Toledo Speedway

First time winners abounded last weekend ...Bryce Thompsen got his first win, leading the entire Figure 8 feature at Toledo on Friday night. Bryce has been racing nine years. "I kept thinking the last few laps "Don't screw up, don't screw up" I want to thank Dempsey and Cathy Apperson for giving me the opportunity to drive one of their cars. Also I want to thank Joe Taylor from ABC Plumbing, Paul Pelletier from Limelight Motorsports and Dennis Whisman for his words of encouragement," said the happy driver. I hear he did a really great burnout afterwards.

The other first time ARCA winner was Art Rozanne, who has been racing at Toledo for many years. He has 17 victories in the old Limited Late Model division at the track back when Sonny Adams owned the track. But no ARCA wins ... that is until last Friday when he won the Sportsman feature. It was his first feature win at Toledo in 11 years, his last win coming July 12, 1998.

Mike Hans got around rookie Anthony Camilli late to take home his first B division win. After taking a victory lap around the track with his flag he said, "This is my first feature victory, my birthday's tomorrow so it's a nice present. The heat race Lonnie (York) gave me a lot of room afterwards we adjusted the sway bar and the car ran great. I want to thank my crew and family for their support." And how excited was Mike, well ... he thanked both his ex-wife and his wife in victory lane ... in that order. Not sure anyone's ever had that happen to them in victory lane.

Mike Phillips won the first race of his career on his first night out. He backed that up with a fourth place in the B main. Mike is the son of former Street Stock driver Tim Phillips, and yes he does drive under dad's number.

And I think  TJ Miller's win in the Factory Stock B main was also his first feature win.

Randy DiMaggio won his third A division feature in a row. "I want to thank family and my sponsors for their support. The crew worked so hard during the winter." It was his 12th career Street Stock feature.

 Dan Ford Jr. broke a trailing arm and Chris Diovardi broke the rack during hot laps. Both raced their heat and feature but were unable to qualify.

Rich Frantz suffered a blown engine last week in his heat race. Fellow driver Jeff Kurzyniec stepped in an offered Rich the use of his crate engine. "After a great start to the season, it was extremely disappointing to have that failure. I do want to thank everyone who offered assistance. Everywhere I turned, someone was offering help. It really meant a lot," Rich emailed me after the engine problem. And the verdict after the race running crate engine, which costed about $3,500, against the $8,000+ dollar engines? "The verdict is that the crate engine performed extremely well. We started third and only race winner Randy Dimaggio got by me on the first lap, but it was not due to the engine. We ended up with a strong 4th place finish in the feature, and ran 2nd in the heat," said Frantz. Thanks for the emails!

Don Burkhardt ran one of the family's street stocks on the off week for the late models.

Rookie Anthony Camilli has finished second in the B division feature for the last three weeks in a row.

Another new driver tonight was Jason Chastain. Carburetor trouble caused him to turn a 40 second lap but he ran much better in his heat and feature turning laps in the 15 second bracket.

The #16 was driven by Kyle Metdepenningen tonight ... or that's how it's listed on the sheets. Could be the same driver that ran under "Rayce" last year, but since his number's listed as 16K I assume it's a new driver. More next time he shows up.

Greg Studt won the Figure 8 feature last Saturday. It was his 20 th career Figure 8 feature win at Flat Rock. The Figure 8's have had a different winner each race. Billy Early, Robbie Loving, Jerry Lee and Studt.

Jeremy Fragassi made his first start at Flat Rock (his first race of the night was the day before at Toledo). Mechanical problems plagued him the first three week and continued tonight when he popped an oil line in his heat. He started racing at Cherry and Merritt Speedways driving in a bomber division ... both tracks are dirt which should be helpful driving in the Figure 8 division.

Jimmy Rae won his first race in the Figure 8 division a couple weeks ago.

Jeremy Miller has finished second three out of four Figure 8 features this year at Flat Rock.

Terry Jones won the Sportsman feature a couple weeks ago. It was the first time he's raced his sportsman car in three years! He would like to thank his sponsors Jones Group, Wounded Warriors, Rieners Collision, Southern Sign. Terry finished 31st in the ARCA RE/MAX race at Toledo Sunday, suffering overheating and engine woes just before the midway point of the race.

Late Model driver Jeff MacZink ran his career first ARCA RE/MAX race at Toledo Sunday. He originally wasn't planning on running this race, and putting the car he finished at 3 a.m. on Thursday together in two weeks. He finished 24th in his Parkway Portable Toilets, Downriver Textured Ceilings, Vinyl Tech Chevrolet. He would also like to thank Jeremy Vanderhoof for doing the numbers on such a short notice.

Some leftovers from the last couple weeks...In Super Late Model Eric Lee won his 13th career race and Stevie Cronenwett Jr won his second career feature. In the Figure 8's Jerry Lee Jr. won his seventh career feature and Robbie Loving Jr won his 27th career feature (at Flat Rock). Jim Stocker and James Rae won B mains over the last couple weeks. At Toledo congrats to Matt Brazeau on his 4 cylinder win; in the Factory Stocks Dave Arnold Jr. won his 10 th career feature (tying him with Josh Bunting for third on the all time list) and Cory McCaughey won his ninth career win (fourth on the all time list)... Kevin Little won a B main in the division.