Jonathan Davenport takes the Group B prelim at Florence
Another big race and another big effort by Jonathan Davenport as he took the lead-in for Saturday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned North-South 100 on Friday at Florence Speedway. The driver known as ‘Superman’ led all the way and earned himself a good starting spot for the heat races to be held on Saturday.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Blairsville, GA earned $5,000 for his victory in a race held on the half-mile track located in Union, KY and shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 54 cars were signed in for competition
The Friday night preliminaries will set the heat race lineups for Saturday.
Qualifying Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport(16.118), 2. Carson Ferguson, 3. Dale McDowell, 4. Ricky Thornton Jr., 5. Kye Blight, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Josh Rice, 8. Jason Jameson, 9. Daulton Wilson, 10. Brandon Sheppard
Heat 1 Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Ricky Thornton Jr., 3. Robby Hensley, 4. Josh Rice, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Devin Moran, 7. Darrell Lanigan, 8. Jesse Lay, 9. Jimmy Sharpe Jr.
Heat 2 Results: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Ricky Weiss, 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. Carson Ferguson, 5. Jason Miller, 6. Kye Blight, 7. Kyle Fogt, 8. Camaron Marlar, 9. Jason Jameson
Heat 3 Results: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Dale McDowell, 3. Chris Madden, 4. Garrett Alberson, 5. Daulton Wilson, 6. Dustin Nobbe, 7. Cory Hedgecock, 8. Brandon Hardgrove, 9. Vern Lefevers
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 25-lap main event Davenport went to the lead followed by Overton, Erb, McDowell and Thornton. McDowell took third away from Erb on the second lap.
Davenport and Overton broke away from the field in the early going but McDowell began to chip away into their advantage as the feature approached the halfway mark. After McDowell closed in on Overton for second, Davenport took advantage and pulled away by more than two seconds.
McDowell was finally able to take the runner-up spot away from Overton on lap 17. Further back, Weiss broke into the top-5 getting around Erb but Erb soon reclaimed the position.
A lap 20 caution for the slowing car of Carson Ferguson erased Davenport’s advantage just as the leader had found himself fighting with slower traffic. Overton took second back on the restart while Weiss jumped to fourth with Erb fading outside the top-5 after contact with Thornton.
Davenport pulled away at the end to claim the win as McDowell passed Overton on the last lap.
Feature Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Dale McDowell, 3. Brandon Overton, 4. Ricky Weiss, 5. Josh Rice, 6. Ricky Thornton Jr., 7. Chris Madden, 8. Tyler Erb, 9. Brandon Sheppard, 10. Garrett Alberson, 11. Devin Moran, 12. Cory Hedgecock, 13. Jimmy Owens, 14. Daulton Wilson, 15. Robby Hensley, 16. Darrell Lanigan, 17. Jason Miller, 18. Jason Jameson, 19. Dustin Nobbe, 20. Camaron Marlar, 21. Jesse Lay, 22. Kye Blight, 23. Jimmy Sharpe Jr., 24. Brandon Hardgrove, 25. Carson Fergjuson, 26. Kyle Fogt, 27. Vern Lefevers
Please consider also reading:
Hudson O’Neal takes Friday night Group A North-South 100 prelim win
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