Centerville, Pennsylvania’s, Max Blair has won several crate late model series championships and the past few seasons track championships in the super late model division but in 2018 the third generation driver picked up his first super late model series championship by winning the 2018 Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series Championship and taking home the $5000 title prize.
Blair started the season off with three fourth place finishes at Port Royal Speedway, Tri City Raceway Park and Thunder Mountain Speedway before capturing his first win of the 2018 campaign at Freedom Motorsports Park during Memorial Day weekend. That was when the #111 of Blair rolled off seven of the next nine ULMS series events over a seven week stretch. The wins came at Freedom for the Ron Baker Memorial ($2500), Dog Hollow ($4000), McKean County Family Raceway ($2500), Eriez Speedway ($2900) for the Dick Litz Memorial, Tyler County Speedway ($2000), Eriez again for the Mike Farr Memorial ($4100) and Freedom ($2500) for the second time in the Pete Lorretto Memorial. During that stretch Blair grabbed the point lead from Mike Maresca and pulled away from the New York big block modified racer.
The wins didn’t stop in July, as Blair would pick up ULMS wins at Genesee Speedway ($3000) in front of the tracks history breaking crowd along with the final two series events at Freedom for the Big Dog Saturday event for the second year in a row and McKean County Family Raceway season ending Fall Invitational paying $4000 to win and officially wrapping up the 2018 Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series championship.
Max joins a impressive list of past ULMS champions. He joins, Bob Close (2001-06-07), Dick Barton (2001 & 03), Chub Frank (2002), Rick Isadore (2004), Boom Briggs (2008 & 12), Todd Andrews (2009), Mike Knight (2010-11 & 13), Jason Dupont (2014), Jared Miley (2015) and Dave Hess Jr. (2016 & 2017).
In the 19 ULMS events, the black and green #111 Rocket XR1 of Blair recorded 17 top five finishes along with the ten wins. The two poor performances was a 14th at Port Royal Speedway during the Labor Day weekend Butch Renninger Memorial and the June Thunder Mountain Speedway event where Max got caught up in a wreck and was recorded with a 24th place finish and his only DNF of the year. With the ten wins on the year, Max passed his father Rob as the all-time ULMS wins leader and now has 20 career wins on the tour, all since 2014.
The champion had this to say about his 2018 season with ULMS. “It was a lot of fun chasing the ULMS deal around all year. The series is a pretty stable series being around 18 years and it offers very good purses for the racers and the entire management staff and marketing partners with ULMS are all very good people to be around with.” I have stated this to Zuvy and a few times in victory lane but without ULMS over the past 18 years, there would been lot less three to five thousand dollar events for the super late model series and I would love to see more guys supporting this deal in 2019.” Blair continued with, “I hope to see the point fund grow more next year and I know Zuvy is working on that to entice more teams to join.” “We had a heck of a year with 33 wins between the crate and open car, I actually thought we struggled more this year than in years past, but for some reason we were always pretty good when the main event hit the track.”
Max shares all his success on and off the track due to the hard work at the shop working with his father and having the full support of his wife Brandi. “Having dad being there day in and day out at the shop is a big asset; he is my biggest hero on and off the track and to me is the best crew chief I could ever have.” Along with lot of crew guys that help when at the track such as Rick Duncan, Chad Sheatz, Andrew Granada and my uncle Bill who goes to all of our events with the merchandise trailer and host of other guys that help.” “I look forward to defending our 2018 ULMS title next year, stated Max.”
Team Blair Racing is fully supported by great marketing partners such as: C&J Dairy in Delevan, NY, Moody Welding, Schaffer Contracting, Murphy’s Logging, Niemeyers Garage, Upstate Auto Group, Tana See Campground, Previty’s Auto Wrecking, Moody & Son Welding, Specialty Products, Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic, Clements Racing Engines, VP Racing Fuel, Simpson Racing Products, Bulldog Rear Ends, Stealth Carburetors, FastShaft, Hypercoils, Allstar Performance, Rocket Chassis, Beyea Headers, Daugherty Motorsports, MWB Graphics all support Max and his potent #111 machines on and off the track.
ULMS RACING SERIES is proudly supported by Zimmer’s Service Center, Plyler’s Entry System, Close Racing Supply, Insinger Performance, Sunoco Race Fuels, Precise Racing, Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic, Lias Tire, American Racer Tire, Genesis Shocks, Integra Shocks, Keizer Wheels, Mary Norgrove Notary Public, Jays Automotive, Phantom Signs and Graphics, Cousins Designs and Advocare by Advozuvy.com. The ULMS Racing Series gives the fans four divisions of action featuring the Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series, Plyler Entry UEMS Modifieds, Advocare by Advozuvy.com United 4 Cylinder Series and in 2019 the Super V6 Late Model Series.