Monday, September 8th, 2014

Bloomquist overcomes penalty to win World 100 for fourth time

World 100

By Mike Ernst
ROSSBURG - The aura and legend of Scott Bloomquist grew even larger on Saturday night at the 44th annual World 100 at Eldora Speedway.
The polarizing 50-year old Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer took the lead on lap 19, went to the tail of the 32-car field after being penalized for an illegal part on his car and then stormed through the pack to win dirt racing's most prestigious event for the fourth time.
"I believe everybody got to witness the fastest race car in the world right there," Bloomquist, of Mooresboro, Tenn., said after climbing from his car in victory lane. "We talked this week in the shop. I told everybody I was gonna win this race this weekend and here it is."
Bloomquist started the feature event in the fifth position after winning the second heat race and methodically worked his way to the lead on lap 19 by passing Dale McDowell.
During a caution, United Midwest Promoters (UMP) and Eldora officials were alerted by crew members of other teams to a solid piece of Lexan that Bloomquist had woven through the window net of his car.
"I read the rule book forward, backwards and every which way and there is nothing in there about the window net," Bloomquist said. "I'd still like someone to show me where in the rulebook it says we couldn't have it."
Officials decided after a brief discussion to penalize Bloomquist by sending him to the tail for the ensuing restart.
Restarting in the 29th position, Bloomquist quickly began his march back to the front. He worked his way into the top 15 by lap 35 and was up to eighth by the halfway point of the 100-lap race.
Bloomquist cracked the top five on lap 55 and after grabbing fourth a few laps later, he was elevated to second when Mason Zeigler spun while attempting to take the lead from McDowell on lap 61. Ziegler, who appeared to be the only car capable of running as fast as Bloomquist, spun up the race track and collided with Jimmy Mars.
"The car was just so good and I was so confident," Bloomquist, who scored his sixth consecutive top-10 finish in the World 100, said. "I knew there was plenty of laps left. I knew the car would work anywhere on the racetrack. Anyone that would try to run the bottom like I did, they could get in there, but as soon as they'd throttle, they'd push out of it, which would just leave me the whole racetrack."
McDowell, who was looking for a sweep of Eldora's major late model events after winning the $100,000 top prize in The Dream in June, momentarily held off Bloomquist on the restart. Bloomquist chased McDowell for 11 laps before making the eventual winning move on the bottom of turns one and two on lap 72.
Bloomquist then pulled away to pick up the famed globed trophy for the first time since 2001. He also won the race in his first appearance at the track in 1988 and then again two years later.
"We have had a lot of second place finishes here, I mean a lot of second place finishes," Bloomquist said of his eight runner-up finishes. "We just missed it a little bit at the Dream, but I knew what I had to do to fix it and we did that."
Bloomquist was also thrilled the track's surface was prepared to where the drivers were able to race all over the high-banked oval.
"This is the best Eldora I've ever seen," said Bloomquist. "I gotta take my hat off for everyone that worked on (the track). You can see it's from the top to the bottom wall. I know there was a few times I wasn't sure if I wasn't rubbing the inside wall with the left front (tire)."
McDowell held on to finish in second-place to just miss joining Donnie Moran (1996) and Billy Moyer (1998) as the only drivers to sweep Eldora's major events.
"I think I overworked my tire running that high side," McDowell said. "I was just free. Just a little bit too free, but that's part of it. We'll go to work (for) a little bit and try to come back here in June and repeat the Dream maybe."
McDowell did not think the window net had any effect on the outcome.
"It obviously didn't make any difference in the result," McDowell said. "Anything that you can put on the left side to trap or do something is an aero advantage, but obviously he didn't need that. Scott was just on."
Two-time World 100 winner Jimmy Owens finished in the third position while Jason Feger had his best career World 100 finish in fourth-place and former Dream winner and Friday night consolation winner Matt Miller completed the top five.
Finishing in positions 6-10 were Kent Robinson, Rick Eckert, Gregg Satterlee, Terry Phillips and Shannon Babb. Heat races were won by second-generation driver Jackie Boggs,Bloomquist, Robinson; Chris Madden, McDowell and Mike Marlar.
Jeff Babcock, driving a car prepared by Best Performance Motorsports of St. Marys, was the fastest qualifier for the event, but finished 20th in the main event.
St. Henry's Bill Dues' two-car team with drivers Duane Chamberlain and Jacob Hawkins failed to qualify for the mainevent. Each ended his night when they failed to finish in the top three of their heat race or top five of the B-main.
Eldora returns to action on Sept. 19 when the STP World of Outlaw Sprint Cars return to Eldora for the final time in 2014 when they kick off the annual Four Crown Nationals weekend which will also feature the USAC Midgets, Sprint Cars and Silver Crown Series on Sept. 20th.
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ST. MARYS - The St. Marys soccer team showed flashes of greatness in Saturday's 4-1 win at Roughrider Field over Botkins, a team ranked eighth in the latest Miami Valley Scholastic Soccer Association poll. [More]
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