Blaney wins All Star opener, marks 16th Straight Season with All Star victory

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Dale Blaney claimed the opening points race of the season with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions last weekend to give him at least one win during each of the last 16 years with the series.

“You always want to win your next race,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s your first, the 15th or the last one. We have such a strong team and I feel like we should put ourselves in position to win every night. We’re not slowing down and hopefully we can keep this pace rolling all year.”

The Mainstream Holdings, Inc., sponsored CH Motorsports team kicked off last weekend’s All Star tripleheader on Friday at Attica Raceway Park in Attica, Ohio.

Blaney qualified second quickest, won a heat race from the outside of the second row and picked up the dash victory to earn the pole position for the 40-lap main event.

“It was tough in the feature,” he said. “When you get out there and lead early, we knew the track was going to change a little bit. I was searching and Chad (Kemenah) went by. It showed me that I needed to pick up the pace and run in a little different spot. Fortunately I got back by him and the track rubbered up the last 20 laps.”

Blaney led the first 14 laps before Kemenah took the top spot for the ensuing two circuits. However, Blaney regained the lead in traffic on Lap 17 and powered to his sixth straight season with an All Star win at Attica Raceway Park.

The team headed to Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio, on Saturday, when Blaney timed in second quickest and placed third in both his heat race and the dash. That lined him up on the inside of the second row for the main event.

“I just didn’t get a good start in the feature,” he said. “I fell back to fourth on the start. I was better than (Danny) Holtgraver at times and he got better than me toward the end. I don’t think we had anything for Jac (Haudenschild). That’s not our best place to run so to come out of it with a third is great.”

Blaney finished third to continue the momentum into Sunday’s weekend finale at Bedford Speedway.

“The car jumped out of gear comping to the checkered right before the line in qualifying,” he said. “It rung the motor up pretty hard. That hurt the motor a little bit. I didn’t think it did, but we ran it in the heat race and it was on six cylinders.”

Blaney qualified 10th quickest and he placed third in a heat race to miss transferring into the dash by only one position. That started him on the inside of the seventh row for the feature.

“It went non-stop,” he said. “I felt like my car was good. It was just hard to pass. I felt like I got what I could get.”

Blaney advanced from 13th to eighth, which was tied for the second-most cars passed.

He currently ranks second in the All Star championship standings – only 10 points out of the lead – as the Mainstream Holdings, Inc., backed team heads to Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., on Friday prior to All Star races on Saturday at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Pa., and Sunday at Selinsgrove Speedway in Selinsgrove, Pa.