Jonathan Davenport drove Randy Weaver’s car to victory at Tri-County
The Southern Nationals Bonus Series made its way to Ray Cook’s Tri-County Race Track on Friday evening for the 13th running of the Tar Heel 53 event in front of a packed grandstand. Jonathan Davenport held off determined challengers on what he considers to be his home track to earn the $4,053 first prize while driving in relief of the sidelined Randy Weaver.
Davenport set the early pace in the night’s festivities when he posted the fastest time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 12.459 seconds. Also earning locked in status for the feature race from this group were David Payne, Brian Ligon, Donald McIntosh and Kenny Collins.
Casey Roberts proved to be the fastest in Group B time-trials when he clocked in at 12.480 seconds around the quarter-mile clay oval. Mike Marlar, Shanon Buckingham, Brandon Overton and Jacob Grizzle were also locked into the feature from this group.
Jamie Oliver bested Robby Moses to capture the lone B-main used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
The start of the 53-lap feature was tarnished by two separate stoppages in the action. On the first attempt to put the field under green flag conditions, Moses came to a stop just before the completion of the first lap when he experienced a flat tire. Thus, a complete restart was precipitated.
The second attempt to get the Tar Heel 53 underway proved even more disastrous. As the cars rocketed down the backstretch, three-wide racing just behind the leaders caused drivers to run out of room and resulted in a melee that involved numerous cars. Several of the potential front runners were damaged in the incident although most were initially able to continue.
Once the race finally got underway, Roberts roared to the lead from his outside front row starting spot ahead of Davenport, Marlar, Buckingham and Overton. However, still more of the early leaders would experience trouble on lap 5 when Roberts and Marlar spun entering turn one. Roberts was sent to the tail of the field after the mishap while Marlar retired from the event.
The middle stages of the race saw and epic battle waged between Davenport and Overton as the two drivers fought for the race lead while working their way through slower traffic. The No. 116 of Davenport and the No. 76 of Overton even traded slide job passes for the lead on laps 20 and 21.
At the same time, Buckingham kept the lead duo within his sights and was even able to pull up on and challenge Overton for the runner-up position.
A final dash to the finish was set up after a lap 48 caution but Davenport was able to keep his challengers in his wake as he drove on to the checkered flag.
Feature Finish: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Shanon Buckingham, 4. Kenny Collins, 5. Jacob Grizzle, 6. Casey Roberts, 7. David Payne, 8. Randy Nichols, 9. Robby Moses, 10. Donald McIntosh, 11. Michael Barnett, 12. Charlie Parker, 13. Doug Smith, 14. Joey Standridge, 15. Daniel Wilson, 16. Jamie Oliver, 17. Craig Greer, 18. Danny Ledford, 19. George Mashburn, 20. Mike Marlar, 21. Bobby Painter, 22. Brian Ligon
