Jonathan Davenport claimed the $10,000 first prize on Friday at Mississippi Thunder
Jonathan Davenport has been fast since his team unloaded their car at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway. On Thursday night, however, they had been unable to fully show off that speed due to having to start in mid-pack following a Droop Rule infraction found after a heat race win. But the driver who has been on a strong run lately after getting off to a bit of a slow start demonstrated that he will be among the favorites when the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series contests its $50,000-to-win weekend finale on Saturday night.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Blairsville, Georgia earned $10,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by DirtVision.com from the 3/8 mile Fountain City, Wisconsin facility.
A total of 40 cars were signed in for competition.
Group A Qualifying Results: 1. Bobby Pierce(14.084), 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Chad Simpson, 4. Tyler Erb, 5. Stormy Scott
Group B Qualifying Results: 1. Frank Heckenast Jr.(14.362), 2. Cade Dillard, 3. Spencer Hughes, 4. Tyler Bruening, 5. Garrett Alberson
Heat 1 Results: 1. Chad Simpson, 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Brian Shirley, 4. Stormy Scott
Heat 2 Results: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. James Giossi
Heat 3 Results: 1. Spencer Hughes, 2. Ryan Gustin, 3. Frank Heckenast Jr., 4. Garrett Alberson
Heat 4 Results: 1. Cade Dillard, 2. Tanner English, 3. Tyler Bruening, 4. Brant Larson
Last Chance Showdown 1 Results: 1. Jake Timm, 2. Josh Richards, 3. Jesse Glenz
Last Chance Showdown 2 Results: 1. Chase Junghans, 2. Boom Briggs, 3. Brandon Sheppard
Redraw Results: 1. Hughes, 2. Dillard, 3. Simpson, 4. T Erb, 5. Pierce, 6. English, 7. Gustin, 8. Davenport
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 40-lap feature it was Hughes who took the early lead followed by Dillard, Simpson, Erb and Pierce. Dillard moved by Hughes for the lead on the second circuit while Erb and Pierce swept by Simpson to take third and fourth.
Erb wrested the runner-up spot away from Hughes on lap 4 and immediately began to close in on Dillard for the lead. Erb’s efforts paid off on lap 11 when he pushed Dillard off the top spot on the leaderboard after those drivers exchanged slide jobs.
The leader began to encounter slower traffic on lap 12 which bunched the top-5 runners. Eighth-starting Davenport began to move forward just before the halfway mark when he moved into the fifth position.
As Erb continued to show the way at the halfway mark, Dillard, Hughes, Pierce and Davenport were engaged in a fierce fight for the remaining spots in the top-5. By lap 27, Davenport had moved to third when he passed Hughes. Three laps later, the No. 49 machine grabbed second by moving around Dillard. Pierce also got by Hughes and Dillard to put himself on the podium.
With 6 laps remaining, Davenport had tracked Erb down and made the pass that ultimately lead to the win. Pierce would also pass Erb late in the going as the previous leader was experiencing issues with his right rear tire.
But in the end, it would be Jonathan Davenport who would sail under the checkered flag for the victory. The now red hot driver followed last weekend’s win at Bristol up with a victory at Mississippi Thunder.
“I think we’ve been good since we unloaded, really,” Davenport said in his post-race interview with DirtVision.com. “We had a few problems yesterday, our car was really fast but it just put us behind the eight-ball. We really didn’t know how good our car was in the feature because once you get back in traffic with these rules the way they are, everybody’s so close that it’s really hard to tell how good you are. There’s so much grit blowing around that you can’t really get a good rhythm going or a line so we just kind of stuck to our guns.”
Feature Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Tyler Erb, 4. Spencer Hughes, 5. Cade Dillard, 6. Jimmy Owens, 7. Chase Junghans, 8. Ryan Gustin, 9. Tanner English, 10. Stormy Scott, 11. Chad Simpson, 12. Garrett Alberson, 13. Tyler Bruening, 14. Dennis Erb Jr., 15. Brian Shirley, 16. Brent Larson, 17. Max Blair, 18. James Giossi, 19. Josh Richards, 20. Brandon Sheppard, 21. Jake Timm, 22. Boom Briggs, 23. Gordy Gundaker, 24. Frank Heckenast Jr., 25. Kyle Hammer, 26. Jesse Glenz
Please consider also reading:
Bobby Pierce claims Thursday night WoO feature at Mississippi Thunder
Respond to this post on Twitter by following @RichardAllenIDR and @MichaelRMoats or by liking the InsideDirtRacing.com Facebook page.
Also, NASCAR and pavement racing fans can check out InsideCircleTrack.
