Jimmy Owens and Owens Jr. in Victory Lane at Smoky Mountain. (Michael Moats)
Jimmy Owens closes in on a fading leader Chad Ogle midway through Saturday's Southern All Stars main event at Smoky Mountain Speedway. (Michael Moats) Southern All Stars: Owens' Trip Home Worth $5,000
Michael
Moats
MARYVILLE, Tenn. - April 16. After engine problems prevented Jimmy Owens from making the field
at the "Commonwealth 100" at Virginia Motor Speedway, he and his crew sprinted back to Tennessee for Saturday's
Southern All-Stars event at Smoky Mountain Speedway. The trip turned out to be worth $5,000.
Twenty-seven drivers were on hand at the 4/10-mile track located outside of Maryville. Owens
started the night by blistering the track record with a time of 15.187 seconds. That topped the old record set
by Ivedent Lloyd by almost 1/2-second.
Coming on strong late in the race, #201 Billy Ogle, Jr. moves by #22 William Thomas.
Ogle went after second running Ray Cook in the late laps, but Cook was able to hold him to third.
(Michael Moats)
The race started with Owens actually giving chase to outside pole sitter Chad Ogle. Ogle used
the high side to vault to the lead and began to put distance on Owens. As Ogle reached the tail of the field,
Owens reeled in in the leader and began to pressure Ogle for the lead until a caution on lap 11 slowed the
field.
As Chad Ogle's #10 continues to fade on wearing tires, #53 Ray Cook and #22 William
Thomas look for a way by. (Michael Moats)
On the restart, Ogle again shot out to a sizeable lead over Owens. As the track dried out,
Ogle's tires began to fade and Owens chased down Ogle. On lap 21, Owens passed Ogle for the lead. A few laps
later Ogle lost more spots as Ray Cook and William Thomas each got around Ogle.
Up front, Owens was on cruise control as he took the checkered flag. Cook held off Ogle Jr. for
second, Thomas was fourth, and Mike Marlar finished fifth.
Riley Hickman gets bit by the wall during the B-Main at Smoky Mountain
Speedway. (Michael Moats)
| ||||||||||
Big Gains for Hubbard, Pearson, Ogle - The A-Team Has Been Updated 05-15-12
Scott James battles #13 Barry Doss in heat race action at Florence (Ky.) Speedway, but in the $2,000-to-win feature, the only thing anyone saw was the tail end of James' #81 car. (Roy Walker)
After plenty of trash-talking via the electronic media between Jeff Matthews and Ivedent Lloyd last week, it was #21 Lloyd who got the final word as he reeled in #33 Matthews to win Friday's LM feature at Oclala, Fla.'s Bubba Raceway Park. (R.E. Wing)
Fans at Markleysburg, Pa.'s Roaring Knob Motorsports Comlex were treated to dual LM features Saturday - one a makeup from a May 5th rainout. (Above) Tim Senic challenges eventual regular feature winner Chuck Harper, while Jared Hawkins (below) claimed the makeup race. (Tommy Micheals)
Henley, Missouri's Jason Russell leads the way to Victory Lane in the ULMS Late Model feature at Lucas Oil Speedway Saturday. (Chris Bork)
Some fierce racing action at Lucas Oil speedway. (Chris Bork)
Dalton, Ga.'s Craig Reece returned to Dixie Speedway Saturday and led all the way to win the Crate LM victory. (Steve Hixson)
Ray Guss Jr. races last week's Quad City Speedway winner, Mike Murphy, Jr. This time, it was advantage Guss. (Chris Damitz)
With a strong motor back into his mount, Veteran Lamar Scoggins claimed last Friday's Crate LM victory at Boyd's Speedway. (Steve Hixson)
Veteran racer Lance Matthees navigates Spring Lake, Minnesota's Deer Creek Speedway before taking Saturday's WISSOTA Late Model checkers. (Jason Durst)
Racing hard at mid-pack, it's the dueling 55s of Cory Mahder (inside) and Greg Nippoldt at Deer Creek. (Jason Durst)
Ryan King (above and below) swept both the Ltd. Late Model and Crate Late Model features Saturday at 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tenn. (Chad Wells)
Still riding his wave in Iowa, Mike Murphy, Jr. in early action before taking the main event win at Davenport last Friday. (Chris Damitz)
Jason Jameson ran a gauntlet to finally capture another win Friday night at Moler
Raceway Park (see main page). (Roy
Walker)
After holding back a charge from Alex Ferree, Chub Frank drove home with a Friday night win at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. (John Stivason)
Bobby Pierce, Brett Sievert, and Mike Glynn race in a tight pack in Kankakee (Ill.) Speedway's "Crosstown Cup", but (below) it was ultimately Shawn Toczek (42) here racing the high side of Mike Provenzano, who sailed to the win. (Dan Simpson)
NALMS Suspends Remaining Season
In a statement released to the racing media Monday, Northern All All Stars Late Model Series (NALMS) owners Shawn Hall and Bob Mooney relased the following statement:
To all NALMS drivers and fans,
Northern Allstars Late Model Series regrets to inform all of our drivers and fans that as of today (May 14, 2012) we will suspend all series races for the remaining 2012 season. The primary reason for the decision to discontinue the series was mainly economics. Tracks, teams and fans are having a hard time these days with the cost of living in general. With the cost of fuel, parts, tires, tickets and lodging, many people just cannot afford to travel to our shows, so we feel it's best to stop for now and try to regroup for the 2013 season.
Our series needs to be able to have at least 18 to 20 shows to cover our cost of putting on these shows and our drivers point funds. With many tracks cutting back on their special events and other tracks just choosing not to have specials at all, it's has really cut our options for race tracks down to a very few unless you are willing to travel several hours away from the Central Illinois area, and that is not cost effective for the racing teams or fans.
In closing we would like to thank all of the drivers and fans whom have supported the series over the years and we hope to be able to come back with a bigger and better season for everyone in 2013.
A-Team Leaders from 1997-2011 (Click on link for complete rundown)
| Primary Tours / Events Regional Tours / Events Crate Late Models Opinion Other |
