Hudson O’Neal picked up his second win in five days
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series set up shop at the historic Port Royal Speedway on Thursday night as the tour settled in for the three-day ‘Rumble by the River’ weekend at the Pennsylvania facility that will culminate on Saturday evening with a $30,000-to-win main event. In Thursday’s preliminary it would ultimately be Hudson O’Neal, winner of last weekend’s Topless 100 in Arkansas, who claimed the victory after a wall banging night of racing that saw several end the evening with right side damage. The Rocket Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana earned $10,000 for his efforts in a race aired live by MavTV Plus.
A total of 43 cars were signed in for competition.
Jonathan Davenport set the pace in Group A qualifying with a lap of 18.879 seconds around the half-mile clay oval to top Austin Berry, Colton Flinner, Mike Marlar and Michael Norris.
It was Jimmy Owens who led the way in Group B time-trials after posting a mark of 18.546 seconds besting Tim McCreadie, Hudson O’Neal, Spencer Hughes and Ricky Thornton Jr.
Jonathan Davenport earned the pole position for the feature race by claiming victory in the night’s first heat race ahead of Kyle Hardy, Michael Norris and Colton Flinner then Mike Marlar bested Jason Covert, Gregg Satterlee and Jeff Rine in the second preliminary of the night.
Hudson O’Neal would start the main event from the outside of the front row after beating Ricky Thornton Jr., Chris Ferguson and Dan Stone in the third heat just before Shane Clanton outran Spencer Hughes, Tyler Erb and Tim McCreadie in the fourth and final heat.
LOLMDS points leader McCreadie suffered damage to the right rear of his car when he hit the turn one wall on the initial start.
Andy Haus won the first B-main over Austin Berry and Rick Eckert while Jimmy Owens grabbed the win in the second B-main outperforming Stormy Scott and Johnny Scott.
When the 30-lap feature took the green flag Davenport jumped out to the lead with O’Neal, Marlar, Clanton and Thornton in his tire tracks. A bobble in turn two by Davenport allowed O’Neal to get by for the lead on the second lap. Further back, Thornton moved around Marlar for fourth.
Marlar slipped back another position on the fourth lap when Ferguson swept by the No. 157 car for fifth. At the front of the field, Davenport was keeping O’Neal in his sights as those two drivers crept away from the field. By lap 10, the lead duo had a straightaway advantage over the third place fight between Clanton and Thornton.
Thornton wrested third away from Clanton just before a yellow flag waved on lap 12 for the slowing car of Eckert.
Just past the halfway mark, Ferguson and Clanton battled for fourth while O’Neal built a relatively comfortable lead over Davenport. However, a caution for the slowing car of the fifth-running Ferguson slowed the action.
On the ensuing restart, Davenport attempted to grab the lead with a slide job in turn two but O’Neal was able maintain the lead. At the same time, Hardy entered the top-5.
Davenport began to close in on O’Neal as the laps clicked away but a caution on lap 27 for debris on the track again slowed the intense action. Over the final three circuits, O’Neal maintained the lead and ultimately steered under the checkered flag.
It was O’Neal’s fifth Lucas Oil win of the year and he became the first driver to earn more than $200,000 in series competition in 2021.
Feature Finish: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Ricky Thornton Jr., 4. Shane Clanton, 5. Tim McCreadie, 6. Kyle Hardy, 7. Gregg Saterlee, 8. Michael Norris, 9. Colton Flinner, 10. Mike Marlar, 11. Kyle Bronson, 12. Tyler Erb, 13. Spencer Hughes, 14. Jimmy Owens, 15. Josh Richards, 16. Johnny Scott, 17. Jeff Rine, 18. Dan Stone, 19. Earl Pearson Jr., 20. Andy Haus, 21. Stormy Scott, 22. Rick Eckert, 23. Matt Cosner, 24. Chris Ferguson, 25. Austin Berry, 26. Jason Covert, 27. Dylan Yoder
Please consider also reading “Devin Moran scores win on first WoO Late Models night at Davenport“
Devin Moran wins on night 1 at Davenport
