While the car count continues to climb at Volusia Speedway Park, it's still the same three drivers in the Late Models that continue to dominate the action. Thursday night it was Josh Richards again who dominated, leading all fifty laps to win the initial point race for the World of Outlaws Late Models series. Richards, who is leading the way in Speed Weeks action with victories, added to his total with another strong performance. His lead was of various amounts throughout the race but even a few yellow flags that brought the field back to him failed to give the rest of the drivers a fighting chance to pass him.
The other two drivers who have been outstanding so far this year, Jonathan Davenport and Scott Bloomquist, where both a part of the lead group but neither had anything for Richards on this night. Davenport settled for third while Bloomquist moved up and then faded slightly as he settled for fourth.
The one driver not of this "big three" who seems capable of racing for a win is Dale McDowell. While McDowell doesn't race a whole lot any more and indeed has sat out several of the early shows at this track, for the second straight night put on a strong performance as he ran a strong second the entire fifty laps. A late yellow with only nine laps left closed up the field a last time and with Richards running out of tires, he wasn't able to pull away to the extant he had earlier as he carefully maneuvered around the track so as not to give McDowell any opening.
Fifty eight cars signed in to race on Thursday night and this will likely be the high water mark of the week as a few cars suffered what were likely week ending mechanical issues and several rolled out of the pits following Thursday night's racing .New entrants included Dillon Wood, Chris Ferguson, Tim Lance, who's car has sat in Jason Fegers' trailer all week and Maryland's Matt Sponaugle. Back after taking Wednesday night off were Kenny Pettyjohn and the Tennessee duo of Stacy Boles and Billy Ogle Jr. Later, after the show concluded, the Tennessee pair left the pits, apparently on their way back home.
After having a very smooth track early in the week, for some reason the track has been developing some bumps the last couple of nights which have caused the drivers to start altering their lines in the corners. Whether the long period of racing is starting to get to the track and causing this, I can't say, but it hasn't been due to lack of effort as the track prep crew is on the track as soon as the racing program is over and works on it into the wee hours of the morning. Perhaps the additional abuse by the big block Modifieds and their wide tires has been a factor. And the track crew seems focused on getting as much moisture in the track as possible, as for the last couple of nights a Northeast breeze has brought the dust right into the grandstands.
I guess I shouldn't have mentioned anything about the consistency of Canada's Ricky Weiss, as now, after opening my mouth, he missed the main for the second straight night. Ricky didn't qualify well and had to start sixth in his heat race. However, early in the race he was making one of the big moves of the entire week as he moved to the cushion and shot all the way up into the lead as the crowd cheered him on. After slipping back into second a yellow bunched the field and on the green, he rubbed wheels with Rick Eckert, broke something and ended up hard into the inside wall, ending his night.
On this night, the big blocks far outdid their fendered friends as the Modified feature was a good one, with plenty of passing and lots of close racing, whereas for the most part, the Late Models lined up and then rode in the same positions for most of their main.
Matt Sheppard, the defending Mr. DIRT Motorsports Champion, moved up from sixth to win the thirty lap main event. Sheppard, after winning the point title, had his ride pulled out from under him this off season when his former car owner scaled back his operation at a late date that left Sheppard scrambling to field a car. Relying on many of his sponsors and contacts within the sport, he quickly put together a team and was vindicated with what was a big win for him over a quality field of cars. Rick Laubach led a number of laps before Sheppard passed him and ended up third and Tim Fuller, who won last night, had charged up to second, only to fade at the end to seventh.
Once again, the Modifieds put on an interesting feature that saw only one yellow flag and only two cars failed to go the distance.
A "shout out" should go to DIRT starter Dave Varney who has proven to be one of the best flagman that I have seen in quite some time. Not only does he do his job competently, but he also puts on a show, something that many starters have gotten away from. With his "herky jerky" animated movements on the flagstand, he reminds me somewhat of the legendary Engle DeKock.
On the other side of the coin, Blake Anderson has disappointed me as the pit announcer for the broadcasts. He seems to be fixated on tires and tire choice and while 95% of the spectators could care less whether the drivers are using 20's or 30's, he spends most of his time talking about just that. This isn't NASCAR Blake, and don't you dare try to make it that.
Dave Eckrich is down here in Florida helping Dennis Erb Jr. this week and Iowa race fans might be interested to learn that all three of the Eckrich brothers will be racing Black Diamond/Club 29 cars in 2016.
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