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Waking up to the tragic news of Scott Bloomquist passing on August 16, quickly brought me back to September 10, 1988; a beautiful late summer day and an overflow crowd of close to 20,000 was working their way into Eldora Speedway for the 18th annual World 100.
Pre-race scuttlebutt throughout the facility focused on could Randy Boggs repeat his upset win of 1987? Or would his more-accomplished and better-known brother Jack Boggs finally get the Eldora monkey off his back? Would Larry Moore or Jeff Purvis be the first to win their fourth World 100? Could youngster Donnie Moran win the World 100? Could Billy Moyer, after years of heartbreak, win his first World 100?
The answer to all of those questions was “No.” This was the night the sport of dirt late model racing would change forever.
Scott Bloomquist, a 24-year-old relative unknown from Mooresburg, Tennessee, started seventh in the main event and methodically worked his way through the heat race winners and took the lead from Purvis, the Eldora dominator entering the event, for the lead at the halfway point and was never threatened the 2nd half of the race and captured the $21,000 victory.
“We have a pretty good record of winning our first time at a new track,” Bloomquist would say years later when remembering that night. “We won our first time here. I had never seen the place on video or anything. I just knew this was the biggest race in our sport and I wanted to be a part of it. I pulled in here the first time and seen all the people and all the race cars and thought “What am I doing here?” It was the biggest race track I’d ever seen, and I seriously thought about pulling out and going back home and running a local race that was paying $4,000 to win that I knew I could win.”
Obviously, he stayed and won and quickly wrestled the title of Eldora dominator away from Purvis, another driver from Tennessee. Purvis would only make one more start in the World 100 before turning his attention to NASCAR.
“We knew he (Purvis) was the best at the time, and we tried to go to every race he did because, even then, I wanted to measure myself against the best,” Bloomquist said. “That was really the reason we went to Eldora that first year because that was where he was going.”
Two years later Bloomquist would win the World 100 again, holding off a late charge by Tom Helfrich in a race that was delayed three times by rain and was finally completed in mid-October.
Following the win, the legendary photo of Bloomquist emerging from his winning car in victory lane with his signature long hair blowing in the wind and the American flag waving in the fall breeze became one of the most iconic pictures in the sport’s history. (My apologies for not knowing who snapped the picture).
Beginning with his win in 1988, Bloomquist along with Moyer and Moran started a 14-year rivalry that had never been seen before and will probably never be seen again. The trio of Bloomquist, Moran, and Moyer won 12 of the next 14 World 100 with only Jack Boggs (1995) and Steve Francis (1999) able to break the stranglehold the three had on the sport’s biggest race.
While Bloomquist would not return to World 100 victory lane until 2001, Earl Baltes started the $100,000 to-win Dirt Late Model Dream in 1994 and Bloomquist benefitted immensely.
After suffering a flat tire while leading with only a handful of laps remaining in the inaugural event, Bloomquist returned a year later, passed John Gill on lap 78, and went on to win the DLM Dream and the 100 grand top prize for the first time.
Bloomquist would eventually win the Dream and the $100,000 top prize a record eight times (1995, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2017, and 2018) and has won the World 100 four times adding wins in 2001 and 2014 to the 1988 and 1990 wins.
His four World 100 wins are 3rd on the all-time win list behind Billy Moyer (6) and Jonathan Davenport (5). But the true legend of Bloomquist has been his incredible consistency at Eldora for the better part of the last 40 years.
He has started the biggest two races in dirt late model racing an amazing 55 times (32 World 100 starts, 23 starts in the Dream). He has 12 wins (8 Dream, 4 World 100) but has finished in the top five of the two races an incredible 33 times (19 World 100 top 5, 14 Dream top 5) including eight runner-up finishes in the World 100 and two runner-up runs in the Dream.
He has led 652 feature laps at Dream, which is easily #1. Moyer is 2nd with 240 laps led. Jonathan Davenport, the newest Eldora dominator, just led 100 laps to win the Dream in June, he would need to lead every feature lap of the next five Dream races to pass Bloomquist.
Bloomquist is third on the all-time World 100 laps led list, with 338 laps led. Only Moyer (393 laps led) and Davenport (342) have led more. Bloomquist won his World 100 heat race 10 times which is tied with Billy Moyer for first all-time. Bloomquist is easily alone at the top with 11 Dream heat race wins. Bloomquist has been the fast qualifier eight times for the World 100 which is more than doubled Charlie Swartz and Donnie Moran’s three.
“I love racing here. This is a place you have to race. Not just drive around, you have to RACE. You have to race hard and if you have a better car you are going to pass people,” Bloomquist said of Eldora prior to the 2019 Dream. “I spend a little extra time getting ready to come race here and I really enjoy racing here. I may not always go to all the races, but I plan on coming back here for a long, long time.”
Bloomquist's most dominating run at Eldora came in the controversial 2014 World 100. After taking the lead on lap 20, Bloomquist was found to have an unapproved plexiglass window covering. Bloomquist was put on the tail and rallied through the field, took the lead from Dale McDowell on lap 72, and nearly lapped the field over the final 80 laps to win his final World 100.
“I would have lapped the field is what would have happened,” Bloomquist said after being asked what would have happened had he not been put to the tail. “That would have been entertaining but near as entertaining as that was. I think everyone knows who had the fastest car in the world tonight.”
No story of Bloomquist and Eldora can be told without the long list of his near misses at Eldora and the incredible list of off-track actions that have been a major story of his love/hate relationship with the World’s Greatest Dirt Track.
“People love talking about the races I have won here but I have been so close to winning at least that many more and then some if some weird things don’t happen,” Bloomquist said.
In the 2001 World 100, Bloomquist led the majority of the race and was passed by Brian Birkhofer on the final lap, in a pass dubbed the “slide job heard around the World.”
Bloomquist protested afterward that the flagman waved the white flag two laps in a row and that he had led lap 100 and that the pass actually occurred on lap 101. He eventually lost the protest but always thought he had won that race.
“I know he waved the white flag and then I led the next lap. I know what I saw,” Bloomquist recounted the event years later. “I thought the race was over and Birkhofer slid up in front of me and I was wondering what that was all about and then I seen all the fans cheering and didn’t know what was going on. Had I known we were still racing I would have won that one.”
Davenport burst onto the scene in 2015 and showed up at Eldora ready to knock Bloomquist from his throne. On a lap 91 restart, Bloomquist got a big run and passed Davenport to take the lead. Bloomquist held off Davenport in the closing laps to win his seventh Dream.
However, what happened next will go down as one of the most famous moments in Eldora's history. Bloomquist was 25 lbs. light on the scale, leading announcer James Essex to say the famous words, “There is no green light.” It would be Davenport’s first Dream and first Eldora crown jewel win.
Bloomquist would file a lawsuit that said the scales at Eldora were faulty and not up to standard. The lawsuit lingered for most of the summer after the event but Eldora and UMP officials prevailed in the suit.
Bloomquist was right back fighting Eldora and UMP in the courts a year later following the 2016 Dream. Bloomquist, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jimmy Owens, Brandon Sheppard, and Gregg Satterlee were disqualified from the 2016 Dream after their tires were found to have an unapproved substance on them. The five were banned from Eldora for a year and were all forced to miss the 2016 World 100.
“It was really tough to not be here for the World 100 in 2016,” Bloomquist said. “Especially for something I didn’t do. We were really on top of our game at Eldora during that stretch. I’ve told Bobby (2016 winner Bobby Pierce) he still hasn’t won a World 100 that I was at.”
When Bloomquist returned to the Dream in 2017 he returned with a vengeance. He led the final 46 laps to claim his seventh Dream and backed it up with another dominating win in 2018 for his 8th and final Dream win and what would turn out to be his final Eldora win.
“I’ve loved coming here since Earl owned this place,” Bloomquist said. “I think Earl and I were a lot alike. One night after one of the races I won here, Earl and I got into his whiskey cabinet and had a good ole time and we watched the sun come up. I don’t think Berneice was too happy with him and I’m not sure he ever got the keys to the liquor cabinet back.”
The stories of Bloomquist and Eldora can be told and will be told for years to come. He won races, a lot of races, at tracks all over the country. He won every marquee event in dirt late model racing multiple times, but he will forever be synonymous with Eldora Speedway.
Unfortunately, the final lap at Eldora for Bloomquist was his frightening heat race crash in June during the 2024 Dream. But even after such a hard, grinding crash, Bloomquist emerged from his battered machine, raising both arms to the fans in a final iconic photo.
The 2024 World 100 is just around the corner but there will be a giant hole in Rossburg, Ohio September 7th. As Ben Shelton always said, “Some of you came here to see him win, some of you came here to see him lose but you all came to see him.”
RIP legend. Thank you for close to 40 years of memories. You will never be forgotten.
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