Jonathan Davenport
Jonathan Davenport is coming off what was widely regarded as the greatest season ever recorded by a Dirt Late Model driver in the history of the sport. The Blairsville, GA native scored more than 20 feature victories during a 2015 campaign that included a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship and crown jewel triumphs such as the lucrative Dirt Late Model Dream and the prestigious World 100, both at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.
Davenport and crew chief Kevin Rumley were so successful that many believe the LOLMDS instituted new rules regarding the suspensions of race cars that were directly aimed at the championship team. Even with all of their success, a recent poll indicates that many fans believe the Dirt Late Model world has not yet seen the best the K&L Rumley team has to offer.
Based on the results of the Wild West Shootout in Tucson, those expectations by the fans may very well be appropriately placed as the No. 6 Longhorn Chassis wound up as the top winner in the Arizona desert with a total of three wins and over $25,000 in prize money earned during the ten day stretch of races.
From my Twitter account(@RichardAllenIDR), I recently posed the following question:
After seeing how he did in Tucson over the past few days, how will @TheFast49(Davenport’s Twitter handle) do the rest of 2016?
The results were as follows:
37% of respondents answered that Davenport would have a better season in 2016 than he did last year. 31% said that the driver’s 2016 campaign would not be as good as the previous year while 32% replied that he would be as good in 2016 as he was in 2015.
When the results are broken down, the amount of faith in the abilities of Davenport and the Rumley team are remarkable. Consider that his 2015 effort was better than pretty much every other season ever compiled and yet a total of 69% of fans who responded believe he will be that good again if not better.
Davenport’s No. 6 Longhorn
As great as Davenport’s 2015 was, to follow it up with anything close to that(or better) would be truly amazing.
Obviously, there is no way to know what will happen in the future. But one thing that is for certain is that it will be interesting to watch and see just how accurate the completely unscientific fan poll turns out to be. Word has it that the Rumley team is very much determined to prove they can win despite rule changes or any other road blocks that might be placed before them.
Will that determination equate to more wins? Will the new rules have an impact? Will the competition elevate to higher levels to meet the challenge?
All of these questions will be answered in the coming months and we will all be watching to see the results.
