Jonathan Davenport
Jonathan Davenport has experienced a level of success never seen before in the history of Dirt Late Model racing during the course of the 2015 season. Not only has the Blairsville, GA driver won 18 races, but he has captured some of the biggest prizes the sport has to offer. However, recent events seemed to indicate that others had closed the gap between themselves and the No. 6 Longhorn Chassis as virtually every top competitor in the sport converged on Eldora Speedway for the World 100 this past weekend.
Scott Bloomquist had run off a string of five consecutive wins on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series that included big money races in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. As a matter of fact, the Mooresburg, Tenn. driver’s run of success had been so impressive that he replaced Davenport atop the DirtonDirt.com Top-25 for one week in early September.
Josh Richards won five out of six starts on the World of Outlaws Late Models tour during the month of August. Drivers such as Shane Clanton, Randy Weaver and Billy Moyer have been among those who have scored multiple wins throughout the current season. Despite having won prestigious races such as the Dirt Late Model Dream, the Show-me 100, the North/South 100 and the USA Nationals, it appeared to some that Davenport might not be the favorite going into the highly coveted World 100 at Eldora Speedway.
Was it possible that the rest of the pack had caught up to the driver who had served as Dirt Late Model racing’s lead dog for virtually the entire 2015 campaign?
After a third place finish in the sixth heat race on Saturday, Davenport would start that night’s feature event from the 18th position. If the driver of the Kevin and Leroy Rumley prepared machine was to be beaten in a big race, this certainly looked as if the World 100 could be it. Surely his opponents would be able to keep him behind them considering he was so far back on the grid at the time the green flag waved.
However, the World 100 ultimately proved to look like so many other races have looked this season. Davenport’s Longhorn quickly emerged as the class of the field as he picked off position after position until he passed by Jared Landers to claim the lead on lap 64.
Davenport’s No. 6 Longhorn
But unlike the last big event at Eldora(The Dream), Davenport did not have to rely on another car failing a post-race trip across the scales to be declared the winner. He cruised under the checkered flag almost ten seconds ahead of runner-up Bobby Pierce.
“I never would have thought we could achieve this much in just one season,” Davenport told DirtonDirt.com’s Michael Rigsby after his World 100 triumph. “You know, you dream of doing this in your career. It’s just been an unbelievable season. We put our heads together last winter. We was pretty good last year in this car and Kevin come up with some new ideas, me and him talked back and forth, and we’ve been building on it all through the year. And we’ve still got a little bit to do.”
And there are indeed several big prizes still to be captured before this season ends. Among those are this weekend’s Jackson 100, the $100,000-to-win Dirt Track World Championship, the Knoxville Nationals, and the World Finals. The question is, will those race trophies go home with Davenport or will someone beat him in a big race?
