Batesville Motor Speedway
Topless 100 foes recall Bloomquist's life, legacy
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt.com staff reporter
Stickers from Pro Signs & Graphics. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
LOCUST GROVE, Ark. (Aug. 16) — Like most folks in the Batesville Motor Speedway pits on Friday afternoon ahead of Topless 100 preliminary night, Mike Marlar cooped up inside his transporter to get away from the oppressive evening that pushed temperatures toward 100 degrees.
While it was possible to escape the heat, it wasn’t possible to escape the pall cast over the grounds at the 3/8-mile oval with the news of the death of five-time Topless 100 winner Scott Bloomquist.
A tangible weightiness hanging over Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competitors, spectators and officials alike was apparent as Dirt Late Model racing endured its first race night without the Mooresburg, Tenn., driver, who died in an airplane crash on his family farm.
“It was kind of a surreal experience waking up this morning,” the 46-year-old Marlar said. “When I woke up, I had lots of text messages about it.”
Bloomquist’s impact across Dirt Late Model racing, of course, is immeasurable. But when Marlar was asked how he’s initially processed the loss of Bloomquist, he brought out his iPhone and opened up Yahoo’s search engine to better tell his story.
“Look at this,” Marlar said, “he’s trending on Yahoo. Right there with Donald Trump and the Ukraine War. Let’s make sure I’m not lying to you.”
At 5:45 p.m Central time, when Marlar checked Yahoo’s trending news feed one more time, Bloomquist had been the fourth-most searched topic on the platform behind only Donald Trump, Jasveen Sangha and the Russia-Ukraine War.
“This, right here, will go down with Dale Earnhardt in a lot of ways,” Marlar added. “Some might be done watching because he’s not there no more.”
Marlar and his veteran peers who got to see Bloomquist at his highest of highs and lowest of lows — both on the track and off it — have countless stories where they, too, also experienced emotional highs and emotional lows because of Bloomquist. No other than Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., is better to ask.
“I remember one year at Webster City, Iowa, back in the day, we got to running over one another,” Moyer said of his fellow Iowa native. “I think he crashed me or whatever; he was made as hell. … Whatever year that was, we were coming for each other’s throats.”
Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., has his stories as well.
“There’s one race that immediately comes to mind at old Winchester (Va.) Speedway (in Sept. 2011),” Owens said. “I passed him for the lead and he shoved me down into an itty bitty puddle of water. We kind of slid up the track, and he went into the next corner and braked checked me going into the corner. That was pretty big. … He broke my radiator that night to win.”
Marlar remembers the time he started touring in 2004 and winning bigger races with Bloomquist in the field. And how Bloomquist “was giving me s---” as a fellow Tennessee driver 14 years younger.
“I’m sure, in our careers, I’d done a good job of pissing him off a few times,” Marlar added. “And he did, too.”
These stories portray Bloomquist’s unbridled and, at times, unrivaled competitive nature. But above all, even as emotionally intense those run-ins with Bloomquist were, nothing emotionally heavy will ever trump the care that his fiercest competitors had for him.
“Yeah, we pissed each other off, but none of that matters,” Marlar said. “That’s the common thing with all of us. We all generally care for one another, even if we’re loving the person in the moment or not.”
For Owens, it’s the competitive rivalry with Bloomquist he’ll forever hold onto, like how they both are the winningest two drivers in Lucas Oil Series history (Bloomquist has 94 wins to 81 for Owens) and are the two winningest Tennesseans in World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series history.
And Owens would be remiss to forget about the three straight seasons they finished 1-2 on the Lucas Oil Series, from 2009-11. Bloomquist won titles in 2009 and ’10 before Owens’ three straight titles in ’11, 12’ and ’13.
“From chasing around the points (on the Lucas Oil Series), going back and forth in battles, and being mostly competitors … I can’t explain s--- right now,” said a teary-eyed Owens, who struggled to carry a conversation Friday in the wake of Bloomquist’s death.
What’s even more revealing is how Moyer’s taken Bloomquist’s death, especially how well-documented their competitive rivalry is, if rivalry’s even the word because Moyer himself says “I’m not sure I’d call it a rivalry.” But getting to Moyer’s point, Bloomquist is more “family” to him than he is competitor.
“When I look around, my buddies aren’t here anymore … like Randy Sweet, C.J. Rayburn,” Moyer said. “I used to just pick up the phone and call those guys. … (Bloomquist) is part of that family. It’s hard to realize he’s gone and everything like that. It’s tough.”
Marlar and Owens, as well as Dale McDowell, were not only competitors with Bloomquist, but teammates in the chassis game with him at some point throughout their respective careers. For Marlar, that was 2011-13 racing Bloomquist’s race cars with car owner Norman Bryson.
“We immediately started winning in it,” said Marlar, whose run in Bloomquist’s cars was short-lived because Bryson had been on the back-end of his car-owning career, Marlar’s racing gig before he raced for Ronnie Delk from 2014 through last year. “It was one of the best cars I ever drove.”
For Owens, arguably his best driving years were with Bloomquist and his race cars. From 2007-13, he won 42 of his 81 Lucas Oil victories, including the 2009 Topless 100 in which he topped Bloomquist.
“That was a good one,” added an emotional Owens.
Owens won World 100s (2007 and ’11), plus the 2009 Dream in Bloomquist’s cars.
“He helped speed up our winning process, and that was really, really helpful,” Owens said. “(His death is) kind of tough. … We were way two different people. But he was never not friendly. And I was never not friendly to him. We didn’t have a whole lot in common. Through the years, we maintained the same relationship.”
McDowell and his brother Shane, of course, worked directly with Bloomquist in his final years with Team Zero Race Cars. McDowell, like his veteran peers, is also heavy-spirted at this weekend’s Topless 100 “trying to process” the “shocking” loss of Bloomquist.
“Scott was different. He was to himself a lot,” McDowell said. “You didn’t see him at people’s trucks and trailers very much throughout his career. He was like that. It’s one of those deals I feel terrible for his mom (Georgie) and dad (Ron), and daughter (Ariel). Really keeping them in my prayers during this difficult time.”
McDowell is also one of many drivers carrying quickly-made stickers by Pro Signs & Graphics of Hot Spring, Ark., memorializing Bloomquist this weekend at the Topless 100, stickers emblazoned with “GODSPEED” wrapped around Bloomquist’s usual, skull-themed No. 0 graphic on his door panels.
As McDowell brought up, Bloomquist’s family, while not nearly as much in the spotlight as he was, mattered very much to him. Marlar recalls one evening in 2013 when Bloomquist invited him over to his Mooresburg, Tenn., shop and how they drummed up a long-winded conversation about race cars and their race craft.
“We were leaning over the bed of his pickup truck and he realized what time it was,” Marlar said. “He needed to put his daughter in bed. He put her right to bed. She was 10 at the time? I’m just guessing. He really impressed me with that. There was definitely a softer side to him than most people would ever know.
"I saw him being a dad. You don’t get to see that side of him much. I was impressed. He seemed to be a good dad. I didn’t know him super well, but that moment impressed me. That’s something I’ll never forget. I’ve seen some cool airplanes and hot rods and race cars, and all this cool stuff. But driving home that night, what stuck out in my mind is he dropped everything to put her to bed.”
Those closer, personable moments with Bloomquist were very rare for Marlar over the years, claiming that he’d been “acquaintances at best the first part of my career.” Over the last five years, though, Marlar grew exponentially closer with Bloomquist and it had everything to do with Bloomquist’s motorcycle accident March 2019.
“I got to thinking about him one day … I thought, ‘Man, this guy is in a bad place right now,’” Marlar said. “I just wanted to check on him. And we called and talked for a while (in 2019). That kind of sparked a better relationship to where he’d call me occasionally or I’d call him. … I wanted to make sure that if there’s something I can do that he knew that.”
“So, we became closer through that process. Then, I would say, over the last year, we became closer again. It’s surreal hearing (of his death). Yeah … it’s hard to process.”
Marlar’s best conversation he had with Bloomquist was during a 90ish-minute phone call during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks earlier this year. Bloomquist initiated the call and wanted to talk with Marlar about a few projects he’d had in mind. Bloomquist shared how Marlar “always (tries) to be respectful of people and how he appreciated that.”
That, in turn, led Marlar to say, “Man, I can’t wait ‘til you get back on the track. It ain’t the same when you’re not there.”
“I said that on the podium (at Volunteer Speedway) in Bulls Gap, Tenn., a couple years ago. And I really meant it,” Marlar added. “I wasn’t saying it for any other reason. It wasn’t the same without him.”
Even after racing each other for two decades, it was during that conversation Bloomquist shared his true opinion of Marlar. And that touched Marlar deeply.
“Really, it was the first time he ever told me what he thought about me; like his impression, I guess,” Marlar said. “He said some things there (that made me smile). We had a lot of common interests. Just views, how to set the car up, and life things. I think racers tend to be friends with racers because there’s a dynamic to our life nobody would understand but a racer.
“I wasn’t on his level, but we’re kind of in the same world. We both had accomplishments, and our failures and successes. We could talk about those. And confide in each other with that. But our common love was race cars and going fast, so we always talked about race car stuff.”
Bloomquist made frequent calls to Marlar, a very hands-on racer himself, these last few months because he’d apparently been in the middle of designing a new chassis.
“He’d send me pictures of tubing tests and stuff like that,” Marlar said. “I think he would’ve come up with something pretty cool. … I don’t know if he ever made sparks fly with a welder, but I knew he was in the process of building something. I’m sure if he would’ve got that completed, it would’ve been another step forward in innovation on these cars. I don’t feel like he was really done there.”
Marlar shared even his finest setup tips and racing secrets with Bloomquist down the would-be final stretch of his life. He truly thought Bloomquist had more of impact to make on the sport whether that’s more wins or more innovation.
But knowing that Bloomquist wanted him to be even a small part of any possible comeback meant, and still means, a lot to Marlar because he knows how hard Bloomquist has tried to stay relevant.
“He’s had a lot to overcome,” Marlar said. “He even said it at Eldora (after his vicious wreck at June 8’s Dream XXX). It’s been tough on him, the last little bit of his life. … He left a legacy, you know? He’s always going to be remembered. He’s gone, but his legend is never going to die."
Correction: Fixes that memorial decals were provided by Pro Signs & Graphics of Hot Springs, Ark., not Kirk Shaw.
