The Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series had a double header weekend featuring the 10th annual Connor Bobik Memorial Friday night at Thunder Mountain Speedway paying $5000 to win and Saturday night at Hidden Valley paying $2500 to win. Two time defending series champion and current ULMS point leader, Max Blair swept the weekend and went home with $7600 for the two nights.
Friday night’s Connor Bobik Memorial in honor of the son of ULMS photographer Derek Bobik who lost his life due to brain cancer is always a big event in the western PA region. The Bobik’s celebrate their son’s memory with a Make A Wish Foundation benefit and this year benefit was another huge success!
33 Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model were on hand for the event with Mike Norris of Sarver, PA setting the Integra Shocks Fast Time and took $200 from Triple Nickel Distillery as well. Heat winners were Dave Hess Jr., Charlie Powell, Mike Norris and Max Blair. The two consolation winners were Jon Lee and Will Thomas.
Mike Pegher and Mike Norris led the field to John Stivason’s green flag to kick off the 10th annual Connor Bobik Memorial. Pegher would lead lap 1 over Blair and Norris. Lap two would see Dave Hess join the battle to make it three wide for third with Norris and Powell. Blair would take the top spot over from Pegher on lap 3 as Hess was now in third with Powell and Wyatt Scott rounding out the top five. Damian Bidwell started to show his strength coming off last week weeky race win at Thunder Mountain as he started to apply pressure on Wyatt Scott for fith. Hess would take second from Pegher on lap six using the outside groove as majority of the field was on the bottom side as he was 1.4 seconds behind Blair.
By lap ten Blair was in lap traffic and Hess was closing in using the outside groove as Wyatt moved into fourth. A four car battle for third developed between Pegher, Wyatt Scott, Bidwell, Powell and Norris who had faded was closing back in on those four drivers, with Bidwell now taking 4th over on lap 17 and Dave Hess had caught the 111 machine of Blair in lap traffic as the caution lights came on for the #28 of Del Rougeoux who had a flat tire.
On the ensuring restart as the field entered turn 3 and 4 a multi car incident would bring the red flag out as 8 cars were involved with Chris Hackett on his side, with Ryan Scott sitting underneath his machine. Unbelievable Hackett would be able to return to action, but Ryan Scott, Andrew Wylie, Will Thomas and Gale Huey were done for the evening.
The restart saw Blair and Hess side by side for a lap until Blair took advantage. Jon Lee would bring the yellow out on lap 22 with Hess behind Blair in second followed by Pegher, Wyatt Scott and Bidwell. The restart saw Chub Frank in the #119 Chad McClelland ride make a great moved to slip into fifth. Lap 25 would see Wyatt Scott and Pegher get together leaving the door open for Chubzilla as he charged into third and it looked like the Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer was making a late race charge to the front. The final yellow came out on lap 30 for Jason Dobson, setting up a 10 lap dash to the checkers.
Blair had great restart and Frank was all over Hess for second as Mike Norris charged into fourth. Chub and Hess ran door to door until the former WoO LM star, Frank would take second from Hess to set his eyes on the Blair, but he quickly had to defend Norris who also got around the fading Hess for third and was battling Chub for the runner up spot as Hess was keeping Wyatt and his father David Scott off his rear bumper as the laps clicked off. At the checkers it was Blair winning his second ULMS win of the season, becoming the first multiple winner on the series tour for 2020 and winning the 10th annual Connor Bobik Memorial, which has not had a repeat winner in its ten events. Following Blair was Chub Frank In the #119 machine, with Norris charging back thru the field after sliding backwards early on, Hess held onto fourth followed by Wyatt and David Scott, Dan Angelichio, Damian Bidwell, Boom Briggs and Joe Martin.
Saturday night at Hidden Valley saw 21 cars on hand for the $2500 to win event. This would be the first time in seven years that the series was at the Clearfield PA oval. Max Blair would set Integra Shocks Qualifying fast time of the evening and picked up an extra $100 from Bulldog Energy Trucking for his two lap effort. Heat winners were Blair, Logan Roberson and David Scott.
The 30 lap main event saw the top two ULMS point cars on the front row with Wyatt Scott and Max Blair. The green flag dropped and as the field roared into turn 3 several cars got involved in a incident bringing the yellow lights on and no lap being counted. Josh Whetstone and track point leader Billy Eash were done for the evening before it started.
The restart would see Blair power around Wyatt Scott in turns one and two with David Scott filling the third spot. By lap 4 Blair had opened up a ten car length lead over the Scott’s when the yellow lights flashed again for Nathan Brady who stopped on the front stretch on lap 5. Blair restarted the field as the father son duo of the Scott’s battled it out for 2nd with Wyatt on the bottom and David on top and just behind them Mike Pegher and West Virginia driver, Logan Roberson battling it out for fourth. Lap 6 would see the Slowride take second from his son and Pegher would take sole possession of fourth and Greg Oakes was now in fifth. Just prior to halfway the top 3 cars had pulled away from rest of the field as Pegher was now fifth as Roberson had charged his way back into the fourth spot and Oakes was now 6th. At the half way point the leader was in lap traffic and Slowride was closing in on the #111 of Blair in the new #4s LazerBurn chassis. The yellow lights came on lap 18 for the Decker family and Dylan Fenton in turn 2. The restart would see Wyatt Scott power around his father to take second back as Blair pulled away from the field. With five to go, Blair had a 10 car length lead over Wyatt, followed by David Scott, Logan Roberson, Pegher and Greg Oakes. At the finish it was the same top five with Matt Lux, Mike Wonderling, Kyle Scott, John Weaver and Ryan Scott grabbing tenth.
The Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series will be a co-sanction part of the Viper Motorsport race promotion at Lincoln Speedway in the World of Outlaw Series, Billy Vacek / Huey Wixocon Memorial on Thursday night paying $12,000 to win. ULMS will be off after that until Labor Day weekend where the series has four main events in three days of action, beginning Friday September 4 at Bedford Speedway in the annual Labor Day 55 paying $7055 to win, followed up with the Butch Renninger Memorial paying $5033 to win the next day at Port Royal, plus the feature for the August 1 rain out feature that paying $3000 to win and Sunday August 6, $3000 to win event at Selinsgrove Speedway.
You can find all your Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series information online at www.ulmsracing.com and on Facebook and the new Twitter page of @ULMSLateModels.
ULMS RACING SERIES is proudly supported by Zimmer’s Service Center, Close Racing Supply, Precise Racing, Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic, Lias Tire, American Racer Tire, Murphy’s Logging, Chew on this Jerky, 2R Excavating, Viper Motorsports, WEHRS Machine & Racing Products, DirtDefender, Jay’s Auto Wrecking, Genesis Shocks, Keyser Manufacturing, Integra Shocks, Keizer Wheels, Cousins Designs, Dynamic Drivelines, Beyea Headers, Mary Norgrove Notary Public, Jays Automotive, Phantom Signs & Graphics, Vahlco Wheels Accelo Race Wear and Bernheisel Race Components.
RESULTS:
Connor Bobik Memorial @ Thunder Mountain Speedway:
MAX BLAIR, Chub Frank, Mike Norris, Dave Hess Wyatt Scott, David Scott, Dan Angelicchio, Damian Bidwell, Boom Briggs, Joe Martin, Greg Oakes, Doug Eck, Mike Pegher, Chris Hackett, Luke Hoffner, John Weaver, Jason Dobson, Bob Dorman, Jon Lee, Del Rougeoux, Charlie Powell, Ryan Scott, Will Thomas, Andrew Wylie, Gale Huey
Hidden Valley Speedway:
MAX BLAIR, Wyatt Scott, David Scott, Logan Roberson, Greg Oakes, Matt Lux, Mike Wonderling, Kyle Scott, John Weaver, Ryan Scott, Gale Huey, Jason Dobson, Tom Decker, Dylan Fenton, Denny Fenton, Nathan Brady, Joe Petyak, Tommy Decker III, Billy Eash, Josh Whetsone.