Eldora Speedway, King of Dirt Late Model Events - The Dream

From his Fifth Place starting position, Bloomquist was immediately on the move and was Fourth by the 10th rotation. Then, on the 19th lap, he got around Rick Eckert and then swallowed Dale McDowell. The fans buzzed with the inevitable as the smoking Bloom- quist took the lead on Lap 31.

But there was near-disaster for Bloom- quist on the 33rd lap. He ran over a piece of lead dropped from another car, and the lead flipped up and hit his car's underside. He later described the sound of the impact as an explosion inside his car. Post-race examination showed that the incident had actually cracked a crossmember on the frame. Fortunately for Bloomquist, the impact wasn't enough to affect his race for the six-figure gold.

By the midway point, it was all Bloomer with Eckert running Second, followed by Wendell Wallace and Dan Schlieper. Even when the field closed up following yellow flags, there was no problem for the black-and-green No. 0 machine, which simply pulled away with ease.

Lapped cars also caused no problems and were passed with ease by Bloom- quist. At the checkered, the running order behind Bloomquist was Eckert, R.J. Conley, Schlieper, and fan favorite Chub Frank

A well-known driver making his first Dream start posted a Top 10 finish. Big-block Modified racer Tim McCreadie, son of the famous Barefoot Bob McCreadie, quickly showed he was compatible with his new type of racing vehicle and came home an impressive Seventh.

As always, some of the best racing took place in the qualifying heats. Quick-timer Eckert was given the honor of drawing the number of cars that would be inverted for each heat. He picked four.

Many of the drivers would tell you that it was just about as hard to make the feature as running in it. Figure the numbers. Of the 144 teams there, only 24 would make the feature. That's one out of every six. As a result, a number of heavy hitters loaded up after their heats.

With only 15-lap races, it was very difficult to come from much farther back than the third or fourth row. And also, due to the weather conditions, there was only one qualifying session, so if you got a back draw number, that was your tough luck.

Before qualifying, the general opinion from drivers was that you had to have a loose car at the Big E. Several admitted that the high cushion was still the quick way around the place. Well, there was definitely a cushion, but it wasn't anywhere near the top. But even so, most laid their right-rears on it

50th Anniversary
The 10th Dream also marked a milestone anniversary for the country's most popular dirt short track. Eldora Speedway celebrated its 50th year, and Baltes has been around as the owner/promoter/track preparer for all those years

The 83-year-old owner explained that he has always looked for events that grab the fans' interest. In addition to his dirt stock car events, he's held high-interest, high-dollar sprint car races.

Baltes explained his motivation for staging The Dream, the sport's first $100,000-to-win Dirt Late Model race. "It was a simple situation of giving the fans what they wanted," he said. "The fans kept telling me that they wanted another big race besides the World 100. The time had come to push Dirt Late Model racing forward and get these drivers the credit they deserve."