Max Blair
Max Blair’s accomplishments behind the wheel of a Dirt Late Model race car are many whether it be in Super Late Model, Limited Late Model or Crate Late Model competition. Now in the 2022 season, the 32-year-old driver hopes to add World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series ‘Rookie of the Year’ honors and perhaps even a series championship to his already packed list of achievements. Both are goals that seem to be very much within reach.
And so far, that effort has gotten off to a great start as the driver of the No. 111 Viper Motorsports Rocket Chassis currently sits second in the WoO standings behind leader Dennis Erb Jr. by a margin of only 38 points. Blair has one WoO victory along with four top-5 and seven top-10 finishes to his credit early on in this year’s campaign.
Always tough on the regional level with many of his victories coming in his home area, the Centerville, Pennsylvania driver is now stepping out on the national stage driving for the team owned by Shawn Martin. Blair joined Viper last season after that organization parted ways with previous driver Darrell Lanigan. After initially focusing in the ULMS tour where they won a championship together in 2021, Viper and Blair have opted to take on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series this season.
So why leave the region where he had been so successful to go national?
“I was asked to drive the Viper Motorsports car and that’s just what they do,” Blair explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “They’ve been a national car for a few years now. That’s what we as a team decided we wanted to do and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Blair has been happy with the pairing between himself and Viper. Not only is he highly placed in the World of Outlaws standings but he has also collected two feature trophies so far in 2022.
During the interview conducted in the pit area of the Bristol Motor Speedway prior to Saturday night’s racing show, Blair stated his satisfaction during the early part of this season with the exception of his 17th place result the previous night at the dirt covered NASCAR half-mile.
“Really, everything at the Outlaw races has went pretty well until last night, we were terrible,” the driver recounted. “Hopefully we can rebound tonight with a solid finish and get out of here. Everything has gone really well for us so far on the series so hopefully we can keep that momentum rolling.”
The No. 111 Viper Motorsports Rocket Chassis
That Friday night feature was followed by a much better effort on Saturday that delivered a 7th place finish. To date, there have been more good nights than bad. Blair attributes that to his team’s ability to zero in on the task at hand.
“It’s just one week at a time,” Blair declared. “We’ve just got to focus on what race track we’re going to that day and try to be the best we can be. We won an Outlaw race at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina(worth $20,000) last month and we won an unsanctioned $10,000-to-win race at West Virginia(Motor Speedway) last weekend.”
The veteran driver knows there will be some struggles due to the fact that he will be seeing some tracks for the first time in his career. But he won’t go into those venues completely blind.
So is he completely comfortable when racing in unfamiliar locales?
“Sometimes, but sometimes not. We’ll see. I watch videos and I talk to some friends of mine who have already been to them places and things like that. We’re going to a lot of new places and there’s going to be nights where we struggle to get where we need to be, but hopefully, we can catch on quick enough that we can be a factor in the whole deal.”
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