Brad Neat after his first Winternationals win at East
Bay. (Rick Warren)
Mike Marlar was able to push past #41 Brad Neat for the lead at East Bay, but was forced to give it up to a flat tire Friday night. (Rick Warren) Lucas Oil Series: Neat Finds First WinNats Victory at East Bay James Essex
TAMPA, Fla. – Feb. 11. Brad Neat of Dunnville, Ky. raced to his
first ever win at East Bay Raceway Park during the 35th annual DART Winternationals Friday. Neat took back
the lead when Mike Marlar pitted for a flat tire on lap 34. Neat then held off Jimmy Owens to score the win
over Dennis Erb, Jr., Josh Richards, and Don O’Neal.
“First off, I have to thank the Good Lord,” said Neat, whose victory was his
third career win on the series tour. “I want to thank Bobby Labonte and my entire team, my crew chief Mark
Hopper, Eric Fullwood, our team manager Jason Fitzgerald and everybody back at the shop. You have to feel
bad for Mikey (Marlar), but that’s the way it goes in racing sometimes, we had a real good car
tonight.
Jimmy Owens challenges #36 Mike Marlar before Marlar eventually ducked out with a
flat tire. Owens advanced to second when Brad Neat took over the lead. (Mike Ruefer)
The 31-year-old driver Neat was solid
from the start of the 50 main event as he took the lead from his outside front row starting
position. Marlar, who started from the pole fell into second followed by Owens, Eric Wells and Tim
Dohm. Neat opened up a sizable lead by the ninth lap as he started to encounter heavy
traffic.
Neat was still in control at the halfway mark as Marlar started to close the gap
on him. A caution for Jason Feger on lap 32 bunched the field up. Two laps later, Wells, who was
running fifth, had a flat tire and stopped on the track to bring out the third caution. During the
caution, Marlar’s right rear started to go flat and he headed to the pit area for a tire change.
Billy Moyer, Jr. and #53 Ray Cook race at midfield before finishing ninth and tenth,
respectively. (Mike Ruefer)
As Marlar gave up the lead, Neat took over the top spot with Owens now second
followed by Dohm, Josh Richards and Dennis Erb, Jr. Neat and Owens bolted away from the field on the
restart and with ten laps to go it appeared as if the race would be settled among those two. Dohm had other
ideas, as he caught the two frontrunners pulling alongside Owens on lap 47 just as his right rear tire
blew.
The race went green for another lap until the final caution appeared for Austin
Hubbard’s flat. The green-white-checkered restart saw Neat hold off Owens to become the 54th
different driver to win a Late Model event during the East Bay Winternationals history.
| |||||
%20-%20hd%20-%20Ruefer.jpg)
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 |
