Pittsburgh, PA (February 23, 2010) - Jason Shank – O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Director

Titusville, PA’s Robbie Blair is no stranger to winning races and winning championships.  Blair has over 100 career victories, five track championships, and now with winning the Inaugural O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Championship, has three touring series titles under his belt.  However, this championship, in his 25^th Anniversary year, didn’t come without a battle.  ‘We just wanted to stay consistent all year,’ Rob said from his shop in Titusville, PA.  ‘We put ourselves behind from the beginning and the only way we were going to climb back up the standings was to be consistent.’  And that is exactly what Blair did finishing outside of the top-ten just three times throughout the year.

The beginning of Robbie’s 2009 ASLMS season started with a 22^nd place finish at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, PA.  That finish put Blair in a hole that he had to fight all season to dig himself out of.  With Boom Briggs winning on opening night at Lernerville and also the following night at KC Raceway in Chillicothe, OH, coupled with Rob’s tenth place finish, the gap between himself and Boom was a distant 76 points.

Rob’s brilliant climb to the top of the standings began when the series stopped at Winchester Speedway in Winchester, VA.  Blair led the first 30 laps of the 40-lap ‘Lee Stultz Memorial’ before being overtaken by eventual race winner Jamie Lathroum with 10 laps remaining.  Blair would cross the finish line in third setting up his season long charge to the championship.  Rob finished 11^th in the tour’s second trip to KC Raceway before going on a string of having 11 top-ten finishes out of the remaining 12 ASLMS events.  The surge started at Tim Bainey’s Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, PA with a solid sixth place finish.

Pittsburgh, PA (February 18, 2010) - Jason Shank – O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Director

At the beginning of the 2009 racing season, Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs had in his mind that he was going to race locally and travel on occasion with whatever group or series that was reasonably close to his home town of Bear Lake, Pennsylvania.  But after a memorable Inaugural O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series weekend in April, his 2009 plans changed.

After sweeping the O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series’ Inaugural weekend at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, PA and KC Raceway in Chillicothe, OH, Briggs decided to buy a two-car hauler and stick with the tour.  ‘With being the only series out there besides the two national series’ to offer show-up money to the drivers, we felt it was the best thing for us to do, winning the first two shows sure did help though,’ Boom said with a smile.

After he swept the tour’s opening weekend, the series visited Winchester Speedway in Winchester, VA.  Briggs ran into a bit of trouble in his heat race and was forced to start at the tail of the 40-lap feature event.  Boom finished 18th to carry a 34 point edge going into the series’ second stop at Jeff Schrader’s KC Raceway.  Briggs showed his muscle rallying from his 13th starting spot to finish third behind Eddie Carrier and R.J. Conley.  Another strong seventh place finish at Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, PA stretched Boom’s point lead to 54 points over youngster Coleby Frye.

Pittsburgh, PA (February 11, 2010) - Jason Shank – O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Director

After staying close to home in 2008, Rod Conley, Wheelersburg , OH , was chomping at the bit when it was announced that the O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series was being formed.  ‘It’s been a long time since we had a regional series that paid appearance money,’ Conley said at the beginning of the 2009 season.  ‘When I heard the All Stars were offering the tow package and the guaranteed point fund, the decision to run the tour was made up for me.’  ‘We were excited to learn that Rod was going to follow the tour in 2009,’ Series Director Jason Shank said, ‘Rod was a fixture with the old ‘Renegade’ Series and spent a few years with the MACS (Mid-Atlantic Championship Series) and with the races he has one in the past including the Hillbilly 100, he brought in some experience to go along with our talented group of younger drivers.’

Rod’s 2009 ASLMS season got off to a solid start at the Series’ first event at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver , PA where Conley captured his first top-ten finish as he was scored ninth in the final rundown.  The following night at Jeff Schrader’s KC Raceway in Chillicothe , OH was not as kind to the Ohio veteran.  A 24th place finish at KC and a 19th place finish at the tour’s next event at Winchester Speedway in Winchester, VA left ‘Hot Rod’ almost 100 points out of first in the championship standings.  When the series returned to KC for the second of four events at the Chillicothe half-mile, Conley started to right the ship with a 12th place finish and followed that up with a 13th place finish at the $7,000 to win ‘Grizzly’ at Tim Bainey’s Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, PA.  Rod was fifth in points heading into what turned out to be his most productive weekend of the season.

Conley wasn’t looking forward to the tour’s weekend in the state of Michigan , notably Hartford Motor Speedway in Hartford , MI .  ‘I’ve never been there before but from what I hear, it’s a big hammer-down place, I’m not too good at those big tracks,’ Rod stated before the trip.  Fortunately for Conley, he was willing to eat his words as he held off a hard charging Matt Miller and Jared Miley to claim the $5,000 victory at a place he felt he wouldn’t have much success.  ‘Hot Rod’ continued to stay hot the next night at Butler Motor Speedway in Butler, MI with a third place finish after leading for 11 laps in the middle portion of the event.  When the Michigan weekend was over, Rod moved up to fourth in points, only 20 points out of third.

Pittsburgh, PA (February 3, 2010) - Jason Shank – O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Director

The 2008 Mid-Atlantic Championship Series Rookie of the Year, Coleby Frye from Dover, PA hit the road with the O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series in 2009 and despite running a limited schedule outside of the ASLMS tour, finished the 2009 ASLMS season fourth in championship points.

‘I was trying to finish up college throughout the summer so our racing program kind of suffered from it a little bit,’ Coleby said about his 2009 season, ‘We didn’t race as much as we would have liked so we really never got any sort of roll.  The season started pretty good for us. We ran well early in the year and thought we were going to be able to contend for the All Star Championship, but as the season went on, everyone else improved and we didn’t.  We just didn’t race enough in 2009.’  Frye graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Technology, with a degree in welding, in December and was also a student-athlete.  He was a member of the Penn College soccer team where he was honored by the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), as an All American – Honorable Mention.

With school and the 2009 season behind him, Coleby can now completely focus on his racing program in 2010 and put forth an all out assault on trying to capture the coveted 2010 O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Championship.  ‘We’re coming out in 2010 with a little bit of a new look and a whole different attitude,’ Frye said.

With ‘Superfly’ being his moniker, ‘Super’ is what he was as the season opened up at Sarver, PA’s Lernerville Speedway.  A heat race win and a fourth place finish in the 50-lap feature got the season off to a hot start for Frye as he prepared for his first ever visit to KC Raceway the next night.  After claiming a win in one of the B-Mains, Coleby battled his way to an 11^th place finish at the Chillicothe, OH half-mile and came out of the season’s opening weekend third in championship points.

Pittsburgh, PA (January 27, 2010) - Jason Shank – O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series Director

Jared Hawkins out of Fairmont, WV had what some would say an, ‘up and down’ season with the O’Reilly All Star Late Model Series on his way to finishing the season fifth in the Championship Point Standings.

The soft spoken young man that also answers to ‘Hawk’ turned some heads during the 2009 season with some pretty solid finishes against some very good competition throughout the year.  ‘Hawk’ claimed seven top-ten finishes en route to his top-five finish in the standings.

The 2009 season kicked off at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, PA where Jared’s season would get off to a rocky start.  A ‘DNF’ put Hawkins behind the eight-ball early but a solid seventh place finish the next night at Schrader’s KC Raceway in Chillicothe, OH moved Jared all the way up to sixth in All Star points to pave the way to the next series event at Winchester Speedway in Winchester, VA.  A disappointing 22nd place finish at the Virginia oval fortunately kept Hawkins within striking range of the top-five in points as the series prepared for their second visit to KC Raceway.

The Chillicothe, OH speed plant seemed to be a place of redemption for ‘Hawk’ as he came home with a sixth place finish to jump up to fourth place in the season standings.  ‘It seemed as if Jared was poised to make some noise with the series after his run at KC,’ Series Director Jason Shank stated, ‘he had moved up to fourth in the standings and seemed to have a lot of confidence going into the ‘Grizzly’ at Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, PA.’  But Jared’s trend of one disappointing finish followed by a good finish continued with some bad luck.  Hawkins was caught with no where to go during his heat race destroying his Rocket Chassis and sidelining him for the night.  For the first and only time of the season, Jared did not qualify for the feature event dropping him back down to sixth in the championship point standings.