Batesville Motor Speedway

O'Neal, Babb to share Topless 100 front row

August 19, 2011, 6:28 pm

By Joshua Joiner

DirtonDirt.com staff writer

Don O'Neal (71) heads for a heat race victory to earn the pole for Saturday's Comp Cams Topless 100. (Woody Hampton)

LOCUST GROVE, Ark. (Aug. 19) — For the second consecutive week, Don O’Neal will start from the pole of one of Dirt Late Model racing’s crown jewel events. O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., won his heat race Friday night during preliminary action for Batesville Motor Speedway’s 19th annual Comp Cams Topless 100 and later drew the pole for Saturday’s $40,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature in a redraw among the six heat race winners. | Complete Topless 100 coverage

O'Neal, who won the $100,000 Dream XVII at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, earlier this year, missed out on an opportunity to score another big victory last week when he faded from his pole starting position in the $50,000-to-win Sunoco Race Fuels North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. This week, however, he believes he has a better chance at taking advantage of the top starting spot.

“We thought it was (good) last week at Florence drawing (the pole), but it didn’t work out too good,” said O’Neal, who ended up 11th in the North-South feature. “I believe we have a better race car than we had last weekend at Florence, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

O’Neal will be joined on the front row Saturday night by 2003 Topless 100 winner Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill. Babb noted that Saturday's 100-lapper will likely come down to who best manages tire wear.

“Everybody knows when you come to Batesville that tire wear’s a problem,” Babb said. “The car was really easy on them in the heat race so I was pretty confident and felt really good. Tomorrow you never know what it’ll bring. Everyone knows it’ll be on their mind that tire’s will play a big role.”

Friday night’s other heat race winners were Eric Wells of Hazard, Ky., and four-time race winner Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., who will share the second row, and Wendell Wallace of Batesville, and series points leader Jimmy Owens, who will fifth and six respectively.

Saturday's action is scheduled to include two consolation races, transferring two drivers apiece to the main event, along with the 100-lap feature.

Blog-style reports from Friday's action (updates with official finishes):

Redraws

In a redraw among heat race winners, Don O’Neal drew the pole for Saturday night’s 100-lap main event. Shannon Babb will join O’Neal on the front row with Eric Wells and Scott Bloomquist sharing the row two. Wendell Wallace drew the fifth starting position and Jimmy Owens drew sixth. Jeremy Payne was the biggest beneficiary from the redraw among second-place finishers. He’ll start seventh with Dale McDowell eighth. John Blankenship and Jared Landers will start ninth and 10th respectively while Jack Sullivan and Bub McCool will share the sixth row.

Sixth heat

Polesitter Wendell Wallace out smarted fellow front-row starter Terry Phillips to get the jump on the start of the sixth heat race and pulled away from Dale McDowell to score the victory. Phillips finished behind McDowell in the third and final transfer position. The race took three tries to get under way. Changing up his starting point on each start, Wallace was able to pull ahead of Phillips each time. The first of the two lap-one cautions was caused by Robbie Stuart when he went for a spin in turn one. Contact between Stuart and McDowell on the second attempted start sent McDowell for a spin in turn four.

Finish: Wendell Wallace, Dale McDowell, Terry Phillips, Dane Dacus, Robbie Stuart, Andrew McKay, Brian Shirley, Kyle Beard, Jay Brunson.

Fifth heat

Shannon Babb won the fifth heat race in another race that ran caution-free. John Blankenship moved by second-starting Billy Moyer Jr. on the opening lap of the race and held off Moyer in a race-long battled for the runner-up finish. Moyer settled for third and will also transfer to Saturday's main event.

Finish: Shannon Babb, John Blankenship, Billy Moyer Jr., Jeff Floyd, Chris Wall, Chase Washington, Will Vaught, Henry Cooper, David Breazeale.

Fourth heat

Don O'Neal led every lap of the caution-free fifth heat race to take the win by nearly a straightaway over Bub McCool. Seventh-starting Steve Francis recovered from his wild ride in qualifying to post a third-place finish. He moved by Dan Schlieper late in the race to take the final transfer spot. After sliding high in turn one on the opening lap, outside-pole starter Jonathan Davenport never recovered. He ended up fifth.

Finish: Don O'Neal, Bub McCool, Steve Francis, Dan Schlieper, Jonathan Davenport, Frank Heckenast Jr., R.C. Whitwell, Brad Neat. Scratched: Brandon Smith.

Third heat

Polesitter Jimmy Owens crusied to a convincing victory in the third heat race, pulling to nearly a half-track lead over second-place finisher Jeremy Payne and Billy Moyer in the third and final transfer position. Moyer started sixth in the 12-lap race and worked his way to fourth on the opening lap. He then trailed B.J. Robinson and finally pulled alongside for the position on lap 10. The two cars made heavy contact, but both drivers continued on, and Moyer cleared Robinson for the position one lap later.

Finish: Jimmy Owens, Jeremy Payne, Billy Moyer, B.J. Robinson, Kent Robinson, Jesse Stovall, Morgan Bagley, Chad Dupont, Leon Henderson.

Second heat

Second-starting Scott Bloomquist took the lead on the start of the second heat race and pulled away from polesitter Jack Sullivan on his way to winning by nearly a straightaway. Sullivan finished second in the caution-free race after building a sizeable advantage of his own over third-place finisher Steve Casebolt. Fifth-starting Ray Cook applied heavy pressure to Casebolt early in the race, but never found a way around and fell one spot short of scoring a transfer finish in the fourth position.

Finish: Scott Bloomquist, Jack Sullivan, Steve Casebolt, Ray Cook, Eric Turner, Dewaine Hottinger, Austin Rettig, Neil Baggett, Kelly Hanvey.

First heat

Eric Wells jumped to the lead from the outside of the front row and led every lap on his way to winning the first heat race. Jared Landers started fifth and worked his way to the second position by lap four. Landers, the defending Topless 100 winner, closed in on Wells late in the 12-lap prelim, but had to settle for the runner-up finish. Polesitter Tyler Reddick held off eighth-starting Jon Kirby in a close battle for the third and final transfer position. Earl Pearson Jr. brought out the race's first caution when contact in turn four sent him for a spin on lap two. On the ensuing restart, Jared Landers and Chris Brown got together while battling for third, sending Brown spinning up the racetrack and nearly into the turn-two wall.

Finish: Eric Wells, Jared Landers, Tyler Reddick, Jon Kirby, Stacy Taylor, Earl Pearson Jr., Jon Mitchell, Shane Harris, Curtis Cook, Chris Brown.

Heat race lineups

(Top three finishers transfer to main event)

First heat
Tyler Reddick, Eric Wells
Stacy Taylor, Chris Brown
Jared Landers, Jon Kirby
Curtis Cook, Earl Pearson Jr.
Shane Harris, Jon Mitchell

Second heat
Jack Sullivan, Scott Bloomquist
Dewaine Hottinger, Steve Casebolt
Ray Cook, Eric Turner
Austin Rettig, Kelly Hanvey
Neil Baggett

Third heat
Jimmy Owens, Jeremy Payne
B.J. Robinson, Jesse Stovall
Kent Robinson, Billy Moyer
Chad Dupont, Leon Henderson
Morgan Bagley

Fourth heat
Don O'Neal, Jonathan Davenport
Bub McCool, Dan Schlieper
Frank Heckenast Jr., Brad Neat
Steve Francis, R.C. Whitwell
Brandon Smith

Fifth heat
Shannon Babb, Billy Moyer Jr.
John Blankenship, Jeff Floyd
David Breazeale, Chris Wall
Chase Washington, Will Vaught
Henry Cooper

Sixth heat
Wendell Wallace, Terry Phillips
Dane Dacus, Dale McDowell
Robbie Stuart, Kyle Beard
Brian Shirley, Andrew McKay
Jay Brunson

Qualifying

Tyler Reddick of Corning, Calif., was the fastest of 55 qualifiers Friday night during time trials for the 19th annual Comp Cams Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway. Reddick, a 15-year-old rookie contender on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, posted a lap of 13.869 seconds around the 3/8-mile oval to earn the pole for one of six heat races for the $40,000-to-win Lucas Oil Series event.

Unofficial heat race polesitters are Reddick; Jack Sullivan of Greenbrier, Ark.; Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn.; Wendell Wallace of Batesville; Don O'Neal of Martinsville, Ind.; and Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill.

The top three finishers from each heat race coming up will transfer to Saturday night’s 100-lap main event. The top two finishers from each heat will redraw to determine first six rows of the feature lineup.

The only incident during qualifying came when Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., lost control of his race in turn three on his first lap and shot through gap in the outside wall in turn four. Francis was able to stop his car just a few feet short of hitting vehicles parked outside the racetrack.

Pre-event notes

The 55 entries is the lowest ever for the Mooney Starr-promoted event and is 18 less than last year’s 73 cars. The previous low was 63 cars at the inaugural event in 1993. .... The race is the third event of the year for the Lucas Oil Series that pays $30,000 or more to the winner. Series points leader Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., won the other two, which were May’s Dart Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., and last weekend’s Sunoco Race Fuels North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. Owens won the Topless 100 in 2009 and was the runner-up in last year’s race behind hometown driver Jared Landers. ... Landers pulled off an upset victory in last year’s race. The win, which was his first in a Late Model, came on Sunday afternoon after the race was postponed by rain Saturday. ... Three-time Topless 100 winner Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., is second behind Owens in the Lucas Oil standings coming into the event. The two-time defending series champion swapped engines following Thursday night’s practice session at Batesville. ... Along with Owens, Bloomquist and Landers, other previous Topless 100 winners on hand include hometown drivers Billy Moyer and Wendell Wallace, Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., and Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill. ... Current Comp Cams Super Dirt Series points leader Jon Mitchell of Texarkana, Texas, is driving a Lawson Motorsports entry this weekend. The team discovered engine issues late Friday evening and made a last-minute engine swap with a used Pro Power engine purchased from another competitor at the event. ... After parting ways with car owner Paul McKenna earlier this summer, Will Vaught of Crane, Mo., is debuting a new family-owned Warrior Race Car at Batesville. He’ll head over to the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ill., Sunday where he’ll make his third career ARCA Racing Series start at the one-mile dirt oval.