Hall of Famer finds groove at BMS
LOCUST GROVE — Mired in what is likely the worst season of his Hall of Fame career, it would figure that Scott Bloomquist needed only a trip to Batesville Motor Speedway to turn things around.
Bloomquist, of Mooresburg, Tenn., claimed his first victory of the season Friday night, leading all 30 laps to win the second preliminary feature of the 27th annual Comp Cams Topless 100 at BMS.
The victory, coupled with his thirdplace finish in Thursday night’s prelim, gave Bloomquist the outside front-row starting position in the 100-lap main event, which was held late Saturday night and paid $40,000 to win.
“We’re just glad everyone hung in there with us,” Bloomquist told dirtondirt.com. “Hopefully, things will turn around in these final races this year, and we can mow some down.”
Bloomquist, 55, has won a record five Topless 100 titles, including the most recent held in 2017 — last year’s race was rained out — and he has nine other top-five finishes at the event.
But he struggled throughout the 2019 season. He missed more than three months after suffering leg and hip injuries in a motorcycle accident at Daytona Beach, Fla., in March. It appeared his career was in jeopardy.
“There was a whole lot that went through my mind after the accident happened,” Bloomquist said after the race Friday night. “The doctors don’t want to tell you anything positive to give you false hope. They told me, ‘You better just focus on getting better and not racing anymore this year or anytime soon.’
“Finally, they told me it would be 12 weeks to stay off of my leg. Then they told me the bones were healed, and I asked them, ‘What can keep me from racing?’ They said they didn’t think I could handle the pain, and I said, ‘Well then, I am going to race.’ ”
Friday night’s race was the 600th in the history of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and was the record 94th victory for Bloomquist in the series. It was also the 604th overall victory in his career, which began in 1980.
Bloomquist started on the pole alongside Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., Thursday’s prelim winner who also drives a car owned and maintained by Bloomquist. The two battled side-byside throughout many laps in the early portion of the race, but Bloomquist held a 1.305-second lead at the checkered flag.
“I was trying to set a healthy pace and not overwork myself,” said Madden, who was scheduled to start from the pole Saturday night. “I thought I might have something at the end for him [Bloomquist], and we went door-to-door for a while. We had a right-rear tire going down at the end and we were just trying to hang on for second.”
Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., the series points leader whose car is owned by Lance Landers of Batesville, took third. Shanon Buckingham of Morristown, Tenn., and Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., rounded out the top five.