The Wieland Winter Nationals continued with round two of the final leg of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks at the Ocala Speedway on Wednesday night, February 5th and it was Jonathan Davenport that dominated the racing action. The veteran Georgia driver led from start to finish to claim the thirty lap non point paying event which added seven grand to his early season winnings as he continued to tune up his race car in advance of a run for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series title.
Davenport was quick qualifier for group A and second quickest overall at 14.378 seconds around the oddly shaped Ocala oval, and after starting on the pole and winning the first heat race, he also then earned the ability to start on the pole for the thirty lap feature race.
Thirty nine drivers signed in to race on Wednesday night as both Boom Briggs and Ricky Thornton Jr were added to the field while Tristan Chamberlain pulled their unit out of the pits to take a few days off before Volusia starts and they begin World of Outlaw point racing once again.
Thornton Jr was quickest qualifier overall as his brand new car performed well and his 14.223 lap topped all drivers. He then went on to win heat three and the two titans of the sport currently then started side by side on row one for the main event.
Brandon Overton and Brian Shirley also were heat race winners on a well watered racing surface that required track workers to take several opportunities to scrape mud off the outside walls so drivers could get their bearings better. Despite this, there were again several instances where the drivers pounded the tricky fourth turn wall, which was no doubt the toughest point on the track and one that could easily make or break a racing lap and race.
A first lap, first turn incident in the first heat race eliminated Derrick Stewart, Donald McIntosh and Matt Tifft for the night but other than that, everything leading up to the feature race went off smoothly.
The non point race again offered no provisionals so it was either race your way in or watch the action from the pits come feature time with twenty four drivers taking the green for the main event. A big last minute update four Devin Moran skipping the main with motor problems after he was scheduled to start in the tenth spot and this Kyle Bronson, who couldn't get past Garrett Alberson in a B Feature, the opportunity to race further.
Davenport got the jump on Thornton Jr to take the initial lead as Thornton got a bit high which allowed Overton and Shirley to move past him in the early running order. Two early incidents reshaped the running order of the feature. First, Brandon Sheppard hammered that tricky turn four wall and gave himself a flat tire, stalling on the front chute and triggering the first yellow with just four laps in the book. He would change the tire but be mired in the field for the rest of the race.
And just one lap later, Shirley would continue his streak of bad luck, spinning in turn four while again running in the top five. While most of his considerable bad luck of late was unavoidable, this error was self inflicted as he was running the extreme high side of the track in an effort to find open track and it just back fired on him. He was then doomed and ended up being lapped near the end of the race.
Meanwhile, Davenport continued to lead with Overton trying to stay with him while Thornton Jr, Tim McCreadie and Daulton Wilson followed in the early going. After starting ninth, Drake Troutman was making some ground as he too used the higher line on the track which was fast but also tricky. By the halfway point of the race, Drake was up to fifth and continued to push forward.
Davenport got a bit hung up as he approached traffic and this allowed Overton one last shot to get past him but Davenport probably made the move of the race when he split the slower cars of Carson Ferguson and Cory Lawler on the front chute and gave himself a nice cushion as the laps ran down.
Overton then put the reversers on as he backed up in the field, ultimately dropping to fifth and Thornton Jr, McCreadie and Troutman all got past him in the last fifteen laps.
Troutman was likely the second fastest driver on the track during this time as he continued to push forward, squeezing under McCreadie and then taking a shot at Thornton Jr. While Davenport cruised, all eyes were on that battle for second. Things got tight as Troutman elbowed his way past down the back chute and while Thornton Jr. tried to return the favor on the final lap, he couldn't pull it off and had to settle for third. McCreadie ran a consistent race to finish fourth ahead of Overton. The last twenty five laps of the race were run off clean to the finish and only three drivers didn't finish the race with just a pair down a lap.
A different way of entertaining the fans during the break before the feature race was held on Wednesday as track Pastor Bubba married a couple of fans on the front chute for all the world to see.
The IMCA Mod Lites completed their two night run on Wednesday also. A large field of drivers was whittled down to twenty four that started the main event. Corey Babbitt, the fast Texas driver, then led all twenty five laps to top the main. Late in the race his comfortable lead was shaved down by lapped traffic that slowed his progress and second place finisher Ronnie Choate from Tennessee made a last corner attempt that came up just short. Ohio driver Carson Hubbard finished third.
As had been also the case on Tuesday night, the Mod Lite racing was marked by several wicked flips which fortunately, did not produce any reported driver injuries but did make for several heart stopping moments as cars were flipping in all directions.
LOLMS action continues on Thursday night with the ante being raised in both laps run and the purse paid out as drivers continue to fine tune their cars for the return of points racing which is upcoming on Friday.
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