The MLRA returned to the Hawkeye State of Iowa for a weekend doubleheader with their Friday night venue being the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds and the Davenport Speedway.
After a couple of false starts to begin the thirty lap Late Model feature, Chris Simpson established control and everyone else was left to battle for second in the thirty lap main event. Other winnners in the support classes included Jeff Struck Jr. in the Street Stocks, Tony Olson in the Sport Mods and Justin Kay in the Modifieds.
A fine field of thirty five Late Models signed in for the race, contested on one of the finest weather nights of 2018 so far, and personally it was a pleasure not to have to be bundled up like an Eskimo for the first time in a long time and not have to walk all hunched over to keep from getting blown over by the wind! It was just a nice Spring night.
One of the Late Model drivers on hand for the first time was largely in the pits just to get away from the horrible weather back home. Lyndon Bolt is from Rapid City South Dakota and has been racing Late Models a couple years after having run Modifieds previously. He is a WISSOTA from the western part of that organization and even though he lives several hundred miles from me, I have seen him race several times at big WISSOTA events. While the snow is not piled up too deep in Rapid City, he said that eastern South Dakota was still buried and it will be several weeks before any wheels turn on race tracks in that part of the world. He was running mainly to get the experience as his car carried a WISSOTA spec motor as he has no open motors at this point. Unfortunately for him, he got to the high side in turn two, three laps into his heat race and got forced into the formidable concrete wall that enclosing the half mile here, and after making hard contact, his night was done.
All classes were racing on the half mile on this night, one of the few times all year the big, old flat half mile is used. I have definite feelings against using this track but that is my own personal opinion. Why you would race on a narrow, rough, hard to pass on half mile when you have a perfectly nice, wide and racy quarter mile just setting there is a good question, but some people like the brute force speed that the half mile provides and the cars were certainly storming down the long straightaways on Friday night. Next time MLRA is in town, they will race on the quarter mile.
Jason Feger fans got a scare when he left the track in a cloud of smoke during hot laps but he returned for his heat race so the issue, while serious looking, was apparently a minor one.
Only nine of the top twenty in MLRA current point standings were on hand Friday night, but those points were skewed because the MLRA opener was run very early in the year and in Illinois, an area that provided plenty of cars for that event but not ones that would likely follow MLRA all year. Ricky Weiss retained the point point but as things settle down, it looks like it will be the Simpsons and perhaps Brian Shirley to battle it out for the points title.
For the first time this year, passing points were used to line up the main event and B Feature for the Late Models after they qualified at LaSalle. No one seemed to disapprove of the idea and with a tight curfew at Davenport, they were able to start the first race right at 6:30 pm, something that never would have happened if they had to qualify on the half mile.
The early start on a Friday does make for a scramble for both the local drivers trying to work a full day and for the fans also. There always is a late, last minute scramble of racers checking in right at cut off and Davenport has more fans that arrive after the show has already started than any place I can think of. However, most importantly, they do come.
Four heat races and a B Feature plus the inevitable provisional starters set the twenty five car grid for the Late Model feature. It took three tries to get the race started, and this was the most critical time for Chris Simpson of the entire race. Sharing the front row with Brian Shirley, both knew who won the first lap would likely win the race. On the first attempt, Simpson bobbled in turn one and Shirley got the jump. However, Jesse Stovall stalled in turn four and a restart was called for.
Shirley knew he had to get the jump because just like ninety nine per cent of the time at all races everywhere, the inside row gets the jump at the start. However, he was just a bit too obvious in trying to get a rolling advantage and while he got the lead, that start was called back.
The third time Simpson had a clear jump and the race took off with Shirley and Chad Simpson chasing his brother. They were the top three for much of the race and there were some good battles going on behind them as attrition played a big part in this race.
Jonathan Brauns looked very impressive all night and he raced into the top five, only to break the right front of his car. Others that were running in the top five to ten and eventually dropped out included Rickey Frankel, Tad Pospisil, and Will Vaught.
Tyler Breuning and Payton Looney probably passed the most cars under the green flag as both raced into the top five at the finish. Chad Simpson had very bad luck when he lost his second place with just eight laps to go when something broke on the right front and he plowed the first turn wall. While the quarter mile is a very forgiving track, the half mile is anything but with a cement wall all the way around the narrow track and big ute tires that always seem to catch at least a couple cars over the course of the night. One reached out and shoved Spencer Diercks left front back several inches and ended his night earlier.
At the end, Chris Simpson cruised home for the win, comfortably in front of Shirley and Breuning with Tony Jackson Jr. running consistently for fourth ahead of Looney.
The support classes were pretty weak. Apparently the combination of running the half mile, no track points plus a regular purse did not excite many drivers as there were only thirty four drivers split between the three support divisions.
However, while that might have been the case, perhaps the best race of the night was the Modified feature where Kay charged up from the fifth row after a bad redraw to take the win. Eric Barnes was the leader early but charging up through the pack was Jeff "Bone" Larson and Kay and they were really working hard to make passes on the difficult to pass on track. After two very early yellows, the last nineteen laps went nonstop and Larson and Kay were relentless as they worked their way forward.
Larson got stuck to the outside of a lapped car and Kay was able to pass him for second and then eventually track down Barnes for the win. Rob Toland had stalled on the opening lap and dropped to the back and he made a charge of his own, working his way up to third near the end of the race and pressuring Barnes for second.
The Sport Mod feature saw Olson get to the front quickly and while he was pressured by Keith Blum the rest of the way, he held on for the win with Dustin Schram coming home third.
There were only six Street Stock and while Struck Jr was clearly the fastest, it did take him several laps to work his way into the lead after his own bad redraw. Jesse Owen came home second ahead of Jeremy Gustaf.
Some construction work is going on with the grandstand at the Fairgrounds and an alternative entrance and ticket booths were in effect for this event. It was nice to see what was the first perhaps really big crowd in the grandstands for any event I have been to this season so far. Good weather just means so much for the success of any racing promotion. The show started promptly, moved along well and the Late Model feature was done by 9:30 pm with the Sport Mods wrapping up their event well before 10 pm. Thanks to Carrie Rouse, Bob Wegener and the rest of the staff for a well organized and run event.
No comments:
Post a Comment