Caution flags waved early and often at Dodge City Raceway Park Saturday, as a slick track meant face time with the wall for some drivers and trouble passing for all.
Dodge City resident Brian Herbert grabbed his seventh Harley Davidson Sprint Series feature win of the year in a dramatic finale that saw Herbert and Taylor Velasquez weave through lapped traffic in a battle for the win. The sprint feature was a relatively clean race, with only two early cautions.
Jerry Caldwell took the pole in the 25-lap feature and Dodge's John Colbert started from the outside of row one to begin the race, but starting positions were inconsequential Saturday, as drivers diced through traffic all night long.
Fowler's Ritchie Dewell took the lead on lap two and built healthy leads after cautions from Brandon Fisher of Ensign on lap six and Van Kuhn on lap seven. Fisher's high-flying wreck between turns two and three almost exactly mirrored his nightmarish tumble during the World of Outlaws weekend in June.
Dewell's engine left him toward the middle of the race, and he floated back toward the pack and ended with a fourth place finish in the feature.
Velasquez cut his way through the crowd and moved up to second on lap 10, and Herbert quickly followed up to third on lap 12. As lapped traffic came into play, Herbert flew to the lead at turn four on the 12th lap, and he and Velasquez had their sights set on the checkered flag.
Velasquez fought hard, slicing in and out of slower-moving rides and passed Herbert up high to take the lead back with five laps to go. Herbert, not to be denied, took it back with three to go. Velasquez got stuck up high (where drivers had done most of their passing all evening because the meat of the track had been slick all night) behind slower cars, which allowed Herbert to slide by on the low side.
Herbert kept the lead for the final three laps. Velasquez, Tyler Knight, Dewell and Keefe Hemel rounded out the top five.
"That's where I get most guys, in lapped traffic and on restarts," Herbert said after the race. "My hat's off to [Velasquez]. He just got stuck up high and that was it. He deserved to win."
Herbert remains the leader in the United Rebel Sprint Series points chase with 474 after Saturday's race. Taylor Milton remains in second after a vicious flip-job around turn three in heat races, and Mike Woodruff keeps his third place position after his car flipped in heat races as well.
Woodruff was not in the car, however. Kirk Reinert was driving for Woodruff, who was on vacation.
Stock cars
For the second week in a row, the United Wireless IMCA stock cars gave fans all they bargained for in their feature race as well. The 15-lap main race saw Fowler's Keith Riley take the pole with Charlie Delay on the outside of row one.
However, Cole Wilson of Dodge City and Parker Leighty jockeyed for the lead in laps two and three. A Robin Bailey spinout on lap three meant the lead for Leighty on the restart.
Dodge's Bart Baker slid into third after the restart and diced up the leaders with nine laps left to take the lead. The battle for second between Wilson and Leighty heated up, and the two traded spots as well as paint until, with seven to go, Wilson finally took control and passed Leighty for good.
A Mike Warta explosion firmed up the field on a single-file restart with five laps left. After Eric Venard tagged a cone on the inside of the track and brought it into play with three left, another caution gave Wilson and Leighty a chance to get back in front.
Baker, who won last week's stock feature, set the pace all night, and his lead was never in serious jeopardy. He won the feature, with Wilson, Leighty, Delay and Daniel Grund rounding out the top five finishers.
To say that the IMCA Monster Modified feature did not disappoint would be an understatement. Butch Leiker from Garden City sat on the pole, and Mike Lunow was outside on row one to start.
The 22-car field was thinned by early cautions as the mods tangled on the slick DCRP surface. Lunow separated himself from the field after two early cautions, but on lap nine, he spun between turns one and two for another caution and went to the back of the field.
Two more cautions on laps 10 and 12 saw Leiker with the lead, followed by Great Bend's Scott Brown and Randy Wilson. Wilson moved into second briefly, but Brown took the position back by (again by passing on the high side) with five laps to go.
He inched closer and closer to Leiker until, right before the final lap, Brown whizzed by Leiker on the near straightaway and took the checkered flag. Dale Wanger, Wilson and Lunow rounded out the top five.
The NAPA Thundercars rumbled into their feature with a short field, and it got even shorter as the six-lap feature wore on. Only 15-year-old Dalton Bauer and Ty Foskuhl finished the race (in that order) after Josh Bonwell started the race on the pole.
Cody Lampe won the Hornets feature as the imports tore up the asphalt, but only after leader Dave Guinn, the pole-sitter, was spun out by Andrew Adams of Texas. Marissa Jackson took second.
The junior sprint lawn-mower series feature started the evening. Kade Hagens took the eight-lap race, with Jordan Knight, Cassidy Velasquez, Zak Moore and Payton Churchill rounding out the top five.
Dodge City Raceway Park will light up again Aug. 9 for Dodge City Appreciation Night.
DODGE CITY —
