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The Race fans got some early fireworks Friday, July 3rd, as the "Thunder & Lightning" machines of the USAC National Sprint Car and Midget Series, after a one year absence, returned to Toledo for a doubleheader. Bobby Santos III was first across the line in the Midget portion, while Bobby East took the win in the Sprint Car feature.

The Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness night has been sponsored by Toledo native and 1996 Indy 500 winning car owner, Ron Hemelgarn since USAC returned in 2000. Toledo Speedway was a regular stop for USAC in the 70's with storied names like Beale, Bettenhausen, Bigelow, Carter, Sneva, and Vogler all victorious at the high banked half mile. Special thanks to Ron Drager and Scott Schultz for inviting many of the open wheel greats of the past with Rollie Beale, Karl Busson, Benny Rapp, Paul "Boots" Ruhland, and many others on hand for a nice ceremony. As an avid historian, I really enjoy the opportunity to meet with these legends and also enjoyed the fine collection of vintage race cars on display. In a nice touch, the National Anthem was sung by Jim Young, who set fast time when the track first opened in 1960.

Twenty Midgets and fifteen Sprinters took qualifying times with nine of the drivers doing double duty in both divisions. I was hoping for a stronger car count, but the ones that were there were all first class machines. The Sprints did race at Winchester just the previous night, so many of them had a lot of work to do to get ready for Toledo.

Fast qualifiers were Brad Sweet in Midgets, and Cole Whitt in Sprints. Surprisingly, the lap times between the two were separated by only a quarter second with the much more powerful but heavier Sprints being slightly faster, but both had laps averaging over 120 mph!

Bobby Santos III in his black No. 98 started up front and led the entire way to take the win in the 50 lap Midget feature. The race went very quickly as it went green for the first 35 laps, with just one caution flag and no incidents with the wall. Brad Sweet made a strong charge to get up to 2nd and was looking like he might have something for Santos, but Bobby was able to maintain the lead after the last restart and took the checker in 1st. Santos was followed across the line by Sweet, and Jerry Coons Jr.

Santos had this to say in Victory Lane, "I had a great car, This place is tricky for the midgets and it's hard to get hooked up. I've driven Sprints, Midgets, and Supermodifieds here and I love coming to Toledo. It's a fun race track."

The final race of the night was the 50 lap feature for the Sprint Cars. This was an outstanding race as the top five were nose to tail for nearly the entire distance. Jacob Wilson took the early lead and did a fantastic job holding off 2nd place Daren Hagen and the rest of the field. Bobby East and Tracy Hines were making some breath taking moves and had their rip snorting machines right in the tire tracks of the leaders as they moved up into 2nd and 3rd respectively. Just after taking 3rd place, Hines touched wheels with Hagen and spun in his Tony Stewart owned No. 21 causing a caution. After the restart, East, in his burgundy No. 5, tried several times to pass Wilson, but was not able to seal the deal and had to fall back behind. Finally on lap 45, East was able to slip by on the inside and led the rest of the way to the checker, followed by Wilson, and Hagen. Just like the midgets, the race was very clean, as no one made contact with the wall all night.

Bobby was beaming as he stopped on the front stretch in his family built Beast chassis machine with Ford sponsorship. "I love this car" he said. "I'm really happy for everybody on the team. That was a hard race; it was really hard to win." Back in the pits, he admitted, "Wilson ran a good race tonight. I wasn't sure I could get by him, but he gave me the bottom that one time, I stuck my nose in there and was able to get past."

One last driver  I wanted to mention has one of the coolest names I ever heard. Newcomer "Snake" Livernash, from far away Spanaway, Wash., was racing his gorgeous No. 23 Sprint Car, but unfortunately had mechanical troubles and was unable to finish the feature.