Scott Bloomquist and the team tear down the car 20 times per season

Bloomquist on dirt late model maintenance: “The car comes apart almost every week.”

Scott Bloomquist had 99 nights of racing scheduled for his 2019 dirt late model campaign. That’s even with sitting out from March-May due to injury.

In between that, there’s an unknown but ridiculous number of test sessions that each and every national touring driver will run.

On top of that, the car has to stay together. Race cars aren’t designed to run long distances. They aren’t built for endurance, they’re built for short bursts of performance.

With that said, things need to be checked. Things need to be replaced and there’s a whole lot of maintenance involved to make sure the car makes it from green to checkered in the entire 20 lap main event. The guys at Scott Bloomquist Racing have developed a system to make that happen.

How many times do you take your car apart each year?

“Oh shoot. Probably 20,” Scott Bloomquist tells RacingNews.co.

“We run different cars. But, the car comes apart almost every week.”

That’s to check and make sure nothing’s broken?

“It’s not just that. Just to be sure and keep fresh parts on it. And to inspect things and make sure you’re not going to have any breakage.”

This isn’t a NASCAR team with 500 employees on the payroll and only 36 races on the schedule. This is a much smaller team with triple the number of races and 1/100th the number of employees.

So, the fact that they are even able to do that is amazing to me. Every 4-5 races, the car comes completely apart. I expected a much smaller number.

Scott Bloomquist pit stall in the 2017 Gateway Dirt Nationals 2740
Scott Bloomquist pit stall in the 2017 Gateway Dirt Nationals

Dirt late models rebuilt 20 times during an already extremely busy season

20 times? I’m trying to figure out how that’s even possible. I’m not calling you a liar or anything. Just trying to figure out how you guys do that.

“Just taking the suspension off and going through it all. Replacing all your heim joints and just having a good look at all the parts.”

“Then, taking the rear end apart and analyzing it. You need to do that quite often if you’re going to catch anything that could possibly be a future problem.”

“It’s not as much work as you think. Every week, the body, sides and nose come right off. They just unbolt. So, you’re sitting there and you’ve got your front suspension and your rear suspension.”

“This week, we went over the complete drivetrain. We replaced the transmission, the flywheel, starters, bell housing. Everything that had a certain amount of laps on it. We had all that stuff looked at and freshened up.”

So, it’s not that you take everything apart at once. It’s more that each area is on a sort of rotation?

“Yeah. One week, you and I do the whole front end. The next week, the whole back. Then, the next week you go back through something else.”

“You go through something major, every week.”

That makes way more sense. It’s still a hell of a lot of work.

“Oh. No matter what. You’ve got that right.”

More

Scott Bloomquist joins the World of Outlaws Late Model Series in 2020

Chris Madden discusses Scott Bloomquist Racing

Scott Bloomquist talks lead and weight transfer in dirt racing

Bloomquist involved in motor cycle accident

Scott Bloomquist tells the fascinating story of the #0

Bloomquist comments on bullrings and big tracks

Links

Scott Bloomquist | World of Outlaws Late Model Series | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series

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