December 19, 2020 – Clermont, IN…John Davidson, A.K.A. SuperFanJay or SFJ had been looking for his first win for a long time. He kept plugging away doing his best each race only to come up short at the end. However, his perseverance paid off in a big way as he was unstoppable all night long in the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series event at Indianapolis Raceway Park Sunday 12/19. “All I can say is this has been a long time coming,” expressed an elated Davidson in after winning his first ever.
From the first practice session on Davidson laid a foundation for things to come. When the time trial session rolled around it was clear that the SupermodifiedScorecard.com #05 machine was going to be a force to be reckoned with. Setting fast time with a 19.8 second run and then going on to win the heat race in fine style over Bob Gangwer, Chris Lucas, and his brother Jim, further cemented the fact that Davidson was onto something big this night.
IRP is well known for its speed, having hosted many a great Champ car, sprint car, midget race. The track is fast for sure but it’s also a very challenging place to race and all of the SUPRS competitors knew that going in. However, no one seemed to appreciate it more than SFJ. Prior to the start of the feature he made the comment, ”I’m going to have to take care of my tires because after 38 laps they are going to be shot and if Bobby’s not in the lead already he will get by me.” Devising a strategy that saw him take off from the pole at the start of the feature and drive like a mad man was the key to his success. “My plan was to run out as far as I could and just hope that the tires would hold out but towards the end they were shot and I was pushing bad,” explained Davidson.
Even with his plan of action starting to come to fruition, Davidson had company come to call in the form of SUPRS point leader Chris Lucas for about 10 laps in the middle of the race. “John and I ran good together for a while there,” began Lucas. “He kind of took off at the beginning of the race but I reeled him in towards the middle and actually led for a few laps before he got me back.” “ He was real strong tonight but I thought I might have a shot at him until I got tangled up with Jim,” said Lucas.
That tangle came on lap 28 when Jim Davidson, in the SupermodifiedScorecord.com #5, drifted high while Lucas was attempting to put him a lap down. Davidson had been experiencing problems all night with a new steering wheel and pedal set and found himself struggling to keep the pace while trying to learn the new gear on a tricky track. “It was my fault, I couldn’t get the car to turn and John lapped me and I didn’t know Chris was right there, so I got into the throttle and drifted up in front of him. After the crash I actually had to pit the car was so trashed,” Davidson said of the incident.
Lucas further explained that, “I had tapped the wall earlier and it affected the car somewhat but when I was lapping Jim he slid up and I nailed him in the rear end which gave me aero damage making it hard to steer. I was just holding on at the end there hoping Bobby G. wouldn’t get me.”
The contact with Davidson by Lucas was exactly what Bob Gangwer needed to salvage any hopes of a decent race. Struggling to find his groove at one of his favorite tracks, the driver of the #25 Wing Side Up Enterprises super dropped to a distant third place for most of the race. “I just could never get going after about lap five,” he said. “At the start going into one I saw John push high and get into Chris so I laid back some and then Jim got me to. I got him back and caught up to John and Chris and thought OK, I’ll let them run and I’ll just sit back here until about ten to go and save my tires.” It wasn’t to be though as Gangwer started to fall further behind catching up only to Lucas after his altercation with Jim Davidson and making a desperate pass low in turn three pulling off the world famous IRP slide job with two laps to go. “I knew it was now or never there and Chris and I had bumped because he was pushing so bad and I tried to go outside of him coming off of four with 3 to go. He gave me room down low into three and I buried it just hoping I wouldn’t slide up too high in the middle for him to get back by me,” explained Gangwer.
