best, 8. Vic Redeye, 9. Devon Dudenhoeffer
Heat 2 (8 laps, 8 cars): 1. John Boardman, 2. Chris Couchenour, 3. Luke Rutsky, 4. Scott Dellahoy, 5. David Schauers, 6. Paul Nelson, 7. Nick Mohawk, 8. Brandon Groters
Feature (20 laps, 17 cars): 1. David Shagla Jr., 2. John Boardman, 3. Victor Earle Jr., 4. Chris Couchenour, 5. Luke Rutsky, 6. Scott Dellahoy, 7. Anthony Marotto, 8. Brandon Groters, 9. Tyler Dynys, 10. Paul Nelson, 11. David Schauers, 12. Bill Best, 13. Vic Redeye, 14. Nick Mohawk, 15. Brian Crandall, 16. Bill Reeves