ROSSBURG, Ohio — Three-time Dirt Late Model Dream winner Jonathan Davenport got one step closer to a fourth with yet another dominant showing at Eldora Speedway.
Davenport earned a $30,000 victory in Friday’s regularly scheduled preliminary program for the 31st running of the Dirt Late Model Dream at the half-mile track.
Half an hour later, Josh Rice pulled off the upset in Thursday’s makeup feature in the biggest score of his career.
Davenport started his march to the front in the first 50-lapper from the sixth spot, while COMP Cams Super Dirt Series regular Timothy Culp led the field to green alongside four-time Eldora crown jewel winner Brandon Overton.
Culp fended off Overton’s early challenges for the lead while Davenport fought his way up to second, but surrendered the top spot when Davenport threw a slider in Turn 3 eight laps in.
A flat tire on Dan Ebert’s machine slowed the pace immediately after the Blairsville, GA native took command, but Davenport used a solid restart to get into clean air and build his advantage over the field. Behind him, Overton squeezed by Culp for second moments before the second caution of the race flew for a slowing Donald McIntosh, putting the winners of the last five Dreams together on the front row.
Davenport was once again no match for the field on the restart, continuing a trend that would become the theme of the race. Nine yellow flags plagued the event, but time and time again the No. 49 kept the challengers at bay.
Right when it looked like Davenport had the win in the bag, Mark Whitener went around in Turn 1 on the white-flag lap to set up a green-white-checkered, but Davenport powered away from Thornton and Overton once more to pick up his seventh prelim-night win at the Dream.
The victory marked a major turnaround from Davenport’s showing on Wednesday night, when he pounded the wall in Hot Laps, unloaded a backup car and came home 14th in the feature.
“Hats off to my guys,” Davenport said. “They have worked their tails off the past three days. Yesterday we didn’t race obviously, but they still tore that thing apart, went all through it and changed a bunch of stuff. Obviously we found something. We still wasn’t exactly right after qualifying and the heat race, and we found a few other little small things, but when you start changing parts that’s the way it goes.”
Overton got the best of Thornton in the two-lap dash to the finish, while Garrett Alberson and Culp rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[6]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[7]; 5. C8-Timothy Culp[1]; 6. 9M-Tim McCreadie[17]; 7. 1-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 8. 44-Chris Madden[22]; 9. 25-Shane Clanton[16]; 10. 97-Cade Dillard[26]; 11. 96-Tanner English[18]; 12. 19M-Spencer Hughes[15]; 13. 15-Justin Duty[19]; 14. 25F-Jason Feger[25]; 15. 114-Jordan Koehler[24]; 16. 19-Dustin Sorensen[5]; 17. 16-Tyler Bruening[21]; 18. 13-Dylan Thornton[9]; 19. 5-Mark Whitener[14]; 20. 60-Dan Ebert[10]; 21. 74X-Ethan Dotson[8]; 22. 157-Mike Marlar[11]; 23. 14JR-Trey Mills[13]; 24. 19R-Ryan Gustin[12]; 25. 79-Donald McIntosh[23]; 26. 29-Clinton Keenan[20]
