Bloomquist/Wright split?? What happened?

[BloomerHarvickFan]

With all of the discussion about Barry Wright and Jonathan Davenport, it got me to thinking about the amazing years Bloomquist had with Barry Wright.
That was around the time I started following late models. 94-96 were amazing seasons. Should have won 3 HAT championships over that time.
But, my question is, "What happened?". Even though I'm a huge Bloomquist fan, and have been to dozens and dozens of races, not being an insider, I never knew what happened to cause them to split.
If any of the more knowledgable folks here know, I'd love to hear that story.

[davis2902]

Cocaine is a hellava drug

[Stede Bonnet]

With all of the discussion about Barry Wright and Jonathan Davenport, it got me to thinking about the amazing years Bloomquist had with Barry Wright.
That was around the time I started following late models. 94-96 were amazing seasons. Should have won 3 HAT championships over that time.
But, my question is, "What happened?". Even though I'm a huge Bloomquist fan, and have been to dozens and dozens of races, not being an insider, I never knew what happened to cause them to split.
If any of the more knowledgable folks here know, I'd love to hear that story.

I use to have a news clipping on that saved on my hard drive, if i find it I'll post it. Best I can remember it was a lot of things, both internal friction and outside forces. They are still friends today, but Scott from what I remember just wanted to make a clean break and start fresh.

In the late 80's Bloomquist swept onto the national scene in a Mastersbilt leafcar and took the DLM world by storm, thrusting himself onto the map as well as Mastersbilt becoming a nationally known brand. I want to say this lasted thru 1990. 91'-92' he switched to Warrior and put them on the map as well winning races all over the map. It got so bad some car owners would try and determine where he was gonna run and go someplace else. Somewhere during this time was Bloomquist's infamous drug bust after partying with a girlfriend at his place.

1993 rolls around and Bloomquist lands J&J Steel as a sponsor and announces he will be teaming with Barry Wright Race cars, already a nationally known brand from the NDRA era. In that press announcement Bloomquist stated that from the beginning of his career he had wanted to team up with Barry and hit the road and with J&J as a sponsor that was now possible. 1993, 94', & 95' were unbelievable years, Hav-A-Tampa Series was booming, Late model racing was riding a resurgence after NDRA imploded and all seemed well and then came 1996...

Beginning in 1996 Scott/Barry wanted to expand the team and brought Ronnie Johnson in to be his team mate, but there were some kinks. First Scott had been tearing up the competition week-in and week-out for 3 years on the HAT tour, but some other teams stepped up too. GVS teamed with Billy Moyer, GRT had Wendell Wallace and Dale McDowell and Freddy Smith started up a new team with Clayton Christianberry, all very well funded, well prepared and professional, providing more depth to the tours competition. Freddy came out swinging and he and Bloomquist wrestled for the point lead most of the year. The hope for BWRC that teaming the Chattanooga Flash with Bloomquist would make them a juggernaut, but it didn't go down that way exactly. The funding wasn't exactly enough to competitively fund 2 cars or have enough help and they struggled. At times they seemed on the verge of breaking out, but the season got away from them. Then suddenly calls from the officials seemed to be picking on Scott(he thought so) and finally effectively handed the title to Freddy after another questionable call. it seemed that the series/sport that had once welcomed him had now grown bored with his domination. Finally to make matters worse, his drug case was still hanging over him, most everything got thrown out, but it was dragging on. At the conclusion of 1996 the writing was on the wall and they knew trying to run 2 cars again for 1997 would only put them further behind, so all parties agreed it was best they part ways with RJ and return to a single car team.

Now 1997 rolls around and they have a new design car that isn't quite as fast as they wanted it and then to add insult to injury, one day at Barry's shop Scott saw a customers car that had some of his proprietary tech on it and to him it seemed like yet another violation of trust. Finally it was all too much and they agreed to part ways part way into 1997. It was at this point Scott had grown tired of fighting the court case and agreed to a plea deal and served his time with special arrangements. When he reappeared it was in a plane Black/White Rayburn, no more J&J, with his now trademark ying-yang on the door, surrounded by small 18's and wearing a beret(sp?) of sorts. He hadn't planned on changing his number to zero, but the score person scored him driving the zero and he went with it.(He talks about this in a magazine interview he did in Dirt Late Model Magazine.

[ReignMan23]

Not really much of a story. It was a business decision. The cars were kept in South Carolina(Bloomquist lived in Tennessee) at Barry's shop. At the time, Scott was paying Barry a percentage of what the car won. Those percentages changed and Scott really wanted his cars back in Tennessee. So the duo split.

[ShawnStreet]

That's pretty much how I remembered it Stede Bonnet. Great history lesson.

[Escobar]

It's not that big of a deal. Scott and Barry are still great friends to this day. When BW was full time on the Lucas tour, those two got together for lunch frequently to visit with each other and talk racing.

[Pennsboro23]

I use to have a news clipping on that saved on my hard drive, if i find it I'll post it. Best I can remember it was a lot of things, both internal friction and outside forces. They are still friends today, but Scott from what I remember just wanted to make a clean break and start fresh.

In the late 80's Bloomquist swept onto the national scene in a Mastersbilt leafcar and took the DLM world by storm, thrusting himself onto the map as well as Mastersbilt becoming a nationally known brand. I want to say this lasted thru 1990. 91'-92' he switched to Warrior and put them on the map as well winning races all over the map. It got so bad some car owners would try and determine where he was gonna run and go someplace else. Somewhere during this time was Bloomquist's infamous drug bust after partying with a girlfriend at his place.

1993 rolls around and Bloomquist lands J&J Steel as a sponsor and announces he will be teaming with Barry Wright Race cars, already a nationally known brand from the NDRA era. In that press announcement Bloomquist stated that from the beginning of his career he had wanted to team up with Barry and hit the road and with J&J as a sponsor that was now possible. 1993, 94', & 95' were unbelievable years, Hav-A-Tampa Series was booming, Late model racing was riding a resurgence after NDRA imploded and all seemed well and then came 1996...

Beginning in 1996 Scott/Barry wanted to expand the team and brought Ronnie Johnson in to be his team mate, but there were some kinks. First Scott had been tearing up the competition week-in and week-out for 3 years on the HAT tour, but some other teams stepped up too. GVS teamed with Billy Moyer, GRT had Wendell Wallace and Dale McDowell and Freddy Smith started up a new team with Clayton Christianberry, all very well funded, well prepared and professional, providing more depth to the tours competition. Freddy came out swinging and he and Bloomquist wrestled for the point lead most of the year. The hope for BWRC that teaming the Chattanooga Flash with Bloomquist would make them a juggernaut, but it didn't go down that way exactly. The funding wasn't exactly enough to competitively fund 2 cars or have enough help and they struggled. At times they seemed on the verge of breaking out, but the season got away from them. Then suddenly calls from the officials seemed to be picking on Scott(he thought so) and finally effectively handed the title to Freddy after another questionable call. it seemed that the series/sport that had once welcomed him had now grown bored with his domination. Finally to make matters worse, his drug case was still hanging over him, most everything got thrown out, but it was dragging on. At the conclusion of 1996 the writing was on the wall and they knew trying to run 2 cars again for 1997 would only put them further behind, so all parties agreed it was best they part ways with RJ and return to a single car team.

Now 1997 rolls around and they have a new design car that isn't quite as fast as they wanted it and then to add insult to injury, one day at Barry's shop Scott saw a customers car that had some of his proprietary tech on it and to him it seemed like yet another violation of trust. Finally it was all too much and they agreed to part ways part way into 1997. It was at this point Scott had grown tired of fighting the court case and agreed to a plea deal and served his time with special arrangements. When he reappeared it was in a plane Black/White Rayburn, no more J&J, with his now trademark ying-yang on the door, surrounded by small 18's and wearing a beret(sp?) of sorts. He hadn't planned on changing his number to zero, but the score person scored him driving the zero and he went with it.(He talks about this in a magazine interview he did in Dirt Late Model Magazine.

I love hearing old stories like this from the good ol days. Loved the Hav-a-tampa and STARS series days.

[dirtdobber45]

I use to have a news clipping on that saved on my hard drive, if i find it I'll post it. Best I can remember it was a lot of things, both internal friction and outside forces. They are still friends today, but Scott from what I remember just wanted to make a clean break and start fresh. In the late 80's Bloomquist swept onto the national scene in a Mastersbilt leafcar and took the DLM world by storm, thrusting himself onto the map as well as Mastersbilt becoming a nationally known brand. I want to say this lasted thru 1990. 91'-92' he switched to Warrior and put them on the map as well winning races all over the map. It got so bad some car owners would try and determine where he was gonna run and go someplace else. Somewhere during this time was Bloomquist's infamous drug bust after partying with a girlfriend at his place.1993 rolls around and Bloomquist lands J&J Steel as a sponsor and announces he will be teaming with Barry Wright Race cars, already a nationally known brand from the NDRA era. In that press announcement Bloomquist stated that from the beginning of his career he had wanted to team up with Barry and hit the road and with J&J as a sponsor that was now possible. 1993, 94', & 95' were unbelievable years, Hav-A-Tampa Series was booming, Late model racing was riding a resurgence after NDRA imploded and all seemed well and then came 1996... Beginning in 1996 Scott/Barry wanted to expand the team and brought Ronnie Johnson in to be his team mate, but there were some kinks. First Scott had been tearing up the competition week-in and week-out for 3 years on the HAT tour, but some other teams stepped up too. GVS teamed with Billy Moyer, GRT had Wendell Wallace and Dale McDowell and Freddy Smith started up a new team with Clayton Christianberry, all very well funded, well prepared and professional, providing more depth to the tours competition. Freddy came out swinging and he and Bloomquist wrestled for the point lead most of the year. The hope for BWRC that teaming the Chattanooga Flash with Bloomquist would make them a juggernaut, but it didn't go down that way exactly. The funding wasn't exactly enough to competitively fund 2 cars or have enough help and they struggled. At times they seemed on the verge of breaking out, but the season got away from them. Then suddenly calls from the officials seemed to be picking on Scott(he thought so) and finally effectively handed the title to Freddy after another questionable call. it seemed that the series/sport that had once welcomed him had now grown bored with his domination. Finally to make matters worse, his drug case was still hanging over him, most everything got thrown out, but it was dragging on. At the conclusion of 1996 the writing was on the wall and they knew trying to run 2 cars again for 1997 would only put them further behind, so all parties agreed it was best they part ways with RJ and return to a single car team.Now 1997 rolls around and they have a new design car that isn't quite as fast as they wanted it and then to add insult to injury, one day at Barry's shop Scott saw a customers car that had some of his proprietary tech on it and to him it seemed like yet another violation of trust. Finally it was all too much and they agreed to part ways part way into 1997. It was at this point Scott had grown tired of fighting the court case and agreed to a plea deal and served his time with special arrangements. When he reappeared it was in a plane Black/White Rayburn, no more J&J, with his now trademark ying-yang on the door, surrounded by small 18's and wearing a beret(sp?) of sorts. He hadn't planned on changing his number to zero, but the score person scored him driving the zero and he went with it.(He talks about this in a magazine interview he did in Dirt Late Model Magazine.

Thats spot on^^^^^

[weatherman85]

Thanks for the post Stede Bonnet. I'd heard several different things that pointed to all of what you said. I still say to this day the best looking cars I've ever seen were the ones Scott and Ronnie drove for BWRC. So wish he would do a throwback paint scheme to it but I know it's not his style to do that.

[ptown]

Cocaine is a hellava drug

lol I loved that show.

[TheJet-09]

I'm fairly certain it was 1996, the two put on a chassis class in Mooresville, NC and I got to attend. A Friday/Saturday deal. Not many in attendance, but they had one of their cars there. Scott went to the Pantera show or something Friday night and didn't "roll in" until around noon on Saturday. Luckily Barry was there...both extremely knowledgeable and many of the notes I took then are still relevant today!

And the symbol is "Yin-Yang".

[CrankedUp90]

I'm fairly certain it was 1996, the two put on a chassis class in Mooresville, NC and I got to attend. A Friday/Saturday deal. Not many in attendance, but they had one of their cars there. Scott went to the Pantera show or something Friday night and didn't "roll in" until around noon on Saturday. Luckily Barry was there...both extremely knowledgeable and many of the notes I took then are still relevant today!

And the symbol is "Yin-Yang".

Pretty cool, and even cooler that Scott knew Dimebag Darrell. Domination all day long! lol

[chupp n bloomer fan]

Cocaine is a hellava drug

Yep. When it's good sh!t, it's great.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

I use to have a news clipping on that saved on my hard drive, if i find it I'll post it. Best I can remember it was a lot of things, both internal friction and outside forces. They are still friends today, but Scott from what I remember just wanted to make a clean break and start fresh.

In the late 80's Bloomquist swept onto the national scene in a Mastersbilt leafcar and took the DLM world by storm, thrusting himself onto the map as well as Mastersbilt becoming a nationally known brand. I want to say this lasted thru 1990. 91'-92' he switched to Warrior and put them on the map as well winning races all over the map. It got so bad some car owners would try and determine where he was gonna run and go someplace else. Somewhere during this time was Bloomquist's infamous drug bust after partying with a girlfriend at his place.

1993 rolls around and Bloomquist lands J&J Steel as a sponsor and announces he will be teaming with Barry Wright Race cars, already a nationally known brand from the NDRA era. In that press announcement Bloomquist stated that from the beginning of his career he had wanted to team up with Barry and hit the road and with J&J as a sponsor that was now possible. 1993, 94', & 95' were unbelievable years, Hav-A-Tampa Series was booming, Late model racing was riding a resurgence after NDRA imploded and all seemed well and then came 1996...

Beginning in 1996 Scott/Barry wanted to expand the team and brought Ronnie Johnson in to be his team mate, but there were some kinks. First Scott had been tearing up the competition week-in and week-out for 3 years on the HAT tour, but some other teams stepped up too. GVS teamed with Billy Moyer, GRT had Wendell Wallace and Dale McDowell and Freddy Smith started up a new team with Clayton Christianberry, all very well funded, well prepared and professional, providing more depth to the tours competition. Freddy came out swinging and he and Bloomquist wrestled for the point lead most of the year. The hope for BWRC that teaming the Chattanooga Flash with Bloomquist would make them a juggernaut, but it didn't go down that way exactly. The funding wasn't exactly enough to competitively fund 2 cars or have enough help and they struggled. At times they seemed on the verge of breaking out, but the season got away from them. Then suddenly calls from the officials seemed to be picking on Scott(he thought so) and finally effectively handed the title to Freddy after another questionable call. it seemed that the series/sport that had once welcomed him had now grown bored with his domination. Finally to make matters worse, his drug case was still hanging over him, most everything got thrown out, but it was dragging on. At the conclusion of 1996 the writing was on the wall and they knew trying to run 2 cars again for 1997 would only put them further behind, so all parties agreed it was best they part ways with RJ and return to a single car team.

Now 1997 rolls around and they have a new design car that isn't quite as fast as they wanted it and then to add insult to injury, one day at Barry's shop Scott saw a customers car that had some of his proprietary tech on it and to him it seemed like yet another violation of trust. Finally it was all too much and they agreed to part ways part way into 1997. It was at this point Scott had grown tired of fighting the court case and agreed to a plea deal and served his time with special arrangements. When he reappeared it was in a plane Black/White Rayburn, no more J&J, with his now trademark ying-yang on the door, surrounded by small 18's and wearing a beret(sp?) of sorts. He hadn't planned on changing his number to zero, but the score person scored him driving the zero and he went with it.(He talks about this in a magazine interview he did in Dirt Late Model Magazine.

Helluva post. Very insightful.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

Pretty cool, and even cooler that Scott knew Dimebag Darrell. Domination all day long! lol

And what happened to Dimebag, just stupid. At least the perpetrator was dealt with then.

[Just The Tip]

I use to have a news clipping on that saved on my hard drive, if i find it I'll post it. Best I can remember it was a lot of things, both internal friction and outside forces. They are still friends today, but Scott from what I remember just wanted to make a clean break and start fresh.

In the late 80's Bloomquist swept onto the national scene in a Mastersbilt leafcar and took the DLM world by storm, thrusting himself onto the map as well as Mastersbilt becoming a nationally known brand. I want to say this lasted thru 1990. 91'-92' he switched to Warrior and put them on the map as well winning races all over the map. It got so bad some car owners would try and determine where he was gonna run and go someplace else. Somewhere during this time was Bloomquist's infamous drug bust after partying with a girlfriend at his place.

1993 rolls around and Bloomquist lands J&J Steel as a sponsor and announces he will be teaming with Barry Wright Race cars, already a nationally known brand from the NDRA era. In that press announcement Bloomquist stated that from the beginning of his career he had wanted to team up with Barry and hit the road and with J&J as a sponsor that was now possible. 1993, 94', & 95' were unbelievable years, Hav-A-Tampa Series was booming, Late model racing was riding a resurgence after NDRA imploded and all seemed well and then came 1996...

Beginning in 1996 Scott/Barry wanted to expand the team and brought Ronnie Johnson in to be his team mate, but there were some kinks. First Scott had been tearing up the competition week-in and week-out for 3 years on the HAT tour, but some other teams stepped up too. GVS teamed with Billy Moyer, GRT had Wendell Wallace and Dale McDowell and Freddy Smith started up a new team with Clayton Christianberry, all very well funded, well prepared and professional, providing more depth to the tours competition. Freddy came out swinging and he and Bloomquist wrestled for the point lead most of the year. The hope for BWRC that teaming the Chattanooga Flash with Bloomquist would make them a juggernaut, but it didn't go down that way exactly. The funding wasn't exactly enough to competitively fund 2 cars or have enough help and they struggled. At times they seemed on the verge of breaking out, but the season got away from them. Then suddenly calls from the officials seemed to be picking on Scott(he thought so) and finally effectively handed the title to Freddy after another questionable call. it seemed that the series/sport that had once welcomed him had now grown bored with his domination. Finally to make matters worse, his drug case was still hanging over him, most everything got thrown out, but it was dragging on. At the conclusion of 1996 the writing was on the wall and they knew trying to run 2 cars again for 1997 would only put them further behind, so all parties agreed it was best they part ways with RJ and return to a single car team.

Now 1997 rolls around and they have a new design car that isn't quite as fast as they wanted it and then to add insult to injury, one day at Barry's shop Scott saw a customers car that had some of his proprietary tech on it and to him it seemed like yet another violation of trust. Finally it was all too much and they agreed to part ways part way into 1997. It was at this point Scott had grown tired of fighting the court case and agreed to a plea deal and served his time with special arrangements. When he reappeared it was in a plane Black/White Rayburn, no more J&J, with his now trademark ying-yang on the door, surrounded by small 18's and wearing a beret(sp?) of sorts. He hadn't planned on changing his number to zero, but the score person scored him driving the zero and he went with it.(He talks about this in a magazine interview he did in Dirt Late Model Magazine.

These are the posts that keep me coming back to 4M. Thanks for sharing.

[BloomerHarvickFan]

Thanks for the insights Stede. As I read, I realized I knew most of that, but just didn't have it all.
I was at the Atomic Race you mentioned from 96 when HAT DQ'd Bloomquist for "contact" with Scott Sexton.

I was so pumped up about the Bloomquist/Johnson team. I think like you said they underestimated the task.
I think they realized this at Eldora. RJ had fast time but hit the wall in his heat. They had to do extensive repairs to his car, and didn't get Scott's ready for the feature, and I think this is the year that they were sent to the rear for the "wrong tire" that was ruled legal later. But the thrashing about to get RJ fixed caused them to be late to the grid, with no time to put a new tire on, and retain the starting spot.

[Centeroff]

Your about to read of another breakup very soon. Not my place to tell who but there is definitely problems in paradise. Let's just say two business partners havnt spoken a word since....! If I tell the weekend the problems started someone is gonna crack the puzzle. There are some pretty sharp guys on here that don't post much but keep up with all the dirt news. It will all come out before speedweeks unless amends are made.

[dirtdobber45]

I love hearing old stories like this from the good ol days. Loved the Hav-a-tampa and STARS series days.

Yep. When it's good sh!t, it's great.

Yep that was the good ol days...lol

[dirtdobber45]

And what happened to Dimebag, just stupid. At least the perpetrator was dealt with then.

That was a bad day in rock...RIP Dimebag