July 3, 2017
Little Valley, NY
By: Dave Sully

The annual Freedom Daze Show at Little Valley Speedway saw the most diverse racing card in the history of the track competing before a large crowd in perfect weather on Monday, July 3rd. The headline class was the Pete Loretto Memorial 30 lap Super Late Model Feature and was dominated by the almost invincible Max Blair.

The Pete Loretto Memorial honored one of the most dedicated racing luminaries in the region. Not only was he a former official, he was on Richie Evans pit crew for several years and had a radio show where he was dubbed Dr. Dirt. Perhaps his most lasting contribution to many many racers was his pains-taking creations of collages, gleaned from countless publications, which highlighted the careers of racing folks of all stripes, which he personally presented to them at various racing venues. The expressions on the faces of the recipients were priceless, as they couldn’t believe that anyone would take the time and commit the effort to creating these masterpieces to memorialize their lives in racing.

Blair, from Centerville, PA, who has been unbeatable recently at Little Valley, started fourth in the SLM event, but was quickly on the prowl, grabbing second by the second lap and then setting out after Greg Oakes, who had drawn out to a good lead from the outside pole. The blazing fast Blair reeled in Oakes on lap four and began hounding him for the lead. The only caution of the race came out shortly thereafter, with Blair wresting the lead from Oakes on the restart.

From there, his only challenge was navigating through lap traffic, which he did with his usual aplomb. At the line, it was Blair by close to half a lap, followed by Russ King, who journeyed up from tenth but never had a chance to test Blair. Oakes settled for third, with Chad Valone, and Bump Hedman rounding out the top five.

Blair offered, “I just love this place. I love the speed and how you get around it. I think the restart helped us out because it was a little too slick on the bottom to make a pass. He (Oakes) was pretty good. You never know what could have happened when we got to some lap cars.”

Super Late Models: (30 laps) – 1. Max Blair, 2. Russ King, 3. Greg Oakes, 4. Chad Valone, 5. Bump Hedman, 6. John Lobb, 7. Chris Hackett, 8. Chad Hollenbeck, 9. Bob Dorman, 10. John Lacki, 11. Jason Dobson, 12. Terry Porter, 13. Brent Rhebergen, 14. Joe Layfield, 15. Dutch Davies, 16. Brady Wonderling, 17. Nathan Hill, 18. Cody Egner, and 19. Mike Wonderling. Heat winners were Blair, King, and Oakes.