Two weeks in a row of cold, windy, rainy weather left promoter Bob Wagener with a mess at the Davenport Speedway, but with sunny and warmer weather predicted for race day he did everything that he could to provide a surface for the drivers to race on for opening night. The track started out being dusty during hot laps, but as the sun went down the moisture came up and the track began to chunk out leaving drivers with a choice to either find the smoother high line, or attack the rougher lower grooves that still proved to be faster. The result was four feature races that were very entertaining for the solid crowd on hand, but had to be physically challenging on both the drivers and their equipment.
The Street Stocks were first up for twenty laps with $1,000 going to the winner in all three of the night's support classes. Dwayne Smith Jr. drew the pole position, quite a change from earlier in the evening when it looked like his throttle stuck during hot laps sending him sailing off of the top of turn four and sliding through the wet grass all the way over to turn four of the half mile. That was a distant memory now though as Smith would lead the first four laps before the caution waved for spins in both turn one and turn four. On the restart Joe Bonney would race to the lead on lap five before the caution waved again, this time for a fire under the hood of Cary Brown's car. The Speedway Fire fighting crew assessed the situation and Brown was given his place back in the realignment despite the fact that the fire would flare back up again under green.
Another caution on lap six gave Randy Lamar the chance to steal the lead from Bonney, but it would be just for a lap before Joe fought back as Smith stopped the race with a flat tire on lap nine. Three cars piled up in turn one on the restart and once back to racing it was Jeff Struck Jr. who would power his sharp looking car to the point on lap eleven. One last caution waved for a Rob Henry spin in turn two and the race would then stay green for the rest of the distance and it looked like Struck had things well in hand until lap eighteen when he turned into the infield off turn two handing the lead over to Brandon Setser who would lead the white flag lap. Bonney had been riding up high in third, but with Struck's departure it seemed to give Bonney a spark as he went elbows up on the final lap to drive around Setser in turns three and four to take the win. Setser settled for second, Lamar was third, Henry took fourth and Jimmy Comins finished fifth.
After six cautions in the first feature I thought that we were going to be in for a long evening, but that concern was put aside as the Modifieds went twenty laps non-stop for their main event. The names in the first two rows of the lineup looked like a Late Model field with Justin Kay, Bob Dominacki, Rob Toland and Stephan Kammerer with Toland coming from the inside of row two to take the lead on the opening lap in the #99 normally driven by Doug Curless. Kay would keep the pressure on as both drivers worked the faster, but more treacherous lower line and on lap eight Kay was able to drive around Toland for the lead.
The driver on the move though was Cayden Carter who had started in row six and with the scoreboard clicking towards twenty Carter had moved into second and was closing quickly on the leader. Taking a peek under the leader coming to the white flag, Carter was there to challenge on the final lap and as the duo exited turn four one last time he was able to get under Kay only to come up a half of a car length short of stealing the win. Toland would hold down the third position, Bryce Garnhart was fourth and Kammerer who has made the switch from the Late Models to the Modifieds earned his second top-five finish in his first two starts.
The Sport Mods had the largest field of the night with thirty-three cars signing in looking for a grand and it would be Brandt Cole leading the way in the early going of the twenty-lap main event. Brayton Carter used the same line as his older brother to get to the front on lap six only to have Cole retake the lead two laps later, The caution flew on lap ten when Jacob Whittington shucked a spring, something that also happened to him in the heat race, and on the restart Tyler Soppe was now in a position to challenge for the lead and he would take it from Cole on lap thirteen. The final caution of the night waved soon after when three cars tangled in turn one and Jeremy Gustaf looked like he might be Soppe's one remaining challenge once back to racing. That thought changed though during the caution as something broke on Gustaf's car leaving the rear end sitting low and when the green flag waved Gustaf faded fast and pulled off the track after one lap. Soppe would then pull away over the final laps to score his third four figure victory in the past four weeks. Gage Neal came from the fourth row to finish second, Cole was impressive in third, Keith Blum ran fourth and Austen Becerra made the long pull north from Memphis, Missouri, to take fifth after starting from the eighth row.
The Late Models were the headliners and with $5,000 on the line a solid field of thirty-one drivers were on hand and with forty laps facing them on a very challenging surface, it would be a well earned paycheck for the winner. Jeremiah Hurst would take the point at the drop of the green with his fellow front row starter Nick Marolf close behind. Five cars, including fourth starting Denny Eckrich pulled off the track after the first lap was completed and two more would join them on lap two, but those who did stay in action were racing hard especially up front where Marolf took the lead on lap six. Jesse Sobbing who started fifth and Matt Ryan who had started ninth were working their way to the front and on lap nineteen Sobbing made a power move on Marolf squeezing under him in turn three to take the lead.
Ryan would soon after make his way to second and set his sights on Sobbing getting by him to take the lead away with eight laps remaining, but as the IMCA Late Model crowd will quickly learn Jesse Sobbing does not just fade away if you take a lead away from him. Sobbing fought back using the even rougher second line up the track and on lap thirty-five he would again nose ahead of Ryan for the lead. Matt came back to take the lead with four laps to go and on lap thirty-seven the two drivers drove the crowd wild as they swapped the lead back and forth throwing caution to the wind. Both cars were bouncing and darting this way and that as the two drivers did whatever they could to get to the checkers first and it would be Matt Ryan taking a popular win at his hometown track while Sobbing impressed those same fans with his second place effort. Marolf was not far behind in third, Justin Kay closed out a good night in fourth and Cayden Carter had another nice run coming from the ninth row to finish fifth.
Rebel 5K Notes......Joe Bonney has won a lot of races over the years, but he stated that this was his first win ever at Davenport......Jimmy Comins drives an IMCA legal Stock Car against the Quad City area Street Stocks.....Brandon Setser was leading the All Iowa Points Four Cylinder division before he switched to the Street Stock class in mid-August last season.....Nineteen Modifieds for $1,000-to-win was a bit of a surprise since the class usually draws thirty or more for the track's weekly Friday night program. One driver who was not in action was Bruce Hanford who took the night off to celebrate his 60th birthday.....With his wins at Memphis MO, Tipton and Davenport Tyler Soppe has won more than $5,000 already in 2017 in a Sport Mod!......Austin Howes also made the tow up from northeast Missouri and Wisconsin driver Jeff Schmuhl, a top competitor at Beaver Dam and the Oshkosh Speed Zone, won a B-Main and then finished eighth in the Sport Mod feature......There were some new faces in the Late Model division in Phil Anderson, Joe Beal and Troy Hovey, but only Hovey made the A-Main where he was one of the eight cars still on the track at the checkers.....Bob Wagener now has two weeks to get the quarter-mile back in shape as next Friday's action will be on the Davenport Speedway half-mile when the MARS West and Corn Belt Clash Super Late Models come to town for the Midwest Sanction Showdown and hopefully Mother Nature will work with him better than she has the past two weeks.
Thanks to Carrie Rouse and the entire Davenport Speedway crew for the hospitality and for an entertaining night of racing!
Tonight I will be at 34 Raceway west of Burlington as a large field of 410 winged Sprint Cars are expected as the Interstate Racing Association (IRA) Sprint Cars make their return to the high-banked 3/8th-mile oval. IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Sport Mods and Stock Cars will also be in action.
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