After the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway concluded earlier this month 5 drivers were suspended for tires not reaching the benchmark in a chemical analysis. The tire samples were taken during post-race inspection and sent to an independent test lab. The drivers suspended are Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Gregg Satterlee. Each driver has been suspended by the World Racing Group for 90 days, which means no UMP Sanctioned events or the World of Outlaw events. Also the drivers not only suspended but lost the money earned in those events with a total of over $50,000. The drivers appealed this past week and Wednesday’s verdict remained the same all of the drivers have been suspended until September 11th.

I have done some serious research into the matter and have some great observations from some drivers, promoters, and other influences. Some of the people include Jason Feger, Tim McCreadie, Kevin Gundaker, Matt Curl, Randall Edwards, and Terry Young. Discussions below will include views and solutions.

I can’t start off better than by Jason Feger, this is a guy a couple of years ago was suspended for 90 days after winning the Illini 100 at Farmer City Raceway sanctioned by the World of Outlaws. Why was Jason Feger suspended, due to a tire not meeting the benchmark, which means he was said to be cheating or chemically altering a tire. To this day Jason Feger swears he did nothing wrong, he did everything he could to fight the suspension and money loss. He even went as far as going to Chicago and spent $500 on a lie detector test which he passed but the suspension was still upheld. When I spoke with him in regards to what had just happened at Eldora, he feels bad for the drivers and if they go thru what he went thru some may just quit racing. Jason mentioned his reputation was tainted and had to explain himself to the fans and sponsors it just wore him out. The biggest issue for him was the fact he lives in Bloomington, Illinois which is UMP country and could not race anywhere in the vicinity of his house. He had to travel to Iowa and Missouri to hit Corn Belt Clash, MLRA, and find out where the Lucas Oil Series was racing. So his racing costs went thru the roof and not being able to race the Prairie Dir Classic at Fairbury in front of his home crowd was the worst. In his words “these guys are appealing the suspension not if they are guilty or not, they don’t have a chance. I have been there and done that, the maximum penalty should be the loss of money and points that is enough. It is not good for the fans, drivers, sponsors, and promoters not having Scott Bloomquist in the pit area. Jason feels the testing procedure is a joke taking a sample and putting it in a Ziploc bag is a disgrace and sending it to the cheapest lab they can find, who knows if they even had gloves on.

Tim McCreadie was another one I spoke with especially since he runs the Lucas Oil and 3 of the 5 are Lucas Oil regulars. I asked him if he felt like he was getting beat by cheated tires. Without hesitation Tim said no way, he truly believes his series that Rick Schwallie runs is doing things the right way. He mentioned the Lucas Oil Series takes 3 samples. One goes to the Lab, another one goes to the driver, and the third one goes to the series. Each sample is placed in a bottle and labeled. The guy taking the sample has gloves on does a swab test, and even changes the blade before taking the next driver sample. He knows for a fact that UMP does not operate that way. He also told me he doesn’t know for sure if the sample is sent off by the series because he doesn’t follow them to the mailbox but he feels they are doing everything necessary to keep the series clean. He feels the penalties should be severe enough to encourage no cheating. Tim doesn’t have a full time crew so he was telling me he doesn’t have time to soak tires and treat them, he can barely make it to the track on time. He is a one man show in the shop and needs volunteers at the track just to keep up with the race track. He did have a solution, the big shows lets just get our tires off the Hoosier truck, no siping or grooving let us just bolt them on and race. Anyone tampers with a tire automatic disqualification.

When I spoke with Randall Edwards who is the crew chief for Best Performance Racing team which is the team that Brandon Sheppard drives for he told me no way did he do anything wrong. He has been doing this for over 20 years and started with Gulf Valve Service Racing team with Freddy Smith at the helm. Randall is embarrassed for himself and his team and car owner. He is still in disbelief along with his driver and will go down swinging til the end. He doesn’t know what happened and has no explanation. If he was going to cheat it would have been with some of the drivers he had in the past that could not line up, definitely not one of the best in the pit area and a kid that has a future of a Brandon Sheppard. It should be noted that Best Motorsports is ready to fight this if it means they will shut their doors down to clear their names. Robbie Allen who is the crew chief for Gregg Satterlee is another one that swears did nothing wrong, and has always been a big fan of Eldora Speedway. He will never go back to Eldora after being accused, this is a joke and is just down right embarrassing I will never go back to Eldora.

Now let us look at the promoters side two of the best in the business include Kevin Gundaker of Tri-City Speedway and Matt Curl of Fairbury. Kevin being a former racer and Hall of Famer is tired of the cheating and mentioned it is going on everywhere even the local tracks. He doesn’t know how to stop it but something needs to be done the car counts are dropping off more and more, just look recently how many big teams are no longer supporting it. Grover Motorsports shut down recently, its just getting out of hand, the motors, tires, shocks, where does it stop. His son Gordy is presently running the Summer Nationals and Kevin as a car owner knows how expensive it is. I asked him if he had a solution, he told me he has run it by Hoosier having some sort of die in the tire that would turn a color if it was chemically altered. I asked him when he raced was it going on, he mentioned the guys like Purvis and Simmons all ran open tires, we all did. Technology has just got the best of us, and has made everyone so competitive they have to cheat. He feels the same way as McCreadie does just bolt them on, no grooving or siping and lets race. Matt Curl last week when I spoke with him was sick to his stomach. He has worked so hard making the Prairie Dirt Classic of what it is today. Will his show go on YES!! Will the place be packed YES !!, but it still would be nice having all of those guys in our pit area especially Owens and Bloomquist both were coming and have helped making the Prairie Dirt Classic of what it is today. You ask any fan love him or hate him they all know the name Bloomquist. Matt understands we need rules in place and penalize those who brake those. We also need to understand not only does the driver suffer but the promoter and fan suffer as well. It is a no win situations for anyone period !! He strongly feels Dirt Late Model Racing need a governing rules body that include all sanctioning bodies from the biggest to the smallest on the same page, they all need to work together.

Terry Young of Hoosier Tire Midwest told me last week the bottom line the tires did not reach the benchmark that is all I can say. There were a bunch of teams that don’t even buy tires from Hoosier at Eldora. They already have them and who knows what they are doing. Bottom line the best tire rule of all time was what UMP boss Bob Memmer put into place which was the 10-20-30-40 rule. You had something soft to qualify on and yet something hard enough to finish the feature on. Can we do something to the tire what Gundaker is suggesting yes but it will cost more money and the drivers and teams are already complaining about costs.

In closing I have heard everything from a conspiracy to the World of Outlaws and Lucas Series would never throw out one of their own out that support the series. You will never see the World of Outlaws throw out Josh Richards just like the Lucas Series will never throw out the Lucas Oil Car or Scott Bloomquist. I heard about Lie detector tests at Charlotte thrown out to protect World of Outlaw drivers to Tony Stewart having something against Bloomquist. I personally don’t know what to think but know something has to be done. It sounds like Tony Stewart and Eldora Speedway have the power to lay the law down and they are going to do exactly that. How is it good for Eldora to have the World 100 without Scott Bloomquist and Jimmy Owens in the pit area. The loss of ticket sales of Scott and Jimmy not there, but it is clear Eldora is taking a stand that cheating is not going to be allowed. Maybe taking this stand more competitors support the event and the car count grows. I don’t know, I do know that Scott and Jimmy not being at the World will hurt them both financially not just the purse money, sponsors, but the t-shirt sales alone !! I just hope for eveyone’s sake in this matter to propose a penalty this steep the facts better be there. I am anxious to hear like everyone else what Scott Bloomquist has to say next, but I have an idea attorneys are going to be involved this is not over yet !!