As is the norm, all forty of the Super Late Models on hand ripped the top during qualifying with Mike Marlar setting a new track record with a lap of 13.321 seconds. In fact they had pushed the cushion all the way to the top of the banking on both ends requiring promoter Ricky Kay and the Dirt Doctor Al Dlouhy to go to work right after qualifying to bring the curb back down the track prior to heat race action. The top was still the place to be though with Marlar and Bobby Pierce winning the first two qualifiers from the front row while Mason Zeigler made a nifty low to high move in turns three and four on the opening lap to take the third heat race after starting from inside of row two. Then came the race of the night in this writer's opinion.
The first two rows would breakaway from the pack with Earl Pearson Jr. leading Cade Dillard, Dennis Erb Jr. and Brandon Sheppard in tight single file formation around the top. After a few laps though the drivers behind the leader started to search a little lower without much success until Erb went all the way to the bottom. With just a couple of laps remaining the quartet fanned out four-wide exiting turn four with Erb taking the lead and the eventual win in the final two laps setting the stage for what would come later in the night.
After three heats for the IMCA Modifieds and two Late Model B-Mains, the first one seeing Chris Simpson use the bottom to come from fourth and pass both Devin Moran and Tim McCreadie to take the win, another round of track maintenance would take place prior to the fifty-lap headliner for the Late Models.
Starting second Zeigler would propel off the freshly groomed and watered cushion to take the early lead off turn two with Marlar, Pierce and Erb all in hot pursuit and all working the same top line. By lap ten though we saw a similar scenario to that fourth heat with the leader Zeigler up high, the second place car of Marler one line lower, Pierce another couple car widths lower than that and now Erb digging around the bottom.
Zeigler's "stick man" apparently took notice as the next time around Mason was trying the bottom as well, but when he would let it drift a bit out of turns two and four that allowed Marlar to get a run off the top scoring lap fourteen. However, when Zeigler suddenly headed back for the cushion entering turn one that would force Marlar up and over the banking. Despite staying on the throttle and looking like he would only drop to about tenth in the running order, the caution waved just as Marlar was returning to the track surface on the back stretch and a quick scan of the rest of the track would give the impression that the caution was for Marlar.
That assumption would be confirmed as the #157 would go to the back of the field for the restart even though, if the race had stayed green, he would have remained in the front half of the pack.
On the restart Erb went "all in" on the bottom and with Zeigler unable to pin his plain black looking car to the low line, it would be Erb taking the lead on lap nineteen. As Dennis started to pull away Bobby Pierce would take over second on lap twenty-six only to lose that spot to Hudson O'Neal three laps later and by lap thirty nearly the entire field had made their way to the bottom line. Erb had nearly a full straightaway lead over O'Neal at this point and despite the leader closing in on the back of the field in Tim McCreadie with eleven laps remaining, Hudson was not making up a bunch of ground.
With the laps winding down and the lead still at around seven car lengths, O'Neal decided to give the middle line one more try with seven laps remaining. Perhaps a peak of the nose from Bobby Pierce to his inside one lap into that effort made O'Neal return to the bottom to preserve a runner-up finish on this night to the low line master Dennis Erb Jr. who would take his second Castrol FloRacing victory in a week's time repeating his victory from May 10th at the Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Illinois. Second generation stars would fill the podium with O'Neal and Pierce joining Erb while Brandon Overton and Ricky Thornton Jr. would complete the top five. Kyle Bronson would charge from eighteenth to finish sixth, Jonathan Davenport was seventh, Zeigler faded to eighth, Brandon Sheppard was ninth after starting from row eight and Ryan Gustin was tenth.
With victory lane festivities wrapping up a bit before 9:30, a good amount of the crowd would stick around for the twenty-lap IMCA Modified feature that would see Brian Harris behind the wheel of a #98 car lead the way for the first five laps. Jeff Aikey would sweep around Harris to take the point on lap six with the only caution of the race flying two laps later when Jason Pershy and Matt Stein tangled in turn one.
Prior to the caution Tim Ward was making up some ground running the high line after starting seventh, but on the restart after lining up fourth in the second double-file row, Ward would pass the two cars starting in front of him to move to second through turns one and two with the leader Aikey now in his sights. The lead would switch hands at the mid-race mark and as the Arizona native Ward pulled away, the former leaders of the event would fall by the wayside with Aikey leaving the race on lap eleven and Harris exiting on lap thirteen.
It would be the tenth win of 2023 for Ward, his fifth thus far in Iowa trailing only defending champion Austen Becerra in the early stages of the All Iowa Points season. After solving some smoking issues from earlier in the evening, Dylan Thornton would drive one of Timmy Current's Modifieds to the runner-up honors with Eric Barnes holding down third. Friday night's winner here, Chris Zogg would advance from eleventh to fourth while Mitch Morris closed out the top five. 
While this one will not be in contention for Dirt On Dirt's Top Race of the Year, it was still a very entertaining night of action at the Davenport Speedway and we look forward to returning often as the season continues. Perhaps even for their next event coming up on Friday May 26th when the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series takes to the wide quarter-mile.
I have to note that I took three pictures during my pre-race pit walk and two of them are included above. Does that mean that I have a knack for picking winners pre-race?
My next racing action will actually be on the blue oval of the Drake Stadium this Friday and Saturday as we make our annual trip to the Iowa High School State Track & Field meet so I will have to catch up with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series doubleheader at the 300 Raceway in Farley and at 34 Raceway west of Burlington on FloRacing rather than in person. Then on Sunday I look forward to making the trip south to the Adams County Illinois Speedway in Quincy for an attractive triple shot of MARS Late Models & Modifieds plus the HART Limited Modified Series.
Get out and support the speedways of your choice this weekend!
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