Batesville Motor Speedway
After high-speed night, eyes on Batesville surface
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Jonathan Davenport wheels around Batesville. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
LOCUST GROVE, Ark. (Aug. 15) — Drivers weren’t expecting to find a blazing fast track surface at Mooney Starr-promoted Batesville Motor Speedway on Friday’s preliminary night for the 33rd annual Nutrien Ag Solutions Topless 100 presented by Big River Steel.
“I hadn’t seen it that fast in a really long time without rain or anything like that,” Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., said after his Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series semifeature victory. “Mooney definitely put the water to it.”
Often, Batesville's 3/8-mile oval turns into one of the more technical and mentally-demanding racetracks on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series campaign given the mid-August sweltering temps and the Topless being 100 laps.
Davenport, whose Batesville-based Double L Motorsports team knows the track well, and his competitors will be on their toes come Saturday’s main event to see if the Arkansas oval exhibits another high-speed surface or reverts to its traditional slower and slicker character.
“This place could rubber-up on lap 20, or it could race around the cushion like it did last year,” Davenport said. “It could be also be a slimy-slick, I’ve seen that a couple years ago. We’re what kind of racetrack we get (Saturday).”
Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., who rallied from a heat race flat tire Friday to finish third in opening semifeature, recalls when he won the event in 2021 “I thought I drove one of the best races I ever drove and I still barely won it.”
“It’s one of those places that’s really tough to get around. … I think this place, every year we come back, it keeps racing better and better,” O’Neal said. “Your car has to be good. You have to be good. This place gets so technical. And then there’s the physical aspect. It’s 95 degrees, close to 100, and it’s physically draining.”
Some drivers needed time adapting to Friday’s conditions, such as the Double L Motorsports team that had to change Davenport’s spark plugs after a subpar qualifying session and hometown driver Jared Landers, who was caught off guard by the slimier conditions in his heat race that led to his mid-heat spin. Carson Ferguson and Jimmy Owens both suffered flat tires during their heats, perhaps miscalculating tire pressures or whatever goes into accounting for a race with lots of on-throttle time.
First semifeature runner-up finisher Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., would prefer Saturday’s 100-lapper not to race like Friday’s hammer-down conditions, emphasizing “we definitely don’t wanna run wide open around here for a long time.”
“It’s pretty hard. We definitely like to see it slow down,” said Madden, who starts third in Saturday’s 100-lap feature, in prime position to repeat his Topless 100 victory from 2019.
If there’s any driver who doesn’t want to see the track slow down, it’s first semifeature winner Brandon Sheppard. That’s almost a given considering the Mark Richards-led driver loves a generously-watered, and even slimy-wet, racetrack.
“Obviously that’s my favorite condition,” said Sheppard, driving the Rocket1 team’s new XR2 model. “I think that’s Mark’s favorite condition, too. But this thing has been good in all conditions. It’s easy to pick the wrong tires or miss the setup just a little bit. All of us are so close. Heck, a lot of places you go, it’s as much as starting up front.”
Sheppard benefitted greatly from the tacky conditions Friday, enjoying clean air in running virtually unchallenged for 25 laps.
“I knew (we’d be good) if we could keep that momentum going and carry it into qualifying,” said Sheppard, who topped group qualifying, won his heat and pocketed $5,000 for winning the semifeature. “Really, you need to start on the bottom here. You need to start on the bottom so you can take off in the moisture and get to the top, especially where like it was early. Then it transitioned to the bottom in our feature there, and I felt really good down there. Even when I had to pass a couple lapped cars, I moved to the top and felt really good up there, too.
“Excited about the way the car felt. Whenever it’s good, it’s a lot of fun to drive. This car has been really good.”
Friday’s second semifeature was a little more chaotic, the dramatic moment coming on the lap-eight restart when Cade Dillard admitted to running into the back to Garrett Alberson, whose slider for the lead was snuffed out by the high-flying, payback-seeking Dillard. Owens restarted out front, but a flat tire handed the mid-race lead to Davenport, who won from his sixth starting spot.
Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., finished second from seventh and 16th-starting Clay Harris of Jupiter, Fla., put on a dazzling performance in his run to third. But even in the second semifeature, Davenport was =on the fuel virtually the entire way around the track.
That’s important to monitor because excess on-throttle time might turn Saturday’s 100-lapper into a race of tire management.
“Riding around the top, I’d lift a little getting in. It was about wide-open, not quite,” Davenport said. “But yeah, it was really fast. We probably need a couple sets of tires. This place is notoriously rough on tires. I’ll have to look at mine. I was trying to be as easy on mine.”
Though Madden doesn’t prefer the hammer-down conditions, he was still happy with his Kale Green Motorsports No. 44 machine, saying his tire wear and tire temperatures were nothing of concern.
“We had a good hot rod. We’re trying to find the balance for here, haven’t been here in a few years,” Madden said. “We just kind of tightened up just a little bit too much, but we’ll be good for tomorrow for 100 laps.”
Few drivers excel better in tire-management conditions than Madden, who’s won his fair share of attrition-filled races. Madden anticipates Saturday’s track will race much like Friday, saying “I think it’ll be like this for a while” during the 100-lap feature.
“I’d say it’ll run 50-60 laps like this tomorrow,” said Madden, who added he “100 percent” has a shot to win the Topless 100 despite racing part time.
But Madden, like every other driver, will pay close attention to what the track throws at him Saturday, particularly late in the going because in 100-lappers, anything can happen.
“As long as we don’t have a flat tire,” Madden said. “A few adjustments here and I think we’ll be right there.”
