Wednesday night we visited one of our favorite venues as the UMP Late Model Summernationals moved to Davenport Speedway. On this night, IMCA Late Models and IMCA Sport Mods would complete a fast paced week night of action.
The weather was almost perfect on this first official night of summer, and a nice sized crowd was on hand to enjoy the festivities.
The drivers were also ready to go, as thirty one UMP competitors were joined by a solid twenty four IMCA Late Models and eighteen IMCA Northern Sport Mods.
The first Super Late Model heat was the highlight of the preliminary action. After multiple yellow flags in the opening laps, an outstanding three car, three wide epic battle developed for the top spot. First it was Bob Gardner leading the charge before Frank Heckenast Jr. nosed ahead. Then as the three cars powered out of turn four to the checkers, it was Drake Troutman in front at the line! With the Iowa home crowd approving, the Simpson brothers, Chad and Chris scored wins in the other two Super ten lappers. This followed Chad setting overall quick time with a lap of 13.503 seconds around the quick quarter mile.
IMCA Late Model heats went to defending track champion Justin Kay, Joe Beal, and Joel Callahan. Ben Chapman and Logan Veloz claimed Sport Mod wins.
Michigan driver Cody Bauer picked up the Super Late consy, and quickly it was feature time.
IMCA Late Models would take to the track first, racing for twenty five laps. With Mack Mulvany and Keith Haislip unable to answer the bell, twenty two cars took the green flag. South Dakota transplant Evan Miller and new East Moline Speedway promoter Chuck Hanna sat on row one, with Miller grabbing the early lead. Miller was using the inside line around the oval and it appeared to be a bit quicker, although the high flying Hanna was able to nose ahead as lap four was scored. Miller retook the spot ahead of a lap five caution. . The restart seemed a bit ragged as the field bunched out of turn four, and Hanna moved to the lead with Joe Beal now in second. As Hanna continued to do business in the high line, Beal slipped around him while hugging the inside tire barriers. Callahan joined the front pair and those three pulled away from the pack as the race neared the halfway mark. As they were catching the back of the pack, another caution would come, and on the Delaware restart, Callahan moved to second. Two more cautions slowed the action, and following the final restart Hanna retook the lead. Callahan faded a bit before Beal drove back to the front with just six laps to go. Once again slower traffic came into play, but Joe was able to navigate the traffic, holding on to pick up his first Late Model feature win. Callahan rebounded to ease past Hanna as they negotiated lapped traffic coming to the checkers. Kay was on the move late, finishing fourth after starting eleventh, while Miller completed the top five. Andy Nezworski started in row six and finished sixth, besting Mike Goben, Bryan Klein, sixteenth starting Chris Lawrence, and Don Pataska.
It was now intermission time, with a tickling of the racing surface along with watering in preparation for the headline event.
Forty laps would be the distance for the eighteen qualifiers and always too generous four provisional starters. Again to the delight of the crowd, the Simpsons lined up in row one, with Chad taking the early lead. He quickly began to build an advantage over Chris, while sixth starting Ashton Winger charged to third on lap six. Chad caught the back of the pack one lap later, but remained in control even as Winger used a turn four slide job to move to second ahead of the first stoppage with ten in the books. The yellow waved again on the restart, with Logan Nickerson heading to the trailer with damage to his #21N. Back under green, Chad pounded the cushion, again stretching his lead while Winger operated on the low line. Just before the mid point, the caution waved for a Doug Tye spin, and back to racing Winger pulled a slider to clear Chad for the top spot. A side by side battle now developed between the Simpsons for second allowing Winger to open a bit of a lead. With a dozen laps to go, Dirt Hall of Famer Billy Moyer brought out a final caution as he did a 360 degree spin before driving to the pits. Now Chris was able to clear Winger for the lead as Chad faded to fifth on the restart. But Winger was not done yet, and as Chris changed his line in an attempt to block the charge, Winger used the absolute top edge of the track to drive around the #32 out of turn two for the lead. From there Ashton gradually pulled away to take the win and the $5,000 top prize. Chris would settle for runner up honors while a late charge by ninth starting Jason Feger netted him his second podium finish of the week, a third added to a second at Moberly. Chad Simpson nosed out Heckenast Jr, to round out the top five. Gardner would come home sixth, while Billy Moyer Jr. followed up his win on Tuesday with a seventh place showing at Davenport. Third starting Troutman again suffered tire problems, restarted at the tail after the lap ten caution, and rebounded to finish eighth. Australian Kye Blight and Texan Morgan Bagley completed the top ten.
It was now just passed the 10:00 hour and with an early Thursday call, we decided to head for the gates. Congratulations to Ben Chapman on his Sport Mod win over Veloz. David Engelkins, Trey Grimm, and Rayce Mullen also colected top fives.
Thanks to Ricky and Brenda Kay and their staff for yet another exciting night of action in Davenport! They will be back in action on Friday with the weekly Late Models replaced by the Sprint Invaders. Meanwhile, it was announced after the races that Spoon River Speedway was forced to cancel their UMP Summer Nationals stop for Thursday, due to a breakdown of all three of their water trucks. So the tour will take a night off before heading to Brownstown, Illinois on Friday.
I will also being switching gears on Friday to catch a Quad Cities River Bandits vs. Peoria Chiefs baseball game, with the rest of the weekend plans up in the air at this time. Hopefully the glitch in the presentation of my Moberly entry is fixed, apologies to those folks. If not somewhere before, we will be on hand at Adams County, Illinois Speedway in Quincy next Wednesday as the "Hell Tour" comes to town. Thanks for reading!
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