Despite the name, the fame and the fact that he collected over two million dollars in winnings in 2022, Jonathan Davenport was still missing something on his impressive resume', a victory at the Davenport Speedway. The wide and racy quarter-mile oval that has burst upon the national scene under the direction of Ricky and Brenda Kay the past few seasons had not yet been a place where "Superman" had prevailed despite several solid showings. That would all change on Tuesday night as the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series came to town.
Thirty-two LOLMDS competitors would headline the three division show and it seemed like half of them went off the top of turn one during qualifying as the cushion had been pushed all the way up to the top of the banking. In one sequence all three drivers during the group qualifying session drove over the top, both amusing and frustrating the large mid-week crowd. It was hard to keep track of, but it appeared that the series officials were doing a good job of taking away the lap from a driver if they had in fact caused the issue themselves and frankly if I would have thought it would have been such a prevalent issue I would started to make tally marks for each time a car went off the top of turn one so that I could have provided you with an exact count. I do know that one local driver pulled the feat in hot laps, qualifying and on the first lap of his heat race making one wonder why he didn't just enter the turn a bit lower, a lesson that helped him get through the B-Main without another hair raising trip over the banking.
As one of the cars to hit the track early, while the turn one cushion was not as precarious, Devin Moran was the quick qualifier with a lap that was just a tenth of a second off of the track record and, with his victory in the first heat race, it would earn him the pole position for the forty-lap headliner. Jonathan Davenport would start to his outside and as Moran slid up in front of him exiting turn four to score the first lap the two would make contact with Moran having to check up to keep from spinning allowing Davenport to officially lead lap one.
Even with damage to his right rear quarter-panel Moran would battle back and would sail around Davenport on the outside of turn four to grab the lead on lap six. The two would then race in tight formation until lap twelve when Davenport was able to drive under Moran in turn one and he would lead that lap just before the only caution of the race would wave as both Chris Simpson and Tyler Erb had slowed on the track.
Once back to racing we saw something that we do not often see here at the Davenport Speedway in these big Late Model shows and that was a leader that was able to drive away from the rest of his competition. Just past the mid-race mark Davenport's lead was now more than a straightaway and as he worked traffic like a master it would grow even further while Ricky Thornton Jr. and Devin Moran battled for second.
At lap thirty, and with Moran now solidly back in the runner-up position, that lead would start to shrink and when Davenport got the right rear over the lip of the banking exiting turn four with four laps remaining, Moran would cut even further into that gap to where he was now within striking distance. Now within just two car lengths with two laps remaining Moran would need another mistake from the leader, either with traffic or another slip off the banking, but Davenport had settled himself and would not flinch as he scored the $10,000 victory. Moran would have to settle for second on this night while Thornton maintained his series points lead with a podium finish. Hudson O'Neal advanced from eighth to fourth while Brian Shirley was the hard charger of the event coming from sixteenth to finish fifth.
 |
| Jonathan Davenport's #49 from an earlier 2023 stop at the Davenport Speedway |
I know that the national touring series go the extra mile to make sure that their competitors have every chance to compete and that is why the "on-track body shop" exists and that there is extra time that is given for drivers in the work area, often making for some very long cautions. But to me at least they went beyond the realm of reason just prior to the start of tonight's main event when Tyler Bruening peeled off the pole of the four-wide salute to the fans and first talked with a series official on the turn four apron for a lap or two before proceeding to the work area where his crew scrambled around the car. As the field circled the track for several more laps it was reported that "his crew is still trying to diagnose the problem". This went on long enough that the fans started to jeer and yell "let's go" and finally the Lucas Oil officials decided that enough was enough and the race finally went green with Bruening's crew still trying to figure out what the issue was.
All of this came after several laps of the cars buzzing the surface after track prep, so the extra delay to wait for a "diagnosis" seemed like overkill and reaffirmed one of my pet peeves about these types of events.
A twenty-five lap feature for the IMCA Late Models would serve as the appetizer with a game of "how low can you go" on a surface that was set to be groomed following the checkered flag. Joe Beal started fifth, but kept his car pinned to the bottom and would hold the lead as the opening lap was scored. However on lap two, when Beal left the bottom open exiting turn four it would be the pole-sitter Nick Marolf racing back to the front to lead the lap. He did not learn his lesson though as he would take the same line that Beal had exiting turn four coming to lap three and that would allow the seventh starting Andy Nezworski to catfish his way to the front.
The only caution of the race would fly on lap ten when Nathan Balensiefen turned Matt Ryan in turn two and on the restart Nezworski would leave the field in his wake as the current All Iowa Points leader scored his fourth win of the season. Beal would chase him home in second while Mike Goben was impressive coming from eleventh to third. Justin Kay tried to make the top work through the first half of the race and would finish where he started in fourth while Marolf would round out the top five.
After the long "made for streaming" victory lane ceremonies following the headline event, over half of the crowd would stick around for a twenty-lap IMCA Modified feature that would see Jeff Aikey lead the opening lap by a bumper while racing in three-wide formation with Mitch Morris and Charlie Mohr. Aikey would again have a slim lead on the second lap with Mohr challenging only to have the young driver spin in turn one while battling with the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member.
On the restart Burlington visitor Bill Roberts Jr. would have to check up when the car in front of him got sideways and he was then clipped in the left rear sending the #5R for a spin to set up the second and final restart of the race with eighteen laps remaining. Matt Werner had started sixth, but it was clear that he was the fastest car in this field as he drove under Aikey to take the point on lap four and he then cruised to the win, his fourth of the 2023 campaign. Brad Dierks would come from eighth to finish second, Morris would hold down third with Rockford's Scotte Lemke taking fourth after starting from the sixth row inside. Aikey would fade to fifth while Mohr and Roberts would rally from the back for sixth and seventh respectively.
Despite the longer than expected qualifying session and the extra time spent prior to the start of the Lucas finale, the final checkered flag waved at 10:10 p.m. and we were on our way home with plenty to talk about from another entertaining night at the Davenport Speedway. A big thanks as always to Brenda Kay for the hospitality and we look forward to returning in two weeks when the MARS Series will be the host for a field of cars that will likely include plenty of national stars for the Tuesday July 25th event that literally sits between the Silver Dollar Nationals at Husets and the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury.
For tonight I am keeping my eye on the weather hoping that the annual Cedar County Fair Race at Tipton will still be a "go" and then on Thursday night it will be over to Bloomfield for the Davis County Fair race. That's a "can't miss" when Mike Van Genderen is doing the track prep on one of my favorite venues! Perhaps I will see you there!
No comments:
Post a Comment