Davenport Wins Gauntlet Finale; Grabs $100,000 Bonus

Overcoming a slide job attempt from Mike Marlar on a lap-35 restart, second-starting Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Georgia, led all 60 circuits of Saturday’s Gauntlet finale at Volunteer Speedway!  Davenport raced largely unchallenged, beating Ricky Thornton, Jr., by 2.512 seconds for his seventh overall feature win of the 2026 season.  His second victory this week at Volunteer Speedway secured Davenport a lucrative $100,000 bonus – offered by track promoter Vic Hill – to go along with the feature’s $30,000 top prize.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the racetrack this week or watched the action live on www.thethrill.tv!

Super Late Models
A Feature (60 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[8]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[10]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[6]; 6. 57M-Zack Mitchell[11]; 7. 99-Devin Moran[7]; 8. 8-Kyle Strickler[12]; 9. 93-Carson Ferguson[9]; 10. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[16]; 11. 101-Forrest Trent[18]; 12. 49M-Luke Morey[22]; 13. 09-Michael Leach[5]; 14. 55E-Eli Johnson[23]; 15. 10-Garrett Smith[3]; 16. 55-Benji Hicks[17]; 17. 126-Kaede Loudy[19]; 18. 95-Alex Vance[21]; 19. 16-Sam Seawright[13]; 20. 0-Jake O’Neil[14]; 21. 22-Chris Ferguson[1]; 22. 17M-Dale McDowell[15]; 23. 79-Jeremy Steele[20]; 24. 27-Jordon Horton[24]; 25. 20-Jimmy Owens[26]; 26. T1-Todd Morrow[25]

Heat One (10 Laps): 1. 22-Chris Ferguson[1]; 2. 09-Michael Leach[2]; 3. 93-Carson Ferguson[3]; 4. 16-Sam Seawright[5]; 5. 55-Benji Hicks[4]; 6. 95-Alex Vance[7]; 7. T1-Todd Morrow[6]

Heat Two (10 Laps): 1. 10-Garrett Smith[2]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 3. 57M-Zack Mitchell[3]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[4]; 5. 126-Kaede Loudy[6]; 6. 55E-Eli Johnson[5]

Heat Three (10 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 4. 0-Jake O’Neil[3]; 5. 101-Forrest Trent[6]; 6. 49M-Luke Morey[5]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[7]

Heat Four (10 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 3. 8-Kyle Strickler[3]; 4. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[5]; 5. 79-Jeremy Steele[4]; 6. 27-Jordon Horton[6]

Group A Qualifying: 1. 22-Chris Ferguson, 12.678[3]; 2. 99-Devin Moran, 12.712[12]; 3. 09-Michael Leach, 12.747[2]; 4. 10-Garrett Smith, 12.780[13]; 5. 93-Carson Ferguson, 12.789[7]; 6. 57M-Zack Mitchell, 12.791[1]; 7. 55-Benji Hicks, 12.820[11]; 8. 17M-Dale McDowell, 12.852[10]; 9. 16-Sam Seawright, 12.940[6]; 10. 55E-Eli Johnson, 13.221[8]; 11. T1-Todd Morrow, 13.224[5]; 12. 126-Kaede Loudy, 13.389[4]; 13. 95-Alex Vance, 13.585[9]

Group B Qualifying: 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 12.550[3]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 12.637[7]; 3. 44-Chris Madden, 12.744[11]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar, 12.886[12]; 5. 0-Jake O’Neil, 12.902[9]; 6. 8-Kyle Strickler, 12.905[6]; 7. 76-Brandon Overton, 12.933[2]; 8. 79-Jeremy Steele, 12.992[4]; 9. 49M-Luke Morey, 12.993[1]; 10. 23V-Cory Hedgecock, 12.993[5]; 11. 101-Forrest Trent, 13.020[8]; 12. 27-Jordon Horton, 13.086[13]; 13. 20-Jimmy Owens, 13.125[10]

Hot Laps: 1. 93-Carson Ferguson, 12.734[7]; 2. 55-Benji Hicks, 12.760[11]; 3. 79-Jeremy Steele, 12.761[17]; 4. 22-Chris Ferguson, 12.761[3]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton, 12.762[15]; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell, 12.772[10]; 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 12.775[16]; 8. 49M-Luke Morey, 12.846[14]; 9. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 12.874[20]; 10. 16-Sam Seawright, 12.925[6]; 11. 8-Kyle Strickler, 12.930[19]; 12. 99-Devin Moran, 12.944[12]; 13. 44-Chris Madden, 12.987[24]; 14. 101-Forrest Trent, 13.017[21]; 15. 10-Garrett Smith, 13.024[13]; 16. 23V-Cory Hedgecock, 13.033[18]; 17. 09-Michael Leach, 13.062[2]; 18. 157-Mike Marlar, 13.067[25]; 19. 0-Jake O’Neil, 13.076[22]; 20. 20-Jimmy Owens, 13.152[23]; 21. 57M-Zack Mitchell, 13.191[1]; 22. 55E-Eli Johnson, 13.244[8]; 23. 27-Jordon Horton, 13.276[26]; 24. T1-Todd Morrow, 13.345[5]; 25. 126-Kaede Loudy, 13.449[4]; 26. (DNS) 95-Alex Vance

Sportsman Late Models
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 28-Jesse Helton[2]; 2. 55-Kyle Courtney[3]; 3. 7-Heath Alvey[1]; 4. 3-Tim Maupin[6]; 5. 07A-Addison Cardwell[7]; 6. 63-Josh Collins[5]; 7. 56J-Jody Horton[8]; 8. 2-AJ Ferguson[13]; 9. 10P-James Parrott[9]; 10. 3S-Shane Starnes[17]; 11. 15-Bryson Dennis[14]; 12. 97-Chris Coffey[10]; 13. 5-Joshua Chesney[16]; 14. 4-Chase Lawson[18]; 15. 94-Holden Allen[4]; 16. C11-Roy Norwood[12]; 17. 01-Jason Welshan[11]; 18. (DNS) 43-Hayden Estep

Qualifying: 1. 7-Heath Alvey, 13.780[2]; 2. 28-Jesse Helton, 13.900[10]; 3. 55-Kyle Courtney, 13.935[18]; 4. 94-Holden Allen, 14.000[1]; 5. 63-Josh Collins, 14.022[6]; 6. 3-Tim Maupin, 14.058[13]; 7. 07A-Addison Cardwell, 14.094[3]; 8. 56J-Jody Horton, 14.188[11]; 9. 10P-James Parrott, 14.256[15]; 10. 97-Chris Coffey, 14.307[5]; 11. 01-Jason Welshan, 14.340[17]; 12. C11-Roy Norwood, 14.489[14]; 13. 2-AJ Ferguson, 14.526[9]; 14. 15-Bryson Dennis, 14.550[7]; 15. 43-Hayden Estep, 14.562[8]; 16. 5-Joshua Chesney, 14.709[4]; 17. 3S-Shane Starnes, 14.807[16]; 18. 4-Chase Lawson, 15.023[12]

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