Friday was a spectacular night of racing at the Davenport Speedway! In the first ever appearance here for the IMCA Stock Car Dirt Crown Series thirty-one drivers checked in from near and far, plus with full fields in three of the four weekly divisions, all using the IMCA average points invert lineup procedures, the fans were treated to lead changes galore from the first drop of the green to the final checkered flag of the night.
Thirteen heat races were completed without a hitch followed by two B-Mains and we were the ready for feature racing, but before that I want to make a point. With thirty-one Stock Cars and thirty Modifieds, the qualifying format was as follows. Three heat races with the top five advancing from each and then ONE B-MAIN where the top nine then advanced to the feature. Oh my goodness, how can you run a B-Main with fifteen or sixteen cars in it? Surely you must split them into two B-Mains, right? Wrong! Both B-Mains went green to checkers with no issues and the best twenty-four drivers on this night in each division had qualified for their feature event.
I've said it before and I will say it again. There is no need to have two B-Mains unless you have more than thirty-six cars signed in, then I can see the reasoning. Otherwise you are selling your drivers short and making for a longer show than needed.
The Sport Compacts would be up first for twelve laps with eight of the nine cars on hand making the call. As the green flag waved the front row of Jack Fitzgibbon and Roy Schmidt was quickly swallowed up by the second row of Jake Benischek and Dustin Forbes who were now out front as they went by the flagstand. Benischek would take the point with fifth starting Cyle Hawkins soon there to challenge.
The two-time defending All Iowa Points Champion Hawkins would drive under Benischek to take the lead at the mid-race point, but three laps later as he was racing down the back stretch the leader's car belched some flames twice and as he slowed, Benischek was there to reclaim the advantage. Forbes would follow him into second and while Dustin kept the leader in his sights over the final three laps there would be no catching Jake as he scored the victory. Forbes was second, Hawkins nursed his sputtering ride in for third with Schmidt and Gary Schlieper completing the top five.
Twenty-six of the twenty-eight Sport Mods on hand would take the green in their fifteen-lap main event and this one was a thriller throughout. David Engelkens would set a quick early pace as drivers with high point averages started to march their way to the front from the fourth. fifth and sixth row. You could throw a blanket over the top six as they raced out of turn two on lap seven as they were two by two, nose to tail, three rows deep with the ninth starting Ben Chapman taking the lead from Engelkens on lap eight.
The caution would wave on lap ten when Trey Jacobs spun exiting turn two as Chapman flew by him and on the restart Pat Emerick would go for a spin in turn one. The final five laps would bring some of the crowd to their feet and you could definitely hear them cheering over the roar of the motors as Chapman, who was running a lower line, was under fire from the twelfth starting Logan Veloz who was riding the cushion on both ends.
Veloz would nose ahead at the line on lap thirteen and appeared to be on his way to victory, but when he bobbled a bit on the cushion in turn two on the final lap, Chapman was back in business. Ben would drive to the lead going down the back stretch and dive hard to the bottom entering turn three. This time though he would let the car drift to the high side exiting turn four in an attempt to take away Logan's momentum, but Veloz spotted the move and made the perfect crossover to setup a drag race to the line.
As they crossed under the waving checkered flag it appeared that Veloz was your winner, however fans need to remember that the start-finish line here at Davenport is several feet before the flagstand and is clearly marked by a thin orange cone on the fence in front of the grandstands. And at that cone it was Chapman by inches for a thrilling victory. Tony Olson, who had started seventh, was right behind them in third, Ryan Reed finished fourth and Todd Dykema moved from eighth to fifth.
That would be a tough act to follow, but the talented field of twenty-four looking for the $2,000 top prize in the Stock Car Dirt Crown headliner would be up to the task for thirty-five laps. A pair of Dustins, Reeh and Vis, would bring the field to green with Vis taking the lead until lap three when the third-starting Justin Kay went storming by. A five-time All Iowa Points Late Model Champion, Kay has been dabbling with the Stock Car over the past few seasons, but surprisingly has been yet to take a feature win and in fact has finished second on three nights already in 2023. So would his first ever win in a Stock Car come in this huge event at his home track? As with most drivers who have had a wealth of success over a period of time, half of the crowd was rooting against him while the other half was pulling for him.
The first caution would wave on lap four for a Lee Kinsella spin in turn one and on the restart Dylan Thornton would spin in turn two apparently due to mechanical issues as he would require a tow back to the pits. Once back to green, Kay would maintain the advantage while the race for second would go four-wide exiting turn four on lap seven with Kaden Reynolds being one of those in play. On the next lap though Reynolds would drive off the top of turn four with perhaps a flat right front tire after he had made contact with the spun out Thornton earlier.
Back to green with the tenth starting Miciah Hidlebaugh now in contention along with the father/son duo of the Murtys with Damon coming from deep in the pack, sixteenth after winning the B-Main, while Dallon had started eleventh. Dallon would move to second on lap fourteen and the crowd was again abuzz as they anticipated a showdown between the best Late Model driver in the region over the past several years and the best Stock Car driver over that same time period.
The caution would wave again though on lap twenty-one when Hidlebaugh, perhaps with a bit of contact from behind, would spin in turn four and on the restart the crowd would go wild as the Murty's would shuffle Kay out of the lead and then Justin would spin going down the back stretch. However, before all of that action had transpired, Jacob Ellithorpe had spun exiting turn four coming to the green so the caution was for him and Kay would again lead the field for the next restart.
On this one Gage Neal, who had lined up fifth, would go for a spin and we would line them up again for another shot at the green. This would bring the move of the night as when David Brandies dove in low to pull even with Kay who had gone to the cushion in turn two, Dallon Murty had kicked off the ledge at the apex of the turn and with tremendous momentum he would split the two leaders and race to the front down the back straightaway. The crowd went nuts and two laps later as Kay was battling with Brandies trying to hold on to second, he would jump the cushion in turn one going off the top of the banking and instead of stopping Justin just headed for the pit area that is located off the back stretch of the old half-mile.
It was all over but the shouting now as the younger Murty pulled away for a convincing victory although as he made his way into victory lane there was a lot of steam coming from the winning Stock Car. Brandies, who had started sixth and who was in the mix throughout took the runner-up honors with Dustin Vis coming home third. The race to watch over the final ten laps was between Chanse Hollatz and Johnny Spaw who went back and forth several times before Hollatz prevailed for fourth after staring from row nine while Spaw had started ninth.
Dustin Smith would start from the pole position of the twenty-lap IMCA Modified feature and it was obvious that he wanted to get to the cushion first in turn one and that caused fellow front row starter Matt Stein to lose several positions as he slipped off the top of turns one and two on the opening lap. As he went to that cushion a second time though, Smith would drive over the top of the banking and that would hand the lead over to Travis Denning who had quickly advanced from his sixth starting spot.
Spencer Diercks had charged from tenth to third in the opening laps, but he would spin in turn four with three laps completed and that would be the first of four cautions that would all be lumped together. The back of the field would get stacked up on each of the two attempts at a restart and, after lap four was scored, three more backmarkers would come together in turn three for what would turn out to be the final caution of the race.
Chris Zogg had started next to Denning in row three and he would now be there to challenge for the lead driving around the outside of Travis on lap nine. There would be no catching Zogg from there as Chris would record his second win of 2023 in fine fashion. Denning would settle for second on this night while Diercks rallied from the back of the field to finish third. Matt Werner came from the fifth row to finish fourth while Charlie Mohr advanced from eighth to fifth at the checkers.
A nice field of twenty-three IMCA Late Models would close out the evening for twenty-five laps with "The Godfather" Leroy Brenner setting the early pace while being challenged by division rookie Anthony Franklin. Matt Ryan would slip by both of them to take the lead on lap three and, as he tried to pull away, Fred Remley was digging his way around the bottom to get to second and he was then closing in on the leader.
Remley would snag the lead in traffic on lap thirteen only to have Ryan regain the advantage a lap later before the cation waved with ten laps remaining when Brandon Loos slipped off the top of turn one. With the realignment Davenport Speedway fans saw several likely winners near the front in Ryan, Remley, Andy Nezworski and Justin Kay, but one they might have missed would have been Dubuque visitor Joel Callahan who was now up to third after starting from twelfth. The former Yankee Dirt Track Classic champion showed that was no fluke as it would take just two laps for him to go to the front and Callahan would then drive away over the final eight laps to take the win in his first top-five showing of 2023. He was followed by Ryan, Kay, Nezworski and Bryan Klein while Chris Lawrence passed Franklin on the final lap for sixth.
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