Tuesday night, July 27th, the action was at the Davenport Speedway located at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds on Locust Street on the West side of Davenport Iowa. While the Fair employees were very busy as they get things ready for the opening of the annual Fair upcoming soon, the race cars were also rolling on to the grounds for a special Tuesday night of racing.
Tony Izzo Jr was bringing his MARS Late Model series to the track for the first time and along with these Late Models, IMCA sanctioned Modifieds and Late Models would also be racing full programs too.
A fifty lapper would be on the line for the MARS drivers with ten thousand dollars going to the winner and a healthy purse for the others too as Hoker Trucking would be the sponsor on this night, add extra money to the purse and also help as they made sure all the Hoker sponsored race cars, which are considerable, would be on hand to race too.
This was one of those events where you just don't know exactly who will be on hand to race. Yes the purse was healthy but there also has been much racing of late and some big races upcoming such as the Prairie Dirt Classic this coming weekend so it would be hard to judge just who might be on hand.
However, when the pits opened and among the first cars to roll through the gates included Hudson O'Neal, Brandon Overton, Ricky Weiss, Bobby Pierse, Jimmy Owens and the Bloomquist car among others, you knew that some tough racing was set to take place. While the numbers may not have been anything to set the world on fire, there would be no doubts about the quality of the cars and drivers we would be seeing. Twenty two MARS cars would eventually sign in with nice fields of both Modifieds and IMCA Late Models also. Justin Kay would be the only driver to attempt to race in both divisions of Late Models on this night while Spencer Diercks would race both MARS and Modifieds.
MARS might be the "red" planet but on this night it was also the hot one, with both a hot field of drivers on hand to run their race and a hot, hot night in the heartland once again. The race time "feels like" temperature was ninety two degrees under a blazing sun and if there is anyone that deserves the award of the night, perhaps even more so than the drivers, it would be the track prep crew. Now I don't know just who all was involved on this night with that chore, other than track promoter Ricky Kay, any and all who had a part in the track prep should take a big bow. It was an excellent track on this night with racing all over the track, no dust or bumps and just a fine job of preparation, perhaps even more impressive given the tough conditions to deal with. If you give the drivers a good track to race on and with the outstanding quality of the competitors on hand, you know they'll put on a show. And they sure did.
Qualifying amounted to eight quick heats and with no B Features needed, the show moved along quickly and to the credit of management, realizing that this was a week night and recognizing just who the majority of the spectators had come to see, the MARS Late Model, for fifty laps, would be the first feature on the card. Again, congrats to the promoters for making a wise call on this.
And the Late Models would not disappoint. Stormy Scott, who set fast time and then won the first heat, would start on the pole. The format didn't show much imagination but the drivers would overcome that on this night and put on a passing clinic. Scott would lead just over the first half of the race but he had drivers all over him for the lead. Jason Feger, Overton, Pierce, Brian Shirley and O'Neal were all right in the hunt and taking turns as they swapped positions on the track. What was most impressive was the different lines they were using on the track and racing on every inch of the quarter mile, which is as it should be done if everything is correct.
A yellow slowed the action and this is when O'Neal did his magic on this night as he was fifth on the restart but within two laps had charged up and took over the lead as his burst to the front was spectacular. And once in front, he had to fight off several more challenges, primarily from Overton.
Overton worked him very hard but with about ten laps to go, O'Neal pulled away slightly and then it was Pierce and Shirley who's battle for third was a dandy too. However, with only two laps to go, the yellow flew when Feger slowed on the track. I'm glad that no change took place on the last two laps because this was a yellow that could and should not have happened as Feger was getting out of the way and there really didn't need to be a caution flown.
However, there was and it made for great drama for the two lap sprint with O'Neal pounding the cushion and Overton working the inside. O'Neal was barely holding off Brandon and on the last corner decided to drop low and protect the bottom. This nearly back fired on him as he slid up to the middle of the track where he wasn't so good and Overton made one last push off the bottom and came up just .026 seconds short of winning as O'Neal hung on with the crowd on their feet. Pierce would hold off Shirley and Garrett Alberson quietly moved into the top five. It was a dandy race with much action and only three minor yellow flag slowdowns.
As it was early, most in the crowd stuck around to watch the Modifieds and IMCA Late Models with many in the crowd being weekly observers of those two classes. The Modified feature saw three different leaders before Matt Werner locked down the top spot on lap fourteen and would go on to lead the last six laps for the win.
Young Charlie Mohr would start on the outside pole and lead the first nine laps. However, feeling the heat from Spencer Diercks, Mohr would go too hot into turn three and spin in front of the entire field. Fortunately there was no contact with other cars but he went to the back and Diercks inherited the lead.
Werner had moved up from twelfth to third by this time and following the restart, it took him only two laps to snatch away the lead. Running the cushion, Diercks would fight back and lead another lap before Werner, racing off the bottom . would "catfish" his way back under Dierck to take the lead and then after that, he would gradually pull away for an impressive victory with Diercks and Jason Pershy next in line. The Mods did a great job with only that one yellow and all starters were still on the track at the finish.
The IMCA Late Models would wrap up the evening with a good feature race also. Earlier I noted that Don Pataska was sporting a car with the "Desert Storm" colors that were made famous by Gary Webb during his run to the NASCAR weekly racing series title in I think the year 2000. Webb told me later that Pataska chose those colors to honor Webb for his fiftieth year of racing which Webb said was a very nice tribute.
Pataska would later be battling for the lead on the opening lap of the feature which saw Kay take the early lead. The IMCA Late Models would see three different leaders during their event too, with Kay only holding the top spot for four laps before Brian Harris went flying by him on the top side of the track to take the point.
He looked strong up there but even stronger was Matt Ryan who had started fifth and when he found the low groove to his liking, he advanced quickly to the front and on lap nine passed Harris for the lead. This race would go nonstop and while Harris pushed the cushion as hard as he could, he would have to settle for third as Kay made a recovery and fought his way back up to second. However, no one had anything for Ryan as he drove away for the win.
All racing was completed by about 9:45 pm in what was just an excellent week night program. Management didn't fall into the trap of trying to run too many classes and they ran off a quick program. They supplied a great track to race on and the drivers did the rest. There was a big crowd on hand as there always seems to be at Davenport and I have noted that their weekly shows seem to draw big fields of cars in a year when many tracks are truly struggling in that regard. They are clearly doing many things right here and much of the turnaround has to lie with the management team of Ricky and Brenda Kay who have seemed to inject new enthusiasm for racing into the Quad Cities. Thanks to them on this night and watch their schedule page as they still have some big races upcoming on their schedule.
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