Randy Weaver scored the first Lucas Oil win of his career on Saturday night.
It proved to be an historic evening at the Smoky Mountain Speedway in more than one way during the Lucas oil Late Model Dirt Series event on Saturday night. Attendance set records as the largest crowd to ever watch a dirt race on the Maryville, Tenn. track witnessed the end to one of the most impressive streaks in the modern history of Dirt Late Model racing as an east Tennessee native drove to victory and a $10,000 payday.
Randy Weaver, of Crossville, Tenn., took the lead on lap 16 and then beat the field to the checkered, which ended the nine race winning streak of LOLMDS points leader Jonathan Davenport.
Chris Ferguson proved to be fastest in qualifying when he posted a lap of 15.387 seconds around the 4/10 mile oval located in Maryville, Tenn. Others to earn pole positions for their respective heat races were Weaver, Scott Bloomquist and Skip Arp.
Ferguson grabbed the pole for the feature when he won the first heat over Devin Moran, Jimmy Owens and Eddie Carrier, Jr.
Weaver was the victor in the second heat race of the night over Mike Marlar, Don O’Neal, and Tommy Kerr.
Bloomquist snared the outside front row starting spot for the feature by winning heat three ahead of Casey Roberts, Davenport and Earl Pearson, Jr. The red hot Davenport had started near the tail of this preliminary due to a broken brake line suffered during qualifying but charged up into a transfer position despite the earlier bad luck.
Arp won the fourth and final heat over Jared Landers, Chris Brown and Donald McIntosh.
Steve Francis and Ray Cook claimed the two B-main races that set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, Ferguson went to the early lead followed by Weaver and Bloomquist. However, a caution slowed the action just after the completion of the first circuit when Arp crashed into the turn one wall while battling for the fourth spot.
When green flag racing resumed, it was Ferguson again who assumed the role as leader of the race with Weaver and Bloomquist keeping close tabs. Meanwhile, Davenport began a charge toward the front of the field that saw him crack the top-5 from his tenth starting position by the seventh lap.
By lap 14, Weaver’s intentions of taking the lead became clear as he began stalking Ferguson in each corner of the racetrack. Finally, the No. 116 car moved around the early front runner as the cars roared down the backstretch on lap 16.
Weaver moved around Ferguson on lap 16.
As Weaver began to put space between himself and the rest of the pack, Bloomquist moved into position to challenge Ferguson for the runner-up spot. At the halfway point of the race the spot was taken as Ferguson then began to fall into the clutches of Roberts, Davenport and Owens who were battling for positions of their own.
Just after halfway, Davenport made an attempt to keep his winning streak alive as he moved past Roberts then Ferguson to take third. At the same time, Weaver was slipping away from Bloomquist by slicing through slower traffic.
Bloomquist just held off a late attempt by Davenport to grab second place.
Davenport caught Bloomquist in the waning laps of the event as both also made slight gains on Weaver. However, it would be the No. 116 that would lead the way to the checkered flag as Bloomquist just held off Davenport for second at the finish line.
Feature Finish: 1. Randy Weaver, 2. Scott Bloomquist, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Jimmy Owens, 5. Casey Roberts, 6. Earl Pearson, Jr., 7. Chris Ferguson, 8. Jared Landers, 9. Tommy Kerr, 10. Dennis Erb, Jr., 11. Don O’Neal, 12. Steve Francis, 13. Eddie Carrier, Jr., 14. Donald McIntosh, 15. Chris Brown, 16. Brandon Sheppard, 17. Devin Moran, 18. Ryan King, 19. Steve Casebolt, 20. Mike Marlar, 21. Ray Cook, 22. Dennis Franklin, 23. David Payne, 24. Skip Arp
Weaver flanked by Bloomquist and Davenport in Victory Lane at Smoky Mountain
