Saturday July 24th, 2012 Busti, NY: It was two years in the making and mother nature provided a perfect summer night for the inaugural appearance of the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Models in the "Empire 50" sponsored by Davies & Sons and Roberts Trucking. The UEMS E-Mods were also on-hand 38 strong.

Sixteen year old Tyler Reddick set Lucas fast time with a 15.723 second lap and local racer Ron Davies second fast at 15.948 seconds.

Lucas point leader Jimmy Owens had to qualify through the first B-main along with Bump Hedman and Jason Dupont to race the "Empire 50". The second B-Main was won by Randy Lobb with Dave Scott second and Doug Eck third.

John Blankenship won the "Empire 50" after an epic battle with Mike Knight. Knight came from sixth to challenge the leader on the closing laps but fell short giving Blankenship his second win at Stateline and the $10,000 first prize.

Brent Rhebergen won the UEMS feature his first of the season at Stateline after fending off a challenge from Rich Michael Jr.

The 4 wide salute to the fans was led by John Blankenship and Scott Bloomquist the front row for the "Empire 50". Dan Stone and Chub Frank were in row two with Tyler Riddick and Mike Knight in row three. Jared Landers pulled into the infield right after the 4 wide salute and before the race went green Bump Hedman joined Landers. There were 13 Lucas cars and 12 local racers in the field. Blankenship won the race to turn one and led the first circuit with Bloomquist in tow. Dan Stone was third with Frank fourth. Davies nearly spun as Dupont pulled into the infield with a broken suspension. Reddick, the fast qualifier, spun with nine laps down for the first yellow of the race. Blankenship, Bloomquist, Stone, Frank and Jonathan Davenport were the restart leaders. Frank tested Stone on the restart. Francis spun collecting Eric Wells for the second yellow with ten laps complete. Frank was scored third for the restart right behind Bloomquist. Blankenship was running high along with Frank while Bloomquist and Stone ran low. Stone reclaimed third then two laps latter Frank was third as Blankenship began to build a lead on the field. David Scott spun on the front stretch collecting John Lobb for the third yellow with seventeen laps down. Scott retired to the pits during the yellow as did fourth running Stone. Twenty cars remained for the restart. Doug Eck did a half spin on the restart for yellow five and also retired to the pits. Hess was tagged by Greg Satterlee which started an incident on the restart collecting Bump Hedman for yellow six. Frank moved up alongside Bloomquist on the restart but could not finish the pass and Mike Knight was running fourth and Davenport fifth. At the halfway point Knight moved up to take third from Chub and lock onto Bloomquist’s bumper. Knight and Bloomquist went side by side on lap twenty-nine and completed the pass on lap thirty. Knight was running faster than Blankenship as he closed the distance to the leader. With 15 laps remaining Blankenship had less than a one second lead over Knight in heavy lap traffic. Hess was the next to pass Bloomquist with nine laps remaining. Knight caught Blankenship two laps later then was slowed by lap traffic. Knight closed again with four laps remaining and could not complete the pass. Knight did it again on the white flag lap taking the lead on the back stretch and losing it on the front stretch.

Blankenship fended off Knight a final time on the final lap winning by less the 0.2 seconds over the hard charging Knight.

Heat 4: Chub Frank Bear Lake PA, Jonathan Davenport, Eric Wells, Dave Hess Jr. Waterford PA, Randy Lobb Jamestown NY

Consolation 1: Jimmy Owens, Jason Dupont Cyclone PA, Bump Hedman Sugar Grove PA, Robbie Blair Centerville PA, Dutch Davies Warren PA, Jared Landers, Brent Rhebergen Clymer NY, Greg Oakes Franklinville NY, Jordan Eck Corry PA, Boom Briggs Bear Lake PA, John Lobb Frewsburg NY

Consolation 2: Randy Lobb Jamestown NY, David Scott Garland PA, Doug Eck Corry PA, Andy Boozel Clymer NY, Darrell Bossard Centerville PA, Chad Valone Jamestown NY, Chris Hackett Jamestown NY, Scott Gurdak Bear Lake PA, Rich Gardner Waterford PA

Feature: John Blankenship, Mike Knight Ripley NY, Dave Hess Jr. Waterford PA, Chub Frank Bear Lake PA, Scott Bloomquist, Don O'Neal, Jonathan Davenport, Jimmy Owens, Jared Landers, Ron Davies Warren PA, Earl Pearson Jr, Bump Hedman Sugar Grove PA, Ricky Elliott, Eric Wells, Tyler Reddick, Steve Francis, Randy Lobb Jamestown NY, Rich Gardner Waterford PA, Greg Satterlee, Dick Barton Ashville NY, Dan Stone , Doug Eck Corry PA, David Scott Garland PA, Robbie Blair Centerville PA, Jason Dupont Cyclone PA

Feature: Brent Rhebergen Clymer NY, Richard Michael Jr. Ischua NY, Steve Dixon, Kyle Bedell Little Valley NY, Dan Davies Warren PA, Randy Hall Olean NY, Joel Watson Conneaut OH, Butch Southwell Warren PA, Carl McKinney Mars PA, Mike Kinney Ashtabula PA