DODGE CITY, Kan.– Current series points leader Kip Hughes overcame some early adversity to race to Dodge City Raceway Park victory lane as the Sooner Late Model Series made its first appearance atop the three-eighths-mile clay oval on Saturday.
Hughes battled past early leader Adam Schrag on the 11th round and led the remained of the 25-lapper for his fourth series win of the year.
While Hughes topped the late model forces, Clay Sellard added his second consecutive IMCA Modiifed win, Alex Wiens scored his first career DCRP win in IMCA Sport Modifieds, Mike Petersilie bested the IMCA Stock Cars and Reagan notched his third IMCA Hobby Stock win of the year.
In Sooner Late Model action, the night started off with Kip Hughes suffering engine problems in hot laps and missing out on heat race action.
“We hurt a brand new motor in hot laps, fortunately we had some spares with us and were able to get it changed out pretty quick,” Hughes explained.
Adam Schrag jumped into the early lead, but soon had Hughes pressuring him for the point. Hughes finally slipped under to take command on the 11th round and held point until the race’s only caution flew with ten laps to go when Schrag came to a stop on the track.
Back under way, Hughes paced the final ten rounds ahead of Adam Popp with Steven Hawkins outlasting Scott Phillips over the closing circuits for the show position and Mark Brill rounding out the top five.
In the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature, Bucklin’s Clay Sellard broke into the lead on the second lap and le the rest of the way to make it two in a row.
It wasn’t without challenge though, as reigning track champion Nick Link closed in and pulled alongside on the bottom on the 13th lap. Sellard was able to fend off the challenge and took Link’s line away to secure the win.
Link settled for second with current points leader William Nusser in third while Trent Gray nipped Ryan Heger at the line for fourth.
The 15-lap IMCA Sport Modified turned into a showdown between the Wiens brothers Alex and Kyle, both from Newton.
A. Wiens gunned into the initial lead from the pole position but soon had K. Wiens pressuring for the point. After some side-by-side battling along the way, A. Wiens prevailed for his first DCRP score with K. Wiens in second. Bart Baker crossed the stripe third with Mike Lunow and Brian May also in the top five.
A past IMCA Modified winner at DCRP, Hoisington’s Mike Petersilie outdueled Troy Burkhart to get his first 20-lap IMCA Stock Car win atop the 3/8-mile clay oval.
After Robbie Perkins and Donald Kaup traded tuns leading the initial handful of circuits, Burkhart battled into the lead with Petersilie moving in to challenge for the point.
The duo battled wheel-to-wheel for several round before Petersilie battled into the front on the 11th round. Petersilie kept Burkhart at bay the rest of the way to secure the win with Burkhart, Chris Oliver, Michael Pepper and Donald Kaup rounding out the top five.
Bucklin’s Reagan Sellard raced around Matt O’Hair on the 11th of 15 laps to pick off his third IMCA Hobby Stock feature win in the last four events.
O’Hair had wrestled the lead away from Dion Priddy on the fourth lap and then held off Sellard until the final handful of rounds. The two-time and defending track champion raced on to victory lane ahead of O’Hair with Priddy, Cody Ghumm and Brett Copeland rounding out the top five.
While current points leader R. Sellard padded his Hobby Stock points lead and William Nusser maintained his Modified points lead, a pair of points leaders ran into feature issues with both Angel Munoz (Stock Cars) and Jeff Kaup (Sport Modifieds) both exiting a lap into their respective features after being collected in incidents.