Blair Scores O'Reilly AllStar Series Championship at KC
Chillicothe, OH Heading into the final O'Reilly AllStar sanctioned event of the 2009 season, Rob Blair and company trailed Boom Briggs by a mere 6 points in the championship standings. In order to capture the title, Blair would need to finish 4 spots ahead of Briggs. "We're both guarenteed a starting spot in the A-main, so we'll see what happens", stated Blair heading into the weekend. After qualifying 4th in the 49 car field, Rob Blair would start the 5th heat race from the pole position. Blair would lead Steve Shaver across the finish line at the end of the 15 lap qualifying event. The heat win would give Blair the outside front row starting spot in Saturday's 100 lap "Dirt Track World Cup" AllStar sanctioned event. "The car was really good in qualifying and in the heat race", stated Blair. "It definately gave us a little bit of momentum going into the feature." After starting in the in the 2nd position in the feature, Blair would find himself in the 10th position at the end of the 100 lap event. Although it may not have been the finish Blair was looking for, it was enough to secure the 2009 AllStar point championship, as Briggs could only mount a 19th place finish after starting in the 24th position. When asked about the race, Blair responded, "The car was good after I ran for 5 or 6 laps, but the restarts killed me. I'm not sure why it took so long for the tires to fire. Once we got going, the car was pretty good", I wasn't sure where Boom was at. I was just hoping that we did enough to win this (point championship) thing."
Brandon Kinzer and Rob Blair paced the 26 car field to the green flag with Kinzer settling in as the race leader. Blair got off to a slow start as Shane Clanton, Duane Chamberlain, and Eddie Carrier all got by before Robbie was able to fall in line in the fifth spot. As the laps ticked down, Kinzer got locked behind the back-markers while Chamberlain raced hard with Clanton for the second spot with Carrier close in tow. On lap 18 the Chamberlain, Clanton, Carrier trio went three wide battling for the second spot. By lap 22 Kinzer broke through the lapped traffic and jumped a few car lengths ahead. The same lap Coleby Frye slowed to bring out the first caution. When racing resumed Chamberlain took a look under Clanton for the lead but Clanton held on to the lead. By lap 43 Steve Casebolt had made his way from his 22nd place start to tenth place. On lap 45, with Clanton began separating himself from the challenges of Chamberlain as two laps later, Bart Hartman’s mount came up lame to bring out a lap 47 caution.
Clanton continued to lead as Casebolt continued his assault to the front. The leaders caught the back of the field again and as soon as they did, Rick Auckland spun directly in front of Clanton to bring out another caution. The laps continued to wind down and with around 20 laps remaining, Carrier Jr. decided it was time to go as he made his way past Chamberlain for second and set his sights on the 2008 World 100 winner, Clanton. Carrier set his Grover Motorsports Rocket Chassis underneath Clanton in each corner but could never get a good enough run to make the pass. Lap after lap Carrier tried Clanton on the bottom, eventually Carrier changed his line and tried to make the pass using the high side. Carrier looked to have found something on the outside and pulled along side of Clanton in tuns one and two. All the while, Brandon Kinzer made a smooth, low-side pass on Chamberlain to move into the third spot. Carrier did everything he could do to get around Clanton but Shane and his RSD Enterprises, SAE Parts Inc., Stevens Plumbing and Mechanical Rocket Chassis held on for his first ASLMS win as Carrier came home second. Kinzer finished third with Steve Shaver fourth and Steve Casebolt, from his 20th starting spot, rounded out the top five. Duane Chamberlain faded to sixth followed by Tim Dohm in seventh, Jonathan Davenport in eighth, ninth was Chub Frank while Robbie Blair finished tenth, nine spots ahead of Boom Briggs giving Blair a twelve point edge on Briggs to become the 2009 O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Champion. O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series ‘Dirt Track World Cup Classic’ A Main (100 Laps) O’Reilly All Star Late Models SPEEDWRAPZ Time Trials
FINAL 2009 O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Point Standings
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