Roach reels in Sport Modified Mayhem win at Dodge City Raceway Park

[NickHolt]

Roach Reels in Sport Modified Mayhem Win at DCRP

 

by Lonnie Wheatley

 

DODGE CITY, Kan. (August 29, 2015) – Mike Roach pocketed the $1,000 winner’s share by reaching victory lane in Saturday night’s Second Annual Sport Modified Mayhem feature event atop the 3/8-mile Dodge City Raceway Park clay oval.

 

While Roach took top honors in the IMCA Sport Modifieds that ran off 30 consecutive non-stop laps, Kevin Gray captured his first IMCA Modified win at the Dodge City oval, Jason Rogers bested the IMCA Stock Cars and Matt O’Hair claimed another IMCA Hobby Stock win.

 

In the 30-lap Sport Modified Mayhem main event, Woodward, Oklahoma’s Roach chased nephew Brandon Kenny for 19 laps before taking advantage of lapped traffic to take command.

 

“Lapped traffic won it for me, my nephew got bottled up and there and I got by,” Roach said. “The track was great. You could run high, low, anywhere you wanted.”

 

While Roach started inside the third row, Kenny outgunned current DCRP Sport Mod points leader Jeff Kaup for the lead at the drop of the green with Roach racing into second on the opening round.

Kenny and Roach slipped away from the field with Kaup distancing from the rest of the pack as he held down third.

 

With traffic in play by the midway point, Roach nearly pulled even in turn four on the 19th lap and then raced into the lead a half lap later when Kenny got held up in traffic exiting turn two.

 

Roach raced through traffic the rest of the way to preserve the win with Kenny settling for second. Kaup held on for the show position with inaugural Sport Modified Mayhem winner Clay Money crossing the stripe in fourth, a half lap off the lead pace. Dustin Daniels rounded out the top five with Michael Pepper, Josh Appel and Austin Walker the only other drivers to finish on the lead lap.

 

After Mike Appel spun in the opening pair of corners on the initial start, the 30-lapper ran off in non-stop fashion as Roach became the 11th different winner in as many IMCA Sport Modified features at DCRP in 2015.

 

In the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature, Ulysses’ Kevin Gray battled past the father-son duo of Tracy and Nick Link to take command at the midway point and led the rest of the way to capture his first DCRP win.

“It’s been a long time coming, there’s been a lot of race nights here,” a relieved Gray said in victory lane.

 

Gray actually had to make the winning pass twice after the first move under Tracy Link on the ninth lap was negated by a caution flag. Gray wasted little time reclaiming the lead with a move to the front on the tenth circuit.

 

With Gray out front, Nick Link worked past his father for second on the 13th lap and chased the rest of the way. Jesse Richter gained three positions over the final handful of laps to claim the show position with current points leader Austin Allen and Jesse Smith rounding out the top five.

 

In IMCA Stock Car action, Selden’s Jason Rogers emerged from a multi-car battle for the lead on the eighth round then raced on to a convincing victory in the 15-lapper.

 

After Marlin Hogie took the lead away from Brett Copeland on the fifth round, Dusty Witthuhn and Rogers raced around Hogie the next time around. Rogers surged ahead of Witthuhn at the midway point and cruised on to his second win of the year at DCRP. Witthuhn finished a distant second behind Rogers with Hogie, Copeland and Ron Hartman rounding out the top five.

 

Laverne, Oklahoma’s Matt O’Hair picked off his second consecutive IMCA Hobby Stock win after battling past Raymond Dechant for the lead ten laps into the 15-lap main event. Like Gray in the Modified ranks, O’Hair actually had to make the winning pass two different times after a lap nine pass was nixed by a caution flag. It took just another lap for O’Hair to recapture the lead and then race on to his fourth victory of the year ahead of Dechant with Bryan Habiger, points leader Cody Davis and Corey Hacker rounding out the top five.

 

Dodge City Raceway Park finishes off the 2015 season on Saturday night, September 26, with the Third Annual Jerry Soderberg Memorial Championship event featuring URSS vs. Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Cars along with IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars and IMCA Hobby Stocks.

 

Dodge City Raceway Park – August 29 Results:

 

Second Annual Sport Modified Mayhem – IMCA Sport Modifieds:

 

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 92-Jeff Kaup, 2. 21b-Brandon Kenny, 3. 11-Jason Dove, 4. 65j-Josh Appel, 5. 37-Bart Baker, 6. 40s-Ryan Stevenson, 7. 2d-Dwayne Dechant, 8. 25c-Darren Coyle.

 

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 12-Kevin Tabor, 2. 42-Alan Brewster, 3. 44-Austin Walker, 4. 2m-Angel Munoz, 5. 55d-Don Strecker, 6. 12m-Allen Melton, 7. 7j-Jamie French.

 

Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 1x-Nate Ginest, 2. 7-Clay Money, 3. 22p-Michael Pepper, 4. 33k-Jason Lunow, 5. 8-Brian May, 6. 27g-Kamren Gruber, 7. 10T-Toby Witthuhn.

 

Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 33r-Mike Roach, 2. 56m-Mike Appel, 3. 33-Dustin Daniels, 4. 18-Kyle Wiens, 5. 9-Monty Nordyke, 6. 3d-Daniel Gottschalk, 7. 57-Tanner Brunson.

 

First “B” Main (10 Laps): 1. 37-Bart Baker, 2. 65j-Josh Appel, 3. 2d-Dwayne Dechant, 4. 2m-Angel Munoz, 5. 40s-Ryan Stevenson, 6. 7j-Jamie French, 7. 55d-Don Strecker, 8. 12m-Allen Melton, 9. 25c-Darren Coyle.

 

Second “B” Main (10 Laps): 1. 8-Brian May, 2. 33k-Jason Lunow, 3. 18-Kyle Wiens, 4. 10T-Toby Witthuhn, 5. 9-Monty Nordyke, 6. 27g-Kamren Gruber, 7. 57-Tanner Brunson, 8. 3d-Daniel Gottschalk.

 

“A” Main (30 Laps): 1. 33r-Mike Roach, 2. 21b-Brandon Kenny, 3. 92-Jeff Kaup, 4. 7-Clay Money, 5. 33-Dustin Daniels, 6. 22p-Michael Pepper, 7. 65j-Josh Appel, 8. 44-Austin Walker, 9. 8-Brian May, 10.

 

IMCA Modifieds:

 

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 18-Austin Allen, 2. 2L-Tracy Link, 3. 16-Kevin Gray, 4. 8r-Jesse Richter, 5. 23s-Heath Myers, 6. 88-Jack Kirchoff, 7. B21-Chadd Brown, 8. A2-Randy Wilson.

 

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 64-Jimmy Brozek, 2. 25-Kale Beavers, 3. K98-Danny Keller, 4. 7s-David Solberg, 5. 3h-Ryan Heger, 6. 75-Randle McRoberts, 7. 25b-Tom Beavers. DNS: 28-Seth Beard.

 

Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 01-Jesse Smith, 2. 1n-Nick Link, 3. 25p-Mike Petersilie, 4. 7n-William Nusser, 5. 57-Joel Lane, 6. 44T-Tanner Black, 7. M15-Mike Martin.

 

“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 16-Kevin Gray, 2. 1n-Nick Link, 3. 8r-Jesse Richter, 4. 18-Austin Allen, 5. 01-Jesse Smith, 6. 3h-Ryan Heger, 7. 2L-Tracy Link, 8. 7s-David Solberg, 9. 7n-William Nusser, 10. 25p-Mike Petersilie, 11. A2-Randy Wilson, 12. 44T-Tanner Black, 13. 64-Jimmy Brozek, 14. 57-Joel Lane, 15. 25-Kale Beavers, 16. 88j-Jack Kirchoff, 17. 25b-Tom Beavers, 18. B21-Chadd Brown, 19. K98-Danny Keller, 20. 75-Randle McRoberts, 21. 23s-Heath Myers, 22. 28-Seth Beard. DNS: m15-Mike Martin.

 

IMCA Stock Cars:

 

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 37-Jason Rogers, 2. 2z-Cody Zimmerman, 3. 19-Brett Copeland, 4. 10-Dusty Witthuhn, 5. 33-Marlin Hogie, 6. 58-Kyle Tillery.

 

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 55h-Ron Hartman, 2. 22-Michael Pepper, 3. 101-Troy Smith, 4. 21-Josh Siebert, 5. D44-Randy Dowell.

 

“A” Main (15 Laps): 1. 37-Jason Rogers, 2. 10-Dusty Witthuhn, 3. 33-Marlin Hogie, 4. 19-Brett Copeland, 5. 55h-Ron Hartman, 6. 22-Michael Pepper, 7. 2z-Cody Zimmerman, 8. 101-Troy Smith, 9. 58-Kyle Tillery, 10. 21-Josh Siebert. DNS: d44-Randy Dowell.

 

IMCA Hobby Stocks:

 

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 7-Tom Reed, 2. 91d-Cody Davis, 3. 007-Bryan Habiger, 4. 72T-Tobby Schield, 5. 2s-Reagan Sellard, 6. 7h-Corey Hacker, 7. 8x-Colby Wetzel, 8. 87-Dustin Carr.

 

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 1d-Raymond Dechant, 2. 2m-Matt O’Hair, 3. 17-Will Bauer, 4. 55-Jacob Huse, 5. 25-Adam Duesing, 6. 51-Clint Long, 7. 77-Cody Williams. DNS: 44b-David Berger.

 

“A” Main (15 Laps): 1. 2m-Matt O’Hair, 2. 1d-Raymond Dechant, 3. 007-Bryan Habiger, 4. 91d-Cody Davis, 5. 51-Clint Long, 6. 25-Adam Duesing, 7. 8x-Colby Wetzel, 8. 55-Jacob Huse, 9. 2s-Reagan Sellard, 10. 77-Cody Williams, 11. 17-Will Bauer, 12. 72T-Tobby Schield, 13. 7-Tom Reed (DQ), 14. 7h-Corey Hacker (DQ). DNS: 87-Dustin Carr, 44b-David Berger.