The Corn Belt Clash Late Models are the featured division and they turned out twenty-one cars for the opener as series point leader Chad Simpson and Davenport's weekly IMCA Late Model track champion Matt Ryan earning the front row for the thirty-lap main event. Ryan was called for a jump on the first try at a start obviously knowing that he needed to do whatever he could to get an advantage on Simpson and when the green flag waved again Chad began his march to a comfortable lead.
As Simpson put up a half lap lead Brian Harris moved to second while my attention was drawn to the moves being made by both Jason Rauen and Justin Kay. Rauen is always a treat to watch whenever there is any kind of a top groove and Kay was working the top line as well with both steadily making their way to the front after starting tenth and eleventh respectively. With five laps remaining Rauen and Kay had closed in on Harris and the battle for second was now a three-car tussle just before the only caution of the race waved on lap twenty-six as Jay Chenoweth and Dave Eckrich tangled in turn four.
As the field was realigned it would be Harris and Kay placed in the first row behind the leader Simpson much to the dismay of Rauen who appeared to be pointing to the scoreboard that still showed him in the third position ahead of Kay.
Remember though, the scoreboard is unofficial.
On the restart Harris, now driving the Roehlk Construction #21H, drove hard to the high side into turn three and pulled even with Simpson, but Chad would find the grip in his favored middle groove to maintain the lead and he would then stretch it out a bit over the final three circuits to take the $2,000 win. Kay was able to slip by Harris in the closing laps to take the second spot, Wisconsin's Paul Parker took advantage of the late restart to finish fourth while Rauen had to fend off Jason Utter to finish in the fifth position.
Even though there are more than 200 IMCA Modifieds in competition three hours west of here, there was still a stellar field of 34 here in Davenport Friday night. After drawing the back of his heat race and racing his way up to fourth to make the re-draw, Bruce Hanford's luck was much better as he pulled the pole position for the twenty-lap finale with veteran driver Rich Smith starting to his right. Hanford would hold the lead in the opening laps as third-starting Brad Dierks applied the pressure and as the leaders came off of turn four to score lap number four Dierks used the high line to take the lead by inches at the stripe.
Those inches were important though later in the lap as Dusty Kraklio and Milo Veloz Jr. collided in turn two to bring out the caution and it would be Dierks at the point for the restart. There would be no stopping the driver from Clarence from there as Dierks cruised to the win comfortably ahead of Hanford. Jeff Morris returned to the driver's seat and drove Todd Reed's #19R to an impressive third-place run, Matt Werner started twelfth and had moved up to fourth before being passed late by Dakota Hayden leaving Werner to fill out the top five.
After winning twenty-one Sport Mod features through mid-August in 2014, Austin Moyer took a step back from the Sport and has only made a handful of starts this year and the success has continued with four wins. So when Moyer drew the front row of the 15-lap Sport Mod feature it looked like this would be a race for second, but obviously the rest of the 21-car field had other ideas. Ross Neal would keep pace with Moyer early and when Austin made a rare mistake by going over the top of turn three on the fourth lap Neal was more than happy to takeover the lead..
The caution waved on lap nine when Keith Silvers spun into the infield in turn four and that would put two perennial winners, Moyer and Timmy Current right on the back bumper of Neal for the restart. Ross was up to the challenge though and maintained his lead, helped out a bit when Current also made a rare mistake driving off the top side of turn two with three laps remaining. Neal would close out the victory in fine fashion forcing Moyer to accept the runner-up money while Jacob Ellithorpe came from the tenth starting spot to finish third. Jacob Waterman, who started beside Ellithorpe on the fifth row, would finish in the fourth spot while Current recovered from his mishap to finish in fifth.
The Street Stocks were the first division to hit the track come feature time and when Keith Blum planted himself on the bottom groove with the lead following the drop of the green you knew it was going to be a tough task to get by him. Nick Clausson gave it a valiant effort though as he was one of the few drivers giving the high line a chance and after starting twelfth he just ran out of laps before he could make a run at the leader. Blum would score the win while Clausson was the show in second, Rob Nylin took third, track champion Perry Gellerstedt was fourth and Joe Bonney filled out the top five.
After starting ninth and winning the heat race it was no surprise that Brandon Setser would lead from flag-to-flag after drawing the front row for the 4 stock feature. Andy Loy would chase Setser all the way to finish second, Sean Fersch took third, Tristan Clark was fourth and Brad Rhoads was fifth.
With the two big events mentioned in the opening paragraph, plus with this being a football Friday night throughout the area I was pleasantly surprised at how large the crowd was on an evening that had a little chill in the air. And as always it was a fun evening sitting with many of my friends who I find at many of the tracks around the area although we were missing Dick and Joyce Eisele who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary while taking in the action over in Boone.
A big thank you to Carrie Rouse and Bob Wagener for the hospitality and with another beautiful night on tap here's hoping that the Davenport Speedway is packed tonight for the finale of the Iowa Governor's Cup on the big half-mile.
Other commitments will keep me away from the track for the remainder of the weekend so I am looking for you to get out there and fill my seat at the racing event of your choice!
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