Jimmy Owens ended his season by picking up a big win in Charlotte.
*Story composed from DirtVision.com audio, Race Monitor and various social network sources.
The World of Outlaws Late Models Series hit the track for its final race of the 2014 season on Saturday night on The Dirt Track at Charlotte for a $12,000-to-win event. On this night, it would be two of east Tennessee’s finest who would do battle for the win and the lucrative first prize. Jimmy Owens scored the win as he held off Scott Bloomquist in the closing laps in the event known as the World Finals for this national touring series.
In qualifying on Thursday evening, Owens had set fast time among the 75 drivers signed in for competition with a time of 15.684 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. Also earning pole positions for their respective heat races as a result of that qualifying session was Tim McCreadie, Billy Moyer, Jr., Darrell Lanigan, Rick Eckert, Chase Junghans.
Heat race winners on the night were Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Jason Feger, Chris Madden, Billy Moyer, Jr. and Tim McCreadie. And that would be the order of the starting lineup in the feature after the WoO redraw.
Last Chance Showdown winners were Chub Frank, Jared Landers and John Blankenship.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, Bloomquist went directly to the lead and began to pull away from a fierce battle involving Owens, Madden and McCreadie for the runner-up spot. However, the action would be interrupted on lap 9 when the 5th running car of Billy Moyer, Jr. spun to bring out the first of three cautions in this A-main.
Another yellow flag waved just one lap after the restart when several cars piled up. Included in that melee were Mason Zeigler, Austin Hubbard, Shane Clanton, Chub Frank, Eric Wells and John Blankenship. Most of those drivers continued on with varying degrees of damage.
The race saw several green flag laps click off after that and the action was intense. On more than one occasion, Owens, McCreadie and Madden went three-wide for 2nd as Bloomquist continued to lead. Meanwhile, Billy Moyer, Sr. and Darrell Lanigan lurked just behind those three drivers as they also battled for the final top-5 position on the track.
McCreadie had established himself as the 2nd place runner by lap 20 and then he set off after Bloomquist. On lap 24, the driver known as ‘Topside Timmy’ used the high line to take the lead away from the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member.
But McCreadie’s time at the front of the field would prove to be short as Bloomquist moved back to the front on the following lap. Moments later, those two drivers would be joined by Owens in a three-wide fight for the top of the leader board.
Ultimately, it would be Owens who would use a low line and emerge out of that battle with the lead. From that point, it would be a matter of getting through slower traffic for ‘The Newport Nightmare’ and he was able to do that as well as maintain his advantage over the battle between McCreadie and Bloomquist behind him.
At the finish, it was Jimmy Owens winning over Tim McCreadie, Scott Bloomquist, Billy Moyer, Sr., Darrell Lanigan, Bub McCool, Dale McDowell, Chris Madden, Donny Schatz and Rick Eckert.
