[h=1][/h]Topeka, KS – The day didn’t get off to a good start. It was raining, it was cold and it looked as if Mother Nature didn’t want anyone to go racing!
Track officials kept a keen eye on the weather and then they got a much needed break around 1:30. The sky opened up and the sun came out. Just in time for the crew to get the track prepped for opening night festivities. What a great night it was!
Darren Davenport showed persistence in 2011. He overcame a lot of setbacks to end the season on a high note and it continued into the 2012 season at BriggsAuto.Com Speedway.
No matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t get his program over the hump. Bad breaks, mechanical failures and other things seemed to keep him out of victory lane. Late last season, Davenport began to build some momentum and turned in some positive finishes. None of them were victory’s, but he knew that he was getting close.
Davenport’s program is ready to go for 2012 and it showed tonight as he drove to the feature win in the Casey’s General Store Pure Stock Feature.
“It feels good,” said Davenport, “I have tried and tried. I thought it was going to be tough with Jimmy Millard and AJ (Christian) up front”
At the start of the feature it didn’t take Davenport long to get to the front of the field. When he got there his goal was to maintain. He had to maintain knowing that there was a car coming, that over the past couple of years had won more than 80% of the Pure Stock Features at HPT. It had a new driver, but none the less it was coming to the front.
“I didn’t know who was behind me,” said Davenport, “I was zoned in on what was in front of me and never looked back!”
He would not need to look back as he drove to the opening night win. A win that could give him some confidence and momentum heading into week #2 next Saturday night.
Jesse Shotts, new driver of the Henery owned Pure Stock, drove to a runner-up finish, 3rd went to AJ Christian, 4th was Tyler Garst and the pole setter, Jimmy Millard, came in the 5th position.
The Washburn Tech Modified Feature saw Luke Driskell score the feature win.
The feature got started off on the wrong foot for the pole setter, Danny Barker, as his drive shaft came out on the pace lap to begin the feature.
Driskell shot to the top spot off the drop of the green flag and then held on to the end. In doing so, he had to hold off a field of tough competitors. First up was Kerry Davis. Davis pushed Driskell during the first half of the race. He would win that battle and that would set up his next battle against Grant Junghans.
Junghans was doing his best to run down Driskell. Slowly, lap after lap he began to run down the leader, Driskell. With only a couple of laps to go he got a brake. Lapped traffic was going to come into play as they were coming to the checkered flag. In the end coming out of 4, Junghans gave everything he had, but would come up short to Driskell in the end. After two wins out of 5 races at HPT, it seems that Driskell should think about putting Heartland Park as one of his favorite tracks.
“That race track is perfect and we should never have to run anything that isn’t like that,” said Driskell, “it’s not about how much horsepower you have, it’s about driving and setting it up and it’s a lot of fun.”
Not only is he happy about the win, Driskell also discovered more secrets about his own race car.
“Something has just clicked,” said Driskell, “we have figured something out here recently, we had some bad luck with the USMTS, had some wrecks, but we have finally got her figured out and hopefully we will be up here more.”
Junghans finished his strong run in the 2nd position, Cody Agler had a strong run as well, he started 7th and finished 3rd, 4th went to John Allen and Kerry Davis rounded out the top 5.
One of the biggest surprises on the night was the car count in the B Mod division. Forty cars checked in to do battle on the night. This class seems to gain cars each and every year and this year it looks like car counts will continue to rise.
Brian Murphy began the feature as the early leader. Murphy, a 2010 B Mod Track Champion at HPT, blasted out to an early lead. He took some shots from a couple of the competitors, but they couldn’t get by him. It appeared that Murphy was returning to the form that won him a title. Two to three distinct lines of racing were seen on the track and while Murphy was holding his spot, others, like Mike Higley, were fishing for the fastest way around the track.
Higley would find his happy medium running high, in the middle and down low.
“This brand new Razor car from up in Iowa, I am so impressed with everything it’s doin,” said Higley, “I am slower than the race car right now, so when we all get caught up I am looking forward to running some specials this summer.”
Those words should make the competition nervous, because if Higley can win like this on a night where he still hadn’t figured out his new car, what will it be like when he gets in tune with that hot rod?
“Once the diver catches up, it’s going to be one heck of a year!” said Higley.
Higley didn’t exactly walk away with the win. Ethan Isaacs and Jeremy Chambers were making things interesting. A late race restart gave the 2nd and 3rd place cars a good shot at running down Higley. In the end, they ran out of time.
Terry Bivins made a huge run from the tale of the field after an early altercation on the track. Bivins, at the end of the night, found himself in the 4th spot and Brian Murphy finished out the top 5 in 5th.
It was a new face and car heading to victory lane in the Super 8 at Forbes Landing Factory Stock feature.
Jeff Miller prepped his new Factory Stock a ton of hours in the off-season. On opening night, Miller’s car appeared to be a show car. It resembled a car that had been washed and waxed, but in the end it was a good looking car that was also fast. Miller would work his way past Lief Weyer to gain the lead in the feature event.
As Miller took over the lead, last year’s hottest driver, Zach Henery, was also making his charge to the front. Several times Henery would pull along side of Miller, but Miller would thwart every advance.
The Factory Stock feature began to look like a Battle Royal. Several cars would drop out of the race due to mechanical failures and crashes.
Eric Weyer finished in the 2nd position, 3rd went to Carl Boyette, Lief Weyer hunkered down for a 4th place finish and Bob Troutwine garnered a top 5 in 5th.
Race #2 of the BriggsAuto.Com Super Saturday Showdown Series takes off again next Saturday, April 14. Spectator gates open at 5:30 pm, hot laps are at 6:15 pm and the first green flag racing action happens at 7 pm.
For more information visit Heartland Park Topeka’s home on the world wide web, www.hpt.com.
Pure Stock – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
3 1 85 Darren Davenport Tecumseh, KS
5 2 97 Jesse Shotts Topeka, KS
2 3 355 AJ Christian Topeka, KS
4 4 53T Tyler Garst Topeka, KS
1 5 0 Jimmy Millard Topeka, KS
9 6 11JR Randal Schiffelbein Jr Tecumseh, KS
6 7 0X Derek Huffman Topeka, KS
8 8 59 Byron Glotzbach Topeka, KS
12 9 18 Dylan McDonald Topeka, KS
7 10 25 Tyler Hinrichs Emporia, KS
14 11 07 Ronald Kohn Topeka, KS
11 12 4J Terry Henkensiefken Topeka, KS
13 13 5 Steve Stewart Osage City, KS
15 14 88CT Tanner Allensworth Topeka, KS
17 15 391 Jim Christian Topeka, KS
10 16 66 David Ginter Topeka, KS
16 17 8JR David McLaughlin Jr Topeka, KS DNS
18 18 17 Randy Kohn Topeka, KS DNS
B-Mod – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
5 1 11 Mike Higley Tecumseh, KS
7 2 66 Ethan Isaacs Bonner Springs, KS
13 3 17 Jeremy Chambers Parsons, KS
8 4 53 Terry Bivins Lebo, KS
2 5 1M Brian Murphy Topeka, KS
11 6 4U Rich Boyden Topeka, KS
4 7 45 Dustin Thulin Topeka, KS
10 8 41 Christopher Dishong Atchison, KS
6 9 2 Mike Eisenhut Topeka, KS
18 10 22G Steve Goodman Meriden, KS
1 11 09 Curtis Dreasher Hoyt, KS
22 12 72 David Samuels Tecumseh, KS
24 13 32R Darren Robinson Berryton, KS
12 14 71R Richard Prochnow Pomona, KS
14 15 11C Bryan Hey Wellsville, KS
23 16 9T Cody Thornton Tonganoxie, KS
3 17 7M Heath Murry Tonganoxie, KS
16 18 23B Bryce Roberts Spring Hill, KS
19 19 44 Larry Bouton Jr Topeka, KS
20 20 20C Casey Meggison Topeka, KS
15 21 28H Gus Harrison McLouth, KS
9 22 00 Marty Grist Topeka, KS
21 23 29 Trevor Mohn Topeka, KS
17 24 0 Marty Randol Topeka, KS
Factory Stock – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
6 1 220 Jeff Miller Hoyt, KS
10 2 15 Eric Weyer Centralia, KS
11 3 7 Carl Boyette Ozawkie, KS
1 4 28 Leif Weyer Centralia, KS
3 5 1N1 Bob Troutwine Topeka, KS
5 6 97Z Zachary Henery Topeka, KS
12 7 55 Jacob Bruning Everest, KS
14 8 16 Criag Springer Lawrence, KS
9 9 11W Gerald Wahwah**** Hiawatha , KS
2 10 60K James King Americus, KS
7 11 68 Matt Field Topeka, KS
8 12 12S Dustin Sievers McFarland, KS
13 13 2 Ken Garcia Kansas City , KS
4 14 5K Steve Herrick Topeka, KS DNS
Modified – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
2 1 39 Luke Driskell Stillwell , KS
6 2 2X Grant Junghans Manhattan, KS
7 3 77A Cody Agler Emporia, KS
5 4 98 John Allen Chanute, KS
4 5 68 Kerry Davis Parkville, MO
10 6 87 Darron Fuqua Topeka, KS
8 7 77 Steven Bowers Jr Topeka, KS
16 8 21J Josh Everhart Burlingame, KS
14 9 7J Justin Johnson Gardner, KS
3 10 11H Jim Hernandez Jr Topeka, KS
13 11 32 Todd Wichman St Marys, KS
9 12 51 Robert Shepard Odgen, KS
20 13 05 Tom Grist Topeka, KS
19 14 14B Darren Bennett Tonganoxie, KS
22 15 30 Dalton Kirk Edgerton, KS
12 16 B Allan Broers Edgerton, KS
21 17 70 Justin Becker Holton, KS
15 18 5K Jason Keim Lawrence, KS
23 19 97J Josh Henery Overbrook, KS
18 20 18J Dustin Johnson Lawrence, KS
11 21 04 Jay Bailey Lyndon, KS
17 22 28 Bryan Rigsby Topeka, KS
1 23 96 Danny Barker Kansas City, KS DNS
24 24 22 Bill Robison Topeka, KS DNS
Track officials kept a keen eye on the weather and then they got a much needed break around 1:30. The sky opened up and the sun came out. Just in time for the crew to get the track prepped for opening night festivities. What a great night it was!
Darren Davenport showed persistence in 2011. He overcame a lot of setbacks to end the season on a high note and it continued into the 2012 season at BriggsAuto.Com Speedway.
No matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t get his program over the hump. Bad breaks, mechanical failures and other things seemed to keep him out of victory lane. Late last season, Davenport began to build some momentum and turned in some positive finishes. None of them were victory’s, but he knew that he was getting close.
Davenport’s program is ready to go for 2012 and it showed tonight as he drove to the feature win in the Casey’s General Store Pure Stock Feature.
“It feels good,” said Davenport, “I have tried and tried. I thought it was going to be tough with Jimmy Millard and AJ (Christian) up front”
At the start of the feature it didn’t take Davenport long to get to the front of the field. When he got there his goal was to maintain. He had to maintain knowing that there was a car coming, that over the past couple of years had won more than 80% of the Pure Stock Features at HPT. It had a new driver, but none the less it was coming to the front.
“I didn’t know who was behind me,” said Davenport, “I was zoned in on what was in front of me and never looked back!”
He would not need to look back as he drove to the opening night win. A win that could give him some confidence and momentum heading into week #2 next Saturday night.
Jesse Shotts, new driver of the Henery owned Pure Stock, drove to a runner-up finish, 3rd went to AJ Christian, 4th was Tyler Garst and the pole setter, Jimmy Millard, came in the 5th position.
The Washburn Tech Modified Feature saw Luke Driskell score the feature win.
The feature got started off on the wrong foot for the pole setter, Danny Barker, as his drive shaft came out on the pace lap to begin the feature.
Driskell shot to the top spot off the drop of the green flag and then held on to the end. In doing so, he had to hold off a field of tough competitors. First up was Kerry Davis. Davis pushed Driskell during the first half of the race. He would win that battle and that would set up his next battle against Grant Junghans.
Junghans was doing his best to run down Driskell. Slowly, lap after lap he began to run down the leader, Driskell. With only a couple of laps to go he got a brake. Lapped traffic was going to come into play as they were coming to the checkered flag. In the end coming out of 4, Junghans gave everything he had, but would come up short to Driskell in the end. After two wins out of 5 races at HPT, it seems that Driskell should think about putting Heartland Park as one of his favorite tracks.
“That race track is perfect and we should never have to run anything that isn’t like that,” said Driskell, “it’s not about how much horsepower you have, it’s about driving and setting it up and it’s a lot of fun.”
Not only is he happy about the win, Driskell also discovered more secrets about his own race car.
“Something has just clicked,” said Driskell, “we have figured something out here recently, we had some bad luck with the USMTS, had some wrecks, but we have finally got her figured out and hopefully we will be up here more.”
Junghans finished his strong run in the 2nd position, Cody Agler had a strong run as well, he started 7th and finished 3rd, 4th went to John Allen and Kerry Davis rounded out the top 5.
One of the biggest surprises on the night was the car count in the B Mod division. Forty cars checked in to do battle on the night. This class seems to gain cars each and every year and this year it looks like car counts will continue to rise.
Brian Murphy began the feature as the early leader. Murphy, a 2010 B Mod Track Champion at HPT, blasted out to an early lead. He took some shots from a couple of the competitors, but they couldn’t get by him. It appeared that Murphy was returning to the form that won him a title. Two to three distinct lines of racing were seen on the track and while Murphy was holding his spot, others, like Mike Higley, were fishing for the fastest way around the track.
Higley would find his happy medium running high, in the middle and down low.
“This brand new Razor car from up in Iowa, I am so impressed with everything it’s doin,” said Higley, “I am slower than the race car right now, so when we all get caught up I am looking forward to running some specials this summer.”
Those words should make the competition nervous, because if Higley can win like this on a night where he still hadn’t figured out his new car, what will it be like when he gets in tune with that hot rod?
“Once the diver catches up, it’s going to be one heck of a year!” said Higley.
Higley didn’t exactly walk away with the win. Ethan Isaacs and Jeremy Chambers were making things interesting. A late race restart gave the 2nd and 3rd place cars a good shot at running down Higley. In the end, they ran out of time.
Terry Bivins made a huge run from the tale of the field after an early altercation on the track. Bivins, at the end of the night, found himself in the 4th spot and Brian Murphy finished out the top 5 in 5th.
It was a new face and car heading to victory lane in the Super 8 at Forbes Landing Factory Stock feature.
Jeff Miller prepped his new Factory Stock a ton of hours in the off-season. On opening night, Miller’s car appeared to be a show car. It resembled a car that had been washed and waxed, but in the end it was a good looking car that was also fast. Miller would work his way past Lief Weyer to gain the lead in the feature event.
As Miller took over the lead, last year’s hottest driver, Zach Henery, was also making his charge to the front. Several times Henery would pull along side of Miller, but Miller would thwart every advance.
The Factory Stock feature began to look like a Battle Royal. Several cars would drop out of the race due to mechanical failures and crashes.
Eric Weyer finished in the 2nd position, 3rd went to Carl Boyette, Lief Weyer hunkered down for a 4th place finish and Bob Troutwine garnered a top 5 in 5th.
Race #2 of the BriggsAuto.Com Super Saturday Showdown Series takes off again next Saturday, April 14. Spectator gates open at 5:30 pm, hot laps are at 6:15 pm and the first green flag racing action happens at 7 pm.
For more information visit Heartland Park Topeka’s home on the world wide web, www.hpt.com.
Pure Stock – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
3 1 85 Darren Davenport Tecumseh, KS
5 2 97 Jesse Shotts Topeka, KS
2 3 355 AJ Christian Topeka, KS
4 4 53T Tyler Garst Topeka, KS
1 5 0 Jimmy Millard Topeka, KS
9 6 11JR Randal Schiffelbein Jr Tecumseh, KS
6 7 0X Derek Huffman Topeka, KS
8 8 59 Byron Glotzbach Topeka, KS
12 9 18 Dylan McDonald Topeka, KS
7 10 25 Tyler Hinrichs Emporia, KS
14 11 07 Ronald Kohn Topeka, KS
11 12 4J Terry Henkensiefken Topeka, KS
13 13 5 Steve Stewart Osage City, KS
15 14 88CT Tanner Allensworth Topeka, KS
17 15 391 Jim Christian Topeka, KS
10 16 66 David Ginter Topeka, KS
16 17 8JR David McLaughlin Jr Topeka, KS DNS
18 18 17 Randy Kohn Topeka, KS DNS
B-Mod – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
5 1 11 Mike Higley Tecumseh, KS
7 2 66 Ethan Isaacs Bonner Springs, KS
13 3 17 Jeremy Chambers Parsons, KS
8 4 53 Terry Bivins Lebo, KS
2 5 1M Brian Murphy Topeka, KS
11 6 4U Rich Boyden Topeka, KS
4 7 45 Dustin Thulin Topeka, KS
10 8 41 Christopher Dishong Atchison, KS
6 9 2 Mike Eisenhut Topeka, KS
18 10 22G Steve Goodman Meriden, KS
1 11 09 Curtis Dreasher Hoyt, KS
22 12 72 David Samuels Tecumseh, KS
24 13 32R Darren Robinson Berryton, KS
12 14 71R Richard Prochnow Pomona, KS
14 15 11C Bryan Hey Wellsville, KS
23 16 9T Cody Thornton Tonganoxie, KS
3 17 7M Heath Murry Tonganoxie, KS
16 18 23B Bryce Roberts Spring Hill, KS
19 19 44 Larry Bouton Jr Topeka, KS
20 20 20C Casey Meggison Topeka, KS
15 21 28H Gus Harrison McLouth, KS
9 22 00 Marty Grist Topeka, KS
21 23 29 Trevor Mohn Topeka, KS
17 24 0 Marty Randol Topeka, KS
Factory Stock – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
6 1 220 Jeff Miller Hoyt, KS
10 2 15 Eric Weyer Centralia, KS
11 3 7 Carl Boyette Ozawkie, KS
1 4 28 Leif Weyer Centralia, KS
3 5 1N1 Bob Troutwine Topeka, KS
5 6 97Z Zachary Henery Topeka, KS
12 7 55 Jacob Bruning Everest, KS
14 8 16 Criag Springer Lawrence, KS
9 9 11W Gerald Wahwah**** Hiawatha , KS
2 10 60K James King Americus, KS
7 11 68 Matt Field Topeka, KS
8 12 12S Dustin Sievers McFarland, KS
13 13 2 Ken Garcia Kansas City , KS
4 14 5K Steve Herrick Topeka, KS DNS
Modified – Feature
Start Finish Car No Driver Hometown
2 1 39 Luke Driskell Stillwell , KS
6 2 2X Grant Junghans Manhattan, KS
7 3 77A Cody Agler Emporia, KS
5 4 98 John Allen Chanute, KS
4 5 68 Kerry Davis Parkville, MO
10 6 87 Darron Fuqua Topeka, KS
8 7 77 Steven Bowers Jr Topeka, KS
16 8 21J Josh Everhart Burlingame, KS
14 9 7J Justin Johnson Gardner, KS
3 10 11H Jim Hernandez Jr Topeka, KS
13 11 32 Todd Wichman St Marys, KS
9 12 51 Robert Shepard Odgen, KS
20 13 05 Tom Grist Topeka, KS
19 14 14B Darren Bennett Tonganoxie, KS
22 15 30 Dalton Kirk Edgerton, KS
12 16 B Allan Broers Edgerton, KS
21 17 70 Justin Becker Holton, KS
15 18 5K Jason Keim Lawrence, KS
23 19 97J Josh Henery Overbrook, KS
18 20 18J Dustin Johnson Lawrence, KS
11 21 04 Jay Bailey Lyndon, KS
17 22 28 Bryan Rigsby Topeka, KS
1 23 96 Danny Barker Kansas City, KS DNS
24 24 22 Bill Robison Topeka, KS DNS
