LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. (Aug. 26) — Asserting himself as they raced off the exit of turn two, Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., passed Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., on lap 34 and went on to lead the remaining distance to win Saturday’s Whiskey City 60 at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway.
En route to a $12,000 victory, Bloomquist steadily moved forward after starting seventh, stalking Satterlee for four laps after the rookie of the year candidate took the lead from fellow rookie contender Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind.
Working around the hub, Bloomquist then rolled to his third straight Whiskey City 60 victory and second consecutive Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win. It marked the first time this season that the defending series champion, who also won last weekend at Batesville (Ark.) Motor Speedway, managed to win back-to-back series races.
“We got down and I just started feeling the car was getting some pretty good grip on the bottom and it started rubbering up a bit in (turns) one and two,” said Bloomquist. “It took a little longer for turns (three and four) to come in. As you could see at the end of the race everybody was on the bottom.”
Bloomquist finished 2.729 seconds ahead of Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., who started 12th, while series points leader Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., was third after starting from the outside front row. Satterlee settled for fourth after leading laps 30-34 and O’Neal was fifth after pacing the field on laps 26-29.
After starting on the fourth row, Bloomquist ran in the top five early. Polesitter Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., took the lead at the start and led the first 25 laps before giving way to O’Neal. Bloomquist wasn’t a factor for the lead until the halfway mark. Just as Satterlee slid by O’Neal, Bloomquist slipped into third. A lap later he was hounding Satterlee.
“Our car was working good early. Our plan wasn’t to chase the cushion or anything, it was just to get the car good and tight so we could stay on the bottom and wait on it to come in,” said Bloomquist. “As black as it got, I thought it may rubber up in the middle or maybe on the top. I just felt it start coming on the bottom there and just stayed with it and that got us to the front.
“That one restart, I really wanted to get down to the bottom pretty quick. It was a pretty exciting start. I was afraid if Jimmy got in front of me right then, I knew it was gonna rubber up and I might have a heck of a time getting by him. So I was really … not desperate, but I saw the urgency to get down to the bottom and maintain that groove.”
Owens methodically worked his way forward, but after getting by Richards he didn’t quite have a car capable of chasing down Bloomquist.
“(Bloomquist) was better than I was. I was way too tight,” said Owens. “When I kept the car under me and tried to rotate the corners as good as I could, I’d push out. And then if I went in too hard and let the car tail out, then I was free all the way off. We was just a titch tighter than we needed to be.”
Richards, who entered the race 110-points ahead of Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and 145-points in front of Bloomquist, registered another solid finish in his quest for his first Lucas Oil series title. As the tour heads to Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park and Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W. Va., for a pair of shows over the Labor Day holiday weekend, he now leads Bloomquist by 125 points, while McCreadie is 145 markers back.
“I’m just kinda kicking myself on that restart,” said Richards, who was making his first start at Lawrenceburg since 2009. “I really thought that top was gonna be better than it was. I spun the tires and fell back. I mean, the best car won the race tonight. Scott and those guys did a great job. You just … could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. We got the top and fell back there and then went to the top to get by those lapped cars and Jimmy got by. We got by Gregg (Satterlee) there, so we didn’t really lose anything. It’s nice to run third, but we just needed to be a little bit better tonight.”
With his first back-to-back Lucas Oil tour victories of the season helping him jump back ahead of McCreadie in the series points race, Bloomquist is back to within striking distance of Richards. He has six more weekends and nine point paying events to try to trek down the series leader.
“We had all that trouble dropping out of four races with that vapor locking our fuel system,” Bloomquist said. “We finally got that handled and now we’re back on track. Hopefully we can work our way back up, but you know we had a pretty big point lead and then it went to being a pretty big (deficit). We’re just gonna keep plugging away.”
