May 24, 2018
By Dave Sully
DELEVAN, NY- Max Blair, from Centerville PA, scored a convincing win in the 30 lap ULMS Super Late Model Ron Baker Memorial before a near record crowd at Freedom Motorsports Park on Friday, May 25th. In so doing, he tied his father, Robbie, for the most ULMS career wins. Though he ultimately won by a good margin,It wasn’t easy, as he had competition early in the hard fought affair, especially from veteran Pennsylvania runner, Alex Ferree.
Ferree, in his first ever visit to Freedom, drew the pole and, after a four car wreck at the start, which took out heat winner and potential challenger, Matt Lux, opened a sizable lead, while Blair, who went off fifth, clawed his way forward, grabbing second in lap traffic from Doug Eck.
A caution on lap 11 bunched the field and sent Mike Maresca, Modified driver and newcomer to Late Models, to the pits for one of several visits, as the 7mm took a beating in the early going.
As Ferree looked to drive away from Blair on a subsequent caution on lap 12, he suddenly spun on his own in turn two, handing the lead to Blair. The restart showed Blair, Eck, Mikey Wonderling, and the resilient Maresca the top four. Blair drove away, while Maresca worked his way to third. When Eck spun on lap 17, handing second to Maresca,he was one of only four cars still on the lead lap.
Maresca made a valiant attempt to keep pace on the restart, but Blair, quite familiar with the Freedom layout, gradually drew away in the latter part of the race to win by a wide margin..Maresca brought his battered car home in second, followed by Eck, who was not pleased with Maresca’s driving style, Dave Dubois, who started 16th, and Wonderling, to complete the top five.
In Victory Lane, Blair offered, “We’ve been struggling a little bit this year. We changed a bunch of stuff around again this week and we’re hoping we’ve got it headed in the right direction here. The car got rolling pretty good there. I’m not sure if we were going to be able to pass Ferree or not. It would have been a real fun race. I’m kind of bummed out that it (Ferree’s Spin) happened. When it did happen I wasn’t sure if I was going to get caught up in it. We were real fortunate we had someone on our side tonight to help us through that one. That’s for sure.”
NOTES: Blair, who holds the track record, was the fast timer once again this night. The win was worth $2500, plus $300 for fast time……………………..The packed house, as witnessed by a 50/50 worth over $900, was a testimony to the popularity of the Super Late Models, numbers of which have been declining in recent years, as have all the clas
ses. The eighteen car field was in step with most tracks that run the class on a regular basis…………. The good news for Freedom fans is that the ULMS will make three more appearances there over the summer……………… Mod star Mike Maresca, who has taken comfortably to the Late Models scored an impressive double recently at Tri City when he won both the SLM and Big Block Features, not an easy thing to do.
Results:
ULMS Late Models: (30 laps) – 1. Max Blair, 2. Mike Maresca, 3. Doug Eck, 4. Dave Dubois, 5. Mikey Wonderling, 6.. Mike Smith, 7. Danny Kienitz, 8. Nathan Hill, 9. Jason Dobson, 10. Alex Ferree, 11. Greg Oakes, 12. Chris Hackett, 13. Andy Boozel, 14. Garrett Mott, 15. John Lobb, 16. Al Brewer, 17. Matt Lux, and 18. Eric Andrus.
Heat winners were Blair, Maresca, and Lux.
