Toledo Speedway

(TOLEDO, Ohio - October 12, 2010) - In the last 11 years since the Glass City race was reinstated, only twice has rain affected the race. Back in 2005, the race was called at half way (John Doering Jr. won) and the 2010 rendition of the race. The Great Lakes Helicopters Glass City 200 presented by Cherry Picked Auto Parts started under cold and very damp conditions and made it only to the 10th lap when it was put under rain delay. After an hour and a half rain delay it was decided to try on Sunday. Sunday wasn't much better, still cold and windy and by the end of race, the heavy misty rain had returned.

Some 20 hours after he took the initial green flag to start the race, Harold Fair Jr. was in victory lane. Fair Jr.'s season has been either feast or famine, with the Michigan driver either finishing in the top few or finishing behind the wall. To say today's race he dominated it would be too light of a word, űber-dominating, if that word exists. During the final 99 laps, the only cars that got close to Fair Jr. were the cars he was lapping, with second place needing a telescope to find him ... as Fair Jr. stretched his lead out to over 2/3 of a lap ahead of the rest of the field. Only once, while Fair Jr. negotiated traffic was Brad Rogers and Scott Hantz even able to catch up to the eventual winner... but as soon as Fair Jr. cleared traffic again, he pulled away to the commanding lead.

The battle for most of the race was between Scott Hantz and Brad Rogers, and later in the event Steve Sauve and Mike Root joined in.

"It's (the car) has been good all year ... great engine, great chassis ... it finally came all together and we were able show what the car could do. It didn't make any difference whether it was a short run or long, the car worked well all race long. I'm glad the race ended when it did, because the rain was starting to make it slick towards the end. It was a good thing we only had that one short caution, because anything long we would've probably lost the track," said the driver of the Royal Truck and Trailer, Performance Racing Engine #71.

It was Fair Jr.'s second win in the annual event, also winning it in 2008. He is only the fourth driver to win the event multiple times over the 22 events run. Other multiple winners were Joe Ruttman, 1969 and 1973; Bob Senneker, 1970, 1971 and 1977 and Steve Sauve, 2002, 2003, 2004.

Fair Jr.'s 159 is the best since Jr. Hanley also led 159 laps in 2003 (Steve Sauve led all 200 laps on the way to his first win)

Scott Hantz finished second, nearly a straightaway behind Fair Jr., thanks to the only caution in the second half that waved with eight laps to go. Prior to the yellow he was 2/3 of a lap behind Fair Jr. "It seemed the second half of the race everyone was tired and they spread out. I was glad to see the caution, otherwise I wouldn't had a chance to try and catch Harold (Fair Jr.). I want to thank the crew and sponsors EMF Corp., Indiana Wire Assemblies," said the driver from Pleasant Lake, Ind. Hantz also finished second in the 2002 race behind Steve Sauve.

The first three positions were drivers from three different states, Michigan, Indiana and North Carolina. The driver that came the farthest to race with us was Brad Rogers. It's been two years since Rogers races (he used to drive in the USAR ProCup division) but you couldn't tell it from his racing. He led 16 laps and brought the car home third, a career best for the P.B Fabrication team. "This is the place to race. I appreciate the opportunity to race here. This is a brand new team and car for me. It was a little off, especially on the restarts. I've watched Scott Hantz, and many of these other guys race for years and they're my heroes. It was so much fun racing here," said the driver of the P.B. Fabrication, ACME Dismantling, Bailey Racing #01.

Steve Sauve won this race three consecutive years, the only driver to do so, in 2002, 2003 and 2004 came home fourth. "It wasn't hooked up that well today. I probably was the loosest or everyone out there. Didn't even realize there wasn't a caution in that second half until late and they had that late one," said the driver of the Saginaw Pattern and Machine, Discount Tires and Woody's #97.

2009 and 2010 Gold Cup champion Mike Root finished fifth. "About time I had a good race during the 200. The last few times we didn't even make it to the halfway point ... so at least we finally finished one," said the driver of the sponsors Universal Graphic Solutions, Creatingaccents.com, Renegade, Amsoil, Ace Auto Body, Extreme Images and Buck the Dog #9.

The other lap leader of the event was polesitter, Jake Francis. He led the initial 25 laps before being passed by Rogers. He finished 11th.

The Burge Wrecking Most Improved award, worth $250, went to Steve Peters who started 29 and finished 14th.

The top 20 were locked into the event, with 20th place qualifier, Joe Hawes getting four tires from Moran Chevrolet. Scott Hantz won the Passtime Fast Qualifier award of $500. Dave Kuhlman and Nick Grodi got $100 certificates from All Star Performance. Mike Root and Jack Varney Jr. got $100 certificates from Lane Automotive.

The race got off to a inauspicious start. The field took the green and a huge melee ensued in turn one. In all, 12 cars were involved in the pileup when Dakota Carlson spun. Claude Plante Jr., Scott Baker, George Rangel and Joe Hawes were all unable to continue with various terminal injuries to their mounts from suspension to clip damage. Brent Jursik, Nick Grodi and Jay Sommers all pitted during the red flag.

For Claude Plante Jr., wreck ended a miserable weekend for him. First he had engine problems during Friday night's practice. At 10:30 that night they were at the engine builder's house, finishing the replacement engine. They finished about 2 and were back up and on the way back to the track about 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. Then came the wreck, which apparently took the front clip.

Although the opening wreck was the "Big One"... the hardest hit of the weekend goes to Bill Litigot on Sunday. Something broke and snapped the car to the right, pretty much head on into the turn two wall, bouncing up in the air and it was significantly shorter when it came to a stop. Luckily Bill emerged under his own power and was okay, although he probably was sore the next day.

A total of nine cautions flew, including three red flags (the opening wreck, the rain delay and Litigot's accident). Most of the cautions flew for minor spins and debris.

There were 34 late models on hand on Saturday, and 30 made the feature. Not transferring were Don and Jason Burkhardt, Tom O'Leary III and Ron Miller. Chad Guinn, Stan Yee Jr. and Steve Peters were the Gold Cup provisionals and Jimmy Alvis was the Flat Rock provisional.

Catching up on the month of September... Some email notes and our Flat Rock champions.

Jeremy Vanderhoof won his first career championship.

"I want to thank everyone who has helped me from day one. It was a great season and a great battle with Greg Studt, one of the best who has ever turned a lap a the track in my eyes, and especially to my family who does the ultimate sacrifice to let me take their time and put it into racing ... and to my Uncle Larry and Aunt Tammy, couldn't do it without them," said the first time champion.

Dan Ford Jr. announced his 'retirement' from the Street Stock division and is returning to the Super Late Model division in 2011. He went out, winning the championship race and also the final street stock race of the season on Sept. 18. "I was tickled to win this win. Good way to finish the season, with everyone chasing me," he said after the Sept. 11 race.

Paul Pelletier his second Super Late Model championship. "Thanks to my family, friends and the fans. This whole season was sort of surreal."

Winner of the Super Late Model championship race was Stan Yee Jr. Yee Jr. and Eric Lee put on a terrific battle for a large portion of the race. "Eric (Lee) makes you work for the wins. I had to run as hard as I could. I wasn't blocking him, but I knew he was there. This is for all those guys (my crews) they put in 30 hours apiece working on the car. Hope Bob's happy with the win.

I want to thank my sponsors are Stan Yee's Collision, Arrow uniform, Diamond Racing Products, Energy Efficient Lighting Solutions, Blasting Specialties Inc., and Finishing Specialties Inc. My crew has been incredible. They expect to win every time pull onto the track and there not afraid to put the hours in the shop to get there. I want to thank my crew members Joe Genise, Ray Clark, Chris Yee, are some of the best in the business. They motivate me daily by how hard they, work and are tireless when I comes to doing what ever it takes to get us up front. Of course we all learned that from Sr. We struggled for about half the season then is all started to come together. We're pretty happy with how we finished out the year. I cant say enough about my mom and uncle too. They make the trip to watch the races and rarely miss one. My wife supports me even though there's weeks where I'm only home 3 days out of a week. I"m pretty lucky to have so many good people around me. Steve Lee helped me out some too this year with a couple things that got me going in the right direction," Stan wrote in an email to me.

Steve Chartrand won the B division feature. "I want to congradulate Jimmy (Rae) on the championship. It was tough out there tonight. I want to thank my wife and family."

Jimmy Rae won the championship. "Quite a season... up and downs. I want to thank everyone that helped last week with the Figure 8 when I had problems in the heat. I think half the pits were there helping. I also want to thank my wife and Uncle Bob (Rae). Also Randy Roberts for letting me drive his car tonight.

We were second last year but I think we had more points this year. Championship night we had the best qualifying time to date with a13.8. I got to thank Tim Moore (#83) for helping us out with a new setup. We got a fast car just haven't found out all it's secrets yet. Tim showed us a few tricks with it that really woke up the car. It had a lot more, but it was just a little faster then i was used to.

 I want to thank all my crew, my crew chief Scott and Cindy Marshall and my son Billy (Nickname.Kid) ... also Jim and Becky.Alvis (SLM #64), Chris and Kathy Diovardi (SS #95), Paul Duffin (SS #51) they all helped in one way or another with this difficult year. Even if just to keep my mind focused. Look for us I hope in A next year. Ti Ya the first time we ever qualified in the 13's...Tim had helped set up the car.And.We going to go this weekend to experiment a little more with it.

Also heard from Kevin Stahl who is returning to racing next season in the Sportsman. His son, Kevin Jr., will be running street stocks at Flat Rock.

Some of our Street Stocks headed to Kalamazoo Speedway for the Super Shoe on the same weekend as the Glass City.

Anthony Camilli got up to second in the D main in his Tony Tires #56. Rich Frantz got 16th in the C main. All the others finishes are in the the various qualifiers and were unable to transfer to their features: Tadek Stadniczuck finished 9th; Clyde McKee was the highest qualifier at 88th of 200+ cars and finished 5th in his qualifier; Rich Abel was 17th; Lonnie York was 10th and Shondra Harbin was 7th.

More post season races: Paul Pelletier finished fifth and Harold Fair Jr. finished 16th in the Main Event at Columbus the week before the Glass City.

Mike Root, who won our Gold Cup Series the last two years, won the Mudslinger 100 at Auto City Speedway (he also was the fast qualifier). Harold Fair Jr., who won the Glass City was second, Jack Varney was fifth. Stevie Cronenwett raced for the first time since the Giles Memorial 100 at Flat Rock and finished sixth in his first time at the track. Dennis Strickland finished eighth and Brent Jack finished 13th.

"The car ran well all night. We got fast time earlier. I didn't have to use the bumper or the brakes working my way towards the front. Tonight is our fifth win this season, which ties my record for wins in a season," said the driver of the Universal Graphic Solutions, Creatingaccents.com, Renegade, Amsoil, Ace Auto Body, Extreme Images and Buck the Dog #9.