Track Owner Favors LM Driver; UMP Pulls Sanctioning From Events

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Less than 48 hours after being at the center of the first real controversy of the 2008 racing season, Scott Bloomquist hinted that his flirtation with illegal tires during qualifying at the SuperBowl of Racing at Golden Isles Speedway had less to do with gaining a competitive advantage than affecting change on the qualifying rules of the UMP DirtCar Series.
“I had never really pushed it, but I felt like it was time,” said Bloomquist, who was disqualified for Tuesday night’s race by UMP officials for qualifying with a tire that was ruled too soft after inspection. “I really didn’t mind missing that race. It was for a good cause.”
UMP officials subsequently suspended Bloomquist for a month, but they also changed the series’ two-tire qualifying system, which had been in place as a cost-cutting measure for teams since 2005, back to the four-tire system used before. Previously, Hoosier’s LM-20 and harder compound LM-40 tire models had been legal. With the change, the series has reintroduced the softer LM-10s and LM-30s, reducing the need for competitors to seek more grip through softer tires.
“In Brunswick, we found that a lot of guys were trying to come up with creative ways to win races,” said UMP President Sam Driggers. “It changed the way we needed to do things. You have to fight fire with fire.”
Part of the “creativity” of some of the drivers included tire-softening chemicals, some of which are so sophisticated that they begin to work only after the tires are warmed on the track after their pre-qualifying inspection, or the use of mis-stamped tires.
The controversy started with Bloomquist, but also included UMP’s removal of its sanction for its remaining races at the event when track owner Frank Lloyd opened qualifying to any Hoosier tire.
Lloyd said the trouble began when Bloomquist was allowed to qualify on a tire that UMP officials knew did not meet requirements and continued when UMP handed down a suspension that would keep arguably late-model racing’s biggest name out of the remaining SuperBowl events.
“So, they were suspending him from my race, but then he would be back for Eldora and those big races,” said Lloyd. “I didn’t feel like I deserved that kind of treatment. I told (UMP) that I would just make this my race and they should just move on...My son and I elected to do our own races and take UMP out of the picture.”
The O’Reilly Southern All Star Series was sanctioning the weekend events, so UMP officials removed their sanction for the remaining weekday races they were scheduled to sanction.
Lloyd said Driggers and he remain friends and expects UMP to return to Golden Isles and perhaps to next year’s SuperBowl, and Driggers agreed.
Some competitors felt that Bloomquist was getting preferential treatment and Lloyd said a couple of teams chose to leave the scheduled 10-race event.
“The majority of them actually liked the open-tire rule better,” Lloyd said.
An open-tire rule is essentially what UMP now has in place.
“I think it’ll help,” said driver Michael England. “They say some people have been fudging on some tires down here, and I’ve heard of people doing it before, so maybe that will put a stop to it.”
The four-tire rule goes into effect immediately for UMP DIRTcar touring series, but UMP-sanctioned local tracks will have the two-tire option to help local racers save money on tires.
“I had to do something to protect everybody, and that’s what I did,” Driggers said.