Toledo Speedway

Toledo Speedway held it's first Gold Cup race of the season. Scott Hantz swept the night turning the fast time for the event and taking home the win. It was his first ARCA Super Late Model victory in five years and his second career Gold Cup event.

"Tonight was the first time out this season for the Outlaw car. I can't believe it. I knew Harold (Fair Jr.) was back there and he can be sneaky. The car was great ... really I can't believe it. Barring any rainouts in the CRA series, I am planning on being at the Glass City this year. I want to thank my sponsors EMF Corp., Indiana Wire Assemblies and Richard Poe," said the driver from Pleasant Lake, Ind. Hantz led the most laps in the event, 55.

Second place went to 3-time and defending Gold Cup champion, Harold Fair Jr. "We just missed it (the setup) a little tonight. I burnt up the tires racing with Brent (Jack). I hit him pretty hard there, didn't mean to do it, but it threw me off my rhythm for a few laps," said the driver of the Royal Truck and Trailer #71.

Third went to Dennis Strickland, who led the initial 45 laps from his outside front row starting position. " We'll take coming home third ... it isn't all bad. I have a new engine this year, it used to be one of Brian Campell's engines, and it purred all night long. I burned off the right rear tire so we'll have to work on the set up before our next race here," said the driver of the Strategy One Computers, MichWiFi.net, Pete's Garage, Stoney Creek Auto Parts and The Super Health Store.com, Complete Batteries.

Mike Root finished fourth in only his second time at Toledo. "we had a good race tonight. Hopefully I will be able to make it to the Flat Rock races too... I tried to go last year but got rained out." Said the driver of the Universal Graphic Solutions, Big Weenie Brand, Creating Accents, Ace Auto Body, MED ID, AMSOIL, The Jant Group #9.

Stevie Cronenwett Jr. finished a career high fifth. His previous best was seventh?.

"I had a blast out there tonight, it's fun getting to run on the topside at Toledo," said sixth place finisher Dakota Carlson.

For the second year in the row, the first Gold Cup race saw a driver make their first oval start. Last year it was Heather Williams, this year it's Andrew Hagen. His hometown is listed as Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. (He has moved to North Carolina). As far as I know he may be the first Australian driver to ever race at Toledo ... too bad Guy Pritchard wasn't here tonight, we would've had drivers from three different countries. Andrew comes from a road racing background, racing open wheel cars in Australia. "A lot of work went into getting me to this race. I tested a car at Auto City seven months ago and then went home, working and saving to get enough money to put together the deal. Other than tonight the only other time I've been on an oval was here on Tuesday. Until I got in the race tonight, I never raced side by side with another car. I was a bit tentative passing cars, I'm from road racing and not used to passing to the high side. I got a little over competent and went for a hole that wasn't quite big enough. We had been getting great restarts and I saw a hole and went for it. Looking back I probably should've waited for a better time to go. Hopefully I'll be able to get together the money to come back, I did have a lot of fun the first 50 or so laps," said the rookie driver. "Driving ovals is totally different from the road course racing I'm used to. For the oval you dive low in the corners and drift up coming out of them... if I did that on a road course I'd be passed by half the field. The road course you go in high in the corner and come out low. That took some time to get used to."

Did anyone else notice that the #9 (Root), #8 Dakota Carlson and #7 Harold Fair Sr. ran together in reverse numerical order most of the race... and yes, at one point #6 Bill Litigot was right behind Fair Sr.?

Returning after a nine year absence was car owner Bill Vinton with Jay Sommers behind the wheel of his #55. Jay was running quite well but had a small engine fire just past the midway point of the race which ended his run. The team said it was just a carburetor fire and the car didn't get damaged. Sommers finished 16th

Quite a few cars dropped out of the event with only 10 cars running at the end of the race:

►Justin Schroeder was running in the top five late in the race when he suffered ignition problems and he finished 10th.

►Jake Francis had a lousy night, getting involved in two accidents. First he tangled with Mike Root. A timely yellow one lap after his accident and he was able to return to the event. He lost several laps with an injured race car. On lap 67 he and Jeff Bailey tangled and the pair slammed into the end of pit road. Both drivers were done for the night with Bailey finishing 12th and Francis 13th.

►Rick Sheppard dropped out with a suspension problem finishing 14th.

►Paul Pelletier dropped out with handling problems finishing 17th.

►Bob Mikolajczyk decided to put power steering on his car this year for the first time ... probably not a good idea as that's what sidelined him (finished 18th).

►Ron Allen again is driving the Butch Giles owned #88 this year. He was one of a number of cars to drop out of tonight's event. A broken clutch relegated him to a 21st place finish.

►Brent Jack suffered an engine related problem and finished 20th

►19th place finisher Rick Sibila is about the only team I don't know what happened to. Although many old time fans will remember Rick's dad Bob who drove the same number (63).

►The first car out of the event was Johnny VanDoorn who exited with engine problems.

Running in his first late model race was Tom O'Leary IV. The team put the car together in only a couple days as they had to wait for the engine to get back. He was black flag for going too slow (the track set a limit as 17 seconds laps). One final note, on May 15th he finished a career best third in the Sportsman race.

Four cars did not start the event. Keith Nelson Jr., Chris Benson and Mike Luberta Jr. all had engine related problems. Brent Jursik arrived to late to partake hotlaps and decided not to run.

I can be reached at icechips@hotmail.com if you have any tidbits.