June 10, 2016
East Smethport, PA

Max Blair reached an incredible milestone Thursday night at the McKean County Raceway, collecting his 200th feature win at only 26 years of age. After starting 9th in the field of 20 cars, Max would take the lead with 5 laps remaining to pick up the crate late model win.

“Mr Excitement”, Jeremy Wonderling led from the pole in the RUSH Crate Late Model feature with Damian Bidwell second, John Waters third Dave Lyon fourth, and ninth starting Max Blair up to fifth at the end of five laps.

At seven laps in, Jason Tingue spun in the back straight, slowing the race for the first time. Blair was up to fourth at this point. At green Waters blasted by for the lead coming out of turn four while Andy Michael and John Haggerty spun in turn three. The leaders were by the flag by the time caution was shown so Waters was the leader when green again flew.

After green it was Waters, Jeremy Wonderling, Bidwell, Blair, and Lyon at halfway with caution coming a lap later when Jim Johnson spun in turn two. Another restart was necessary when several cars got together on the green. By the end of lap twelve Blair was challenging for second and took the spot as lap thirteen completed.

With five laps remaining Waters had six length lead with Blair beginning to close on the leader who had caught lapped traffic when the lapped car of Josh Ayers made contact with the leader, causing enough damage to necessitate Waters to pit with damage and leave the event.

Blair, with 199 wins, was now the leader on his way to a historic 200th win. Blair went on to the win with Bidwell second, Jeremy Wonderling third, Eric Wilson fourth, and Mikey Wonderling. In Victory Lane,

Blair, whose first feature win came on August of 2006 with a Steel Block Late Model, noted “every one of my wins is special to me.” He thanked his Dad and “I hope I can be half as good as he is”. “Without him I’d have nothing”. Many of Blair’s 200 wins came here at McKean County Raceway with him noting that he always enjoys coming here.

RUSH Crate Late Models:

Heat 1: Max Blair, Damian Bidwell, Steve Dixon, Sherman Gage, Randy Hall, Eric Wilson, Zach Wiech, Josh Ayers

Heat 2: Jim Johnson Jr, Mikey Wonderling, Jim Johnson Sr, Chad Silleman, Andy Michael, Jason Tingue, R J Pistner

Heat 3: John  Waters, Jeremy Wonderling, Dave Lyon, Garrett Mott, John Haggerty, Joe Chamberlain

Feature: Max Blair, Damian Bidwell, Jeremy Wonderling, Eric Wilson, Mikey Wonderling, Randy Hall, Dave Lyon, Jim Johnson, Joe Chamberlain, RJ Pistner, Garrett Mott, Jimmy Johnson Jr., Sherman Gage, John Waters, Josh Ayers, Chad Silleman, Steve Dixon, Andy Michael, John Haggerty, Jason Tingue