When they were here in May racing in front of empty grandstands, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models had a photo finish with Brandon Sheppard edging out Ricky Thornton Jr. in a race that had to be determined by the click of a transponder. When the Outlaws returned to the Davenport Speedway on Tuesday night, this time racing in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd the finish was clear, but it came after a wonderful fifty laps of action that saw six lead changes on a racing surface that was used high, low and everywhere in between.
Every other row of the large Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds grandstand was marked off and there was still some room for you to leave some space in the rows that were not, but it was as big of a crowd that I have seen here in sometime as twenty-nine World of Outlaws Late Models and twenty-four IMCA Sport Mods signed in for action on a perfect night for racing on the wide quarter-mile oval.
The fifteen lap Sport Mod feature would be run first with Kevin Rasdon going for a spin in turn one on the first try at a start, and when the green flag waved again it would be pole-sitter Jarrett Franzen setting the pace. Matt Fulton would pick up the chase on the leader both hugging the bottom while back in the pack both Ben Chapman and Shane Paris were using the high line to make their way to the front after starting sixth and eight respectively.
That high line looked really fast early as Chapman was quickly up to third and Paris was fifth behind Ryan Walker, but then it seemed to level off a bit as Franzen and Fulton continued to lead the field. In fact Chapman had given up on the top and was now in line on the bottom when the caution waved with four laps remaining when Terry Stevens spun in turn four. On the restart as I watched to see if Chapman would go back to the top into turn one, I missed what happened to Paris as he along with Jared Waterman, Chance Huston and Paul Howard were piled up just shy of the flagstand with Kyle Eller also experiencing heavy damage.
Once back to green Chapman gave the middle line one more effort before getting back in line on the bottom as Franzen would lead every lap to take the win ahead of Fulton and Chapman. Walker would finish in the fourth sport and Dustin Schram would take fifth after starting from the seventh row.
Perhaps noting that the bottom was a little too dominant during the Sport Mod feature, promoter Ricky Kay took a few minutes to groom the top line around the speedway prior to the fifty-lap finale for the Late Models and the result was a race track that saw drivers change lanes multiple times throughout the race.
Cade Dillard and Chad Simpson, back in his own car #25, would bring the field to green with Simpson vaulting off of that newly refurbished cushion to take the lead. In fact most of the front runners would go to the top during the opening laps until Dillard showed that a shorter way around might be the way to go as he drove under Simpson in turn four to take the point on lap six. Second row starters Brandon Sheppard and Jimmy Owens would soon drop Simpson to fourth and the chase was on.
Dillard was back up on the cushion as he started to work traffic and Sheppard was on the bottom closing before taking the lead for the first time on lap nineteen. Caution would wave two laps later when Scott Bloomquist slowed on the front stretch with a flat left rear tire and on the restart Rich Bell would spin in turn one to draw the second yellow. After one more lap was scored the final caution of the race would wave for debris and now the crowd would settle in for twenty-eight laps of fun to decide this one.
With Sheppard and Owens riding the top, Dillard started to dig around the bottom and after about ten laps it became evident that the Louisiana native was making up ground on the leader. Enough so that Sheppard's stick man directed him to go to the bottom on lap thirty-five in an effort to block off Dillard's progress, but there was Owens up on the topside looking like he would then sweep by them both exiting turn four.
Sheppard would go back to the cushion entering turn one just ahead of Owens and as the trio came out of turn four to score lap thirty-six it would be Dillard jumping to the top of the scoreboard that was obviously tied into the automated scoring system. Thank goodness that it was because let's just say that it would have been hard to determine just who the leader was over the next several laps as Dillard would hold the advantage exiting turn four while Sheppard's momentum off the top would bring him back to even at the stripe.
Sheppard would lead lap thirty-eight, Dillard would go back to the top of the board on lap thirty-nine and one lap later when Sheppard made contact with the lapped car of Jason Rauen in turn two that allowed Dillard to get away a bit. Just ahead of him though Dillard would soon have to deal with the slower car of Daniel Hilsabeck who was running one line higher than the leader, but as Dillard squeezed under the lapper, both Sheppard and Owens were able to erase the gap with Brandon taking the lead with just four laps remaining.
Dillard tried to get back that low groove magic over those final laps, but he would come up short as Sheppard picked up his second win of the season here in Davenport. Dillard earned himself a lot of new fans with his second place run while Owens was right there in third. Jimmy Mars started twelfth and finished in the fourth position, Chris Simpson was fifth ahead of Jeremiah Hurst who started twenty-third on the grid after there was nobody eligible for a provisional start. Bobby Pierce was seventh, Darrel Lanigan eighth, Dennis Erb Jr. finished ninth and Chase Junghans would round out the top ten.
Kudos to the Outlaws and to Kay's Davenport Speedway team for putting on a spectacular mid-week program where I was on my way home by 9:30 and I am now counting the days until I return here on Friday August 14th when the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will be on the quarter-mile in Davenport.
Before then though my attention now turns to Sprint Cars for two weeks like it usually does around this time of year, but in a little bit of a different fashion though due to the cancellation of the 410 Nationals at Knoxville. On Thursday night I will make the trip up to Dubuque where the Sprint Invader 360's will be back in action at the annual Dubuque County Fair and I will then get my 410 fix with the All Star Circuit of Champions on Friday night at 34 Raceway and on Saturday at Knoxville. Then the following week I hope to make at least two of the three nights of the annual 360 Nationals at Knoxville.
Stay safe, wear a mask when you can't properly social distance and I hope to see you at the track soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment