Davies Solid 2nd at Little Valley Speedway

June 13, 2009
Little Valley, NY

Boom Briggs held off a stout challenge by veteran Ron Davies en-route to the win the thirty lap Super Late Model Feature before a good crowd at Little Valley Speedway on Saturday, June 13th. Briggs out-dragged polesitter Jason Dupont to the first turn and was never headed in the race, which saw only one caution, that on lap nineteen.

Early in the race Dupont and Briggs sparred for the lead, with Dupont faster in the corners while Briggs pulled him on the straightaways. Eventually Briggs distanced himself from Dupont. Davies, who started fifth, but slipped back early, was on the charge, running down Dupont on lap sixteen to claim second and then setting out to catch Briggs.

Running his favorite outside line, the “Rimrider” drew within three car lengths on lap nineteen when the caution flew, setting up a restart with Davies on Briggs’ bumper. Briggs jumped to the top forcing Davies to try the low line. He was able to get his nose up to Briggs’ door but couldn’t get any further as Briggs was able to hold him off running the preferred line. From there Briggs was able to drive away to a comfortable margin.

At the line it was Briggs and Davies, followed by Dupont, who drove a gallant race with a broken throttle linkage, his second equipment malfunction in two Little Valley starts this season, Mike Knight, who came from twelfth, and veteran Brent Rhebergen, doing double duty, as he also drove an E-Mod.

Briggs commented on his race with Davies, noting, “The lap before the caution my guys motioned me to move to the upper lane. I couldn’t believe anyone was up there, but
I figured I had to trust them. Then we had that yellow and I went up there. He probably didn’t like that caution, but I did.” Regarding the restart when Davies drew alongside, he added, “I thought I heard him, but I never saw him. I just figured I’d keep doing what I was doing up there. Until I saw somebody beside me I wasn’t going to do anything. It was kind of rough and choppy up there, and I wasn’t going up there if I didn’t have to, but when it was time to go, it was time to go.”

For his part Davies was just happy to finish a race after suffering some early season breakdowns. He explained, “It’s the first race we got to finish this year. We broke two motors and then had fuel pressure problems at Conneaut (Raceway 7) last night. We haven’t finished a race in a month and a half.” Regarding the fateful restart, he added, “After that caution, my right rear tire was a bit softer and sealed over, and I couldn’t really get it fired after that. Still, we had a strong second. If we hadn’t had that caution we probably would have got Boom on the top. We were coming pretty hard on him, but Boom’s had a good year. My hat’s off to him. I helped him build his first car, so it was a lot of fun. We finally finished a race. My car owners are happy and I’m happy.”

Super Late Models- (30 laps) Boom Briggs, Ron Davies, Jason Dupont, Mike Knight, Brent Rhebergen, Dutch Davies, Ed Carley, Micky Wright, Greg Oakes, Bump Hedman, Jeff Hoffman, Al Brewer, Bob Close, Jeff Dayman, John Haggerty, Ron Baker, John Lacki, Jack Harrington, John Law, and Ike Fanton. Heat winners were Ron Davies, Hedman, and Knight.