This is a slightly late report as I was traveling and unavailable to get anything out earlier. However, doesn't diminish the excellent show we saw on Thursday night, June 25th at the Davenport Speedway as the MARS Late Models and IMCA Late Models would provide a spectacular night of racing for a very big midweek crowd on hand.
This would be the first show for the MARS series in 2020 as new owner Tony Izzo Jr has been bitten by the same plague bug that has affected most of racing so far in 2020. A recently announced three night stand for the MARS cars was set up that would involve two Iowa and one Illinois tracks and finally get their season started.
Along with the MARS cars, the only support class, if you can call them fairly a support class after the show they put on Thursday, was the IMCA Late Models and with a rain delayed feature race from one week ago to complete, the fans would see lots of Late Model racing and nothing else for those folks that would prefer just Late Models. This was a rare event these days, and perhaps the big Thursday night crowd was them telling the promoters that once in a while at least, they like like to just have the "turkey and hold the trimmings".
Twenty one cars in each class signed in to race with their being much uncertainty just who would Whshow up to run the MARS series, given that it is really a whole new show this year. To emphasize that, only two of the top ten in MARS points from last year were entered and that would be Brian Shirley and Allen Weisser. Regional open motored drivers from Iowa and Illinois would dominate the entrants with some badly timed scheduling finding several drivers that would be expected to "jump all over these shows" to instead be off traveling this weekend with another series but the cars on hand put on a dandy show and the size of the field probably fit perfectly into the tight time schedule that is required at Davenport.
I guess it must have been some time since I was last at Davenport and I couldn't help but notice just what a nice facility the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds is these days with lots of refurbished buildings and some new construction that really make it one of the nicest Fairgrounds around. The only bad thing is that it is surrounded by the city of Davenport which makes noise issues probably a bigger deal than at some Fairgrounds.
The two Late Model classes running with no other support classes is indeed a rarity these days and it made every event both important and exciting and the action started almost immediately. The running order got messed up a bit right at the start and led to the only delay of the night as the MARS cars were lined up and ready to qualify when an issue was discovered with timing and scoring. After some minutes with no resolution to the problem, the MARS cars were sent to the pits and the IMCA Late Models came out to run their make up feature from June 19th.
It was good that the fans got to see feature racing right off the bat as they were an impatient crowd indeed and cut the officials no slack at all as they demanded action. Fortunately, the IMCA Late Models gave them a dandy race to satisfy their new for action.
Hall of Famer Gary Webb led the opening laps of this race until he was passed by Matt Ryan. While Ryan continued to lead, Justin Kay was on the move as he slowly and then more quickly began to move up through the field. He was using the cushion and after the halfway point of the race was really coming to the front fast. He moved into second and continued to charge and as the leaders were receiving the white flag, he drove past Ryan on the top side and took the exciting win.
Kay came from sixteenth on the grid to take the win in a race that was only stopped three times for yellows and saw the last eighteen laps go nonstop so with those circumstances, you know that Kay was just flying. It was a great race and just the first of what would be several top notch events.
The MARS officials never could solve their timing issue so their drivers drew for positions for their heats and then qualified for the feature based on the old draw/redraw format. The loss of time trials no doubt sped up the program by considerable measures and was met by smiles from yours truly as not only did it help get the program back on pace, it allowed us to see some intense heat race action where otherwise we likely would have seen a "train" for the heats.
Despite blowing a motor in hot laps and having to roll out a back up car, Bobby Pierce was a heat race winner along with Allen Weisser and Spencer Diercks. An interesting note found Daryn Klein in the ride usually driven by Michael Kloos this week.
No B Features were needed and then it was time to roll right into the second IMCA feature race. And this one was just as good as the previous race. Matt Ryan, trying to make for his late race loss in the first feature, started on the outside pole and took the initial lead. With his good starting spot, it would have seemed that he would likely dominant and while he led most laps, he couldn't put too much distance on the field as he would have liked.
Because, guess what, here came that 15K car again, this time from the eleventh starting spot and gradually and smoothly, he moved up through the field. However, he was only sixth following a lap seventeen yellow, the only slow down of the race. But that gave Kay his opportunity and he moved to the low groove and began picking off cars at a rapid pace. Soon he was challenging Ryan again for the lead and once again, as they came to the line for the last lap, Kay again drove past Ryan and took the win!
It was another spectacular finish for the IMCA cars and two great battles between Kay and Ryan. Very impressive was the fact that Kay won both after starting deep in the field for both and in the first feature he won with an outside pass while in the second he was working the low side of the track. If you can work both lanes of the track and have much success, you know that you have got a real good race car. And how frustrating must it have been for Ryan to lose both features right at the end, and to the same car both times! However, both deserve much credit for putting on a great show.
And let's not forget to credit the track prep crew who provided a great race track that was fast in multiple lanes as they were the ones that allowed the drivers to showcase their talents.
The MARS Late Models wrapped up the night with their forty lap main event which was a dandy too. Pierce led from the outside pole and maintained the lead for the first twenty five laps. However, moving up using the bottom side of the track was Frankie Heckenast who had started ninth and he became a factor near the halfway point of the race.
Continuing to work the low side, he showed himself to Pierce and then made a strong pass to take over the top spot. Pierce was all over the track, trying different lines on both the top and bottom side of the track but he just couldn't find the groove that would get him the lead back.
Later both Pierce and Brian Birkhofer, who was a strong challenger too, would take trips off the fourth corner that would cost them positions. The last twenty six laps of this race would go nonstop and Weisser would pick up the pace late, racing his way into second at the finish ahead of Brian Shirley.
All racing was done by 10 pm in what was a highly entertaining program that was "spot on" in nearly every phase. The track was great, the drivers raced all over it and the show, other than the hiccup with timing that slowed things down if only for awhile, was quickly and efficiently ran off. For the true Late Model fans, it couldn't have been much better and I was glad to see that the promoters were rewarded with a big crowd for their rather daring scheduling move.
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