Iowa Drivers Dominate at Davenport

 In the days leading up to the World of Outlaw late models invading the Davenport Speedway, much of the chatter centered around semi retired Brian Birkhofer, who was slated to appear in the #30 machine he piloted earlier in the month at Dubuque and Deer Creek Speedways. But when the final checkers waved, it was indeed an Iowa driver taking top honors, but it was not the popular driver from Muscatine. Instead, it was the Mount Vernon hot shoe, Chad Simpson in victory lane as the partisan Iowa crowd roared their approval. Adding icing to the cake was brother Chris Simpson working his way methodically from mid pack in the 23 car field to finish third.
  The evening began with each driver taking two qualifying laps around the big half mile. Young Devin Moran, son of Donnie, set quick time early with a lap of 20.756 seconds. Hot laps times were in the 20.5 range, as the track slowed a bit as the show moved along. Birkhofer was the only driver with no qualifying time, as his car rolled to a stop as he entered off turn three to begin his effort. Whatever issues he had were resolved, and he was able to line up last in the second of the three ten lap heat races.
  A pair of heat races were next for the only support class, the IMCA sport modifieds. Even with the sport mods racing just up the road at Dubuque, a nice field of 17 still came out to tackle the 1/2 mile for a shot at a $750.00 top prize.
  Three late model heats came next. Moran sat on the pole of the first eight lapper, and he led flag to flag. Outside pole sitter Brandon Sheppard ran second ahead of Chris Madden and Shane Clanton.
  Series point leader Mike Marlar rolled from the pole of heat two, but it was outside row one starter Tyler Bruening from Decorah, Iowa leading for 7 3/4 laps. Then Marlar, with momentum off turn three, dove under Bruening and won the drag race to the finish line. Texan Tyler Erb, and Bobby Pierce in his family owned ride ran third and fourth.
  Chad Simpson grabbed the lead as the green flag waved on heat three, holding back fifth starting Rick Eckert, David Breazeale, and Chris Simpson for the victory.
  The top two from each heat came to the front stretch to redraw for starting spots in the 40 lap $10,000.00 to win headliner, heat winners drawing among spots one through three, and the runners up for slots four, five, and six. After Eckert, Bruening, and Sheppard drew fourth, fifth, and sixth in that order, it was announced that Moran had suffered engine trouble at the end of his heat and would be going to a back up car. That meant he would be starting in the 23rd and final spot, so it was now Chad Simpson and Marlar drawing to decide the front row lineup, and it would be Chad on the pole.
  As intermission continued, the largest crowd I have seen at Davenport since I was a teenager was still filing in. Indeed, from my perch, I think the beer concession alone could have funded my racing for this season and next!
  It was still daylight as the 20 lap sport mod feature lined up. Keith Blum and Tony Olson sat on row one, as all 17 cars took the green flag. Blum jumped to the early lead, but he and Olson crossed the stripe side by side ending lap one. Blum was in command as lap two was scored, followed by Olson and fifth starting Dalton Simonsen. On lap three, Olson suddenly slowed, bringing out the caution, ending his run. As racing resumed, Shane Paris used the Delaware restart to vault from third to first. Lap five saw Simonsen grab the lead, and a three car pile up in turns three and four brought out another yellow. Back under green, Simonsen began to stretch his lead, and a three car battle developed for second, with Jared Waterman joining Blum and Paris. With the leader now holding a straightaway lead, Waterman had taken third on lap twelve, and second one lap later. Simonsen had a full 1/2 lap lead when the yellow waved again with six laps to go. On the restart, fifth running Dustin Schram smacked the turn two wall, bringing out one final caution. Simonsen again pulled away as Blum moved to a runner up finish. Waterman came home third, Kevin Goben ran a steady race and finished fourth, with Paris fifth.
  There was a bit more downtime before the 40 lap feature lineup was complete, but soon all 23 cars were ready to go.Chad Simpson put his #25 out front at the drop of the green followed by Marlar, Bruening, Eckert, and Madden. The 2017 series champ Sheppard was on the move early taking fifth on lap two, then using a high line to grab fourth on lap four and third one lap later. Simpson had a sizable load early, but Marlar began to narrow the gap by the tenth circuit. The leaders caught slower traffic by lap twelve as the front three gained separation on the pack. With the laps clicking off, Sheppard saw his night end in a cloud of smoke on lap 27 as he dove to the infield with all the looks of a blown engine. The lone caution of the race came at lap 32, as Bruening stopped on the front stretch while running sixth. The field was now reset single file as it was less than ten laps from the finish. After challenging for three quarters of the race, Marlar made one last move to overtake the leader, then  fell off the pace at bit. Madden and Chris Simpson found their way into the top three. Madden made a strong high side move in turn three on the final lap, but Chad held his line, scoring a flag to flag win. Madden took runner up honors, followed by Chris Simpson, Marlar, and Eckert. Frank Heckenast Jr. headed up the second five leading Clanton, Chase Junghans, Erb, and Brent Larson to top ten finishes. Birkhofer was credited with a 13th place finish.
  The final checkers waved about 9:15.
  Special thanks to Matt Curl and the World Racing Group folks for their hospitality.
  Next on the Racin' Down the Road schedule will be Friday night at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, where they are considering the late addition of 305  sprint cars for this week. Check the track website or Facebook for more info, and thanks for reading!