Scott Bloomquist
Scott Bloomquist has had some of his best dirt racing moments at the Eldora Speedway. The winner of eight Dirt Late Model Dreams and four World 100 globe trophies has at times made the Rossburg, OH facility his personal playground. And some of those crown jewel wins came about after the legendary driver battled through adversity. For example, the No. 0 machine was sent to the tail of the field during the 2014 World 100 but fought all the back to score the win in that prestigious event.
At the same time, there have been some low points at ‘The Big E’ for the Mooresburg, TN driver. In 2015, he appeared to have captured yet another Dirt Late Model Dream and the $100,000 that went with it only to have his car come up light at the scales in post-race inspection, handing the win to Jonathan Davenport.
If Bloomquist is to win the 27th annual Dirt Late Model Dream on Thursday night, he will once again have to overcome adversity. The 57-year-old driver experienced numerous problems during Wednesday night’s preliminary action that will lead into the $127,000-to-win main event. As a result, the Hall of Fame driver will have to fight his way from the tail of the field in a heat race if he is even to make the feature starting grid.
According to reports from the track, Bloomquist was late arriving to the Eldora Speedway on Wednesday, and thus, missed the drivers meeting. The penalty for doing so is to be held out of qualifying which will cause the offending driver to start from the tail of his assigned heat race.
The leader of Team Zero started from the rear of the first heat race in Group B. With the top-5 transferring to the second of two $10,000-to-win feature events, Bloomquist came up short by finishing seventh. As a result, he would have to race his way into the main event by way of a B-main.
Starting fifth in that last chance race with the top-4 earning a place in the feature, it did not appear as if all was lost. However, when the green waved to start the 12-lap affair, Bloomquist’s car stalled on the front stretch requiring a push to the pit area. Eventually, the engine re-fired and he returned to the track but would again have to start from the tail.
By only making his way up to seventh in the B-main, Bloomquist failed to transfer and would have to sit out the Wednesday’s feature races.
Scott Bloomquist will have to start from the rear of his heat race
The bigger problem is that with the ‘every lap matters’ format being used for the Dream, Bloomquist will have to dig his way out of a deep hole on Thursday. Drivers are awarded points for their performances in qualifying, heat races, and the features for the purpose of setting the starting lineups for the heat races that will be used to set the grid for the big race.
With no qualifying lap recorded and failing to make the Wednesday night feature, Bloomquist will likely have to start from the tail of a heat race on Thursday which will make his task a difficult one considering the level of competition among the 74 drivers entered in this race.
We have seen this driver overcome adversity before but to do so this time will be difficult at best.
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