Lucas Oil Series: Bloomquist Tackles Texas For the First Time at Lone Star James Essex KILGORE, Tex. – Apr. 2. Two-time and defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Champion, Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tennessee, took the lead with nine laps to go and went to win the first ever LOLMDS ever held in the state of Texas on Saturday at Lonestar Speedway. Bloomquist, who started tenth, earned $20,000 for his second series win of the year. Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., who started 17th, finished second; followed by pole-sitter Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., Earl Pearson, Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., and Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn. Shannon Babb took the lead on the eighth lap and appeared to be on his way to a convincing win until a caution flag with 18 laps to go allowed the field to close up behind him. The caution allowed both O’Neal and Bloomquist to tighten the battle for the lead in a race that saw several cautions for flat tires.
Bloomquist passed O’Neal for second on lap 87 and then four circuits later, he was all
over Babb in the race for the lead. Bloomquist finally went by Babb heading into turn three with nine
laps remaining. Babb then slowed with a flat tire with four laps to go, ending his bid to overtake
Bloomquist. Bloomquist then went on to take the victory, his first in the Lone Star
State.
“We just bided our time there for a while; we fired real well on the restarts. We got
some breaks with the cautions and we new eventually it would be a tire game,” said the Hall-of-Famer, who’s
right rear tire was bald as he stood in victory lane. “We had a good race there with O’Neal for a
while, and once I got past him, I knew there was enough time left to catch Shannon. We were fortunate
enough to close quickly on him and he left the door open there just enough for us to get
by.”
Erb, who started on the inside of the ninth row, charged through the field with the help
of some attrition, and wound up in the runner-up spot behind the driver that built his race
car. O’Neal, who had a spirited battle with Bloomquist for several laps, finished third at the finish
to climb to within five points of series points leader. Jimmy Owens, gave up fourth on the final lap to
Pearson.
Caution
Flags: Lap 6 (Billy Moyer Jr., John Blankenship); Lap 21 (Brad Neat); Lap 31 (Ray Cook); Lap 49
(Ronny Lee Hollingsworth); Lap 50 (Debris); Lap 75 (Steve Casebolt); Lap 82 (Eric Wells); Lap 83 (Jared
Landers); Lap 84 (Tim Isenberg); Lap 93 (Chris Wall); Lap 96 (Shannon
Babb)
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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)
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