With eventual winner Scott Bloomquist tucked into third, Don O'Neal and #18 Shannon Babb launch the annual "Topless 100" at Batesville Speedway. O'Neal and Babb failed to go the distance, and Bloomquist scored the $40,000 win. (Ron Mitchell) Lucas Oil Series: Bloomquist Claims Fourth "Topless 100" Trophy at Batesville James Essex BATESVILLE, Ark. - Aug. 21. A one day delay in the 19th annual Comp Cams "Topless 100" didn't slow down Scott Bloomquist as he claimed the win in the annual classic at Batesville Speedway Sunday afternoon. It was his fourth event win, one that netted the Mooresburg, Tenn. driver $40,000. Rain abruptly halted the 100-lap event after 12 laps of the feature on Saturday. The race resumed on a steamy Sunday afternoon at the 3/8-mile oval. Before the green ever waved, bad luck struck fifth place runner, Dale McDowell. His left front tire rolled away from his #17 Clint Bowyer Motorsports Rocket. He ducked into the hot pit to get the tire reattached, but had to join the tail of the field.
California teenager Tyler Reddick set fast time among 55 entries and finished an impressive fifth at Batesville. (Ron Mitchell)
As the action finally resumed,
Bloomquist led the field back to the green flag with Jimmy Owens, Shannon Babb, Jared Landers, and Bub McCool
in tow. Bloomquist quickly extended his advantage to five lengths as Owens tried to keep pace. The caution
flag was displayed on lap 15 as fourth place runner, Babb, spun out in turn three. The top five after the
restart consisted of Bloomquist, Owens, Landers, McCool, and Steve Francis.
By lap 36, Landers had made his
way around Owens and was alongside Bloomquist for the lead, but Bloomquist soon motored away from Landers and
the remainder of the field. Over the next several laps Bloomquist built a straightaway lead over the pack, as
the top five running order remained the same.
 Ray Cook rolled his #53 car
just before rain forced Saturday's remaining 88 laps to be postponed until Sunday. (Ron
Mitchell)
A series of cautions had little
effect on the running order amongst the leaders until McCool relinquished the fifth position on lap 74 as his
right rear tire went down to bring out the final caution of the event. As Bloomquist continued to maintain a
sizeable lead, the battle for the second spot began again to intensify, and Owens used lapped traffic to his
advantage to move past
Jimmy Owens (20) tracked Scott Bloomquist in second at the finish line on Sunday. (Ron Mitchell)
Landers for second on
lap 89. Over the course of the next six laps, drama began to build as Owens erased Bloomquist’ straightaway
lead. He trailed the leader by only one car length at the flag stand with five laps to go, but
despite espite his
best efforts, Owens was unable to overtake Bloomquist.
With Bloomquist’s tenth tour
triumph of the 2011 season,Owens saw his lead in the LOLMDS standings trimmed to 140 points
 Wendell Wallace won his heat race and put in a tenth place showing at Batesville. (Ron Mitchell)
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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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