When Shane Clanton won five Late Model features, including four of the last five, at the Georgia/Flordia Speed Weeks in 2015 we all felt that it was a very dominating performance, especially coming from a driver who had been through a sub par season the year before. Now, as we head into the final week of racing in the Sunshine State both Josh Richards and Jonathan Davenport already have four wins each and expectations are that both drivers will add at least one more to that total over the next six nights and that is even with Davenport planning to sit out the first two.
I had the chance to watch Davenport in person Friday night and he just looks faster than everybody else. And while I doubt that this is the case, it seemed like he toyed with Scott Bloomquist peeking to the inside twice before just driving around him on the outside a few laps later. Watching the highlights from Sunday night's show at Bubba Raceway showed that same level of domination as Superman faded back to eighth early on only to march his way right back to the front and win going away. Josh Richards has been able to beat him head-to-head though and that is why it was a bit of a surprise when Kid Rocket did not score a win when he broke away from Davenport and ran with the World of Outlaws at Screven this past weekend.
When one driver becomes dominant at a track, or in a series, you could probably argue that it has a negative effect on car counts and that might be one explanation for the difference between the Lucas Oil Series and the World of Outlaws when they ran head-to-head this past weekend. The Lucas series had 35 both Friday and Saturday at East Bay while the Outlaw car count was at 46 both nights at Screven. Perhaps more of a surprise was the car count at Bubba's place Sunday night when 26 signed in for the standalone Lucas show and that included WoO regulars Richards, Frank Heckenast Jr. and Jordan Yaggy. There is no doubt that the talent level is high on the Lucas roster with Davenport, Bloomquist, Lanigan, Sheppard, O'Neal, Owens, Pearson, McCreadie, Carrier, Francis, Erb and Landers, but will that result in lower car counts in 2016? Those who appreciate Quality over Quantity will not be concerned. Plus, if they get a few more surprise winners like Mason Zeigler's $12,000 triumph in the East Bay finale that should keep the regional talent interested.
The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Cars closed out a three day run at Volusia with Brad Sweet winning two features and leaving Florida as the points leader. Defending dominator Donny Schatz was the other winner, but a couple of bad nights has him back in the 7th position in the points standings for now. Of course in front of him are three drivers in Greg Hodnett, Dale Blaney and Sammy Swindell who will not run the entire schedule.
The UMP Modifieds have been running with the Sprint Cars at Volusia and on Saturday and Sunday the large field was split in order to qualify for tonight's Gator Championship. Burlington, Iowa's Dugan Thye finished 14th in Saturday's A-Main and he will be set to do battle again on this Monday night. This is the second year in a row that the young driver has taken his IMCA legal car to race against the big boys and the son of former NKF Tour Modified champion Darin Thye is gaining valuable experience that he hopes to put to good use when the Midwest season opens in two months.
On the pavement at New Smyrna Speedway Steven Wallace and Ty Majeski have been the class of the Super Late Model field the first two nights finishing one-two with Wallace winning Friday and Majeski on Saturday. And at the big track Kevin Thomas Jr. rallied nicely after an early spin to miss a big crash to finish seventh in the ARCA race.
And finally familiar names found their way into victory lane this past weekend as the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) kicked off its Winter Speedweeks at the Shady Oaks Speedway in Texas. Rodney Sanders, Ryan Gustin and defending champion Jason Hughes split the tripleheader and the Modified stars will race three more times in Texas this week at the Heart O' Texas Speedway.
Following are the updated Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points through Valentine's Day
No comments:
Post a Comment