Wieland Winter Nationals round three on Thursday night, February 6th at the Ocala Speedway was a dandy with Jonathan Davenport fighting off a series of challenges from several different drivers to hold on for a forty lap victory worth ten grand and set himself up as a serious challenger for the Lucas Oil title in 2025.
It was a great night for racing as the central Florida weather continued the spectacular trend it has locked into for the past several days and promises to continue for the upcoming week and each night the racing crowds have gotten larger and larger for this quick paced event, a staple of the LOLMS.
The Thursday night field of drivers increased as the points season starts and the purses go up as well with forty five drivers signing in for racing action with seven drivers making their first appearances of the week.
A word about the track here this week and particularly so on Thursday was that the track crews have done a masterful job of getting and keeping moisture in the racing surface. The surface remained heavy all night and it seemed that as the evening progresses, the moisture came back up to the surface which provided a continuing horse power track with plenty of bite. The track crew was kept busy once the racing began just scraping the mud off the walls to improve visibility for the drivers and they flew around the track all night. Some of the cars got a little muddy, even to the point that it was hard to read numbers on the right sides of the cars, but that to me was a beautiful sight.
We must not live in the past and it is not fair to compare apples with oranges but the way the track acted on Thursday and the aggressive way that the drivers raced each other for forty laps certainly reminded many of the days at East Bay where the track could be oh so heavy and the drivers would stomp the throttle from the first green flag of the night until they dropped the last checkers. And not a whisper of dust in the stands either.
Davenport topped the first group in qualifying but Ricky Thornton Jr shocked everyone by coming out late and setting quick time for the evening at 14.181 seconds which was also the quickest time of the week to date.
The format would remain the same as previous races this week with four intense heat races highlighting the action. Notable was the comeback made by Davenport to top Spencer Hughes in a heat when he almost let the pole for the feature slip away from himself and Kyle Bronson's run to hold off Thornton Jr and win heat three.
Two large B Features wrapped up the qualifying action with several "name" drivers either left on the sidelines for the main or hoping to qualify for provisional starts. For as the point season begins for Lucas, so also the provisional starts begin too and on this night, twenty seven drivers took the green for the main event.
Bad luck hit Hudson O'Neal before the start of the feature as he had to forfeit an eighth row starting position when he was forced to a back up car following engine problems in his heat race.
Davenport took the initial lead with Bronson going to the top line as he frequently does but it was still just a bit slick out there and he gave up a couple spots as Brandon Sheppard moved into second. The yellow waved early when Drake Troutman spun in the tricky turn four area that has been a puzzle for many drivers so far this week.
Davenport continued to lead with Sheppard riding him hard while Bronson, Brandon Overton and Devin Moran all raced very hard just to the rear of the leaders. Brenden Smith pulled up lame with twelve laps complete, just as the leaders caught the back of the pack so this helped Davenport avoid the trouble associated with fighting through traffic that was both heavy and fast, thus making it very tough to get past them.
A Dan Ebert spin and then problems for Tim McCreadie both slowed the action but through it all, Davenport continued to lead while the battle between Bronson and Sheppard raged on. As the field reached the halfway point, Bronson slipped high and forfeited a couple spots with Overton now starting to move forward as he was up to third.
Overton continued his charge as he got by Sheppard for second with Bronson on the comeback also, working up to third as this pack of cars continued to shuffle positions in a high speed chess match.
The final yellow, with thirty two laps complete, was a costly one as several contenders got into a tangle on the back chute with Brian Shirley and Mark Whitener calling it a night while Garrett Alberson, Thornton Jr and Daulton Wilson all had to go tail back.
The last eight laps saw a two car duel between Davenport and Overton. Brandon was all over the track, trying to find a way by Davenport to take the lead. He looked inside for several laps but Jonathan kept his car tucked to the bottom lane. Finally, Overton adjusted his line, trying to work higher off the corners and get past Davenport on the outside. He had a great run off turn two on the thirty eighth lap and very nearly got past but Davenport used the track and was just able to break off Overton's run. Brandon would try one more time on the final lap but again would come up short, but producing a spectacular effort while settling for second.
Davenport would be scored the leader for all forty laps but that statistic would be very misleading as his victory was anything but a walk in the park. Bronson finished up a strong run with the third place finish, just ahead of Sheppard and Moran. Twenty drivers finished the race and all were on the lead lap as Davenport did catch a break with nicely spaced yellows that limited the amount of traffic that he would have to fight through.
Friday night the stakes get even higher as the top prize moves up to twelve grand and the feature race length is extended by ten laps.
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