Toledo Speedway

It was full moon madness with a quarter moon in the sky. For the first time the Glass City 200 was a stand-alone race, but there was enough action. First there was 17 cautions which included eight caution flags and the midway break. We had four accidents that involved cars hitting the foam in the corners. And then there was a caution for the push Jeep that was on the track after starting a car off of pit lane, as the field was coming around behind it to take the green. It was a wild, crazy, bizarre, weird, odd, strange sort of race.

Brad Reithmeyer, Glass City winner. Brad improved on his fifth place finish in 2014 to win his first Glass City and first Toledo win. He is the 22nd different winner of the Glass City (this was #27)

Thanks for the email Brad! "This win happened because of our team and friends. We broke a cam shaft in the Diamond Pistons Trend Performance car on Friday a little more than an hour into practice, we went back to the Diamond Pistons shop and replaced the cam shaft finishing around 5 am on raceday. So they worked their tails off all day on 2 1/2 hours of sleep.

Being that it was a new car we spent most of the time just trying to get the balance right and we never could work a lot on getting speed out of the car. During the race we pitted 8 times to make changes to the Trend Performance car, so I think we definitely get the award for passing the most cars, we were sitting around 25th at one point in the race. Each time we pitted we made a chassis or set up change and we mostly worked on drive off the corner because that's where we were getting beat. Towards the end of the race we were running almost as fast as we qualified so we kept making the Diamond Pistons car better throughout the race.

From the cam shaft breaking, getting in a wreck right after the halfway break, pitting 8 times, to the right side jack post breaking during a pit stop, the guys kept working hard and that last restart as soon as the flag man moved I went and the 0 car spun his tires and then I just ran hard enough to keep a decent gap between myself and Dakota. It's a wonderful feeling to win the biggest outlaw race of the year. We can't thank Bob Fox and Diamond Pistons, Trend Performance for letting me drive their car, I also need to thank Senneker Chassis, Landrum Springs, Shell Shocked for all of their support."

Dakota Carlson, second place, a career best in the Glass City."We had a bad vibration during the first half of the race and we hung on. The car came to life the second half of the race. Congrats to Brad (Reithmeyer), we borrowed a tranny from him for the last race here (Gold Cup championships) and it was the reason we won. I want to thank Tony and Denice LeClair, my Dad, Mike McMillan, Ron Caruso, Alan Deveau, Chris Landon and my sponsors Performance Engineering, Port City Racecars all their hard work."

Johnny Belott tied his career best finish, third. He also finished third in 2001 and 2011. "The car is brand new and this is its first race out. We unloaded and were fast right off the trailer. I’d like to thank Johnny and Butch VanDoorn for making such a great race car. We qualified sixth and after I got the lead, the car was on rails. After leading all those laps and not winning is bitter disappointment, but we’ll be back next year. Thanks to my dad, family and crew. Also want to thank my sponsors. VanDoorn Racing Development, John Belott-Sons, W. Mich. Auto Auction,” said the driver from Mt. Morris, Mich.

Nick Bailey, fourth place, tying his best finish from 2013. "It's not what we wanted, but fourth place, we'll take it. The car is in one piece, so we're happy. We were behind the eight ball in corner speed tonight, so we didn't have a car for them. It always pays off to be there at the end of the 200," said the driver of the PB Fabrication #0

Billy Roberts finished fifth. It was his career best finish at Toledo and in the Glass City. His sponsors are HABCO Tool/Francis Engineering.

Chris Benson suffered with battery problems during the race. It may be the first time I've ever heard of a car coming in and charging their battery during reds. In the end it was a sixth place finish for his  Aday Commercial Roofing, Detroit Tubing Mill, Churchill Transport #51, even though he was down 13 laps. It was a career high finish in the Glass City for Benson.

Jimmy Ward had a career high qualifying lap at Toledo, and started third. After getting a new car late in the season (it was Dennis Strickland's old car, including the engine... it may have been the winning Glass City car from 2013). He finished eighth which was a career high. During the race he ran as high as third and had two flat tires that caused the driver to pit his Uncle Moose Ward Racing #6 both times under green. Of the 19 laps he was down, only two laps were under green.

Also getting career high finishes was Tom O'Leary IV who had engine problems in the latter stages of the race. He still finished ninth in the Wood Co. Collision/KRAP Auto Parts/Margin Auto/Tommy Boy Towing #8. Kevin Butzin finished 11th, another driver with a career high finish (I think). He had car trouble during the lap 185 red, from the stands it appeared the car had a fire, because I saw the PTS crew running to the car with fire extinguishers.

Thirty-two cars were at the track and all started the feature. Josh Way was unable to start with engine problems. Seven cars finished.

With 17 cautions (which includes the halfway point and eight red flags ... I still haven't figured out which one wasn't counted in the ARCA article), Here's the red flags: a caution that turned into a red on lap 5 (Hunter Jack broke and spun... he's only 15, our youngest starter), lap 97 (Ganus hit the wall while leading), lap 106 (Francis hit the foam turn 1... Fair, Varney, Reithmeyer, Grodi involved), lap 113 (Rosenberry slowed and Fair hit both into the form turn 3), lap 122 (Root hit the foam turn 1, so hard it moved the whole line of foam there), lap 130 (Belotte and Berakker tangled, stopped to save gas, don't remember why it took so long), lap 172 (Bergakker and Bailey tangled, Bergakker head on into the foam, same spot as Root and he moved the foam farther down the track), lap 185 (OLeary leaked oil, stopped to save gas). There was a total of 17 cautions (including the halfway break and these 8 reds).

As near as I can figure, 18 of the 31 starters were involved in a yellow (and mom might not have written them all down

It took 4 hours (including a 20 minute halfway break) to run the race.

Brian Bergakker finished 14th, after tangling with Nick Bailey and Bergakker hit the foam in turn one hard, causing severe damage to the front of the Stampede Die #24. The 2015 Berlin Outlaw Late Model champion was in Lee VanDyk's car after VanDyk hit his head on his tire rack and had to go to the hospital for stitches. Bergakker was at the track to bring VanDyk a driveshaft (he broke his in practice on Friday) and was called into service. He was doing great, battling for fourth at the time of the accident and moving forward.

Although Terry Senneker didn't have the Glass City finish he wanted, just making it to the green was an accomplishment in itself. This is from Terry's Facebook page.

"It's all about the people that surround a driver. At 12:30 am the day of the Glass City 200, we had the rear clip off of the car. We crashed in practice (Friday) while trying something new. My crew rallied and refused to sit on the sidelines. We got it fixed and put it P1 (position one) in final practice on race day! A fan blade failure caused us to overheat in the race, but it was one of the best cars I've had at Toledo. Thanks to Larry and Teresa Zent for their support, my parents, Steve Oetman, Kevin Malosh, Tyler Nawrocki, Heather Cutler, Stan Yee, Larry Reiffer, Kevin Spicer, and to all the other people and race teams who were concerned for my safety and who cheered us on. We actually had a lot of fun while doing it!"

Two-time Gold Cup champion Mike Root raced at Berlin this season, and didn't travel as he normally does. The Glass City was only his third "away" race this season. The first caution of the event was caused when he stopped on the track when the car came out of gear, he lost five laps for pulling a caution, and got one or two back in lucky dog awards. At the halfway point, he pleaded his case and the officials put him back on the lead lap. He also said that the sun was the worst it's ever been at the track (probably because the Glass City was a stand alone race this year, and normally the quarter mile cars ran first until the sun set behind the turn one grandstands) "The day started well...but didn't finish well at Toledo. Had a good year overall. Thank you to Katrinia Herp, Todd Root, Rich Berry, Bill Worst and Wayne Weisner for their help at the track. Thank you also to Steve Kurtz, UGS, I D Engineering, Enterprise Iron and Metal, Dave Monahan, Dale Mingee, the Chorman family, Sweet Manufacturing, Terry Senneker at Senneker Performance, and Dave Zagaiski." As he said the day didn't end very good as he was one of the cars to crash heavily in turn one. He missed the foam safety barrier but slid into it, moving all the foam blocks about 5 feet down the track. The car was severely damaged and he finished.

Tommy O'Leary IV (Wood Co. Collision/KRAP Auto Parts/Margin Auto/Tommy Boy Towing #8), Todd Currier (Central Transport/Accurate Auto Body #1) both had engine problems that put them out of the race. Steve Needles had a caliber seal fail (Port City Racecars #61). I think Dennis Strickland it was a rear hub (driving tonight as Nick Bailey's teammate... PB Fabrication #01). Josh Way had engine problems after qualifying and didn't start the feature.

I'll have one more article this year. I'm still missing a few of the champions. If you haven't sent me something, I'd love to hear from you. And if you just want to tell me about your season, it's a great way to get your sponsors mentioned. You can email me at icechips@hotmail.com