Even someone only vaguely familiar with Dirt Late Model racing needs no more than a quick look down the driver roster of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series to realize that some of the biggest names in the sport are part of that national touring series. This weekend, fans in Tennessee and Kentucky will have the opportunity to see those racers in action as the series makes stops at upper east Tennessee’s Tazewell Speedway on Friday night and northern Kentucky’s Florence Speedway the following evening.
Eight drivers who follow the LOLMDS full-time have won at least one national touring series championship at some point in their careers. Further, many of those who have not won a national series title have earned prestigious regional championships and even crown jewel victories. A look at the current standings shows that Jonathan Davenport leads Josh Richards, Scott Bloomquist, Earl Pearson, Jr., Bobby Pierce, Tim McCreadie, Jimmy Owens, Don O’Neal, Kyle Bronson, Darrell Lanigan, Hudson O’Neal, Gregg Satterlee, Dennis Erb, Jr. and Mason Zeigler.
Those star drivers and their teams will certainly be put to the test this weekend as it would be difficult to imagine two tracks that provide a greater contrast than these.
Jimmy Owens(20) and Scott Bloomquist will be among those in competition at Tazewell this weekend
Tazewell Speedway is a very steeply banked third-mile that features extreme speed as cars race each other in close quarters around the facility’s tight turns. The laps click off quickly on ‘The Bad Fast Taz’ as drivers have been known to complete circuits in less than eleven seconds. Bloomquist set the track record when he turned a lap in 10.822 seconds back in 2012.
Some of dirt racing’s biggest stars have also encountered serious trouble at Tazewell. Pearson and Pierce are among those who have flipped their machines on the high banks.
Bobby Pierce has won at Florence Speedway
Florence Speedway, on the other hand, is a half-mile clay oval with far less banking than Tazewell. The historic speedway features a surface that tends to get slick with a racing groove that widens out significantly as the night wears on. The track not only hosts this upcoming race, the Ralph Latham Memorial, but also features the Lucas Oil sanctioned North/South 100 crown jewel event near the end of each summer.
Many of those well known names mentioned above have visited victory lane at this popular facility.
Jimmy Owens took the win in his home state last year in the LOLMDS feature at Tazewell while fellow Tennessean Scott Bloomquist captured the Ralph Latham race at Florence in 2017.
The weather forecast for this weekend’s appears to be favorable for both venues.
