Lucas Oil Series: Moyer Scores Winternationals Win no. 21 in First 2011 Outing James Essex
TAMPA, Fla. – Feb. 11. Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark. scored his career leading 21st win at East Bay
Raceway Park on Friday, capturing the 30-lap $5000-to-win feature event. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
sanctioned-event was a make-up from Monday's rainout during the 35th annual DART
"Winternationals".
Moyer’s 742nd win of his Hall of Fame career completed the day’s sweep for him as he set fast time
and won his heat race. Trailing Moyer to the finish line were Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., Scott
Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., 20th starting Wendell Wallace of Batesville, Ark., and 17th starting Bub
McCool of Vicksburg, Miss.
Slipping under #25 Josh Richards, Wendell Wallace put his early season struggles
behind him with an impressive run from 20th to fourth. (Mike Ruefer)
“It’s great to always win here at East Bay, we’ve been
helping our drivers this week that drive our cars and this is the first time we’ve raced this week, and to get
victory win number 21 here for car 21, it’s awesome,” said the 53-year-old Moyer, who capture 24 main events a
year ago. “To draw an early number today, I didn’t think would be that good, but were able to get fast time and
win the heat, I was babying the car there for most of the race to conserve the tires and fortunately we were
able to pull it off.”
Enjoying the best early season of his career, #57 Bub McCool reels in #25 Josh
Richards on his way from 17th to fifth on Friday afternoon at East Bay. (Rick Warren)
Moyer also thanked his crew and sponsors that include crew
chief Steve Norris. “Steve and the guys always do a great job, and I have to thank all of great sponsors and
product people, Banner Valley Hauling, Henderson Motorsports, Cooley Transport, Sunoco, Watters Auto Land,
Clements Engines and everyone else that contributes to the team.”
Moyer grabbed the lead at the start with Frank Heckenast,
Jr. in the second spot. Moyer was unable to build more than a two-three car length lead over Heckenast in the
early going as Donnie Moran made his way around O’Neal for third on lap four.
Eddie Carrier, Jr. challenges #53 Ray Cook before the pair finished sixth and
seventh at East Bay Friday afternoon. (Mike
Ruefer)
Moyer would gain a six length advantage by the halfway mark
over Heckenast, Moran, O’Neal and the opening night winner, Scott Bloomquist, but caution at the halfway mark
slowed his pace only momentarily. Moran’s day ended on lap 19 after a solid effort as his right rear tire went
flat.
Moyer then pulled away from Heckenast on the restart as
Heckenast began to fade with tire wear. O’Neal moved into second, but Moyer’s lead was big enough that no one
was unable to run him down at the end. Bloomquist settled for third just ahead of the hard charger of the race
Wendell Wallace, who stormed through the field from his 20th starting spot.
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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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