Friday night, August 26th saw night number two of the My Place Hotels, Quad Cities 150 at the Davenport Speedway. Another full show would be held for the WoO Late Models and they would be joined on Friday by the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets who would be running a full program also.
It was another brutally hot and stuffy night in eastern Iowa but just a tad more tolerable than on Thursday and with Davenport's regular race night on Friday, the crowd was considerably larger than it had been for the Thursday night steam bath.
With the points earned from the first two nights of racing setting the heat race lineups for the Saturday night conclusion, there would not be a large number of new entrants for the Late Model program on Friday. Actually, I was expecting no new entries so I was surprised when Jonathan Huston pulled into the pits as the last arrival on Friday. And after a tough night that saw him spin out a couple of times and fail to complete a B Feature, I suspect he will find some other track to race at on Saturday night. There were a couple of Thursday night entrants that failed to return as local favorite Justin Kay did something bad to his motor and Jay Johnson also did not return. So there were thirty four Late Models on hand.
Their drill was exactly the same as on Thursday night with qualifying followed by four heats and a pair of B Features that would set the grid for the finale, a thirty five lap main once again. Cade Dillard would be quickest overall timer on Friday with Shane Clanton tops in group B but the key was to finish in the top two in the heat races so that the redraw for the top four rows would be available.
Twenty four cars would start the main for WoO cars on Friday with only two provisional starters added to the mix. Chris Madden would start on the pole and would take the early lead with the yellow waving quickly twice in the first four laps, the most serious of which was a collision between Brent Larson and Todd Cooney that would knock the Iowa racer out of the race.
Pierce would quickly move to second but following the second restart, he got squeezed out of that spot by Shane Clanton who would take over second. The top three would run close together for the next laps with Madden continuing to hold off Clanton.
Pierce didn't seem to be in any great hurry as he sat back in second and kind of sized things up. I guess when you have the dominant car on the grounds you can afford to do that. He started moving around on the track to find the line that best suited him and within several more laps he had passed Clanton for second and was bearing down on the leader by the halfway point. Kyle Bronson and Dillard would both be in the top five at the halfway point but both would fade back later.
Pierce found the line he liked and on lap twenty , with a power move off turn four, he drove past Madden on the top side of the track and then would disappear into the Iowa haze, never to be seen the rest of the race by the field. His line found him running the cushion in turns three and four like last night but he was slightly higher on the track in turns one and two than he had been the previous night. No matter, he found the sweet spot for his car and steadily pulled away from the field.
There was not near as much lapped traffic to deal with on this night and the rest of the race was smooth sailing for him, crossing the line as the winner with plenty of distance between himself and the pack. Madden would hold on for second while Brandon Sheppard made another second half charge, much as he did on Thursday night and he would drive up into second with the ultra consistent Dennis Erb Jr. next in line as Chanton faded back to fifth. Both Sheppard and Ryan Gustin had been strong the second half of mains on the last two nights but they have both dug themselves too deep a hole to completely climb out of on both nights.
The Xtreme Midgets made their first appearance of the weekend on Friday night, with nineteen drivers signing in to race. I was a bit surprised but pleased that with that number of cars, they divided them up into just two heat races, as I thought they would have tried to "milk" more out of their class.
They started out quick with Ryan Timms setting a new track record during time trials as he turned a lap at 14.089 seconds while Jade Avedisian would top the B group about two tenths slower. Things started shaky for this group with multiple yellow flags for spins and a flip in the first heat but after that they ran quite the smooth program.
The track had been "juiced" for the main and the Midgets were definitely flying around the track during their thirty lap main event which was stopped only twice, both for minor incidents. And it was indeed heart break for Ryan Timms who started on the pole and checked out on the field early, building up a sizable lead over the pack. Hayden Reinbold would run second for the first half of the race with Connor McIntosh third.
Zach Daum would start ninth but would gradually move to the front, finding the low line to work for him as he gained positions. Daum would get by Reinbold for second but was far behind the leader when the unthinkable happened.
Suddenly, down the front chute, Timms, would that big lead would suddenly slow and then pull into hte infield, the victim of an oil leak that would damage the motor. Daum would find himself the new leader but two laps later the race was slowed for another car over the end of the track.
Daum would get a terrible restart and McIntosh would drive by him to take over the lead but Daum had the low groove working and just one lap later he would drive under McIntosh and retake the lead. He would make no more mistakes as he extended his lead the last eight laps and would drive home as the winner of the event, with McIntosh and Reinbold next in line at the finish. Thomas Meseraull and Taylor Reimer would complete the top five.
While the crowd would tolerate the Midget portion of the event, they didn't seem to really be invested in it since this is a Late Model crowd this weekend and many don't even know who the Midget stars are.Tthe pairing of the Late Models and Midgets seems like a strange partnership to me and since there are no Midgets anywhere in this area, they don't really bring a lot to the table here. If the WoO, who is promoting this show themselves, not regular promoter Ricky Kay, really wanted to bring out more local fans to add to the crowd, they would have been much better served by running IMCA Modifieds for three nights, not a class that most in the stands have not even familiar with. Fortunately the Midget portion of the show ran off smoothly or on this steamy night, I'm not sure how tolerant the fans would have been.
They raced through the program as quickly as possible, forgoing the redraw in front of the crowd , to get the races done early with music and all sorts of entertainment after the races as the WoO is trying to make this much more than just a race night. I particularly liked the wide variety of food trucks that were on the grounds and so did a lot of other fans. The racing was done shortly after 10 pm and then many went to party on this well kept fairgrounds.
I will not be returning for the main event on Saturday as I have other racing commitments, so I would like to thank the officials of the WoO for their help this week.
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