What will likely be the quickest racing program of the entire year was accomplished on Tuesday night, June 17th at the Davenport Speedway in Davenport Iowa. With a sense of urgency seldom seem but certainly appreciated by the fans who paid good money to see the stars of the Summer Nationals in action, track officials in cooperation with the traveling officials of DIRTcar produced a program that beat the incoming rain storms and gave fans the chance to see state hero Ryan Gustin win his first ever Summer Nationals feature event. Sport Mods sanctioned by IMCA and local Street Stocks were also on the program with their winners being Cole Stichter and Blake Woodruff.
It was a miserable hot and humid day in the Quad Cities area of eastern Iowa on Tuesday. My first experience of 2025 with this kind of weather sent me huffing and puffing through the pit area while most of the traveling teams got their work out of the way early and they were hunkered down in their transporter until the last possible second before it would be time to go to work.
As the skies got increasingly darker and everyone started looking at the phones, the looks of doubt among those in the pits grew darker also. Most seemed to think that it was not a question of if but of when with the "smart money" betting on shortly after 7 pm for the rain to hit, perhaps after qualifying but surely before the bulk of the program could be completed.
What transpired should be a good lesson for all of us, and that is to not rely totally on what your electronics are telling you. They are still guessing in their predictions and simulations and until the rain actually hits you in the head, it's better to go ahead with the plan. We've all seen it before where it looks impossible for a program to be completed but the rain poops out or the storms split and it never drips a drop. And tonight was a great example that you should continue on with the program until the rain forces you to stop.
This kind of night is a promoter's nightmare however, but credit to the race fans of the Quad Cities and environs for showing up in good numbers, if not packing the gigantic grandstand, at least showing up in nice numbers.
Great credit should go out to all who helped produce this blinding fast race program. That would include the local track officials and the DIRTcar officials, both of which did a great job of innovating and adjusting to the situation presented to them. The drivers and crews also deserve a round of applause for cooperating and being ready to race on very short notice.
It also helped that the number of racing classes was small and even before things go progressively worse, track officials had already decided that if less than twenty cars showed up in the two supporting classes that they would run just a feature race and no heats and that helped greatly also.
From the moment that the first race car hit the track for hot laps until the final checkered flag, everyone was in high speed mode and it was a pleasure to watch just what can be done when the proper motivation is offered. How's this for a statistic that will rival any other produced this year. From the drop of the first green flag until the checkered waved over the hood of the #19R car, the total time needed to run off the entire program was seventy one minutes!
That's right. One hour and eleven minutes to run off four heats, a B Feature and three main events. Of course, this could not be done without the cooperation of the drivers and smart work by the track officials who filled in every potentially "dead moment" by adjusting the running order and completing another event as there was no down time at all.
If fact, they got things started so quickly that the horse rider carrying the National Anthem missed her cue and got left at the gate, so to speak which apparently created some upset feelings. However, it was for the greater good and she did get her moment to circle the track later as I think the race fans understood the situation perhaps even better than some others did.
It was a great night for Gustin who took over the lead on lap two after Jake Timm had surprised on the opening lap, coming from the inside of row two to slip past both Gustin and Ashton Winger and claim the early lead. However, Gustin quickly made up for that gaff, driving underneath Timm on the following lap and then leading the last twenty nine for the win.
Once in front, he really was never challenged for the lead, fighting off Winger following a lap five yellow and then later, when debris from an exploding tire by Jason Feger triggered the second and final show down.
There was some good battling among top five drivers though, as Timm and Winger traded the second spot back and forth with Timm surprising and getting the jump following the last yellow and then holding off Winger the rest of the way. Timm had a good night as he was also the quick timer of the evening with his best lap about four tenth off the track record.
Tyler Erb and Kyle Bronson also had a good battle for position with Erb finally prevailing in the late going. Dennis Erb made one of the best charges of the night. He was late leaving the Chicago area and barely arrived in time to be the last car to qualify and he started twelfth in the feature but passed Bronson right at the finish to round out the top five.
Only two drivers of the twenty two that started the race failed to finish and all drivers were still on the lead lap at the conclusion, showing just how fast the track was as lapped cars never really came into play.
Small fields were on hand for both the Sport Mods and Outlaw Street Stock classes, perhaps the weather or perhaps this being a nonpoint night for both classes being a factor. No matter, it actually helped on this night as track officials were just looking for quick breaks to fill while the Late Models got ready for their next event.
Blake Woodruff won an easy Street Stock feature event. He started on the pole and for the rest of the field, who has been chasing him unsuccessfully so far this year, it meant bad news to them. He had a full straightaway on the pack when the red flag flew for Cody Staley, who got over the edge of the track in turn four, tried to fight his way back on when the car turned sideways and started barrel rolling. He was OK but the damage was heavy to his car.
Woodruff took off again on the green and cruised home for the win over Donnie Louck and Chevy Andreatta.
The Sport Mod feature was more competitive with Stichter coming from the fourth starting spot to take the win. Dakota Cole was the early leader and he held the top spot for the first half of the race as Stichter worked his way past Josh Starr and Tyler Maschmann to move into second.
Stichter was fast on the cushion and on lap nine he drove past Cole to take over the lead and then extended it over the final few laps in a race that went green to checkers with everyone applauding both their skill and brevity. Behind Cole, Payce Herrera, visiting the Midwest, finished third.
While Gustin will remember this night for his first Summer Nationals win, most of us will remember this night mostly for how fast the show was completed and how, at least on this occasion, we beat the weather. Again, thanks to everyone that played a part in getting this accomplished.
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