ROSSBURG, Ohio - Scott Bloomquist powered around the outside of Brandon Overton on lap 55 and cruised the rest of the way to a dominating win for his 7th career victory in the $100,000 to-win Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio on Saturday night.
“It’s like all these big shows, you are just glad they are over with,” Bloomquist said. “Mission accomplished.”
Bloomquist, of Mooreseburg, Tennessee, started in the seventh position after finishing in second-place in the opening heat race and methodically worked his way forward from the drop of the green flag.
He cracked the top-five on lap eight and moved to fourth-place when Mason Zeigler, who was running in the top five, brought out the first caution flag when he slowed with a flat tire on lap 12. On the double-file restart, Bloomquist jumped to the runner-up position behind leader Brandon Overton.
Bloomquist swapped second place with Brandon Sheppard three times over the next 40 laps before finally shaking free of the Illinois driver on lap 53.
Two laps later the 53-year old Bloomquist made the winning move around Overton and was never seriously challenged the remaining 45 laps building as much as an eight second lead in the closing stages of the event.
“This has always been one of my favorite places to race ever since I first came here in 1988,” Bloomquist said. “It is such a beautiful race track and you can race all over it from the inside wall to the outside wall. I can’t say enough for how these guys prep a race track. There were a few little bumps but that just gave the track character.”
Bloomquist took his time with lapped traffic late in the race and crossed the finish line 4.5 seconds ahead of Sheppard who won a spirited battle with Overton for the runner-up position.
“I wasn’t really sure (how big the lead was), then I got to some of the lapped traffic and the 18 car and I about had him cleared. Our air got a little messed up and I got loose so I backed off a little bit and tried not to get too much heat in the tires. That would have cost us more than anything,” Bloomquist said.
Sheppard’s runner-up finish and Overton’s third-place finish were career best runs in the Dream for both of the young drivers.
“That was a fun race there with Brandon (Overton). We always race each other clean, so it was fun racing with him and congratulations to Scott. He was pretty good,” Sheppard said. “Once me and Brandon got the line figured out that we wanted to run, we were already too far behind.”
“That’s not too bad at all. We will take that,” Overton, of Evans, Georgia, said. “Congratulations to Scott. If we are going to lose, these are the two to lose to. Me and Brandon raced each other as clean as we could. We faded a little bit but to get out there and lead we are all tickled to death. I want to thank all the fans here and back in Georgia. This place is pretty cool.”
Tim McCreadie finished in fourth-place for his best career Eldora finish, while Chris Madden finished in fifth after starting 14th.
Dale McDowell, Jimmy Mars, Mike Marlar, Earl Pearson, Jr., and Zach Dohm rounded out the top ten.
Kent Robinson led the first 11 laps of the main event from his outside front-row starting position before giving way to Overton who led laps 12-55. After that it was all Bloomquist.
“It’s awesome to win here,” Bloomquist said. “We have a lot of fans and a lot of naysayers but that’s what makes it all go around.”
For more information on Eldora Speedway, visit EldoraSpeedway.com.
Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, OH
Dirt Late Model Dream – June 10, 2017
1. 0-Scott Bloomquist
2. 1-Brandon Sheppard
3. 116-Brandon Overton
4. 39-Tim McCreadie
5. 44-Chris Madden
6. 17M-Dale McDowell
7. 28M-Jimmy Mars
8. 157-Mike Marlar
9. 1P-Earl Pearson, Jr.
10. 17-Zack Dohm
11. 32S-Chris Simpson
12. 21-Billy Moyer
13. 32P-Bobby Pierce
14. 18-Chase Junghans
15. 28-Dennis Erb, Jr.
16. 5-Don O’Neal
17. 7R-Kent Robinson
18. 15H-Jon Henry
19. 71-Hudson O’Neal
20. 9-Devin Moran
21. 7B-Jeff Babcock
22. 14-Darrell Lanigan
23. 25Z-Mason Zeigler
24. 91-Tyler Erb
25. 49-Jonathan Davenport
26. 25C-Shane Clanton
27. 18B-Shannon Babb
28. 99JR-Frank Heckenast, Jr.
