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Scott Bloomquist Leads Team Zero Sweep on Saturday Afternoon at East Bay DART
Winternationals
TAMPA, FL - Leading all 50 laps, Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, TN held off Jimmy Owens of
Newport, TN by two car lengths to win Saturday afternoon’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
event at East Bay Raceway Park. The $10,000 to win race was washed out on Friday and
rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader of action during the 34th Annual DART
internationals. Trailing Bloomquist and Owens to the finish was Eric Jacobsen of Seacliffe Beach,
CA; Billy Moyer of Batesville, AR; and Rick Eckert of York, PA.
Bloomquist and Owens started on the front row of the 26 car starting field. Bloomquist quickly
opened up a three-car length advantage over Owens, current DART Winternationals point’s
leader Dennis Erb Jr., Shannon Babb, and Eric Jacobsen. Jacobsen then dueled side-by-side
with Babb for two laps before finally clearing the veteran racer to take over the fourth position.
Just as Bloomquist was picking up the tail end of the field on the track. The first caution came out
for Jimmy Mars, who came to a halt in the middle of backstretch. Mars was pushed off the track,
becoming the first car out of the event.
On the restart, Bloomquist held the point as the race went green for a lap until the next caution
came out for Tyler Reddick. The third restart still had Bloomquist in front, just ahead of Owens,
Erb, Jacobsen and Babb.
The top five remained the same until Jacobsen was able to make a pass on Erb for third on lap
21. Owens was able to chase down Bloomquist as the race for the lead was getting interesting.
He pulled even with Bloomquist on a couple of occasions after lap 23. All that seemed to
accomplish was wake Bloomquist up as he started to open up some distance between himself and
Owens.
On lap 29, the third and final caution flew for Michael Walker who stopped in turn one. The final
restart had the field line up single file behind Bloomquist who had led every lap until this point of
the race. The trio of Bloomquist, Owens and Jacobsen continued to show their superiority pulling
away from the rest of the running order with 20 laps to go.
The distance between the top three was basically even with four-to-five car lengths separating
the trio of Bloomquist, Owens and Jacobsen. Behind those three was an excellent battle between
several drivers as Erb, Babb, Billy Moyer and Earl Pearson, Jr. were jockeying for a spot in the
top five.
With ten laps to go, things were looking good for Bloomquist as he was comfortably out in front of
Owens and Jacobsen. With 44 laps down Moyer charged to fourth in front of Erb, but he was
running out of time to catch the cars in front of him. With five laps remaining, Owens started to
pick up the pace closing the gap on Bloomquist as the fans were anticipating another close finish
like the Wednesday and Thursday Night had provided as Owens closed to within four lengths of
Bloomquist with two to go.
Owens then reduced the lead to two lengths on the white flag lap as another last lap charge
looked imminent, but Bloomquist got into and out of turn four with no problems. He held off Owens
by two lengths to record his second victory of the week and his fourth ever at the one-third mile
oval.
In the Lucas Oil Victory Lane for 19th time in his Hall of Fame career, the 2009 Lucas Oil Late
Model Dirt Series National Champion Bloomquist commented that the track was a lot racier than
he thought it would be, “for a daytime race it was good, we knew tire selection was going to be
critical. I was just hoping we had made the right choice, Jimmy, I figured was right there and I
guess Eric ended up third, so that makes us feel good, to win here twice in one week is something
we’ve never done before an it’s a great way to get the season started,” said the 46-year-old
driver who has seven national touring titles to his credit.
“I have to thank Bob and Barb Miller for all their support through the years and my crew did a
great job preparing this car we’ve come awfully close to winning a third time this week so we’ll give
it a shot tonight and try to end the week on a solid note,” said Bloomquist, who drives his own
Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS powered by a Vic Hill Racing Engine and sponsored by
Miller Brothers Construction, Hawkeye Trucking, Sweet Mfg, Ohlins, VP Racing Fuels, Arizona
Sport Shirts, Lane Automotive and Hoosier Racing Tires.
Owens, in the Reece Monument Company/Cornett Racing Engines/Bloomquist Race Cars Ford
Fusion finished second followed by Jacobsen in his VP Racing Fuels/Bell Helmets/Bloomquist
Race Cars Monte Carlo SS. Completing the top five in the finishing order were 13th starting Billy
Moyer in the Henderson Motorsports/Cornett Racing Engines/Moyer Victory Circle M1 Ford
Mustang GT and Eckert in the J&K Salvage/Jay Dickens Racing Engines/Bloomquist Race Cars
Corvette to give Bloomquist built-cars four of the top five spots.
Completing the top ten were Dennis Erb, Jr. of Carpentersville, IL. Shannon Babb of Moweaqua,
IL, Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, FL, Brady Smith of Solon Springs, WI and Tim McCreadie of
Watertown, NY.
To find out more about the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, log on to www.lucasdirt.com or call
the series office at (951) 532-2503.
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