Drivers pay tribute to Blaney

Staff report

HARTFORD

Local drivers and rookies came together for a jam-packed night of racing Wednesday to honor dirt track racing’s best.

It was the Lou Blaney Memorial at Sharon Speedway and featured a $3,500-to-win Sprint A-Main event, part of the DirtCar Challenge Sprint Series, a collaboration of several area dirt tracks hosting a 10-race series. It was also the third night of the 2010 BRP/Hoosier Tire Modified Tour, a $2,000-to-win feature with bonus lap money.

NASCAR driver Dave Blaney, one of the track’s owners, says he and his brother, Dale, along with Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart, were there to have fun but they were going to try to win.

“I’m actually looking to run sprints a little more,” Blaney said in a pre-race press conference.

Blaney said he was humbled at the turnout for the Lou Blaney Memorial.

“It’s nice to see everyone again. It’s been fun to get together for the past few years and hopefully we can keep doing this,” he said.

Mike Lutz (Mercer, Pa.) in his white Centerline Boring Inc. led all 30 laps to win the A-Main event, with Tim Shaffer coming in second and Stewart fifth.

Stewart, the winner of the first Lou Blaney Memorial, said it was “pretty cool” to have had raced against Lou Blaney in the past.

“Of course, we didn’t know then that we’d lose him so soon,” Stewart said.

Stewart described Wednesday’s race as a chance to get away, noting he ran two weeks ago in North Dakota. He said he and Kahne both own World of Outlaw Sprint cars.

Kahne said that he tries to run dirt track races as often as he can.

“It’s nice to be back because last year we had a lot of fun, good race, good crowd,” Kahne said.

Don Gamble, a longtime racing insider, spoke of Lou Blaney’s memory during an intermission presentation.

“We lost Lou last January at age 69. He started out working on the Blaney farm and in their lumber mill. When he got into high school he became a basketball star and scored 1200 points when he played for Hartford High,” Gamble said. “He started racing in 1958, but if we go back a little bit, his father George Blaney had a few cars in the early 50s.”

Gamble noted that Lou Blaney began racing in a coupe his father owned.

“He was loved by so many of the fans,” Gamble said.

A representative of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Scott Oliver, presented Kate Blaney with money raised by several chapters in the name of Lou Blaney. The check was for $1,000 in the memory of Lou Blaney.

Tony Stewart presented a family photo from last year’s Lou Blaney Memorial to Dave Blaney to say thanks from the NASCAR drivers for getting to race at Sharon Speedway.

Emma Blaney, Dave Blaney’s daughter, presented the elder Blaneys with scrapbooks made with contributed photographs and memories from family, friends and fans.