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Webster Wins Brian Davidson Memorial 125
SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Florida Short Track Report.com
AUBURNDALE - From the first time the late models hit the track at Auburndale
Speedway this weekend for practice for the Brian Davidson Memorial 125
Presented by the Florida Short Track Report, it was clear that Daniel Webster
and his super late model were going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Webster set the tone early in the evening in qualifying, easily setting fast time
over ASALMS driver Cody Pitts. Kevin Macy, another ASALMS driver, was
third at the end of time trials.
Just prior to the start of the race, 12-year old Daniel Miller, who won 23 feature
races on his way to the Fast Mini Cup series championship last year, threw the
dice to invert the field. Luckily for Webster, the dice came up as zero meaning
there would be no inversion and the field would start as they qualified.
As the field took the green flag, Webster jumped out to a three car-length lead
over Pitts. Before the field could even complete a lap, Levi Hobbs spun in turn
3 and collected Jonathan Waters. Both cars were able to continue, although
Waters was missing a lot of the bodywork on his machine.
Webster took off again on the complete restart, but it was obvious that Pitts
was having problems. By the fourth lap, Pitts had already fallen out of the top
10 and would find trouble with Hobbs just two laps later as the two collided in
turn four. Hobbs would continue, but Pitts would go back to the pit area. The
root of all of Pitts’ problems was a broken shock mount and after spending
several laps behind the wall, he would eventually rejoin the field.
Despite several caution flags over the next several laps, Webster kept flexing
his muscles in easily pulling away from Macy on the restarts. As the runs got
longer, Macy looked like he was gaining ground and eventually closed to within
a car length before another caution for debris on lap 64 bunched the field.
Webster and Macy stayed nose-to-tail on the restart, but the battle was on for
third place between Auburndale racer Aaron Williamson and Raymond
Lovelady. After trading a little paint for a couple of laps, Lovelady got by
Williamson and began to chase down Macy.
Ron Lufquist was another driver on the move, and had worked his way into the
top five at about the halfway point of the race. Lufquist was stuck in a fierce
battle with Williamson for fourth, but got loose coming out of turn two and spun
wildly through the infield on lap 92, barely missing the pace truck in the
process.
On the restart, Webster pulled away from Macy and Lovelady again. Webster
handled the lapped traffic with ease and cruised to victory, capping off a
dominating evening.
“It probably wasn’t the most exciting show for the fans, but I know for sure I
enjoyed it,” Webster said in victory lane. “I knew if I could bog those guys with
the crate motors down, I could use my power to get that initial jump on them. If
those guys could keep the momentum up, they’re bad to the bone and would
give me some problems.”
Macy led to group of ASALMS drivers in the field with his runner up finish. He
knew he was at a disadvantage with the power issue, but still came away
happy with his night’s work.
“He definitely had it hooked up tonight,” Macy said. “We had a good car, but
we didn’t have anything for him. We can stay more consistent with these crate
motors with less power to the rear tires. I figured he might come back to us a
little bit, but it didn’t happen like I thought it would. He had the best car here,
so I am happy running second.”
Although Lovelady ran in the top five for the entire race, his car proved to be a
handful after starting in the outside groove.
“We started fourth, and we were very fortunate to get down to the bottom
grove early since starting on the outside here is never a good thing,” Lovelady
said. “We had a little bit of a handling issue as the car was a little tight but we
were able to bring it home in third in one piece, so that makes it a good night.
Patrick Williams and Williamson rounded out the top five.
But as the night ended, the night belonged to Webster. The fact that he had
just won the 18th running of the Brian Davidson Memorial 125 was certainly
not lost on him as Leroy Davidson, father Brian Davidson, handed him the
giant trophy for winning the event.
“This is awesome, and this is the biggest win of my career so far.”
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