Well, if the cat wasn't already out of the bag before, the "secret" is definitely out now. On the heels of the MavTV merger with FloRacing I have to think that there was a huge online crowd watching Wednesday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at the Davenport Speedway and it is likely that for many of those viewers it was the first time that they have seen the wide quarter-mile oval at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds. Once again promoter Ricky Kay and his team worked their magic first providing a great surface for qualifying and heat race action, and then during a brief intermission they moved the infield tires in by a car width and groomed the surface to perfection giving the drivers a choice of up to seven lines to choose from for the forty lap main event.
The result was another big money barnburner, much like last year's MARS race that was dubbed the 2021 Race of the Year by Dirt On Dirt. And in fact, this one had the two primary players from that thriller, plus one or two more to immediately put Wednesday's show in contention for that RotY title in 2022. Yes, as the big crowd on hand already knows, the Davenport Speedway is now among the "elite" tracks that drivers and fans automatically circle on their schedule. In fact Wednesday's winner wants to have ten more Super Late Model events added to the schedule going forward, and even though that winner may be a bit biased, you know that others are in full agreement when the runner-up for the second year in a row proclaims "this is a badass race track" during his post-race interview.
With the SLMR event that had been scheduled at Independence washed out early in the day, the car count swelled to 37 for the Lucas Oil series and it also helped out the IMCA Late Model car count with a respectable nineteen cars on hand for the-mid-week show. Twenty-four Sport Mods were there to close out the evening.
The forty lap Lucas Oil headliner was nothing short of magnificent with cars using the full width of the racing surface and the fast way around seemingly changing from lap to lap. Brandon Overton and Mike Marlar would bring the field to green, but it would be the inside hugging Hudson O'Neal that would inch to the lead as lap number one went into the scoring system. Once Overton settled in on a line somewhere just above the middle he would get the momentum going enough to edge ahead of O'Neal on lap three with Marlar in tow as that trio began to pull away from the rest of the field.
With O'Neal chugging around the bottom, Overton leading in the middle and Marlar riding around the top this truly was a three-wide race for the lead with Marlar surging to the point on lap thirteen. The first caution of the race would come on lap sixteen when Ross Robinson decided that he needed to make a pit stop so he stopped right at the entrance of the infield before turn one until the yellow flag waved and, while the three-wide battle would pick right back up after the restart, only three more laps would be scored before Tyler Erb slipped off the top of turns one and two and then was slow re-entering the back stretch.
With this restart Jimmy Owens would join the fun, even cracking the top three for a few laps as Marlar would pull away to a solid lead, nearly a full straightaway on the quarter-mile with just ten laps remaining. Just like that though you could see that O'Neal's bottom line was starting to eat into that lead with big bites, and when Marlar had to leave the top a time or two for traffic, what was left of that lead vanished quickly. Hudson would regain the point with six laps remaining and while Overton and Marlar would stay within striking distance over the closing laps, the win would go to O'Neal. His second win in just two appearances here, so no wonder why the young driver wants to have ten more big races added to the schedule here at Davenport!
Overton would chase him home in second and was quick to praise the track (see quote above) despite the fact that he has come up just short of victory in O'Neal's two wins here, and it was obvious that Marlar had enjoyed his evening despite ending up as the last man on the podium after forty laps. Owens would finish in the fourth spot with Spencer Hughes taking fifth and the hard charger of the night was Ricky Thornton Jr. After going nowhere in his heat or his B-Main, Thornton used a series provisional to start twenty-third and he would race his way up to a seventh-place finish just behind Tim McCreadie. Ryan Gustin moved from seventeenth to eighth, Brandon Sheppard maintains his series points lead in ninth while Rookie of the Year contender Daulton Wilson made the most out of his provisional coming from row twelve to complete the top ten.
The weekly IMCA Late Models were served up as an appetizer for twenty-five laps on the freshly reworked track and they would reward the large crowd with a non-stop race that definitely showed what was to come. I had wondered what Justin Kay would do on this night when faced with the SLMR event scheduled in Indee, but if there was a decision to be made, it was all voided when Tuesday night's derecho drenched the facility in Independence forcing that event to be postponed to August 6th.
Now Kay would have the opportunity to race in both Late Model divisions here at his home track and he would come up just one position short of making the Lucas Oil A-Main after a valiant effort that saw Tyler Bruening edge him out by a half car length. After that disappointment Kay would line up twelfth for the IMCA Late Model main and after watching him charge through that B-Main field in the Super, you just knew that Justin would be coming to the front in this one as well.
At seventy-three years young, Gary Webb would set a quick early pace with fourth starting Matt Ryan in hot pursuit. Those two would pull away from the rest of the field as well and despite the fact that Kay had moved to fifth already by lap ten, he was nearly half a lap behind the leaders as Ryan took the point. A couple more laps and Kay was in fourth, then to third and with the laps clicking away he was soon challenging Webb for the second spot. The Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer would fight him off for a couple of laps before Kay moved to second on lap seventeen and now the chase of Ryan was full on. With the race staying green it looked like Matt might be able to ride this out, but with Kay now hugging the bottom that lead disappeared quickly and with still two laps to go, the pass was made to complete the charge to victory.
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| Justin Kay's crew had two cars to prep on Wednesday |
After a twenty minute victory lane session following the Lucas race, a good portion of the crowd stuck around to watch the Sport Mods close out the evening. Logan Veloz would start from the pole and he was unbeatable working around the bottom even with five cautions and their ensuing restarts along the way. Veloz would take the win with Tony Olson slipping around Brayton Carter on the final restart to take second. Olson had started this one from the eleventh row after dropping out of his heat race while leading. Ben Chapman rallied to a fourth place finish after restarting from the rear of the field after that first caution, he had been running third at the time. Visiting drivers Justin Becker and Cam Reimers were fifth and sixth respectively.
The final checkers waved just before 10:15 and we were on our way home counting the days before a return to the Davenport Speedway. A big thanks to Brenda Kay for the hospitality, never a "second choice", and just like Hudson O'Neal I am checking the schedule to see that the MARS Super Late Models return to Davenport on Tuesday July 26th, the World of Outlaws return for a three day run from August 25th through the 27th and the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series is here on Saturday September 24th. The track also has three more weekly Friday night shows plus the Dirt In November event to be run, so plan accordingly!
Tonight's POWRi 410 Winged Sprint Car show at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson has been pushed back to this Sunday July 10th due to heavy morning rain here in southeast Iowa. I am now hoping that 34 Raceway can dry out enough to host the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars as scheduled on Friday night. Hope to see you there!
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