James Essex
BARDSTOWN, Ky. – Aug. 27. For the second night in a row, Don O’Neal ended up in
victory lane. The 47-year-old Martinsville, Indiana driver started on the pole and led all 50 laps
in winning the 11th annual "Bluegrass Classic" at Bluegrass Speedway.
O’Neal was driving the MasterSbilt House car, and earned $10,000 for the victory
which came on the heels of his win Friday at Lawrenceburg. O’Neal’s 17th career Lucas Oil Late Model
Dirt Series came over Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., Steve Francis
of Ashland, Ky., and Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Ia.
Bub McCool, #25 Dustin Neat, and #11 in close combat just inside the top ten at
Bluegrass Speedway. (Robert Sell)
O’Neal won the race at Bluegrass a year ago made a clean sweep of the night’s
activities as he set fast time, won his heat, got the lead at the start of the race, and held on the rest of
the way. “We had a good qualifying effort, ran the heat race strong and got out front before it became
one-laned, the lapped cars gave us plenty of room, but they started to dice it up, and I didn’t want to make a
mistake,” O'Neal said after the race.
“If you dared to step up out of groove it was going to cost you. We’ve not been
good the last two weeks, but the last three nights we have been real good, Tader, Cody, Randy, Steve and
everybody else back at the shop, thanks to Jerry Jones and his wife for their support.” O’Neal sits third in
the series points standings.
Eric Wells, #23 John Blankenship, and #777 Jared Landers slug it out deep in the
field before taking 16th through 18th, respectively. (Robert Sell)
McDowell finished second at Volunteer Speedway on Thursday was pleased with his
second place run at Bardstown. “With the year we’ve had, to have two second place finishes, just shows you
we never quit. Lawrenceburg didn’t go so good, but tonight the car was good, just not good enough to get
the win, once Don got in front it was pretty much all she wrote,” said the driver of the Crawford Supply, Clint
Bowyer Racing, Rocket Chevrolet.
Bloomquist finished third to close to within 130 points of Jimmy Owens, who
finished sixth for the second night in a row.
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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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