The Rebel 5K was held on Friday night, April 7th at the Davenport Speedway located on the grounds of the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds on Locust Street in West Davenport. Friday night's racing action was also the first race of the 2017 racing season at Davenport and a gutsy way to begin a new season with a special event such as this.
Racing on the quarter mile, along with a forty lap, five thousand to win Late Model event, they were also running their Street Stocks, Sport Mods and Modifieds. While the races were not sanctioned on this night, IMCA rules were in effect for all but the Street Stocks who run their own rules at several tracks in eastern Iowa.
Rain much of the week had made the race's happening questionable, but with the skies finally drying out near the end of the week, and with some sun and wind to help, they were even able to get in a badly needed practice session on Thursday night to give both drivers a chance to shake down their new equipment plus the laps generated on the track would have nothing but helpful results come Friday.
I was able to spend a few minutes with Carrie Rouse, who runs the back gate at Davenport as well as maintaining many other responsibilities. Even she was a little surprised that the program was coming off as planned, given the amount of rain and cool weather of the week. She related that the track was choppy for practice but that they had spend many hours working the surface as soon as they could get on it late in the week and she, along with everyone else, was hopeful that it would be better on Friday. Before I go any further, I want to thank Carrie for her help on Friday on what turned out to be a very interesting night of racing.
Before the races, I took the chance to talk to a couple of drivers in the pits. First on hand was Jesse Sobbing, who was on hand to run some practice laps on Thursday, mostly to try and check out his gears to make sure that he had the right ones in. He did say that the track was very choppy on Thursday and he wasn't able to learn much because it didn't stay on the track more than a couple laps, due to its condition.
Jesse will be focusing on his Late Model program in 2017, running the Deery Series, the Malvern Bank Series and other special events. He does still have access to a Modified, actually one that he sold last Fall but the new owner is amenable to him driving it. He will run this car in a few of the huge money Modified races that are upcoming in this area i n2017.
A surprise entrant in the Late Model class was Decorah's Troy Hovey. Hovey, who has been a very accomplished Stock Car and B Mod driver in USRA in recent years, is going to try Late Model racing in 2017. He has a MasterSbilt chassis and he plans to run weekly at Farley and Independence, the two tracks that are closest to his far Northeastern Iowa home where there is little or no Late Model racing taking place. Hovey had a pretty successful opening night, making the main event and due to the high attrition rate, he even scored a top ten finish.
Former Modified driver Kyle Krampe was a new Late Model driver for me along with former local Street Stock racer Phil Anderson from Orion Illinois. An interesting swap saw Joe Beal and Stephen Kammerer switch cars for 2017. Beal is now running the #77 Late Model while Kammerer runs the former Beal Modified. Kammerer had the better of the two Friday as he managed a top five finish in the Modified main.
Friday night racing is always a mad scramble for every track with many arriving late and all at the same time and things are usually wild and hectic trying to get everyone signed in. For the longest time, it looked like the field of racers was going to be a stinker with no cars coming in. However, they all arrived at the last minute and when the first green flag dropped, there were thirty one Late Models, nineteen Modifieds, thirty three Sport Mods and eighteen Street Stocks. And amazingly, even with opening night issues that usually happen, along with hot lapping all the cars, they still got the first heat race started at 6:16 pm.
let's call a spade, a spade here. Yes, the track was choppy. It many have even been bumpier than 34 Raceway was last week. While that track seemed to be smooth on the chutes with just the corners rolling up, Davenport was humpy all over the track. Some drivers found a line right down on the inside and some rolled the outside and did well. It seemed that the worst line was right through the middle of the track. But, none of these issues were created just to make life miserable for the drivers and why it turned out the way it did was understandable.
But for me, the most amazing thing of the night was how the drivers adapted to the conditions and put on a great racing program. All four feature races were excellent, with last lap passes settling two of them, three of the winners had less than a car length winning margin, and despite what you might assume, there were not a lot of yellow flags during the show. Only the Street Stock feature got bogged down a little with yellows but both the Modified and Late Model features went green to checkered. Folks, that's sixty laps of green flag racing without a yellow and who'd expect that to happen on the best of nights! I think the drivers did a marvelous job and even better than just racing without yellows, there was a huge amount of passing and back and forth racing all night. Of course, the one spin rule was used Friday night and that helps without a doubt keeping the show moving along promptly.
The Late Model feature put a cap on the great racing with an outstanding battle for the lead. Nick Marolf was the early leader and it looked like he might back up last Saturday's big win with another triumph but when he started to fade, Sobbing and Ryan were right there to get by him and start their own wild battle. They swapped the lead back and forth with both making hair raising moves in the corners as they searched the track, looking for a fast and hopefully, smoother line . Sobbing made a "hair on fire" move in turn one to take the lead with just a couple of laps left but Ryan came right back and got under him for the lead. It boiled right down to the final lap, with Sobbing's last lap effort coming up a car length short.
Many of the drivers deep in the pack had planned on pulling off early and the first lap was like rush hour at the exit ramp as there was almost a backup of cars trying to get off the turn one exit. Later, as cars got lapped,they to dropped out frequently and by the end of the race, there were only nine on the track. However, that didn't effect the quality of the race whatsoever which was one of the best seen so far this year.
Justin Kay, who I thought might have a chance at a double win, ran consistent but never really challenged in the Late Models. However, in the Modifieds, he fought off an early challenge from Rob Toland, who was making a rare Modified start, and then built up a big lead. Toland was another who I thought might score a double but after being fast early in the Late Model feature, he faded back and was just riding around at the end. Toland had drawn the pole in heat race action in both classes but couldn't use that break to translate it into a feature win.
Kay built up a sizable lead in the Modified feature as this race also stayed under the green. However, he slowed as the race progressed and Cayden Carter found a fast line right on the inside mud berm and he closed up on Kay at a fast pace. What was a comfortable lead dissolved to nothing in the last couple of laps, and while Carter was on the bumper of Kay, he didn't try some kind of wild, last lap banzai run. Instead, he played it clean, tried to drive under Kay off the last corner and came up a half car length in what turned out to be a wild finish.
The Street Stock feature saw so many different leaders that it was hard to keep up. Duane Smith Jr and Randy Lamar battled for the lead with challenges from Brandon Setzer, Joe Bonney and others. They took turns running in front with several yellows slowing down the action.
Suddenly, Jeff Struck came up from tenth starting position to take over the lead and it looked like he might be able to pull away. Just when it looked like things had settled down, Struck suddenly slowed with mechanical issues and gave the lead back to Setzer.
Bonney, who had been working the high side all during the race and had come close but wasn't able to take the top spot, tried one last time on the final lap and he was able to pull off the pass and take a thrilling win. Lamar got third and Rob Henry, who missed his heat and had to start sixteenth, came up to fourth one, spun and went to the back and then worked his way back up to fourth once again.
One of last years biggest winners in the Sport Mods, Tyler Soppe, started the year out with another win in what was a hard fought battle. Brandt Cole led for much of the race but Soppe gradually worked his way up after starting tenth and took over the top spot. However, he wasn't home free as Gage Neal made a late charge and came up just short at the finish. The Sport Mods did a great job also with only two yellows in their twenty lap main event.
I can't remember the last time I was at a race where tough track conditions were overcome so well by the drivers in all divisions as all four feature races were good ones, and under the conditions, actually great is no understatement. It was a highly entertaining night of racing and even the hard core fans were driven to comment on the great battle between Ryan and Sobbing that they had seen.
It is always tough to gauge the size of the crowd is such a massive grandstand like the one at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds and it was a late arriving crowd, as I'm guessing it is on almost every Friday night, given the early starting time they must use to beat the curfew. For sure, everyone that was on hand had to have felt that they got their money's worth on this night.
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