DODGE CITY, Kan. – The Jake Bubak run of domination at Dodge City Raceway Park’s Lubbock Wrecker Service DCRP Sprint Car Nationals finally came to a halt on Friday night.
But it wasn’t by much, and wasn’t even by who it may have appeared to have been.
Zach Blurton was awarded the win in Friday night’s 25-lap preliminary feature at the Fourth Annual Lubbock Wrecker Service DCRP Sprint Car Nationals after the mount of apparent winner John Carney II failed to pass post-race technical inspection.
It puts Blurton in position to potentially become the first Kansas racer to win the event, after previous winners have hailed from Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Blurton earned a position in Saturday night’s Hambelton Racing Pole Dash that will set the first three rows of the 30-lap, $3,000-to-win finale along with Thursday night winner Bubak, Jason Martin, Taylor Velasquez, Jordan Knight and Jeremy Huish.
With Bubak riding a wave of four consecutive DCRP Nationals feature wins including a sweep of last year’s three nights of competition and then Thursday night’s preliminary win, Bubak had to race from the 10th starting position of Friday night’s feature event as Oklahoma’s Blake Scott led the opening circuit from the front row outside.
Carney II raced into the lead entering turn one on the second round and led the rest of the way, but it was all for naught.
The battle behind him was intense and proved critical, with Scott fending off Blurton and Chase Randall in the early rounds as Bubak made his way into the top five by the fifth round.
With Scott still leading what proved to be the lead battle through traffic, Randall raced past Blurton on the seventh lap and then Bubak demoted Blurton by another position on the 14th round, just a lap before a caution came for Kris Moore’s slowing mount.
Blurton’s machine came to life on the lap 15 restart, disposing of Bubak, Randall and then Scott in the next two circuits before checking out on the scrum for position aboard the Myers-powered J&K Trucking No. 11 Maxim en route to a DCRP feature win for a fourth consecutive year.
With Scott, Randall, Bubak and the surging Jason Martin swapping positions repeatedly over the closing rounds, Bubak picked up runner-up honors in the Coyote Candle No. 11, with Texas young gun Randall filling out the podium in third.
After decimating the field in the second B-main, Martin sliced through the field from 18th to capture fourth in the Myers-powered Trucks Plus/Speedway Motors No. 5x EMI, with Blake Scott rounding out the top five.
Taylor Velasquez was sixth in the final rundown, with Jordan Knight in seventh as Steven Richardson nearly matched Martin’s rally through the field with a charge from 21st to eighth. Jake Martens was ninth and Vance Wofford completed the top 10.
Blake Scott, Cody Lampe, Tyler Knight, Taylor Velasquez and Chase Randall topped heat race action for the 40-car field with Ray Seemann and Jason Martin victorious in the 12-lap B-mains.
Aside from Moore’s car slowing past the midway point, the caution flew only other time in the feature when Monty Ferriera’s race ended before it got started when he got into the turn three wall and finally stopped in turn four with race-ending damage.
Heat two was marred by a grinding crash in the night’s second heat in which Jody Reeves and Cody Hill flipped along the front straightaway and into turn one. Hill was transported for observation and later released, while Reeves walked away from the crash unharmed.
Troy Bynum and Mike Roach split victory honors in the opening portion of the seventh annual IMCA Sport Modified Mayhem North vs. South Duel by topping the 15-lap qualifying races.
Bynum led all the way in the first one to take the win ahead of Jeff Kaup with James Lott fending off Brendyn Nordyke for the third and final lock-in to Saturday’s $1,500-to-win, 30-lap feature event.
Roach raced to the stripe in the second qualifier ahead of Brandon Kenny and Luke Stallbaumer.
The fourth annual Lubbock Wrecker Service DCRP 305 Sprint Car Nationals and seventh annual IMCA Sport Modified Mayhem North vs. South Duel wraps up with Saturday’s championship slate of events that get under way at 7:30 p.m.
The Kansas Antique Racers will be in action again as well.
The finish:
1. 11-Zach Blurton (3), 2. 74b-Jake Bubak (10), 3. 9-Chase Randall, 4. 5x-Jason Martin (18), 5. 29s-Blake Scott (2), 6. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (6), 7. 10-Jordan Knight (12), 8. 0-Steven Richardson (21), 9. 17x-Jake Martens (11), 10. 116-Vance Wofford (14), 11. 1x-Cody Lampe (7), 12. 51r-Ross Essenburg (5), 13. 72-Ray Seemann (17), 14. 56-Chris Douglas (19), 15. 45d-David Luckie (20), 16. 11k-Tyler Knight (9), 17. 97-Brian Herbert (15), 18. 49-Kris Moore (8), 19. 88J-Jeremy Huish (13), 20. 33-Koby Walters (16), 21. 45-Monty Ferreria (24). DQ: 11x-John Carney II.