Earl Pearson, Jr. led only the final lap to claim the win at Boyd’s
After a hiatus of over a month brought on by a couple of rain outs earlier in March, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returned to action on Friday night at Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, GA. When all was said and done, it was four-time series champion Earl Pearson, Jr. who made a last lap pass and came away from the track located just south of Chattanooga with the winner’s trophy and a $12,000 payday.
Chris Madden got the night underway by posting the fastest time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 13.966 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. That effort beat out Brandon Overton, Ricky Weiss, Kyle Bronson and Jimmy Owens.
The leader in Group B time-trials was Pearson who toured the speedway in 14.053 seconds to best the laps of Scott Bloomquist, Hudson O’Neal, Tyler Millwood and Brandon Sheppard.
Madden earned the pole position on the feature starting grid by winning the first heat race of the night ahead of Weiss, Owens and Mike Marlar while Overton beat Bobby Pierce, Darrell Lanigan and Bronson to the checkered flag in the second preliminary of the evening.
Hudson O’Neal would start the main event from the outside of the front row by virtue of his win in the third heat of the night over Pearson, Sheppard and Jason Jameson just before Bloomquist won the final heat of the evening ahead of Cory Hedgecock, Dale McDowell and Millwood.
Don O’Neal and Josh Richards won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the feature.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, it was Madden who went to the early lead with Hudson O’Neal, Overton, Bloomquist and Pearson following. Weiss made an early move forward as he passed by Hedgecock for sixth on the second lap then went after Pearson for fifth two laps later.
Hudson O’Neal(71) and Chris Madden battle for position
Bloomquist also proved to be an early mover as he slipped by Overton to grab third on lap eight. And the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member wasn’t finished there as he immediately pounced on young O’Neal in an attempt to take second on the tenth circuit.
Madden encountered slower traffic on lap 11 of a race that would eventually run without a yellow flag, which slowed his pace. Bloomquist finally took second away from O’Neal on lap 15 while Pearson and Overton fought for the fourth spot just behind them.
Bloomquist closed on Madden in a contest for the top spot as the feature approached the halfway point while Overton engaged O’Neal for third at the same time.
Bloomquist took the lead with an outside move through turns one and two on lap 26. In the meantime, O’Neal, Overton and Pearson joined in a fierce battle for positions 3-5 just passed halfway.
Bloomquist looked as if he might drive away from the field at lap 33 with Madden, O’Neal, Overton and Pearson continuing to take each other on for the remaining top-5 spots. Just behind that battle another war was being waged as Hedgecock, Sheppard, Weiss, McDowell and Pierce fought over the positions at the back of the top-10.
On lap 43, Madden began to reel Bloomquist back in with Overton and Pearson coming along with him. Pearson got around Overton for third on lap 45 then moved by Madden for the runner-up spot just one lap later.
Over the closing laps, it was Pearson who began to draw closer and closer to the race leader. Finally as the cars took the white flag, Pearson was right on the rear spoiler of Bloomquist. Through turns one and two Pearson was able to run a lower line which allowed him to inch further up to the side of the No. 0 machine as the cars worked their way down the back stretch. Then as they roared through turns three and four for the last time, Pearson’s No. 1 Black Diamond stuck to the bottom and he was able to win the drag race to the finish line and win by less than a car length.
Pearson inside of Bloomquist on the final lap
Feature Finish: 1. Earl Pearson, Jr., 2. Scott Bloomquist, 3. Chris Madden, 4. Brandon Overton, 5. Hudson O’Neal, 6. Dale McDowell, 7. Cory Hedgecock, 8. Brandon Sheppard, 9. Ricky Weiss, 10. Bobby Pierce, 11. Darrell Lanigan, 12. Mike Marlar, 13. Tim McCreadie, 14. Jason Jameson, 15. Jimmy Owens, 16. Don O’Neal, 17. Josh Richards, 18. John Ownbey, 19. Jonathan Davenport, 20. Tyler Millwood, 21. Shanon Buckingham, 22. Mason Zeigler, 23. Gregg Satterlee, 24. Kyle Bronson, 25. Dennis Erb, Jr., 26. Boom Briggs
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