Lucas Oil Series: California Teen Reddick Standing Tall; Stuns Gulf Coast Crowd With East Bay Win James Essex
TAMPA, Fla. - Feb. 9. Fifteen-year-old Tyler Reddick of Corning, Cal. grabbed the
lead from Dan Schlieper with eight laps remaining and went on to his first career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt
Series win on Wednesday at East Bay Raceway Park during the 35th annual
DART Winternationals.
Reddick, who started third, tracked Schlieper for the first 21laps of the 30 lap
main event. He grabbed the lead heading into turn number three. Opening night winner Scott Bloomquist
finished second, followed by Steve Francis and Don O’Neal.
“I can’t believe this,” said Reddick who will be running for the Quarter Master
“Rookie of the Year” for the series in 2011. “I was just so excited there at the
Don O'Neal (71) fights to hold off Scott
Bloomquist, who advanced to second in the main event. O'Neal settled for fifth, while #41 Brad Neat brought a
lap 24 caution and fell out of the hunt. (Neil Eric
Miller)
end, the car was fast all night, I knew Dan (Schlieper) wasn’t going to
give it to us, we were going to have to earn it.” Reddick showed the patience of a veteran in
becoming the youngest winner in series history and the youngest late model driver to win an event at the famed
“Clay by the Bay”.
“I kept looking for Scott (Bloomquist) and Don (O’Neal) out there. I knew
they’d be in the mix at the end, waiting through those cautions was a little
Tyler Reddick slips past Dan Schlieper with eight to go to race to a resume' building win in Lucas Oil Series action at East Bay Raceway. (Neil Eric Miller)
Tyler Reddick (left) earned his first win in a big way after overtaking fast qualifier and early leader Dan Schlieper (right) at East Bay Raceway Park on Wednesday night. (Rick Warren)
unnerving, but I can’t thank my mom and dad enough, they have supported me from
the start of my racing career, I have to thank Scott for building a great race car and Gaerte Engines for
coming on board,” said Reddick who also receives sponsorship from Broken Bow Records, America’s Incredible
Pizza and Wiles Driveshafts.
Schlieper and Jimmy Owens started on the front row as Schlieper bolted to the
lead at the beginning of the $5,000 to win main. Reddick moved into second on lap two and the two the put
on a close, competitive race as Reddick was finally able to clear Schlieper with eight laps to go. A
heated battle for third between Bloomquist and O’Neal saw those two drivers run wheel-to-wheel over the last
half of the race.
Veteran Dale McDowell takes a low wide past #7 Rick Weiss in preliminary
action. (Neil Eric Miller)
Reddick then had to wait through two cautions flags before he was finally able to
finish first in front of the standing, cheering crowd. Bloomquist, the opening night winner at East Bay
finished second in his Base Racing Fuels, Bloomquist race Cars Chevy. Francis, who started ninth, made a
late charge to finish third ahead of Schlieper.
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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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