Don O'Neal races by Brian Birkhofer in a 100-lap romp to win the Dirt Track World
Championships at K-C Raceway. (Robert Sell)
Don O'Neal with one prestigious trophy after his first
Dirt Track World Championship win. (Robert Sell)
Lucas
Oil Series: O'Neal Gets First Career DTWC; Owens Over Bloomquist For Series Title
James Essex
ALMA, Oh. - Oct. 15. Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Indiana led flag-to-flag in capturing the 31st
annual "Dirt Track World Championship" on Saturday at K-C Raceway (now Atomic Speedway). O’Neal started on
the pole and paced the field the entire distance to earn $50,000 for his first career win in the
event.
Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn. finished second, enabling him to clinch the 2011 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt
Series Championship ahead of Scott Bloomquist, of Mooresburg, Tenn. who finished fourth behind Josh Richards of
Shinnston, W.V.
O’Neal waited through several caution flags during the event, none of which were major incidents as he
brought home his third crown jewel event win of the season and his fifth series victory of the
year.
Jimmy Owens ran a cautious second and nailed down the Lucas Oil Series title. He
only hd to finish seventh to seal the deal. (Robert Sell)
“Tonight was all about tire management, we were a little softer than the second and third place
cars, we just bided our time out there, I drove it as straight as I could, it’s pretty easy when you’ve got a
good race car,” said the 47-year-old driver, who finished third in the championship points.
O’Neal had some timely cautions as he was about to catch up to the tail end of the field.
“I didn’t want to see that lapped traffic, the race was one-lane all night. There wasn’t much they
could do about it, after starting late afternoon while the sun is still up and the rain last night."
Don O'Neal takes a $50,000 checkered flag at Atomic Speedway (formerly K.C
Raceway. (Robert Sell)
Owens trailed O’Neal the entire distance to finish second. In doing so, he clinched his first career
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Title after finishing runner-up the last two years to Scott
Bloomquist.
“We came here to win the race of course, but once we got into second we took a few shots at the lead, but
we’ve had a great year,” said the driver of the Mike Reece owned Ford.
“You’ve got to be consistent to win this thing, top five finishes are so important, you’ve got to able to
capitalize when someone else has misfortune, that’s part of it,” said the 39-year-old Owens, who captured eight
series wins this year on his way to the championship.
Darrell Lanigan, #3 Brian Shirley, and #71 R.J. Conley in preliminary action at
the new Atomic Speedway. (Robert Sell)
“To say we beat Scott Bloomquist, means a lot, he builds a great race car. I know we went back-and-forth
all year in the points battle. My crew worked their tails off all year and we are glad to be celebrating
after this race. We were conservative on tires. Don was setting a great pace there tonight, and we were glad we
didn’t hit a lot of traffic”
Jimmy Owens and his team celebrate their new Lucas Oil Series championship at
K-C Raceway. (Gary Shrey)
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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)
A-Team Leaders from 1997-2011 (Click on link for complete rundown)
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