Thursday, January 12, 2023

Davenport Continues Steak; Ramirez Now a Repeat Winner Also

 Round three of the Wild West Shoot Out at the Vado Speedway Park would take place on Wednesday night, January 11th. This night would be the midpoint of the six race series and the only one of the events contested on a week night. 

The same three classes would be in action with full shows for the Late Models, Modifieds and X Mods. Typically, this is usually the smallest field of drivers for this mid week show and such was the case again this year. However, just as the car counts have been up quite dramatically this year, so also the field of cars was still pretty strong even though a few drivers headed home after the first weekend, some had to work and couldn't get here on Wednesday and a couple others opted to just sit out this night. Still, just a one hundred and fifty cars signed in to race and quite frankly, that is plenty on a cold and windy January night in the high desert. In fact, track officials had planned for just four heat races in all four classes but a late rush by locals arriving at the track at the last second after work required the posting of a fifth heat race for the X Mods. 

Thus the format was identical to the first two night except the Late Model feature would be ten laps less than over the weekend with the X Mod feature five laps less, both due to the lowered purse for those two classes on this night. 

Bobby Pierce and Jonathan Davenport would be fast qualifiers for their respective groups with Pierce quickest overall at 14.850. The track was at least a half second slower than on Sunday and was visibly drier, perhaps in part due to the near forty mph winds gusting during the afternoon or the practice session held on Tuesday night that perhaps pounded in the track  just a bit. So there wouldn't but much wall pounding and hammering of the cushion because none exited in this night and it would be up to the drivers to make their cars work the best on the slick conditions. 

With no Pro Power Dash on this night, smooth driving by the racers and the track officials really pushing things, it seemed that it was time for the feature raees in really quick order. As has been the case all week, the Late Models would see the track first for their main, keeping the freezing fans and clock watching PPV customers happy. 

Talk that any one driver could sweep all six feature races this week to win the three hundred thousand dollar bonus plus the new Silverado from Karl Chevrolet seemed absurd and the mere speculation that it might happen seemed foolish and just an example of too much "jaw jacking." 

Now however, with three of six feature races in the book, it doesn't seem so out of the question that it just might happen after another dominating performance by Davenport that would see him lead all thirty laps of the feature and only be challenging by Bobby Pierce for the win. 

Obviously, Davenport has been fast this weekend but things like the draw for timing order, redrawing for the feature etc. have all been going his way too, as if he needed any help anyway. Wednesday he would start right on the pole and just out to the lead right from the get go. And as always, it seems like his usually is saving his equipment and tires, going only fast enough to stay ahead of the competition. 

Brandon Sheppard would hold second for a number of laps until slid for that spot by Pierce. Bobby would then close up on Davenport, showing him a nose several times as the top two would get into heavy lapped traffic. This would be Davenport's biggest challenge of the night as he would have to go both high and low, diving under slower cars and sliding others to get around them. Pierce would stay right with Davenport and then make his own diving attempt several times. Still, one almost felt that Davenport was going only as fast as he needed to and that if challenged, he had more in the tank to slow. 

Working his way past Billy Moyer and Dillon McCowan in the late going to gain a nicer edge, he without one last attempt by Pierce at a slider on the final lap to record win number three this week and fire the pistols once again. Sheppard would finish third with a consistent run and once again, Ricky Weiss grabbed a top five spot with a fourth place run  while Mike Marlar came from tenth to fifth. 

The Late Model feature ran off nonstop and only three of the starters were not around at the finish of the race. 

Dereck Ramirez is now also a back to back winner, having taken the twenty five lap Modified main. He started on the outside pole and chased Tyler Wolff before driving under him and taking over the lead on lap two and after that, he gradually pulled away from the field. After a first lap flubbed start, this race would go none stop with Ramirez gradually pulling away despite Wolff's efforts to stay with him. 

The biggest charge was put on by Tanner Mullins as he was one of the few drivers to use the outside line and after a lot of laps of trying, he finally made it start to work in the last part of the race and he was able to advance from tenth to fifth. He made a late race pass of Ricky Alvarado to grab third over the Colorado driver making his first start of the series. Darren Fuqua would complete the top five. Jake O'Neil, after two straight wins would settle for sixth but he was running the Ingalls Racing Products car on this night, not his regular LG2 car. 

 The closest feature of the three and the one with the best racing for the lead would be the X Mod feature. Rob Moseley would lead the first lap of the main until he was overtaken by fellow front row starter Lucas Rodin. The North Dakota driver would work the high side of the track as he fought off Moseley. This race was stopped only once also as several cars piled up including the previous two night's winner Kris Jackson, who was forced to start twenty third after a miserable draw saw him scratching to just make the show. 

Rodin would continue to lead on the restart but he was soon challenged by Gabe Hodges for the lead with Hodges going high and low as he tried to get past Rodin for the lead. This produced some very entertaining racing with Rodin and Hodges trying to out guess each other on the best line with Hodgest nosing up several times to get beside Rodin but he could never quite ease past for the lead. 

Late in the race, Jesse Haynie would be the driver to fear as he really picked up the pace and would fight his way past Hodges to take over second. However, their battle for second had allowed Rodin to put some distance on them and with a smooth last few laps running the low side, Rodin would drive home for the win. Haynie would finish second ahead of Hodges with Jimmy Ray and Dalton Ragsdale completing the top five. 

Jackson would go to the back of the pack following the lap four tangle and he would fight his way all the way back up to sixth at the finish as he certainly passed the most cars on the track and again seemed to be the fastest in the class.   

As they have been all week, track officials, with the cooperation of the racers, have put on quick shows all week and Wednesday night was another one. The final checkered waved about 9:30 pm which was much appreciated by those tough fans that turned out on a windy and cold night in New Mexico. The Wild West Shoot Out will now take one night off before they conclude this series with three straight nights of expected intense racing with lots on the line. 

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