Jonathan Davenport scored his first points paying win of 2018 on Friday night
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series made its way to Bubba Raceway Park on Sunday night for their final event of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks with the winner set to receive $10,000. At the end of the night, it was Jonathan Davenport who came away from the Ocala, Fla. facility with the lion’s share of the purse money.
Tyler Erb was fastest in Group A time-trials and overall with a lap of 14.250 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay tri-oval. That effort beat out Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, Jimmy Owens and Mason Zeigler.
Tim McCreadie posted the best lap in Group B qualifying with a time of 14.458 seconds as he outran Tyler Clem, Morgan Bagley, Josh Richards and Bobby Pierce.
Tyler Erb earned the pole for the main event as he topped Boom Briggs, Hudson O’Neal and Brandon Overton while Jonathan Davenport won the second preliminary ahead of Earl Person, Jr., Jimmy Owens and Doug Drown.
Tim McCreadie would start the feature from the outside of the front row by virtue of his win in the third heat over Josh Richards, Dennis Erb, Jr. and Kyle Bronson just before Tyler Clem won the final heat in front of Bobby Pierce, Darrell Lanigan and Morgan Bagley.
Clem suffered an engine issue at the very end of his heat race that would require him to park his car for the night. He ultimately borrowed Blake Spencer’s car to start the feature at the tail of the field.
Jason Fitzgerald, Jeff Mathews and Matt Cosner made it into the feature by virtue of their finish in the first B-main of the night while Don O’Neal, Brandon Sheppard and Chub Frank worked their way into the main event out of the second B-main race.
When the green flag waved over the 50-lap feature it was McCreadie who jetted to the early lead with Tyler Erb, Briggs, Davenport and Richards following. Erb made the move to take the lead away from T-mac on the third circuit. Then, just two laps later McCreadie slowed to bring out a caution as his left rear tire went flat after possible contact from Erb when they raced side-by-side earlier.
Davenport took advantage of the lap 5 restart to move to the outside and blast to the lead around Erb. Richards then moved inside of Erb in a fight for second with Pearson lurking just behind.
Erb brought out a yellow flag on lap 7 when he suffered a flat right rear tire.
Owens began to move forward when on lap 10 he took fourth away from Briggs just before Overton brought out a caution with another flat tire. Shortly thereafter, Richards closed in on Davenport and began to harass the No. 49 machine for the lead. Meanwhile, just outside the top-5 Pierce muscled his way around Briggs to take sixth on lap 16.
At the halfway point, the top-5 cars were evenly spaced as Davenport led Richards, Pearson, Owens and Hudson O’Neal clicked off laps just before Tyler Erb slowed on the track to bring out another caution on lap 27.
The lap 27 restart saw Pearson move to the high side and get around Richards to assume the runner-up spot as Hudson O’Neal took fourth away from Owens. Frank slowed on track to bring out another yellow flag on lap 28.
A series of caution kept the action in check just after halfway but the most significant occurred on a lap 31 restart when Richards spun while racing hard with Pearson for second. The resulting incident collected Briggs, Pierce, Lanigan and Bagley with significant damage being down to each of those cars.
Lucas Oil Series officials mandated single-file restarts for the remainder of the feature after the numerous cautions.
After that, the cars were stuck to the bottom of the track and finished the final 15 circuits in single-file formation with no one able to make a move forward. Davenport ultimately won the race back to the checkered flag to claim his third win of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks with his new Lance Landers owned team.
Feature Finish: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Earl Pearson, Jr., 3. Hudson O’Neal, 4. Jimmy Owens, 5. Don O’Neal, 6. Kyle Bronson, 7. Matt Cosner, 8. Jason Fitzgerald, 9. Scott Bloomquist, 10. Chub Frank, 11. Tim McCreadie, 12. Brandon Sheppard, 13. Gregg Satterlee, 14. Doug Drown, 15. Dennis Erb, Jr., 16. Josh Richards, 17. Bobby Pierce, 18. Darrell Lanigan, 19. Morgan Bagley, 20. Jeff Mathews, 21. Boom Briggs, 22. Tyler Erb, 23. Brandon Overton, 24. Tyler Clem
