Flat Rock Speedway

Left over from last week... Tommy O'Leary IV won his first career Late Model Sportsman feature."I want to say thank you to everyone that helped me out last night at Flat Rock Speedway. I'm sorry if I missed any names, Thomas F. O'Leary III, Howard Kelley Jr., Adam Plonski, Dan Guy, Mike Miller, Chelsea Lynn O'Leary, Dena Orner-O'Leary, Judy Gorrill, Barbara Kelley...Robbie Loving and Craig Osenbaugh for driving my 2 LMSP cars ... and all the support from friends and family members. We set one goal and one goal only, and that was to win last night. I got my first ever LMSP victory thanks to Howard Kelly Jr. and his awesome crew guy Adam Plonski. Me, racing the past 3 years now on Toledo Speedway's 1/4 mile has helped me as a driver so much and I took that knowledge from there and put it to use last night at Flat Rock to get the Big Win. Howard put one hell of a setup on the car, never once was the car a handful. It drove like a dream. Once I took the lead around lap 10 I just took care of the car and saved the tires. I went just fast enough to say in front of Ron Allen so he couldn't touch me. I went through lap traffic really nice and easy, took my time and passed them when it was an advantage for me. No one had anything for me last night at Flat Rock, the car was just that good. We all accomplished our goal we set, and it was the best feeling in the world. Uncle Hottie you should be so happy to see the setup you put in that car and watch it work the way it did, let me say it again it was just amazing on the track. Thank you Uncle Hottie again, my family and everyone that supports me. Even all the Haters out there, because you make me drive just as hard on the race track no matter where I race."

Now for this week.

Friday was the Gold Cup finale and also a co-sanctioned race with the Main Event Series.

Jeff Ganus looked like he was going to be the first driver in the 19 year history of the Gold Cup to win four races in a season. That ended a little passed halfway when the trailing arm mount broke. Luck was on his side as two laps later there was an accident that necessitated a red flag (the third of the event). The red flag gave his team the time to repair the car enough for him to rejoin the race several laps down. He would lose a few more, but garner enough points to take his first Gold Cup Championship.

It was Jeff's and car owner Brian Short's first Gold Cup Championship. Thanks Brian for sending me the note "Thanks go out to Mark Surgine, who does all the work at the shop and also Jason Mullins and Lee Slaton. The team won five out of seven Main Event races, three out of the six Gold Cup races and the Kalamazoo Klash. It's the team's first full season, and the primary sponsors is Brian's own company, Direct Detail. The team also wants to thank Hutter Racing Engines, Medina Mountain Motors, Sweet Mfg., Senneker Race Cars, Landrum Springs, Bricknell Mfg., Octane Trailers. We're looking for sponsors for 2016."

Here's some interesting things on his championship year. He is the ninth different champion in the 19-year. The Constantine, Mich., driver is the fourth driver to win three races in a season (Scott Hantz 2009, Harold Fair Jr 2007, Dave Kuhlman 2006). Of the 4 drivers, Ganus is the only one to win his races at different tracks (Sandusky, Toledo, Flat Rock), the other three drivers won their races at Toledo. Also another rarity... only four drivers have won the 150 lapper at Flat Rock and went on to win the championship (Ganus this year, Mike Root in 2010, Dave Kulhman in 2003 and Rick Knowles in 1999).

Dakota Carlson won the race after a spirited battle with Brad Reithmeyer. "Thanks, and we almost didn't come because we ran so poorly at Dixie the Friday before. Dad completely reworked that car this week and got it fast again. We are going to have to gain a little speed to be able to win the Glass City though," said the driver of the LeClair Racing, Port City Race Cars, Peformance Engineering #8.

Brad Reithmeyer finished second. "For where we started on Friday, we did awesome, problem after problem in practice and then the transmission failure. My guys never quit, the Trend Performance guys worked their tails off all week with different Landrum Spring/bump stop combinations working with Senneker Performance and it paid off with a 2nd place finish. It's funny we loaned our transmission to Dakota and then the next practice our Calico Coatings car broke a Transmission. So all night we only had fourth gear and we had to get pushed off every time the cars stopped. Luckily ARCA officials worked with us. We need to get the Diamond Pistons car a little bit better for the Glass City but I think we will be fine." That's sportsmanship, you loan a transmission to someone and they win with it.

The first two position went to Gold Cup regulars. Third place went to Trevor Berry who led early in the event. It was the first SLM race at Toledo for the young driver.

Two Main Event regulars were next, Mike Maggazatti finished fourth. Alex Rosenberry finished fifth, "We had a really fast FliteTest #2 car all day and when the green flag dropped I was happy to still have a good car. I thought at that point we had a car capable of winning until lap 22 when we lost power steering and had to restart on the tail of the 24 car field. I was then able to work up to fifth but ran out of time. Being only 18 years old I'm happy that we have had two top five finishes at Toledo this year and we are looking forward to getting our FliteTest sponsored Latemodel back on track in Toledo for the Glass City 200 in September." Thanks for the message Alex.

Congrats to Ron Allen who won the Late Model Sportsman race.

Greg Studt won the X-car Championship and also Friday's race. Greg has done something at Toledo that no one to my knowledge has done... he has won a championship on all three of Toledo's track's, the half mile, the Figure 8 and quarter mile. How cool is that. He won the Late Model Championship in 2005, Figure 8 championships in 2001 and 2004 and then the X-car championship this year. This is based on the champions list on Toledo's website.

Flat Rock... August 15

Kyle Worley won the A division feature, his second feature of the year.. "I would like to thank Rob and Tim Moore and Rob Liedel for the help on the car. My sponsors also. Budget Tire, Total Flow Heads, Bolt On Speed Shop and full auto.

Point's leader, Landon Schuster hit the turn one wall after taking the Checkered Flag. His UA local 50, Georgia Cable and Boring, Complete Refrigeration, Josephs Beverage Center, D&S Boring, and Rocky's Body Shop #118 suffered quite a bit of damage and they had to replace everything up front. They'll be ready for the 100-lap race this weekend.

Jimmy Pankow won the B division feature. It was the first night out with his 'new' car, the former #49 that Rick Grzych used to drive. "I want to thank my family and friends for all the help getting the car ready."

All season long the teenagers have been doing well. Yesterday, 18-year old Alex Rosenberry finished fifth in the Gold Cup race. Tonight the CRA race was won by Hunter Baize, a 17 year old. A couple weeks ago, Jacob Lee led the better portion of the Figure 8 feature. Race Loving has won a Figure 8 feature at Toledo and Dennis Whisman Jr. has won heat races. The future is indeed bright for these drivers.

And in the Street Stock division, Ray Morneau Jr who finished10th in the feature. But his feature wasn't easy. He was involved in a multiple car accident and his #03 ended up on top of Nick Shank's #97. More amazing was both Ray and Nick were able to return to finish the feature. "It was awesome to get my first heat race win and would like to thank everyone and all of the teams that helped to get me back out after the wreck in the feature for helping me get back out. I also want to thank my sponsors, Xpress Group, Hallmark Memorial, Highland Tools, Rivard Snowplowing, George Newman, JR Graphics and Double R Reworks."

One last quote... From Scott Hantz who finished fourth in the CRA race. Thanks Lenny for sending me his quote: "The car was real racey, just got wicked loose about 30 laps in. We made some adjustments but just didn't go far enough to get the car where it needed to be. Can't thank my guys enough Kevin, Kevin, Wayne, and was awesome to have Lenny back for this weekend. Regardless it's not possible with out great sponsors either and I can't thank SouthPointe Radiator, Top Speed Fabrication, McGunnegill Engine Performance, Hornish Bros Inc, and Great Lakes Helicopter for all their support this weekend. We'll head back and tune on it and hopefully get ‘em at Baer Field next weekend"

And if you missed the action, stop by YouTube and watch this week’s action. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-4DvaOjvo9yImaKMaA8sBw