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How Kevin Rumley's BANNED "device", Scott Bloomquist, and Ricky Thornton Jr. are connected | Daily 8-27-2023
How are Kevin Rumley's device, Scott Bloomquist, and Ricky Thornton Jr. connected? We'll talk about it today, plus some late model chassis swaps, a first for Brandon Sheppard, some sprint car championship updates, and more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, August 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
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We'll kick today off with an interesting conglomeration of things that have happened in dirt late model racing in recent days, that are all sort of connected. Back on Friday, FloRacing released one of their videos in the Road to Eldora series that's leading into this year's World 100. In that video, Ben Shelton visited Kevin Rumley's shop in Lexington, North Carolina to talk about the infamous "device" that Rumley used on the six car in 2015. Jonathan Davenport won the Lucas title that season in the Rumley six, and they took down a bunch of crown jewel wins along the way including the Dream and World, the Show-Me 100, the USA Nationals, the North/South 100, the Prairie Dirt Classic, and more. In all, it was 23 wins in 60 starts. If you've been a dirt late model fan for any length of time, you've probably seen the photos of the device and know about it's mystique. The piece of tech that Rumley created was run on the left rear of the car, but was eventually banned after that 2015 season. It was a huge talking point at the time, because everybody wanted to know what it was, what it did, how it worked, etc. In most places I've seen comments from Kevin about the device, he's usually pretty cagey and secretive, even to this day. And you thought maybe this Flo video would be the time where he'd open up about it a little more. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. In the interview, we learned that Rumley's parents gave him a data acquisition system for Christmas in 2010, and because it was legal to run them back then, he was able to discover a problem with the cars that the device could help them solve. The invention went through multiple iterations before they decided in the leadup to that 2015 season to use it. They were fast out of the gate with it, but it was no magic bullet. Even with all the success they had, there was still plenty of bad luck along the way. Rumley would not reveal to Shelton what the problem was that he discovered, but did say the device was meant to disconnect the left rear tire from the rest of the car. The whole situation certainly caused a big stir all season, and regardless of what you believe or not, it did seem to have a big effect on their performance. Without it in 2016, Davenport was still very good, winning 22 times in 88 starts, but they didn't win the Lucas title, and didn't repeat all the crown jewel success. That 2016 season though, turned into a dominant one for Scott Bloomquist, who bagged 15 wins in 45 starts, and won the Lucas championship by nearly 900 points over Davenport. It was Bloomer's third title, and for all intents and purposes final national series championship of his career. Where this all ties back together, is with Ricky Thornton Jr. last Thursday night at Georgetown. RTJ went sixth to the lead in just six laps late in that race, and picked up his 16th series win of the year, which broke Bloomquist's record from 2016 for the most Lucas wins in a single season. Bloomer also had 15 back in 2011. I've had this on my notes for several days to check into where Thornton's season stacks up against those in the past, but now we know. He's right there with Davenport's device season and Bloomer's last title run, driving a chassis that Kevin Rumley has had a huge hand in developing over the years through Longhorn and Bilstein. It's always cool to follow some of these threads and see how events and people tie all together. If you want to watch the Flo video on the device, it's available on YouTube for free, and I'll link to it below.
After Georgetown Thursday, Lucas went to Port Royal on Friday and Saturday. Hudson O'Neal ended up with the $50,000 score last night, after a great battle all race long out front that included Davenport, Mike Marlar, Brandon Overton, and RTJ. Thornton had to start at the tail after swapping to a backup car because of motor issues. He got all the way to second, but bowed out under a caution with 10 to go because of more engine issues. I do think he was fast enough to win, and a 25th to the win charge would have been epic. Headed to Portsmouth and Tyler County next weekend, Overton has retaken the fourth spot in the chase standings thanks to strong finishes at both Georgetown and Port Royal. Tim McCreadie is just 45 points out.
At Davenport over the weekend, we were probably in line for a Bobby Pierce three night sweep, had it not been for a lap 59 flat tire on Saturday night. Pierce gave up the top spot to get the tire fixed, and Brandon Sheppard was able to capitalize. It was actually Sheppard's first official Outlaw win of the year, which I think is a bit surprising. I would not have guessed it would take him until August 26th of 2023 to get his first Outlaw victory. He'd twice won prelim features, and he's got two big Lucas wins this season, but this feels like maybe a little bit of pressure off. Pierce was able to race back to a top ten finish in ninth, and his championship lead remains safe at 116 over Chris Madden. Speaking of Madden, he was in a new Longhorn chassis this weekend and it seemed to pay off. Led laps both Friday and Saturday, and I guess if you can't beat them, join them. Same with Tyler Bruening. He's switched to a Longhorn from a Capital, and there are rumors out there about the future of Capital and the Skyline team. The Outlaws head to Mississippi Thunder and Deer Creek next weekend.
On the sprint car side, Logan Schuchart swept the Outlaw weekend in North Dakota. He got around Sheldon Haudenschild with just a few to go on Friday at River Cities to win, and then Saturday night led flag-to-flag at Red River Valley. And 11th place finish on Friday wasn't what David Gravel needed, but a second on Saturday was a step in the right direction. It was his first top five in an Outlaw points race since winning at Weedsport on July 30th. With the west coast looming now, Brad Sweet's lead over Carson Macedo grew just a tick to 56, with Gravel 66 back in third. Even though Sweet hasn't won since June 30th at Cedar Lake, he's in the driver's seat now for this Outlaw championship and his fifth straight. We'll see if Macedo or Gravel can get hot, and if the distractions for Sweet's extracurricular activities have any sort of affect on his performances down to World Finals.
In the All Star title fight, things swung in Tyler Courtney's favor on Saturday night at Butler. Zeb Wise dominated the Friday race at Tri-City, and was maybe headed for another win last night, but he tangled with the lap car of Reece Saldana with 15 to go, and was out of the race. Sunshine took advantage and scored the win. With just eight race nights remaining, the Clauson Marshall team has edged ahead by eight points for the owner's title, which is the one that pays the big money. Attica is up next for the All Stars.
At Kokomo for Smackdown it was a big weekend for Justin Grant. He won all three nights and pocketed nearly $60,000 for his efforts. It's been a bit of an up and down year for JG, but the Kokomo weekend brings him right into the mix for the series title, trailing Brady Bacon now by only nine points. The USAC sprint cars are now off for a few weeks.
Other weekend winners included Zach Daum and Gavin Miller with the Xtreme Outlaw midgets. Cannon McIntosh leads Jade Avedisian right now by 23 points for the title. ASCS National Tour foes Matt Covington and Jason Martin traded wins over the weekend at Lakeside and Salina. Brent Marks was a winner Friday at Williams Grove, Chase Dietz won Saturday at Lincoln, Aaron Reutzel won at Knoxville while Austin McCarl is the 410 champion. Chase Randall and Kade Higday were you other Knoxville champions.
In late model action, Joseph Joiner and Michael Page were Hunt the Front series winners, Josh Rice bagged the $15 grand with the Iron-Man series at Lake Cumberland, Payton Freeman was a $10,000 winner at Sugar Creek, and Donald McIntosh bagged $7500 with the Ultimate Southeast series.
That's it for the show today. Hope you guys have a good rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.