This Memorial Day weekend has been a microcosm of the 2024 racing season. After drought conditions throughout the winter, it has been wet, wet, wet in the Mississippi valley once the calendar flipped to spring. In past days we might have logged whatever miles were necessary to find an event, but for a host of reasons times have changed, and so we were left hoping the rescheduled SLMR event at the Davenport Speedway would actually take place on Monday. A starting time moved up one hour with four classes on the card added to the appeal.
This would be my first visit to the track under the direction of rookie promoter Jeff Struck, and it would be his first foray into special events, with the $3,000 to win Super Late Model headliner supported by a $1,000 to win Fast Shafts All Star Invitational for IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Mods, and Hobby Stocks filling out the card.
A solid group of twenty six Late Models gathered on the black top parking area in an attempt to limit the number of super sized haulers in the soggy regular pit area. Twenty one Modifieds, sixteen Sport Mods and an even dozen Hobby Stocks rounded out the seventy five teams set to do battle around the quarter mile fairgrounds oval.
SLMR uses a combination of time trial points with a fast six invert for heat races combined with passing points in those heats to qualify sixteen cars for the money race. Chad Holladay rolled out near the end of the three at a time qualifiers and easily set fast time with a lap of 14.059 seconds. That was just over three tenths of a second quicker than Andy Eckrich at 14.361. As it turned out, that effort by Andy was key to his night, as he was involved in a lap one pile up in his eight lap heat race which sent him to the pits saddled with an eighth place finish, but with enough points to still avoid the B main and roll off thirteenth in the twenty five lap finale. Fate was not so kind to long distance traveler Chris Spieker, Massena, Iowa, who never made it past hot laps. Another victim of that second heat race crash, Bryan Klein also scored enough points to line up beside Eckrich in the feature, but could not make the call. With the top four from the B main and a pair of provisional starters, twenty one competitors took the green flag for the main event.
Whether by design or as a shield against the threatening weather which gave us only a few sprinkles and a gorgeous rainbow, the Late Model feature would be first following a brief intermission for some track work on the tacky, dust free racing surface. Luke Pestka and Nick Marolf would line up in row one, with Pestka putting his #99 out front followed by fourth starting Holladay, Marolf, Charlie McKenna, and Chad Simpson. Simpson would clear McKenna on lap two, and the front four would soon breakaway running in nose to tail fashion around the top of the banking. Simpson grabbed third on lap eight, and one lap later Holladay crossed the line in first by a nose. Seventh starting Derrick Stewart then joined the front runners, and as lap ten went in the books, Simpson charged to the runner up position. The next time around Marolf slipped over the tricky cushion in turn four, turning third over to the on rushing Stewart, with the first and only caution waving for Marolf. Following the Delaware Style restart the two Chads drove away from the pack, Holladay staying true to the top line and Simpson showing his nose one groove lower. With just five circuits remaining, Holladay slipped over the top of turn two, and though he recovered quickly, both Simpson and Stewart drove by. Slower cars came into play three laps from the finish, but Simpson is no stranger to traffic, and he closed the deal, putting his #25 on the victory lane stage. Stewart took runner up honors while Holladay filled out the podium. Luke Goedert started fifth and held off eighth starting Justin Kay to complete the top five. Dave Eckrich gained four spots to sixth, followed by Curtis Glover, Jeff Tharp, hard charger Dylan Thornton, and the worlds fastest art teacher, Matt Ryan.
IMCA Sport Mods would be next, fourteen cars going at it for fifteen laps. The caution flag waved on the opening corner for a multi car scrum. On the next attempt at green, Kevin Rasdon charged ahead from the pole position as Perry Gellerstedt and Logan Veloz battled side by side for second. On lap four, Gellerstedt looked ready to pounce on the leader, but the yellow waved once again. Back to racing, the front three now raced three wide, with Gellerstedt nosing ahead and Veloz following in second as lap five was scored. Another caution came as that lap went in the books, and was followed by ten green flag circuits to the checkers. Just past the halfway mark a suddenly hard charging Shane Paris powered to second, and then grabbed the lead on lap nine, followed by Veloz in second. The tenth starting Paris would then hold on for the win with Veloz nabbing second. Dakota Cole raced to a third place finish in front of Gellerstedt while Kevin Goben made a late charge to fifth.
As stated, the IMCA Modifieds would be vying for a cool $1,000 and a Fast Shafts invite, and all twenty one cars were ready to duke it out for twenty five trips around the oval. Jeff Larson looked like he might be hard to beat having earned the pole position, but he got too high in turns three and four on the opening lap, giving way to fourth starting Matt Werner, and veteran Bob Dominacki.Werner quickly opened a sizable lead even as sixth starting Spencer Diercks powered to second on lap four, also putting distance between his #21 and the now third running #1 of Eric Barnes. As the laps clicked off under green flag conditions, Werner soon caught the back of the pack allowing Diercks to quickly erase his big lead. With eleven laps scored, the first caution would give the leaders a clear track ahead on the restart, with Werner and Diercks again driving well ahead. A second caution came with fifteen down, and back under green, Diercks executed a slide job, only to have Werner cross it over and retain the lead. At the same time, tenth starting Chris Zogg found another gear and advanced to third before falling back one position. A final stoppage left us with a six lap shootout, and three laps in it was eleventh starting Joel Rust on the move to third while closing on the front duo. As Werner held serve to take the checkers, Rust used a last lap slider to grab the second spot from Diercks. Zogg would cross the line in fourth while Barnes rounded out the top five.
Hobby Stocks would be last on the card for fifteen laps of racing. With a long drive around the Highway 92 detour to negotiate, we agreed to hold on until a possible second caution from the twelve car field. Unfortunately, those two caution flags would come before one lap was scored, so we hit the road to what sounded like a third wave of the yellow. We checked results as we worked our way down the two lanes and found that outside pole sitter Daniel Wauters scored the win ahead of Cody Staley, Luke Phillips, Randy LaMar, and Jordon Miles.
It was a solid night of racing, and track personnel did a fine job of moving the show along. Additionally it was fun catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones! Thanks to promoter Jeff Struck and his team, especially the helpful ladies at the pit gate for their hospitality. Davenport has become one of my favorite venues, and despite the now even more challenging drive, I hope to make it back a few more times in 2024.
The forecast for next weekend does not look any more favorable than this one was, but hopefully we can squeeze in some racing somewhere Down the Road. Thanks for reading!
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