Scott Bloomquist

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Scott Bloomquist
Bloomquist in 2008
Nationality	United States
Date of Birth	November 14, 1963 (1963-11-14) (age 44)
Place of Birth	Fort Dodge, Iowa
Car No.	0
Championship titles
	1994, 1995 Hav-A-Tampa 2004 World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Awards
	2002 National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame 2006 RPM Racing News driver of the year

Bloomquist's 2008 racecar at the East Bay Winternationals

Scott Bloomquist (born November 14, 1963) is a nationally touring dirt late model race car driver in the United States. Bloomquist was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa.^[1] He was inducted in the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in its second class in 2002.

1 Racing career
- 1.1 Today
2 Dirt late model chassis builder
3 Personal life
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Racing career

Bloomquist is the son of an airplane pilot for Air Cal. While stationed in California, Bloomquist's father was invited to see his coworker race a stock car. The elder Bloomquist thought he should give racing a try, so bought a race car, motor, and some old tires. He tried racing, and decided to give the race car to his son.^[2] Bloomquist's first race was at Corona Raceway in Corona, California in August 1980.^[1] He won several races and the track championship in 1982.^[2]

In 1983 he heard about a $4,000-to-win race at Chula Vista Speedway. He saw a picture of a flat-wedge shaped race car that Charlie Swartz had used to win the Dirt Track World Championship in 1982, and he decided to build a race car like it for the Chula Vista race. Bloomquist won the race, lapping the field twice in the process.^[2]

After the race, his father wanted to sell the car since it was worth a lot of money. The two reached an agreement where the father would gradually be paid for the car if the newly-graduated Scott Bloomquist would work at his father's new farm far across the country in Tennessee. He traded his 1957 Chevy for a truck and race hauler. After arriving in Tennessee, he tore up the car in qualifying at Newport Speedway. He worked for his father until he had enough money to repair the car. He won some races, earning just enough money to continue racing.^[2]

Next year he decided to race with a new car at Kingston Speedway, which had began hosting a $2,500-to-win event every Saturday night. "I come rolling into the race with my dad and there sits Larry Moore," Bloomquist said. "He was the fastest guy in dirt late model racing and there he sits. And my dad says, `Well, there goes that $2,500.'"^[2] Bloomquist qualified second fastest behind Moore and started out on Moore's outside in the first row. Bloomquist said, "Moore took the lead but was holding me up, so I knocked him out of the way and won. That's $2,500. Next week, I'm on the pole, Moore's outside and I won again. Now I'm sitting here with five grand and I'm thinking that things are starting to look up."^[2]

Bloomquist used the winnings to improve his race car. He continued working at his father's farm to pay off his original race car. He began going to races with $2,000 purses that were 100 miles (160 km) from his house.^[2]

In 1988 he raced at Eldora Speedway's World 100 against three-time winner and favorite Jeff Purvis. After qualifying for the feature, which is unusual for a rookie, he started seventh. Purvis took the lead early in the race. Bloomquist slowly caught Purvis and passed him for the win. Some people consider his win a fluke, until Bloomquist took the pole position the following year and won the race again in 1990.^[2]

He raced in the Hav-A-Tampa series from 1993 to 1996, winning the national touring series in 1994 and 1995.^[2] He led the 1996 points until he lost all of his points for bumping another car under caution. He had 60 wins in the series during that time, second place had 18 wins.^[2]

On October 5, 1993, Bloomquist was arrested and charged for possessing 2.7 grams of cocaine. "A girl I dated talked me into having someone get some cocaine for her," Bloomquist said. "She had gotten into trouble and the only way she could get out was by setting me up. And she talked me into doing something that no one else has ever been able to do." Bloomquist was found not guilty of felony sale and distribution and guilty of misdemeanor drug possession and possessing drug paraphernalia. "When they searched the house they found a short straw that had some residue of cocaine in it. The girl had left it there," Bloomquist said.^[2] He was sentenced in November 1994 to the maximum penalty, a $5,000 fine and one year in prison.^[2] It was his first misdemeanor conviction, and he filed an appeal. His sentence was cut in half to 6 months in jail.^[2] He served his time as a work release beginning in 1997.^[2]

With problems both on and off-track, he left racing and started reading. He read about the human body and mind. After he returned to racing a changed person. He took all of his sponsors off the car and used only black and white paint. He changed from his familiar number 18 to number 0. He put the yin yang symbol in the middle of the "0" to represent the balance that he found in his life. He later raced the number "0" car with a skull and crossbones through the middle of the number.^[3]

In 2004 he raced in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and won the season championship. He has raced occasionally in the series since then.

He was named the 2006 RPM Racing News driver of the year. That year he won The Dream ($100,000), Topless 100 ($45,000), Scorcher 100 ($20,000), Racefest ($20,000), Dixie Shootout ($15,000), and the Cedar Lake Nationals ($50,000). He also had nine wins in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.^[4]

Other notable race wins include the 1988, 1990, and 2000 World 100; 2001 Topless 100; the $100,000 1995 Dream; and a four-time winner of the National 100 at Alabama Motor Speedway.

[edit] Today

Bloomquist's 2008 race car at Cherokee Speedway

He is nicknamed the "Dirtrax Dominator", for he has won over 460 races in his career.^[3] Instead of racing in a single racing series all season long like most drivers, he races as an "Outlaw" or "Privateer" like drivers did in the early 1900s. He selects the events that he wants to race in, many of which are major national events against the top drivers.^[3] In an interview with Stock Car Racing magazine in 2006, he said:

"If you are trying to operate off of your race winnings," he says, "the only way to make money is to go after the really big races. Plus, I think a racer should be able to pick and choose where he wants to race. I remember winning the World 100 year before last. We were following a series at the time, and the very next week they sent us to this track that was a dump. I was coming off this high of racing at a great track and winning in front of 40,000 people against 200 other cars, and now we were at this little track with hardly any fans in the stands just because the track paid the series for a date. It was like getting pulled out of paradise and getting stuck in the gutter. So I decided I wasn't going to do it anymore. A racer shouldn't have to follow a series just because it pays points if he doesn't want to. You shouldn't have to tear up your equipment at a dump of a track for no money if you don't want to."^[3]

[edit] Dirt late model chassis builder

He is known for working on his own race car as the chief chassis builder.^[1] He used to race in chassis built by major chassis manufacturers. He would then modify the chassis with tricks that he learned during his decades of racing. He decided it would be easier to build his own chassis than to modify someone else's design. He now sells "Bloomquist Chassis" to selected racers. Bloomquist Chasis helps in their entire program.^[3]