Bloomquist was never seriously challenged for the lead.
Coming into Saturday night’s World of Outlaws Late Models race at Smoky Mountain Speedway, there were several drivers who were garnering the attention of those who anxiously awaited the event. But in the end, it was Scott Bloomquist who everyone was talking about as the Mooresburg, Tenn. driver completely dominated the feature on his way to claiming the $10,000 first prize.
Could Randy Weaver win his ninth race in a row? How would everyone react to Josh Richards one week after his on and off track issues with Casey Roberts? What drivers from other series would show up to participate in this event? All of these were question being asked before the gates opened. When all was said and done, none of them mattered as Bloomquist would render all other speculation pointless.
Josh Richards led the way in Group A qualifying and overall when he ran a lap of 15.396 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. Frank Heckenast, Jr., Weaver, Shane Clanton and Donald McIntosh rounded out the top-5 in that session.
Bloomquist proved to be the fastest in Group B with an effort of 15.479 seconds. He was followed by Jimmy Owens, Derek Ellis, Ray Cook and Steve Francis in that group.
Richards won out in heat 1 over Vic Hill, McIntosh and Rick Eckert. The story of this particular preliminary was that Weaver was moved back one row on the starting grid after series officials deemed that he jumped the initial start. From that point, the red hot driver battled what appeared to be an ill handling race car on his way to a sixth place result.
Clanton earned the win in heat 2 ahead of Heckenast, Chub Frank and Dale McDowell.
Bloomquist would take the win in heat 3 over Ellis, Francis and Eric Wells while Cook won out in heat 4 by besting Darrell Lanigan, Owens and Austin Smith.
The top-2 from each heat were sent to a redraw to determine the starting order for the first four rows in the main event. Bloomquist was awarded the pole by virtue of the pill draw with Cook, Ellis, Heckenast, Lanigan, Hill, Clanton and Richards set to follow him to the green flag.
Tim McCreadie beat out Brandon Overton and Weaver to transfer to the feature from Last Chance Showdown 1 while Mike Marlar showed the way in the second LCS over Kent Robinson and Don O’Neal.
As it turned out, the race was essentially decided when the child who drew the pill for Bloomquist produced the number one. The leader of Team Zero instantly became the leader of the main event when the green flag waved and he would never be seriously challenged over the course of the 50-lap affair.
The real racing took place behind the race-long front runner. Early on, a pair of cars bearing the No. 99 battled for position as Ellis and Heckenast spent much of their evening running in tight formation for the third spot, just behind Cook. Also, Lanigan, Richards and Frank waged their own private war just a bit further back.
A total of three cautions would allow the field to close on Bloomquist briefly before he would drive away again once the racing action resumed.
Lanigan attempts to get by Cook on the low side.
During the race’s middle stages, Lanigan began to show signs of strength as he moved around both Heckenast and Ellis to put himself in the third position. Then he began to close on Cook in hopes of capturing the runner-up spot.
After a lap 32 caution for a blown tire on Heckenast’s machine, McCreadie would make a strong move up to sixth from his ninth restarting place. He would soon move into the top-5 when McDowell retired with mechanical issues late in the going.
Lanigan pushed Cook right to the very end but the ‘Tarheel Tiger’ was able to hold on to the spot. But no one threatened Bloomquist as the No. 0 car led all the way and won by a wide margin.
Feature finish: 1. Scott Bloomquist, 2. Ray Cook, 3. Darrell Lanigan, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Chub Frank, 6. Josh Richards, 7. Shane Clanton, 8. Jimmy Owens, 9. Mike Marlar, 10. Steve Francis, 11. Randy Weaver, 12. Derek Ellis, 13. Donald McIntosh, 14. Eric Wells, 15. Frank Heckenast, Jr., 16. Morgan Bagley, 17. Chase Junghans, 18. Rick Eckert, 19. Dale McDowell, 20. Brandon Overton, 21. Kent Robinson, 22. Vic Hill, 23. Austin Smith, 24. Don O’Neal
Bloomquist celebrates with his family in the Smoky Mountain Victory Lane
