BUFFALO TWP — Simply put, Jimmy Mars was out of this world.

The driver of the No. 28 car from Menomonie, Wisc., took the lead from Scott Bloomquist on Turn 2 of the 45th lap and ran away from the field to win the fifth annual Firecracker 100 World of Outlaws Late Model race Saturday night at Lernerville Speedway.

Mars also became the first two-time winner of the event, having won the Firecracker 100 here in 2009.

“That feels fantastic,” Mars said. “It's hard enough to even qualify for the main event in something like this, then you have to go 100 laps.

“Having a three-day event where you can race in three features without having to move the truck? That's a great deal for all of us.”

Mars only raced in two shows over the weekend. He sat out Friday's action.

“We had some issies with the motor and didn't want to push it,” he said. “We were gearing up for this one tonight.”

WoO points leader Rick Eckert had the pole for the Firecracker 100, coming off consecutive runner-up feature finishes Thursday and Friday after setting the track record for fastest lap during Thursday's time trials.

Eckert won his heat race Saturday, but had to settle for third in the feature. Bloomquist claimed second place.

Eckert led the feature for 30 laps before giving up the lead to Bloomquist.

“Jimmy made the right tire choice and I'm sure that helped him win this race,” Eckert said. “I couldn't rotate out of the corners well at all. The car was just too tight.

“As soon as my right front tire overheated, I was dead in the water.”

Bloomquist also alluded to tire choice playing a major factor. Lapped traffic didn't do him any favors, eithers.

Only nine cars finished on the lead lap.

“My car was good, but it was good going for him,” Bloomquist said of Mars. “I'll just have to wait a year, I guess.”

The 100-lap main event had only four restarts — on the third, fifth, 19th and 48th laps.

Mars was thankful there weren't any more.

“I wasn't firing off real well on restarts,” he said. “Scott got caught behind a couple of cars and once you lose that momentum in a race like this, it takes another lap or two to get it back.”

By then, Mars was gone.

“There always seemed to be an opening for me to get through,” Mars said of lapped traffic.”

Well ... Not all the time.

Mars tapped Chub Frank's rear bumper a couple of times during the final 20 laps and got bumped by another car himself along the front straightaway with five laps remaining.

Mars was able to avoid the wall during the latter contact.

“”Honestly, I don't even remember that,” he said. “I was pretty locked in on what was in front of me at that point.

“Chub races hard and he's never easy to get around. I'm sure he understands I had to go hard out there. There were $30,000 (to the winner) at stake.”

Frank was a WoO provisional entry for the Firecracker 100 and passed 14 cars to finish 11th. Jared Miley of South Park was the highest local finisher, claiming 17th.

Franklin's Matt Lux, a former regular at Lernerville, won the Uncle Sam 30 after starting seventh. He took the lead on Lap 13 and never gave it up.

The victory was the fourth of Lux's career at Lernerville and pocketed him $3,000.

“We would have had to finish as high as seventh in the Firecracker to net that kind of money, so we'll take it,” Lux said.

He won the Uncle Sam 30 in the same car that got smashed up on a first-lap accident during Friday night's feature.

“It wasn't until 3 a.m. that we decided to try to fix this car because I just don't like our back-up car right now,” Lux said. “We made a bunch of calls today (Saturday) just to get parts.

“I don't think the car's totally back to where we want it to be, but it was good enough.”

Notes: Lux has not run regularly at Lernerville sinced Tri-City Speedway added Late Models to its program. Tri-City's track is less than two miles from Lux. ...

There were 62 cars in the pits, representing 13 states. ... Miley qualified for the feature by winning the first B-Main. ... Fab Four racing returns to Lernerville Friday night.