Bristol, Tennessee (3/26/2021) For many teams, running one car at this past week’s inaugural Bristol Dirt Nationals was already a test to their team’s fortitude and endurance, but Eunice, New Mexico leadfoot Cory Davis decided to take it a step further by bringing two cars to the once in a lifetime event.
Davis, who has blazed a trail across the southwest in recent years brought two potent IRP by 28 chassis out to Bristol to compete in both the IMCA Modified and Open Modified classes, and what a decision that wound up being.
Right out of the box Monday it was clear to see that Davis would be a contender in the IMCA Mod division. From 3rd on the grid in his heat race, Davis had sole possession of the lead by the time the field reached Turn 1. Davis would breeze along until he encountered lap traffic with just 2 to go. Davis would not be denied however, as he held off a hard charging Ashton Wilkey for the win.
Thanks to rain, the first preliminary feature for the IMCA Mods would roll off on Tuesday evening. On the start, Davis’s race almost ended in the blink of an eye as the car had trouble firing from the outside of the front row, leading to a huge pileup that collected him as well. Davis would be able to continue fortunately, now restarting in the 16th spot. In an extremely competitive feature, Davis was only able to rebound to 9th by the wave of the checkered flag.
Just like Monday, Davis was a man on a mission in his heat race, going from 5th to the lead in the opening two circuits. Once Davis hit clean air he was untouchable, as he set sail and cruised to the heat race win.
Once again Davis would start on the outside of the front row in his preliminary feature, this time avoiding issues and grabbing the lead on the start. Davis would lead the first 6 laps uncontested as Jesse Sobbing slowly creeped into the picture. Two laps later Davis would slip to 2nd as Sobbing powered around the high side. With the race being completely marred by cautions, the race would be called on Lap 15, as Davis would finish 2nd.
With two strong runs in his preliminary features, Davis would lock himself in to Friday’s $7,500 to win finale, rolling off 10th based on his points for the week.
Davis would move up one on the opening start to take 9th before an early caution bunched the field back together again. On the restart Davis was incredible, going from 9th to 3rd in a single lap, setting his eyes on JD Auringer for 2nd. 8 laps in and Davis now found himself in 2nd with a 2 and a half second gap to race leader Kyle Heckman.
A Lap 12 caution would bring the field back together and give Davis a real shot at Heckman. While he was focusing on Heckman, he also had to fend off a fast approaching Ricky Thornton Jr in 3rd. With 5 to go Davis would finally break free from Thornton, setting his sole focus on Heckman and the top spot. Despite everything he threw at him over the final 5 laps, Heckman would hold on for the win, as Davis brought it home in 2nd place.
In the Open Modifieds, Davis was not afforded 2 separate qualifying nights, as rain limited the class to one set of heat races and one set of preliminary features.
Davis would roll off 5th in his heat race, After riding around in 4th for most of the race, Davis made two slick moves to slide into 2nd spot, where he’d go on to finish.
Thanks to the passing points he earned in Tuesday’s heat race, Davis started 2nd in his Open Modified Preliminary feature. Over a pretty straightforward 20 laps, Davis would rarely be challenged for 2nd as nobody in the field had anything for eventual winner Kyle Strickler. Davis would go on to finish 2nd.
For the big show on Sunday Davis would start 4th. After falling to 5th on the opening lap, Davis nearly got into the front stretch pit barrier after clipping the dirt mound on the inside of Turn 4, dropping him back multiple positions. As laps clicked off, Davis would stay steadily in the 9th position, until Steve Arpin made a last lap pass that would ultimately push him to a 10th place finish.
Cory Davis would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:
IRP Racecars By28
Cardinal Hardware
Pressure Services
Edge Safety
TDS Suspension
Wehrs Machine
Results:
IMCA 1st Heat: 1st
IMCA 1st Prelim: 9th
Open Heat: 2nd
Open Prelim: 2nd
IMCA 2nd Heat: 1st
IMCA 2nd Prelim: 2nd
IMCA Mod Main Event: 2nd
Open Mod Main Event: 10th
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