Huddy Owns Davenport

For once lapped traffic actually helped the leader late in a race, either that or Hudson O'Neal's "stick man" waited until the last second to motion his driver up to the top line Tuesday night during the MARS sanctioned Hoker 50 at the Davenport Speedway. The timely lane change on the wide quarter-mile resulted in O'Neal's third straight victory here again over some of the most talented Late Model drivers in the country. And keep in mind that those three wins have come in the second generation hot shoe's only three appearances here in the Quad Cities, so it will come as no surprise when "Huddy" lobbies for more big Late Model shows to be on the schedule here at the Davenport Speedway. Perhaps the continuation of the Silver Dollar Nationals here in 2023? In my mind, and in O'Neal's it would be the perfect venue!

After putting a buzz in the crowd by setting a new track record in qualifying with a lap of 13.350, O'Neal would later have that time bettered by another second generation star Devin Moran who toured the oval in 13.333 in perhaps one of the most entertaining qualifying sessions that I have seen outside of Knoxville's Sprint Car Nationals. It definitely helps having an automated scoreboard that instantly posts the times rather than straining to hear the announcer over the sound of horsepower. Both drivers would be the best of their "groups" in qualifying and win heat races one and three respectively, but in perhaps a flaw in the lineup method Moran would start third with second heat race winner Mike Marlar earning the outside front row next to O'Neal for the fifty-lap $10,000-to-win headliner.

Marlar would edge ahead briefly on the opening lap only to have O'Neal come charging back to go in the scorebook first and the race was on with twenty-eight drivers choosing from one of the many racing lines available on Ricky Kay's and Al Dlouhy's well maintained surface. With O'Neal favoring the low line, Bobby Pierce was on the move and no surprise it was coming on his generally preferred rim ride after starting fifth. And the hottest driver in the country, Jonathan Davenport, was on the move coming from seventh to fourth in the early laps.

The race would stumble though a series of four cautions starting on lap thirteen when Jimmy Owens slowed on the track looking to pit and ending with Bob Gardner's spin in turn one on lap twenty-two. On that final restart, with the bottom now the favored line, Pierce would fade back to fourth and Davenport would quietly exit with Moran and Marlar now appearing to be O'Neal's most formidable foes.

Pierce did not give up on the top though and by lap thirty-five he moved back into second, but with the leader nearly a straightaway ahead of him. Even with most of the cars still in action using a lower line, you could see that top line starting to shine black with rubber and it only took a couple of laps for Pierce to erase the advantage held by O'Neal. Two lapped cars racing for position in the bottom groove just ahead of him may have prompted Hudson to go up top, or it could have been a frantic signal from the "stick man" because Bobby was coming fast only to have O'Neal's sudden lane change block his run.

The final eight laps would be run in high speed fashion around the rubbered up top and while Pierce made two dives to the inside in turns one and two trying to make the pass, he could not get it done as O'Neal would win for the third time in as many starts here at Davenport. Moran would be close behind in third, Max Blair tuned up for the World of Outlaws appearance here in late August with a fourth-place run after starting eighth while Marlar continued his amazing streak of consistency with another top five finish.

Thinking outside of the box, the Benton County Speedway in Vinton is going to run a "Bald Tire Bash" for the IMCA Stock Cars on a Sunday night in August. With the wide racing surface here at Davenport and the history of how much the preferred groove changes over the course of a race, I would like to see the "No Stick Man 50" where the drivers have to continually hunt and search for the best line. All without the assistance of a coach!

Set up the hot pit area out on the back stretch of the half mile and don't allow any crews to be in the infield of the quarter-mile. Make sure that nobody is signaling the driver in anyway. Wouldn't that be awesome? Maybe run it as the preliminary night to a race like this one, where on the second night they can all have their orange vests, fluorescent green hats and those gaudy sticks like Geppetto working their puppet standing on the stage of the front stretch.

Support class action was entertaining as always here in Davenport with a good field of cars in both the Modifieds and the Street Stocks.

The top two drivers in the Quad Cities area so far in 2022 did battle in the Modified twenty lap feature with Travis Denning jumping out to big early lead. A caution on lap nine would put Matt Werner on his tail and the driver that had worked his way up from the eighth starting spot was ready to challenge. Working the inside line Werner would take the point on lap ten, but Denning was not about to give in and he would stay right on Werner's bumper.

With the lead duo using the high line in turns one and two, Denning would execute a slide job to take back the lead going down the back stretch with three laps to go only to have Werner driver under him again in turns three and four. That would seal the deal for the Geneseo, Illinois, driver as he scored his seventh victory of the season, three of them coming in the past couple of weeks. Denning was right there in second, Ryan Duhme finished third, Chris Zogg advanced from seventh to fourth and young Charlie Mohr filled out the top five.

The Street Stock division car count was bolstered by four or five IMCA legal Stock Cars who were racing for some extra money as the top finisher of that group, but everybody would be chasing Jeff Struck Jr. who drew the pole position and held the lead throughout the distance. Rob Henry tried his best to pull even with Struck on the outside over the final laps making one last bid on the final lap but he came up a car length short as Struck scored the win. Jesse Owen was closing quickly in third after starting from the fifth row and David Brandies collected the IMCA legal bonus money in fourth after challenging Struck for the lead on a lap nine restart. Justin Kay would wrap up the top five.

Thanks as always to Ricky and Brenda Kay for their hospitality and for putting on another excellent mid-week special where the final checkered flag waved before 10 p.m.! I'm hoping for the same timeline tonight as I make the trip a little farther upstream on the Big Muddy to the annual Dubuque County Fair where the Sprint Invaders are again ready to attack the wide high banks at the Dubuque Speedway. Perhaps we'll see you there!

Davenport In Davenport