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Brian McLeod UMP/O'Reilly All Stars: O'Neal Makes Dramatic Comeback For Ocala Checkers by B.J. Cavin OCALA, Fla. - Feb. 14. A chilly north central Florida night found Don O'Neal of Martinsville, Ind. come back from a near calamity to earn $8,000 in Sunday's "Battle Between the Coasts" at Ocala Speedway. O'Neal charged back from the rear of the lead lap after a mid-race scrape with another driver forced a tire change. Qualifying among 36 druvers for the 50-lap race saw Josh Richards on top with a 15.014 second lap that earned him $300 for his efforts, but after four heat races and a pair of B Mains, Brad Neat wound up with the pole position.It was Bub McCool though, who would jump out to the early lead at the green flag as Austin Hubbard moved up to second with Scott Bloomquist hanging onto third place.
Scott Bloomquist survived rough racing conditions to reel in second, while Josh Richards (outside), was one of several drivers who were in winning contention until sidelined by tire problems. (Rick Warren)
Indiana's Don O'Neal after taking a rough ride to a comeback win at Ocala Speedway.(Rick Warren) Hubbard found a route past McCool on lap 13 to take the lead, until Richards assumed it three laps later.
Hubbard retook the lead, with McCool moving to second ahead of Bloomquist, and soon after, O'Neal almost saw his
race end early when he got together with John Lobb, forcing the first caution. 29 laps had been raced under
green.
Brian Reese and veteran Clint Smith (#44) duel for position at Ocala. (Rick Warren) Hubbard's place as the race leader looked very secure until lap 46, when a flat tire caused him to slap the backstretch wall, and at virtually the same time, Richards blew a right rear tire as well. After the resulting caution for Hubbard's problems, Don O'Neal found himself back in the lead. Two more flats then resulted in top contenders, Shane Clanton and McCool also exiting to the pits in the final laps - McCool with just one to go, but O'Neal went on to notch the win after overcoming misfortune and a very unforgiving race track. After McCool and Clanton dropped from the top five, Bloomquist wound up claiming the second spot over Jonathan Davenport, Ryan Unzicker, and Richards.
Austin Hubbard races #25 Josh Richards beforing securing the lead. It was all for naught as the young Delaware ace also fell out with a flat tire. (Rick Warren)
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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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