Birkhoffer Takes Charge in Davenport

By Brian Dunlap

WoO LMS Public Relations Davenport, Iowa (August 10, 2004)

The World of Outlaws Late Model Series made the trip to Davenport, Iowa to race at Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds Speedway Tuesday August 10th, and it was another non-stop action packed night of racing.  The crowed of nearly 3000 went to there feet as local favorite Brian Birkhoffer took the lead on lap four and held on to it, winning the top prize of the night a check for $10,000.

Dale McDowell in the #17M Larry Shaw Race Cars/S&H Motorsports/Dover Cylinder Head/Racetek/Petroff Towing/ J&J Steel/New Vision Graphics/Rocket Chassis Pontiac Grand Prix took an early lead off of green flag but it was short lived as Birkhoffer used his Dallfedt Transportation/J&J Steel/Simon Trucking Monte Carlo to challenge McDowell on the outside.  Birkhoffer was able to go high around McDowell in turns three and four and use his high-side momentum to power down the front chute and take the lead away from McDowell.  As Birkhoffer took the lead with McDowell falling in second, Billy Moyer, Rick Eckert, and Steve Boley rounded out the top five on lap four.

Lap five showed the #9 Miller Brothers Coal/Hawkeye Trucking/Pro Power/Rayburn Chevrolet Monte Carlo of Dan Schlieper moving around Boley and challenging the #24 Raye Vest Excavating/Rocket Chassis Ford Taurus of Eckert.  Shannon Babb and Earl Pearson Jr. followed Schlieper on around Boley. 

With 10 laps on the books Schlieper was still knocking on Eckert’s back door and was ready to take the fourth position at any moment.  Pearson kept trying Babb for sixth, but Babb would pull ahead of Pearson and maintain his position by the time both cars entered turn the corner. Pearson soon found his groove on the low side and went low under Babb and advanced in to sixth.

Birkhoffer began to catch lap traffic by lap 18 which allowed McDowell to gain ground.  McDowell however was not able to gain enough ground to challenge for the lead again as Birkhoffer quickly sorted out the lap traffic and moved on through.

Birkhoffer found himself in to lap traffic again on lap 27 and was able to nose his way through that quickly as well.  McDowell on the other hand was not as lucky as was tied up briefly allowing Birkhoffer to gain an even bigger lead.

Schlieper was able to complete a pass on Eckert in turns three and four to move in to fourth lap 32 which put him in a position to work on Moyer for a spot on the podium.

Series points leader Steve Francis found himself sitting in sixth position as he went around Pearson on lap 35.  Bloomquist moved in behind Francis once again as he got by Pearson on the next lap.

The first caution of the night was brought out with eight laps remaining for the #29 of Darrell Lanigan slowing in turn two. This collected the field and would make it an all out shoot-out with cars jockeying for position the next eight laps.

As the field resumed racing the top four running order remained unchanged but Eckert, Francis, and Bloomquist went three wide battling for fifth position.  There running order remained the same as they fell in running nose to tail with Pearson not far behind.

Bloomquist continued to work on Francis for 6^th finally and gets the job done with only two laps remaining.  Bloomquist continued to charge hard as he was able to pull off a fifth place finish passing Eckert at the line, as the filed took the checkered flag.

“I am surprised I won, the car was way too tight and I couldn’t drive it in like I like to, but I guess it worked” remarked race winner Brian Birkhoffer.  Birkhoffer went on to thank the World of Outlaws and Simmons Promotions for putting a race together at a close to home that he runs well at.

Second place finisher Dale McDowell commented after the race “I thought I might have had something for Brian (Birkhoffer) in the middle there but he had a better car at the end, its hard compete with racers of his caliber when your at their home track.”  McDowell went on to state “we will just take our notes home and see if we cant pick it up a notch when the we come back.”

Billy Moyer ran third most of the race, which helped him out in the series overall points race.  “We will take the third and go on to the next, we kind of dug ourselves a hole in the points race early on so this finish will help out, we just should have tighten the car up a little more for the feature” remarked Moyer.

The World of Outlaws will make the trip to Sarver, Pennsylvania for their next show at Lernerville Speedway Friday August the 13th.  Ticket information can be found on the Lernerville Speedway web site at www.lernerville.com, or you can call Lernerville Speedway directly at (724) 353-1511.

FEATURE (50L):

1          15B - Brian Birkhoffer

2          17M - Dale McDowell

3          21 - Billy Moyer

4          9 - Dan Schlieper

5          O - Scott Bloomquist

6          24 - Rick Eckert

7          15 - Steve Francis

8          1P - Earl Pearson Jr.

9          18 - Shannon Babb

10         26 - Steve Boley

11         75 - Bart Hartman

12         1* - Chub Frank

13         32D - Darren Miller

14         7 - Matt Miller

15         39 - Tim McCreadie

16         44 - Clint Smith

17         E1 - Mike Balzano

18         25 - Kerry Hanson

19         12 - Rick Aukland

20         1 - Josh Richards

21         23 - John Blankenship

22         29 - Darrell Lanigan

23         17B - Jeff Bair

24         17 - Luke Merfeld

TIME TRIALS:

1          1P - Earl Pearson Jr.      20.392

2          1 - Josh Richards           20.397

3          26 - Steve Boley            20.426

4          32D - Darren Miller         20.500

5          21 - Billy Moyer             20.501

6          39 - Tim McCreadie        20.502

7          25 - Kerry Hanson          20.559

8          7 - Matt Miller                20.605

9          17M - Dale McDowell     20.657

10         15 - Steve Francis          20.669

11         44 - Clint Smith             20.722

12         15B - Brian Birkhoffer     20.762

13         O - Scott Bloomquist      20.784

14         24 - Rick Eckert             20.788

15         9 - Dan Schlieper           20.795

16         18 - Shannon Babb        20.797

17         17B - Jeff Bair                20.835

18         29 - Darrell Lanigan        20.839

19         1* - Chub Frank             20.871

20         12 - Rick Aukland          21.007

21         75 - Bart Hartman          21.128

22         12T - Jeff Tharp              21.130

23         E1 - Mike Balzano         21.228

24         23 - John Blankenship    21.279

25         18Z - Rusty Zook           21.412

26         21H - Brian Harris          21.417

27         56 - Andy Eckrich          21.476

28         99 - Johnny Johnson      21.587

29         48 - Tim Lance               21.604

30         99D - Darrell Defrance    21.670

31         17 - Luke Merfeld           21.679

32         23D - Dana Wills            22.135

33         1D - Mitch Way             22.555

34         26R - Wayne Brau         22.766

35         OO - Mark Schumacher  23.044

36         Z2 - Hal Russell             23.222

LAST CHANCE 1: Bart Hartman, Darrell Lanigan, Jeff Bair.

LAST CHANCE 2: Chub Frank, Rick Aukland, Luke Merfeld.

HEAT 1: Dale McDowell

HEAT 2: Rick Eckert

HEAT 3: Steve Boley

HEAT 4: Brian Birkhoffer

DASH: Dale McDowell, Brian Birkhoffer, Rick Eckert, Steve Boley.

Barker Dominates Modified Division

 The open wheeled Modifieds ran in support of the WoO Late Models on Tuesday night. Ron Barker debuted a brand new car that Ray Evernham will be driving on August 19th at the Farley Speedway. Barker's new car proved to be just as strong as his regular weekly car. Barker took the lead from the outside pole and went on to score the 20 lap feature vurtually uncontested. Darin Thye was able to keep with Barker early in the race but Thye was sidelined with mechanical problems late in the race. Mike Garland crossed under the checkers in second ahead of Scott Nesteby, Rich Smith and Mitch Way. 

20 lap feature

1. 37B Ron Barker-Dubuque

2. G1 Mike Garland-Morrison, IL

3. 74 Scott Nesteby-Asbury

4. A1 Rich Smith-Davenport

5. 01M Mitch Way-Davenport

6. 33W Steve Wetter-Platteville, WI

7. 55 Scott Stecher-Muscatine

8. 5D Bob Dominacki-Bettendorf, IA

9. 18 Brian Culbertson-Dubuque

10. 32 Donovan Lodge-Moline, IL

11. A50 rod Smith-Monmouth, IL

12. 7J Jacob Seegmiller-Dubuque

13. 71 Mike Zemo Jr.-Geneseo, IL

14. 4D Bret Diercks-Bettendorf

15. M50 Darin Thye-Burlington

16. 44 Wade Lee-Muscatine

17. 3 Jason Schueller-Dubuque

18. 60 Rob Verbeck-Anawan, IL