Quad Cities 150 Opener To Moran

Upon arrival at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds on Thursday evening you could smell it in the air, this was a big show atmosphere all the way from a pit area full of big rigs, to the food trucks setup along side the stage where post-race concerts will be held, to Souvenir Row, something new that has not been configured in this manner here before. Yes, with the support of title sponsor Hoker Trucking and so many more supporters who wanted to help them take this step, K Promotions has made the Davenport Speedway a "destination facility" for big-time Late Model racing with the three-day Quad Cities 150 featuring the World of Outlaws.

The cool thing about this is that they didn't just do it overnight. I don't think that Ricky and Brenda Kay ever dreamed of being race promoters, but when the opportunity came up they took it and despite all of the normal challenges that race promoters must face, they also had to deal with Covid and the restrictions that came along with it. In a roundabout way though, the virus likely had something to do with where we are now as when the World of Outlaws rented the facility to hold a Pay Per View event with no fans in the stands on May 30th of 2020, a controversial photo finish between Brandon Sheppard and Ricky Thornton Jr. showed the entire Late Model nation what this wide quarter-mile was capable of. Throw in a huge grandstand and a central location with a large local fan base to start with and we started to see more Super Late Model events pop up on the schedule.

Race by race the track's reputation grew and when we were here in July for a Tuesday night MARS show two of the best in the sport made it well known that they were there that night because of all the great things that they had heard about the place, and you had a sense that they were lobbying to get "their series" on the schedule in the future. After all, they can't be here for this three-day extravaganza because "their series" is racing in Pennsylvania this weekend.

When you make your way to Davenport tonight and, or Saturday make sure to bring your appetite, your dancing shoes, a couple of extra twenties to grab a souvenir, and be ready for some great racing action because the Davenport Speedway has made it to the elite status.

So let's get to Thursday's racing where 38 Late Models, 30 IMCA Modifieds and 25 IMCA Sport Mods were in action with the same three classes racing through the tripleheader. One other thing that you can count on as a fan here at Davenport is that the show will be run off quickly as the track does operate under a curfew and likely because of that the forty lap Late Model feature was first on the schedule.

Chris Madden and Devin Moran would bring the twenty-four car field to green and in true Davenport Speedway fashion they would swap the lead back and forth over the first three laps. Moran would then settle in as the leader with Bobby Pierce soon dropping Madden to third and taking up the chase of the leader, Cautions for Ryan Gustin on lap six and for Jason Feger on lap twelve slowed the field, but on each restart Moran would maintain the advantage.

Photo courtesy of Dennis Krieger (DK Images)

Usually during intermission Ricky and the Dirt Doctor will make some kind of a tweak to the racing surface, but on this night they left it alone and by mid-race it was now evident that the low line was dominant. With Pierce still chasing, Moran closed in on the soon to be lapped car of Feger on lap twenty-seven and after a couple of laps of following him, Moran tried to squeeze under Feger in turn three.

Surprisingly Feger did not yield an inch, even slamming the door on the leader and that gave Pierce one opportunity to peak his nose under the leader going down the back stretch, but Moran fought it off and then held his line to the checkers. Pierce finished second, Frank Heckenasrt Jr. raced from seventh to third, Shannon Babb moved from eighth to fourth while Nick Hoffman in the Bloomquist Racing #0 finished where he started in fifth. Cade Dillard dropped from third to sixth, Brandon Sheppard was seventh after establishing a new track record of 13.588 seconds earlier in the evening, Jimmy Mars finished eighth, Boom Briggs came from the eleventh row to finish ninth and Chris Madden who stubbornly stayed on the top the entire race faded to tenth. 

The Sport Mods and Modifieds would then hustle in their features just past the ten o'clock hour. Decorah visitor Jimmy Broszeit had his hands full with challenges from both Logan Veloz and Brandon Jewell in the early going of the fifteen lap Sport Mod main event with Veloz nosing ahead for the lead on lap six just before the lone caution of the race waved for a spin in turn three. Once back to green Veloz was able to ease away to take the $750 victory over Broszeit and Jewell with Todd Dykema and Ben Chapman filling out the top five.

In the twenty lap Modified finale pole-sitter Jordan Hicks would lead the way with constant pressure from Timmy Current. On lap thirteen while trying to navigate around a lapped car entering turn one, Hicks went in a bit higher leaving the door open for Current. But when he also tried to squeeze under the lapper, Timmy would run out room in turn two clipping one track tire that marks the infield before smacking the tire that sits at the exit of the corner sending him into a spin.

Following the restart Tim Ward was now in second, but when he went to explore the high side he would lose a couple of positions before Kory Meyer spun in turn three with three laps remaining. On this restart the high line started to work for Ward as he battled his way back up to second and if the race would have been a lap or two longer he might been able to make a run at the winner Jordan Hicks. Mitch Morris was steady in the third spot, UMP star Mike McKinney, in what I believe to be one of his first IMCA starts in a sharp #96m sponsored by Hoker Trucking, raced his way up from eleventh to fourth while Brad Dierks took fifth.

The band sounded good belting out a Luke Combs hit as I walked to the car and perhaps I will stick around to have a long neck ice cold beer and listen to some music after tonight's races. I am really excited to return for tonight's show as I know that Dr. Al and Ricky will make sure that this surface has multiple grooves to choose from for tonight's headliner. 

You won't want to miss it!