Drift King Scott Bloomquist Died in a Plane Crash near his Mooresburg home

Scott Bloomquist Died: The legendary race car driver Scott Bloomquist lost his life on Friday morning due to a small aircraft crash in Mooresburg Community, Hawkins County.

The Review spoke to Sheriff Ronnie Lawson, who said that Bloomquist, a resident of Mooresburg who owns a small private air strip at his home, died possibly after crashing into a barn on his property.

Bloomquist, 60, was one of the most successful dirt track stock car racers of all time. He was the only passenger on the plane.

Scott Bloomquist Died

At 7:50 a. m. Friday, several fire and rescue units responded to a fire and black smoke at the residence of Bloomquist at 209 Brooks Road in Mooresburg.

Bloomquist was flying the small, two-seat 1938 Piper Cub J3C-65 at the time of the accident; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

From FAA records, it transpired that Bloomquist was not a certified pilot and the aircraft he was flying was not certified since 2012.

Iconic racing career

His first race was at Corona Raceway in Corona, California, in the year 1980. He was able to win several races as well as the track championship in 1982.

He moved to Mooresburg in 1983 to help his father operate the family farm there and began holding the bigger purse races within 100 miles of his residence. He entered the world of short track racing in the 1980s, becoming a local hero at Kingsport Speedway; in the same year, he produced the shocker of the decade by claiming the Eldora Speedway-Wold 100. He performed the same in the next race held in 1990.

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Among his honors are:

2004 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Champion

2009, 2010, 2016 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Champion

1994, 1995, 1998, 2000 Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Late Model Series Champion

1995, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2018 Dirt Late Model Dream Winner

1988, 1990, 2001, 2014 World 100 Winner

1992, 1994, 1996, 2014 Blue-Gray 100 Winner

2002 National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame

Tributes

Friday morning, the Scott Bloomquist Racing Facebook page posted:

“I think that there’s nothing that can get you ready for a day like this: with a sensation of loss in our hearts, there is no other way of announcing that today we lost a good friend and a hero. One should and could love the audience regardless of whether the people cheered him or insulted him, and Scott adored all of you. He was a great father and a son, a loyal friend and a fantastic friend, and last but not least

Jerry Caldwell, the president and manager of the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, was quoted on Friday as saying that Bloomquist was “arguably the greatest dirt late model racer ever. ”

Another tribute was made by another fellow racer, Tony Stewart, who said, ‘I have probably never come across a guy smarter than Bloomquist when it comes to dirt racing’.

“What he could do behind the wheel of a race car was coupled with the genius he applied to construct his race cars,” Stewart said in a tweet. “He was forceful on and off, with personality to match the list of records he achieved.”

On Facebook, his colleague Reid Millard, a funeral home director from Missouri, reported that Bloomquist’s mother wanted him to say the words. “Along with Scott’s daughter Ariel, his parents, his sister and all of you who knew and loved Scott, you are in our hearts and prayers,” Millard wrote.

“Rubbing is racing,” Gerald Newton, the president of the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame, told The Associated Press in an interview on the phone. “It’s door to door. You’re tryna sling it sideways and sling dirt.”

Bloomquist was born in Iowa and later lived in California, where his father worked as an airline pilot, Newton said. The family wished to relocate to the eastern region and thus bought the farm in Tennessee.

Newtown revealed that Bloomquist developed an interest by inheriting a car that his father bought but he ceased to use it and hence contributed it to his son.

“He would do work for people, make a little bit of money and buy a tire, and go and win a race.” Newton said. “He’d take that money and reinvest in the team,”  says Fran; the rest is history.

Besides winning, fans saw the entitlement, arrogance and ‘bad boy’ behavior in Bloomquist, Newton said. That skiing skull painted inside the ‘0’ on his race car was, in a way, partially the character that capitulated to the accident.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2000 named Bloomquist ‘Tom Cruise behind the wheel, Daly Earnhardt on the racetrack and Waltrip on the microphone’.

Waltrip was a NASCAR driver who got under his rivals’ skin both by outperforming them in actual races and then virtually taunting them using the car that he just managed to control triumphantly.

Speaking about Bloomquist, Newton said, “He always explained that it is not boasting or bragging if you can prove it.” And he did.

Indeed, Newtown said that the achievements made by Bloomquist on the path to becoming a leading provider of wireless Internet services “will never be exceeded. ”

Said Newton: “The world has lost a great racer, a great friend, and a great dad. And certainly, heaven has gained a great angel.”

Bloomquist, like other drivers in the sport, had his fair share of accidents that saw him suffer from different injuries. But he was still racing and intended to participate in the World 100 the following month at the Eldora Speedway.

“He still felt that he could win a race,” Newton said.

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