BUFFALO TWP — Robbie Blair fell a thousandth of a second short of setting a track record Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

He didn't fall shy of victory lane, however.

The Centerville driver of the No. W11 car took the lead for good on the 45th lap in capturing the first O'Reilly's All-Star Late Model feature race of the season. Blair is the defending points champion in the series.

"Yeah, the car was good all night," Blair said. "But you never feel comfortable during a race here."

Blair was one of the first five drivers to hit the track for time trials and turned a lap in 15.073 seconds. The Late Model track record of 15.072 was set by Darrell Lanigan on April 29, 2005.

"I knew I hit that second lap (of trials) pretty good. I didn't know it was that good," Blair said.

He was pretty good during the racing portion of the program, too.

Blair won the first heat race of the night, started the 50-lap feature from the sixth position and took home the $5,000 winner's check.

But he had to earn it.

He grabbed the lead from Boom Briggs on the 37th lap before both cars hit lapped traffic. Blair surrendered the lead to a hard-charging Dave Hess Jr. on the back straightaway of the 45th lap, only to take it back on the fourth turn.

Hess started from the ninth spot, moved into third on the 23rd lap and eventually got around Briggs and Blair.

"I saw the quality of cars in the front of the field and knew this was going to be difficult," Hess said. "Once I got the lead, I should have stayed on that high groove.

"(Blair) was getting a good push off there. I should have sealed him off, but I dropped down low."

"I was good up top on (turns 3 and 4) and the track opened up," Blair said.

After a second-place finish, Hess gained a bit of solace later in the evening by winning the UMP-Modified feature.

Briggs, who won the All-Star Late Model feature here last year, claimed his heat race earlier Friday and looked like he was on track to win the feature again.

Lapped traffic and a late restart did him in.

"Those lapped cars really hurt tonight," Briggs said. "I wish they would've just picked a line and stayed there, but they were all over the track."

Briggs wound up fourth as Jason Covert got around him to place third.

In other features Friday:

n Mike Pegher Jr. of Wexford, a Seneca Valley graduate, won the Pro Crate Late Model feature. He started from the 11th spot and took the lead for good on an 11th-lap restart.

Pegher was the 2007 Sportsman Stock points champion at Lernerville. He already has two feature wins at Pittsburgh (Pa.) Motor Speedway in the Pro Crate Late Model division this year,

"My car was really tight at the beginning of the race, but the track was awesome tonight," Pegher said.

• Hess started the UMP-Modified feature third, had the lead by the seventh lap and won going away. Mike Knight of Ripley, N.Y., came from the 12th spot to finish second.

Hess leads the Lernerville Late Model points race and will try to keep that edge.

"We're going to run here every Friday as long as we're in front in points," Hess said. "Why not? Our car is great here and this is a great track."