From Spence Smithabck
BLACK EAGLE, MT (August 30, 2024) — It was only a matter of time until Hank Davis won his first race on the American Sprint Car Series National Tour, and that time came Friday night at Electric City Speedway.
Davis didn’t just win the opening night of the Montana Roundup though, he put on a clinic and took the checkers by nearly six seconds over the toughest competition 360 Sprint Car racing has to offer.
“Just been all over the board, the past couple weeks have been horrible,” Davis said. “This definitely makes up for it.”
The No. 2C machine looked like the car to beat beginning in the Dash, where he charged from sixth to first in five laps to take the pole position for the Feature.
Once the 30-lap main event got underway, Davis and second-place starter Sam Hafertepe Jr. swapped lanes entering Turn 1 while Andrew Deal briefly looked to their inside from Row 2 to make it a three-way fight for the top spot. Deal backed out, while Davis powered off the top of Turn 2 to grab the lead over Hafertepe.
While Davis was building his gap, Seth Bergman was busy making his way to the front from fifth, as he got around Deal and Jason Martin on Lap 1 and went to battle with Hafertepe for the runner-up spot. He ran the low lane through Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 2 and cleared Hafertepe exiting the corner, but before Hafertepe could respond, Jordan Milne spun in Turn 4 to bring out the yellow.
Bergman got his chance at Davis on the restart and ran the bottom to counter Davis’s preferred top groove, but the No. 23 was no match as Davis drove away to a half-straightaway lead after one lap.
Although Davis may have been the only participant in the race for the lead, Hafertepe and Bergman put on a thrilling race for second in the middle stages, with both drivers swapping lanes and throwing sliders lap after lap. Bergman held onto the spot once the pair caught slower traffic, but Hafertepe was not content to give up the position.
With 10 to go, Hafertepe rode the cushion through Turns 3 and 4 and squeezed past Bergman exiting the corner to take control of the second spot. Bergman wanted to get back by on the bottom in the next set of corners, but traffic on the inside prevented that move and forced him to follow Hafertepe on the top.
Hafertepe would hold onto the spot for good, but by that point he had no hope of catching Davis, who was half a lap ahead of the No. 15H and on his way to the victory in his Electric City debut.
Davis said he didn’t know just how massive his advantage was late in the race, and believed that even if he did know, he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
“That’s two of the best guys in 360s, period,” Davis said. “You just have to assume they’re always breathing down your neck. That’s what we did, and man, not in a cocky way, but the way I’m being told, we dominated this deal.”
Hafertepe has done his fair share of dominating on his way to nine National Tour victories in 2024, but the five-time Series champion was content with his runner-up finish and conceded that the night belonged to Davis.
“He’s just a young guy,” Hafertepe said. “He’s probably lost a lot of races driving the way he drove tonight, but tonight this is what got him the win. As an older guy, some nights you’ve got to chalk it up to that a guy’s a little bit better than you on a certain night, and that’s what happened tonight. All the credit to those guys, they deserved it.”
Bergman’s third-place run was his fifth podium in as many races, continuing his streak of consistency that has garnered him a 96-point lead in the standings entering Saturday’s event.
“I feel like we made big gains from the Dash to the Feature, so I know we’re on the right track,” Bergman said following his first Electric City start in nine years. “We’ll just take a couple things there that I wasn’t happy with and try to find a solution for that, and I think if we do that, we’re going to be just fine.”
Matt Covington came home fourth, one spot short of his career-best at Electric City from 2014, while Jason Martin collected his sixth top five of the season with his P5 effort.
The Triple X Hard Charger Award went to Skylar Gee, who won the Last Chance Showdown before driving from 16th to eighth in the Feature.
Montana Roundup
ASCS National Tour
Electric City Speedway
Black Eagle, Montana
Friday, August 30, 2024
Qualifying Flight A
1. 23-Seth Bergman, 12.571[9]
2. 95-Matt Covington, 12.698[4]
3. 9K-Kory Wermling, 12.787[3]
4. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 12.833[6]
5. 01-Rich Bailey, 12.910[8]
6. 5H-Harli White, 12.921[7]
7. 10-Landon Britt, 12.976[5]
8. 55B-Brandon Anderson, 12.984[2]
9. 82C-Christian Kinnison, 13.490[1]
Qualifying Flight B
1. 36-Jason Martin, 12.792[3]
2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 12.819[4]
3. 28-Joe Perry, 12.914[8]
4. 72-Phil Dietz, 13.082[6]
5. 37-Trever Kirkland, 13.104[2]
6. 938-Bradley Fezard, 13.118[1]
7. 2J-Zach Blurton, 13.366[7]
8. 35M-Cody Masse, 13.456[5]
9. 6G-Bryan Gossel, 13.607[9]
Qualifying Flight C
1. 2C-Hank Davis, 12.613[8]
2. 15D-Andrew Deal, 13.060[1]
3. 2JR-Kelly Miller, 13.225[6]
4. 88-Terry Easum, 13.300[7]
5. 3-Jordan Milne, 13.312[9]
6. 38B-Bryan Brown, 13.331[5]
7. 23N-Skylar Gee, 13.448[2]
8. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 13.599[3]
9. 56-Ross Mathewson, 13.914[4]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 9K-Kory Wermling[2]
2. 5H-Harli White[6]
3. 95-Matt Covington[1]
4. 23-Seth Bergman[4]
5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[3]
6. 55B-Brandon Anderson[8]
7. 10-Landon Britt[7]
8. 82C-Christian Kinnison[9]
9. 01-Rich Bailey[5]
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]
2. 36-Jason Martin[4]
3. 28-Joe Perry[2]
4. 938-Bradley Fezard[6]
5. 37-Trever Kirkland[5]
6. 72-Phil Dietz[3]
7. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]
8. 6G-Bryan Gossel[9]
9. 35M-Cody Masse[8]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 15D-Andrew Deal[1]
2. 2C-Hank Davis[4]
3. 2JR-Kelly Miller[2]
4. 16G-Austyn Gossel[8]
5. 3-Jordan Milne[5]
6. 88-Terry Easum[3]
7. 23N-Skylar Gee[7]
8. 38B-Bryan Brown[6]
9. 56-Ross Mathewson[9]
Dash #1 (5 Laps)
1. 2C-Hank Davis[6]
2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]
3. 15D-Andrew Deal[1]
4. 36-Jason Martin[3]
5. 23-Seth Bergman[5]
6. 9K-Kory Wermling[4]
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 23N-Skylar Gee[7]
2. 88-Terry Easum[5]
3. 2J-Zach Blurton[6]
4. 72-Phil Dietz[4]
5. 55B-Brandon Anderson[3]
6. 10-Landon Britt[2]
7. 38B-Bryan Brown[8]
8. 82C-Christian Kinnison[9]
9. 56-Ross Mathewson[12]
DNS: 01-Rich Bailey
DNS: 6G-Bryan Gossel
DNS: 35M-Cody Masse
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 2C-Hank Davis[1]
2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]
3. 23-Seth Bergman[5]
4. 95-Matt Covington[8]
5. 36-Jason Martin[4]
6. 15D-Andrew Deal[3]
7. 2JR-Kelly Miller[10]
8. 23N-Skylar Gee[16]
9. 5H-Harli White[7]
10. 9K-Kory Wermling[6]
11. 16G-Austyn Gossel[12]
12. 28-Joe Perry[9]
13. 88-Terry Easum[17]
14. 72-Phil Dietz[19]
15. 37-Trever Kirkland[14]
16. 938-Bradley Fezard[11]
17. 2J-Zach Blurton[18]
18. 10-Landon Britt[21]
19. 45X-Kyler Johnson[13]
20. 38B-Bryan Brown[22]
21. 55B-Brandon Anderson[20]
DNS: 3-Jordan Milne