"North-South 100" winner Jimmy Owens with runner up Scott Bloomquist (left) and third place Brad Neat. (Todd Battin) Lucas Oil: Owens Repeats With Florence "North-South 100" Victory James Essex UNION, Ky. - Aug. 13. Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn. has won the Sunoco Race Fuels "North/South 100" presented by Lucas Oil on Saturday at Florence Speedway. Owens took the lead on lap 75 from Scott Bloomquist and went on to score his third career victory in the annual $50,000-to-win event. Bloomquist had to hold off a hard-charging Brad Neat of Dunnville, KY to finish second. Neat started 15th and finished third.
One his strongest showing to date this season, Dunnville, Ky.'s Brad Neat puts the heat on Scott Bloomquist for the runner up spot at Florence. (Todd Battin) “It feels great to win this race again,” said the 39-year-old Owens, who joins the late Jack Boggs as the only three-time winner of the race. “I never got the chance to race with Jack Boggs. I know all about what he did in Late Model Racing and to be mentioned in the same breath as him - it’s just a tremendous accomplishment. I have to my car owner, Mike Reece, he’s here tonight and all the crew, they did a great job all weekend long.”
Putting in one of his best Florence Speedway performance ever, Ray Cook rolls under #99 Jacob Grizzle and #777 Jared Landers on his way to fourth place. (Michael Moats)
Don O’Neal has led more laps than any other driver the last two years in this
race. He grabbed the lead at the start of the race with Bloomquist running second. Bloomquist shadowed
O’Neal for 22 laps of the race before taking over the top spot on lap 23. Bloomquist then pulled away from
O’Neal and the rest of the field as he stretched his lead out to several car lengths.
Darrell Lanigan works his way under a fading Don O'Neal, who put his #71 out front
for the first 23 laps before finally dropping back to 11th place. (Michael Moats)
As the race reached the halfway mark, it was Bloomquist, Owens, Mike Marlar,
O’Neal, and Darrell Lanigan all outpacing the field. Owens then started to close the gap on Bloomquist
ever so slightly as Bloomquist was having to deal with lapped traffic. Owens cut the deficit to half a
straightaway when a caution flew for John Blankenship, who slowed on the front-stretch with a flat
tire.
Mike Marlar improved his recent fortunes when he rolled out a new #16 Rocket chassis
and took fifth at Florence, ahead of #49 Jonathan Davenport. (Michael Moats)
This time on the restart Owens was determined to pass Bloomquist as he went to
the top of the race track and passed him on lap 75 to take over the point. Over the last 25 laps of
the race, Owens had to hold off Bloomquist, who was having his position threatened by
Neat. Owens was able to put enough distance between the
Bloomquist-Neat battle to go on and capture his fifth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of 2011, and he
expanded his points’ lead over Bloomquist.
Clint Smith and #6 Joe Janowski race at mid-pack before Smith advanced to ninth
place at the finish.(Michael Moats)
“I didn’t now if could do anything with Scott once I caught him," said
Owens. "The cautions sure helped us, and it looked like his left rear tire sealed over, I just got tired
of running there on the bottom, so I decided to go up top, and that was the way to go around him. I was
worried there for a while that the track was going to become one-groove but it held up nicely, the car worked
so well on it at the end. Scott builds a great race car and to beat him is always tough,” said
Owens.
Bloomquist just edged out Neat, while Ray Cook, in one of his best runs at
Florence, was fourth ahead of Marlar, who debuted a new ride in the Billy Ward Rocket Chassis.
Earl Pearson, Jr. chases #11 Tyler Reddick before dropping off early.
(Michael Moats)
With Don O'Neal and Scott Bloomquist on the front rown, the North-South 100 field
prepares to go racing. (Michael Moats)
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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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