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He keeps getting closer and closer each year to winning a championship on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, but Lawrenceburg, IN second generation racer Scott James has finally realized what it takes to reach his ultimate goal a championship with the premier touring series in dirt late model racing.
For the third year in a row Earl Pearson, Jr. of Jacksonville, FL will enter the upcoming 2008 racing season as the reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion, Pearson had to fight off both James and Steve Casebolt in capturing the '07 title, but James who was the series "Rookie of the Year" in 2005 continues to surge to the top of the class as he has now finished fifth, fourth and second in the final points standings for the series which embarks on a 41 race schedule starting in February at the East Bay Winternationals.
While fellow Hoosier State driver Don O'Neal almost won the title in '05 and finished second to Pearson again after the 2006 season, James has been in the shadows of both those drivers that last three years, but come 2008 he hopes to change the name on the championship trophy and check at seasons' end.
While James' season on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was his best to date as the 36-year-old driver started 31 A-main events with two wins (Hagerstown and Duck River), nine top five finishes and 18 top tens which gave him enough points to finish second in this year's championship standings, falling just short of his main goal.
"We had a pretty good year," said the driver of the Powell Motorsports/Rocket Chassis #83. "We started out a little slow, but we came on pretty strong there in the middle part of the season after making the tire change (to American Racers), they seem to fit my style better and maybe if we had been on them all year, we could've won the title, but instead we came up just short" said James in a post season interview.
Falling short by just 230 points is something for James and his crew to build on heading into a brand new season. "We went back and forth with Earl there for a while in the points chase, probably the turning point was Bardstown, when we were running real good (leading the race) after starting ninth, then we had a flat and had to go to the back, then Earl had a flat and we both went to the tail and I crashed and Earl got back to finish tenth and I went out of the race, that's where it really hurt because the rest of the season we were pretty the same in the points spread the rest of the season."
James, who in 2007 started his all-time series leading 95th A-main in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competition, praised his crew for the season long championship hunt. "We gave it our all, that was our goal was to win the championship, you can always look back and say if we had done this and done that and finished a few races just a little bit better than Earl, but in racing you can say that just about every race, you have to have a short memory because you have to get ready for the next race, when you have to go up against Earl and that team, they've got the best team, the best track record and the experience to close out the championships. We know we were close and I feel next year we will be there again (in the title hunt)." said James who has three career Lucas Oil wins and 41 top ten finishes to his credit.
A lot of James's success over the years he credits to his car owner Ron Powell. "He was tickled to death with our season this year, for the people that don't know him, he's a class act, he only gets to about ten races a year, but with his other parts of his life he can't get away to come see us run like he would like, he's trusted me to maintain his equipment and we do that, we don't have many DNF's and he gives us a certain budget to work with and we work from there."
One of the benefits of running the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is the exposure of having events televised on SPEED and VERSUS. James said one his goals to improve on is his television races. "Yes we need to work on that a little better for next year, it's great for Lucas Oil to have the races on that go to millions of people each week during the off-season and it gives fans a chance that don't get to see dirt late model racing on a regular basis how exciting and competitive it is, it's great for our sponsors that we have now and for gaining potential new sponsors."
Scott James and rest of the other 2008 title hopefuls get another shot at dethroning Earl Pearson, Jr. starting February 4th-9th at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, FL for the 32nd Annual "Winternationals." For more information you can log onto www.eastbayracewaypark.com for further details.
For the latest news and info regarding the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series you can visit the series website at www.lucasdirt.com or call the series office at (951) 532-2503. |
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