Ricky Kay keeps booking in the big shows at the Davenport Speedway for the fans and on the weekend of August 25-27 he presented his biggest race at the quarter mile yet. It was the Quad Cities 150, a World of Outlaws Late Model three night show that would feature Thursday and Friday night shows paying ten grand to win, followed up on Saturday night by a thirty grand to win main event. Along with the Late Models, the IMCA Modifieds would be racing on Thursday night with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets racing on both Friday night and Saturday night.
The Thursday night show would proceed, despite the fact that a rather soaking rain would hit the Davenport area in the early hours of Friday morning. There were plenty of puddles to be found and the race track was initially quite wet, but it was opened up to allow drying and by race time, the rain had become a non issue in terms of its affect on the racing program.
A fine field of thirty eight Late Models would sign in to race on Friday night with the top ten in WoO points among those entered. Dennis Erb Jr continues to lead the WoO points with consistency marking his season, just as it has marked his career where he has never been flashy but has consistently produced results that allow him to remain on the road with Heather after all these years.
A fine field of thirty one IMCA Mods would also be on hand to race on Thursday with many of these drivers rushing in at the last minute, as you might expect for working class people on a Thursday night.
While the format for the Late Models on Thursday night to establish the race order would be business as usual, the points would be calculated just a bit differently. Points would be awarded for qualifying, heats, Last Chance races and the feature race for both Thursday and Friday and these points accumulated would set the running order for Saturday night's heat races with the big money on the line.
Things turned into a scramble early for several of the teams with Mike Guldenpfennig breaking after only one lap of rolling in the track prior to hot laps. He would miss his qualifying run plus his heat so he would be behind the eight ball early. Brent Larson would go to a backup car after breaking in time trials and while it wasn't reported, at the last minute before qualifying, Devin Moran would roll out his back up car to race on this night with strong results only quashed by a flat tire. And then to conclude things, Jake Timm would be leading a Last Chance race until the final lap when he would lose a motor with his participation the rest of the weekend in doubt.
The track was very fast during qualifying and Bobby Pierce, as the thirty seventh driver out to make runs, would break the track record with a screaming fast lap of 13.207 seconds. We would later see the track "farmed" twice on this night, once after the heat races and again just before the Late Model feature. This surprised me just a bit as they usually don't do that much with the track once the races start and perhaps the rain was the cause of that. I was worried that for the feature the track would be so "bad fast" that passing would be hard and to a certain extent that did hold, as the low line of the track, which typically comes in as the night progresses, wasn't much of a factor on this night and the high line seemed to be the preferred groove most of the evening.
The normal drill, with four heats and a pair of B Features would set the grid for the Late Model forty lapper with provisional starters going to Josh Richards and Larson.
I think most folks would agree that they were happy to see Jason Feger win the feature race. Feger is one determined Midwesterner, racing with just about every sanctioning body and often getting a good finish but recently, not visiting victory lane very often in major races. However, he was strong on this night and with a little help from his friends at Hoosier tire, he was able to claim the ten grand winnings.
Feger had plenty of company early after starting on the outside pole as Ashton Winger and Devin Moran applied plenty of pressure. Ryan Gustin was on a charge early and was also a player in the contest. Pierce also moved in to challenge and it seemed that the short track stars of Moran and Pierce would ultimately provide the stiffest challenge.
Feger would move around the track, trying to find the best line as Moran was all over him by the halfway point of the race. On lap twenty nine, as the leaders worked through lapped traffic, Moran found an opening and shot into the lead. He would immediately open up a working margin on Feger and this race looked like it might be over.
But predicting an outcome for a dirt track race can be dangerous. Just as it looked like Moran was home free, the yellow flew with twenty nine laps complete when third running Gustin blew a right rear tire and stalled. And even more shocking, during that same yellow, Moran also had to stop when his right rear gave up too. Feger would report later that this track is tough on tires, something I would not have guessed at all with the rich black dirt, but they do work the tires hard here too.
In any event, Feger would inherit the lead with only six laps to go and his task was to keep Pierce behind him. Jason got off to a good start, opening some space over Pierce but Bobby had one last slider in his bag of tricks. He threw it in turn one but Feger was able to fight him off and despite the fact that Jason got a bit high as they left turn four on the final lap, he was able to edge out Pierce by about a car length to get the win, a victory for the semi underdogs in the field. Tanner English ran a consistent race to get third ahead of Winger. Billy Moyer showed that he can still compete with the best and that his skills haven't diminished too much, as he completed the top five and ran very competitively all night.
A red flag after five laps was the result of a scary flip by Chad Simpson who slipped off the fourth turn, dug into the track and cart wheeled into the wheel fence in front of the grandstand. It was the awkward kind of wreck that often hurts people but fortunately not in this case. Whether he returns this week is questionable as I would assume having a car to race next weekend with the MLRA is an important consideration at this point as his points for this weekend have been much wrecked.
It was a quick race with not a single car lapped at the end and only two that didn't complete the forty laps . Moran was able to work his way back up to tenth after his pit stop with Gustin two more cars behind.
It was bad news for the Modified field when Matt Werner drew the outside pole for the main event. The Modifieds used passing points on this night as opposed to the normal draw/redraw format but for Werner, who has been having a great year here, the outside pole was a great spot for him.
Ryan Duhme got the jump on him at the start and would lead lap one, but that was the extent of his lead as one lap later Werner would drive past him and then lead the rest of the race. Travis Denning was a factor for awhile until he broke and then Cody Laney applied the most pressure.
Laney gave Werner all he could handle but Matt would hold serve, not leaving that to side and as Laney tried to slide under him lap after lap, he just couldn't quite get the job completed. Werner would be solid to the finish and earn yet another feature win at Davenport. Laney would finish a strong second with a fine run by Charlie Mohr netting him a third place outcome.
The two class program was perfect for a Thursday night with hopes that more promoters would understand that they don't have to pack the pits with multiple classes for their special events to make the numbers work. You just have to get the folks in and out in a reasonable time fashion on a weekend so they can either go to the pits if they are on vacation, head to the music stand to listen to the music provided, or jump in the car and head home to prepare for work on Friday become they come back out for round two on Friday night.
Thanks as always to Ricky and Brenda, the staff and crew at Davenport and the WoO officials for all their help.
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