TAMPA, Fla. - Scott Bloomquist held off a late charge from Jonathan Davenport to win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series sanctioned event on Thursday Night at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Fla.
Bloomquist took the lead on lap two from Tim Dohm and then he held off Davenport and Gregg Satterlee for his seventh career win at the East Bay Winternationals. Darrell Lanigan and Devin Moran rounded out the top five.
“There was plenty of room out there to race,” said Bloomquist. “A guy could move around on the track a lot tonight. If we needed to go to the top to get around a lapped car, it was still fast. We didn’t want to overdrive. I didn’t know how much damage I could do to the tires. After that last restart, it didn’t take off like I wanted it too. They move the show along so quickly here, that it makes it’s tough to make any major adjustments on the car. There were two or three more things to change but we didn’t get the chance. Overall I am very happy with the car after tonight’s race.
“He (Davenport) didn’t give me a whole lot of room on the start in our heat, but we were able to get by him. He is still running well. I can’t take anything away from him for the way he is running. We are still working hard. We are up for the challenge and excited for tonight, and ready for the rest of the week.”
Davenport, Blairsville, Ga., won his first career super late model feature at East Bay Wedneday, and came up just short of making it back-to-back wins.
“It was a good race. It would have been more exciting for me if I would have won, but I gave it all I had in the last few laps,” he said. “We tried to go the outside to make it work. We came home in second so that’s not too bad.
“It got so slick in turn one that I couldn’t enter the corner like I wanted to. In turn two, I thought I was going to hit the fence. I didn’t want to do that again like I did during the race heat race. I was trying to pace myself early and hopefully have enough at the end. Thanks to my crew for working so hard. We got it back together after the heat. Hope the fans enjoyed that race.”
Satterlee had his best finish of the Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, coming home in third place. The Pennsylvania driver ran as high as second.
“It’s been tough. Our heads have been hanging in the pit area for the last couple of days,” Saterlee said. “We are trying to stay positive with this new Rocket. We think we found how to balance the car out properly. It feels good to get a third place finish. We fell off there at the end. It was probably me trying to protect the bottom. I guess I just need to worry about going fast.”
Completing the top ten were Jared Landers, Earl Pearson, Jr., Tim Dohm, Eddie Carrier, Jr. and Ricky Weiss.
In preliminary action, Davenport set the overall fast time (Group A) amongst the 38 entrants, with a lap of 14.706 seconds. Dohm set the fastest time in Group B with a time of 15.005 seconds. Bloomquist, Satterlee, Dohm and Lanigan won their respective heat races. Steve Francis and Weiss won their respective B-Mains.
For more information on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, visit LucasDirt.com.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL
East Bay Winternationals – Feb. 11, 2016
| FINISH | START | CAR # | DRIVER NAME | HOMETOWN |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | Scott Bloomquist | Mooresburg, TN |
| 2 | 5 | 6 | Jonathan Davenport | Blairsville, GA |
| 3 | 3 | 22 | Gregg Satterlee | Rochester Mills, PA |
| 4 | 4 | 15L | Darrell Lanigan | Union, KY |
| 5 | 8 | 99m | Devin Moran | Dresden, OH |
| 6 | 7 | 777 | Jared Landers | Batesville, AR |
| 7 | 6 | 1 | Earl Pearson, Jr. | Jacksonville, FL |
| 8 | 2 | 6T | Tim Dohm | Charleston, WV |
| 9 | 9 | 28 | Eddie Carrier, Jr. | Salt Rock, WV |
| 10 | 18 | 7w | Ricky Weiss | Headingley, MB |
| 11 | 20 | 5 | Don O’Neal | Martinsville, IN |
| 12 | 17 | 15F | Steve Francis | Ashland, KY |
| 13 | 11 | 5W | Mark Whitener | Middleburg, FL |
| 14 | 15 | 28e | Dennis Erb, Jr. | Carpentersville, IL |
| 15 | 12 | 116 | Randy Weaver | Crossville, TN |
| 16 | 25 | 32 | Bobby Pierce | Oakwood, IL |
| 17 | 21 | 4G | Bob Gardner | Washington, IL |
| 18 | 19 | 40B | Kyle Bronson | Brandon, FL |
| 19 | 10 | 10 | David Breazeale | Four Corners, MS |
| 20 | 22 | 16 | Justin Rattliff | Campbellsville, KY |
| 21 | 13 | 39 | Tim McCreadie | Watertown, NY |
| 22 | 14 | 25Z | Mason Zeigler | Chalk Hill, PA |
| 23 | 26 | 92 | Nick Davis | Millsboro, DE |
| 24 | 23 | K | Freddie Carpenter | Parkersburg, WV |
| 25 | 24 | 1×1 | Sonny Conley | New Martinsville, WV |
| 26 | 16 | 38C | John Gardner | Germantown Hills, IL |
Race Statistics
Entrants: 38
Lap Leaders: Tim Dohm (Lap 1); Scott Bloomquist (Laps 2 – 45)
Cautions: Dennis Erb Jr. (Start); Don O’Neal, Nick Davis, Sonny Conley (Restart); Sonny Conley (Lap 9); Don O’Neal (Lap 9, restart); Bobby Pierce (Lap 28)
Fastest Lap of the Race: Jonathan Davenport (Lap #5 – 14.5991 seconds)
Most Laps Led: Scott Bloomquist (44 Laps)
Time of Race: 24 minutes 34 seconds
