Toledo Speedway

Toledo, Ohio—April 22, 2017: Steve Needles and Brian Campbell grabbed the wins in Saturday’s Spring 200 at Toledo Speedway. The season opener at the Glass City oval saw both drivers go to victory in their respective 100 lap contests on a cool, yet sunny afternoon.

Despite the short field, a very competitive event ran caution-free in 30 minutes and 10 seconds for the Spring 100 for the ARCA Super 6 Gold Cup Late Model Series. Harold Fair Jr., who spent much of the night before putting together another car after destroying his primary machine in practice, took the lead at the start. Fair jumped out to a sizable lead, while Frankie Jiovani grabbed second spot on lap 6 from Dave Stehouwer. Needles, starting 7^th, gradually moved his way to the front, taking 3^rd spot by lap 18 and stayed glued to Jiovani’s bumper for the next 29 laps. Steve sailed around Frankie on lap 47 and reeled in the leader at lap 62, going to the high side to get around Fair Jr. for the lead. But the next dozen laps were quite exciting and entertaining as leader Needles encountered Phil Bozell and Scott Hantz, both battling to stay on the lead lap.

Bozell would nose ahead in the outside lane, Needles would move up and Hantz would slide back door to door with Phil on the bottom groove. Things got dicey as Fair Jr. and then Jiovani closed in, setting up some great racing for the fans. Needles proved to be patient enough to wait for a clean opportunity to get by both Bozell and Hantz, but everyone kept their calm as Needles finally slid around that duo to put them a lap down as the laps also wound down. Steve would build up a solid lead as he scored the victory.

Fair Jr., Jiovani, Brandon Lyons, Johnny Belott, Hantz, Bozell, Scott Pemberton, Dennis Strickland, Dave Stehouwer, Tommy O’Leary IV and Kevin Stahl Jr. completed the finishing order. The top 5 cars finished on the lead lap. Lyons set fast time at 14:894.

2-time Toledo race winner Brian Campbell nosed under race leader Johnny VanDoorn in the final 30 circuits on his way to the win in the Spring 100 for the ARCA/CRA Super Series Late Models presented by Jeg’s. VanDoorn held on for second at the stripe, Chad Finley was third, Stephen Wallace fourth and Tyler Ankrum fifth, followed by Christian Eckes, Dalton Armstrong, Cole Rouse, fast qualifier Josh Brock (15.423) and rookie Kyle Krump.

Toledo’s next event is the Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards superspeedway-style stock cars Saturday-Sunday, May 20-21.