Hartman has 'em covered in Lone Star WOO/SUPR showdown

Hartman has 'em covered in Lone Star WOO/SUPR showdown

By Brian Dunlap
WoO LMS Public Relations Kilgore, TX (April 17, 2004) --
The World of Outlaws Late Model series returned to Lone star Speedway Saturday for a second night of non-stop action packed racing. This time, it was Dirty Dozen driver Bret Hartman that was able to walk away with the win and a check for $12,000.

Hartman set the fast time of the night and weekend with a 16.297 lap and was able to lead every lap of the feature with his Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket Chassis Grand Prix. “Things really fell in to place, we set fast time and won our heat race, in the dash we finished second which left us with a good starting position for the feature (outside poll)” remarked Hartman.

Hartman took the lead with the initial green flag, but was forced to restart due to a caution flag brought out by Darrell Lanigan spinning in turn four. When the green flag flew for the second time, Hartman took the lead in turn four as Steve Francis went low in to turns one and two moving into second and passing Billy Moyer and Tim McCreadie.

Going in to lap three the running order was Hartman, Francis, Moyer, Frank, Bloomquist, Balzano, and McCreadie had fallen back to 8th position. Racing remained tight as Francis went low and pulled up alongside of Hartman on lap seven, challenging him for the lead. At the same time Bloomquist was turning up the heat on Frank fighting for 4th position.

By lap ten Hartman was into lap traffic, but was able to maintain his lead. Frank and Bloomquist passed Moyer, taking third and forth positions respectively. On the next lap Rick Eckert went low in turns one and two passing Moyer and moving in to 5th position and behind Bloomquist.

Lap 14 brought out the caution as Bobby Russell spun in turn two. Upon the restart Balzano got into the back of Eckert lifting the back end of his car into the air.

The caution flag flew once again on lap 17 as Eckert was stopped in turn two due to complications stemming from the incident with Balzano on the previous restart. Frank moved into second position as Francis pulled off the track due to a belt failure.

By lap 22 Hartman had pulled away from the field again and had gained an 8 car length lead over Frank. Friday night’s feature winner Dale McDowell had also been able to work his way up from 23rd position to 9th position.

By the half way point in the race, Hartman was leading the field by a straight away.

On lap 26 McDowell got past Ron Litton and moved in to 8th position, and on lap 31 passed Clint Smith moving on up to 7th position.

As the race neared completion Frank backed off conserving his tires allowing Balzano and Duke Whiseant to close on himself and Bloomquist. Bloomquist put pressure on Frank, but was unable to get around him before the race was completed at 50 laps.

“Hartman’s team had done their homework and had hit the right set up, we were a little to too soft on the tires to be able to challenge him for the win” remarked Frank. Frank who has recently suffered a devastating fire at his race shop in Pennsylvania was happy to come away from Texas with a good finish. “I just wanted to thank all of the fans, drivers, and Boundless Motor Sports officials for their overwhelming support after the fire” noted Frank.

Official Results:

1. Bart Hartman

2. Chub Frank

3. Scott Bloomquist

4. Mike Balzano

5. Duke Whiseant

6. Dan Schlieper

7. Dale McDowell

8. Clint Smith

9. Rob Litton

10. John Blankenship

11. Kenny Merchant

12. David Ashley

13. Tim McCreadie

14. Rick Aukland

15. Darrell Lanigan

16. Ray Moore

17. Michael Coleman

18. Doug Ingalls

19. Billy Moyer

20. Bobby Russell

21. Steve Francis

22. Scott James

23. Rick Eckert

24. Garrett Durrett

25. Ronny Adams

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