fdodgFrom Lonnie Wheatley
DODGE CITY, Kan. (September 14, 2019) – Zach Blurton notched his third career Soderberg win by racing to victory lane in Saturday night’s 25-lap Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Car vs. United Rebel Sprint series that capped the night’s Seventh Annual Jerry Soderberg Memorial Championship event atop the 3/8-mile Dodge City Raceway Park clay oval.
While Blurton finished out the regular season with his first DCRP win of the year, other Soderberg winners included Clay Sellard in IMCA Modifieds, Blaine Walt in IMCA Sport Modifieds, Chris Oliver in IMCA Stock Cars and Tathan Burkhart in IMCA Hobby Stocks.
In the 25-lap DCRP Sprint Car vs. URSS feature event, Great Bend’s Zach Blurton made the most of his first outing aboard Jeff Stefonick’s J&K Trucking No. 11c Sprint Car. It was third Soderberg win and second in a row.
Blurton gunned into the lead from the pole position and led throughout to finish off his URSS championship campaign. Blurton kept Luke Cranston at bay all the way as Ness City native Cranston finished off his 2019 DCRP Sprint Car championship aboard the Myers-powered Mid-America Millwright No. 49x Schnee.
Behind the lead duo, several drivers held down the show position along the way including Ty Williams in the early going and then Taylor Velasquez briefly before Fairview, Oklahoma’s Jake Martens took command of the position at the midway point and held it the rest of the way.
In his first DCRP start since a grinding crash on May 4, Colorado’s Buddy Tubbs climbed from tenth to capture fourth with Jordan Knight rounding out the top five. Ray Seemann raced from 14th to sixth with Steven Richardson, Aric Sooter, J.D. Johnson and Jeremy Huish completing the top ten.
The feature event was interrupted twice by red flag stoppages. The first occurred when early contender Ty Williams got upside down after a dozen laps with the other flying two circuits later when Jed Werner got upside down in a melee that also eliminated Kade Hagans, Brian Herbert and Kris Moore.
Williams, Hagans and Cranston topped heat race action with Herbert wining the “B” Main.
In the 20-lap IMCA Modified main event, Bucklin’s Clay Sellard needed just a handful of laps to race from seventh into the lead en route to his fourth DCRP score of the year.
It was enough to eliminate William Nusser’s lead in the title chase as the Larned racer took the championship by 16 points over Sellard.
While Sellard cruised out front, Brendon Gemmill worked into second but was unable to mount a challenge. His father, Troy Gemmill, rallied from 14th to claim third with Brandon Conkwright and Daniel Gottschalk rounding out the top five.
The 20-lap IMCA Sport Modified feature resulted in another racer scoring his first DCRP win of 2019 as Collyer’s Blain Walt made what proved to be the race-winning pass as the white flag flew.
While Walt became the seventh Sport Modified winner of the season at DCRP, Woodward’s Jeff Kaup finished off his sixth track championship in seven years with a sixth-place finish.
After racing from the tail to win his heat race, Walt had his work cut out for him when he got collected in an opening round of the 20-lapper.
With Walt restating deep in the pack, Shannon Maughlin gunned into the lead from the front row outside and led the way for more than 18-and-a-half laps only to have Walt work by on the middle of the track exiting turn four with the white flag in sight.
Walt went on to take the checkered ahead of Maughlin with Mike Lunow, Kyle Wiens and Brian May in the top five.
Like Blurton in the Sprint Cars, Ulysses native Chris Oliver made it two Soderberg wins in a row by topping the 20-lap IMCA Stock Car feature and he had to make the race-winning move on two separate occasions.
After starting fifth, Oliver got to third as Troy Burkhart and Angel Munoz battled side-by-side for the lead. Oliver made a slick move into the lead on the bottom exiting turn four on the 13th round only to have the pass negated by a caution.
Oliver bounced right back, recapturing the lead on the 15th lap and then fending off the Bauer duo of Will and Dalton for the win. Lamar, Colorado’s Angel Munoz finished off his championship season with a fourth-place finish while Ondre Rexford rounded out the top five.
Hays’ Tathan Burkhart raced from eighth to capture his sixth IMCA Hobby Stock win in the 20-lap main event.
After Dion Priddy led the early circuits, Burkhart emerged from a five-car duel to take command a dozen laps and then held off Reagan Sellard to secure the win. Sellard earned his third consecutive track championship with the runner-up finish with Duane Wahrman, Matt O’Hair and Brian Stitch also among the top five.
After Sunday’s eighth and final round of Little DCRP action featuring Micro Sprint and Karts on the 1/7-mile clay oval that gets under way at 4:00 p.m., Dodge City Raceway Park wraps up the 2019 season with next weekend’s World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars “Boot Hill Showdown” atop the 3/8-mile clay oval on Friday and Saturday (September 20-21).
Dodge City Raceway Park – Seventh Annual Jerry Soderberg Memorial Championship Night
September 14, 2019 Results:
Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Cars vs. United Rebel Sprint Series (URSS):
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 911-Ty Williams, 2. 10-Jordan Knight, 3. 9d-Lance Davis, 4. 11c-Zach Blurton, 5. 0-Steven Richardson, 6. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 7. 98-J.D. Johnson, 8. 13-Alexander Ort, 9. 24-Cody Hays.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 17x-Kade Hagans, 2. 224-Aric Sooter, 3. 51r-Ross Essenburg, 4. 50-Jed Werner, 5. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 6. 97-Brian Herbert, 7. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 8. 1x-Cody Lampe, 9. 29-Dalton Webb.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 49x-Luke Cranston, 2. 48-Jake Martens, 3. 95-Buddy Tubbs, 4. 49-Kris Moore, 5. 72-Ray Seemann, 6. 11k-Tyler Knight, 7. 17-Todd Plemons, 8. 74v-Howard Van Dyke.
“B” Main (12 Laps): 1. 97-Brian Herbert, 2. 72-Ray Seemann, 3. 98-J.D. Johnson, 4. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 5. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 6. 51r-Ross Essenburg, 7. 11k-Tyler Knight, 8. 13-Alexander Ort, 9. 17-Todd Plemons, 10. 29-Dalton Webb, 11. 74v-Howard Van Dyke, 12. 24-Cody Hays, 13. 9d-Lance Davis, 14. 1x-Cody Lampe (DNS).
“A” Main (25 Laps): 1. 11c-Zach Blurton, 2. 49x-Luke Cranston, 3. 48-Jake Martens, 4. 95-Buddy Tubbs, 5. 10-Jordan Knight, 6. 72-Ray Seemann, 7. 0-Steven Richardson, 8. 224-Aric Sooter, 9. 98-J.D. Johnson, 10. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 11. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 12. 11k-Tyler Knight, 13. 13-Alexander Ort, 14. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 15. 17x-Kade Hagans, 16. 97-Brian Herbert, 17. 50-Jed Werner, 18.49-Kris Moore, 19. 911-Ty Williams, 20. 51r-Ross Essenburg.
IMCA Modifieds:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 66d-Dylan Sherfick, 2. 24c-Brandon Conkwright, 3. 27-Grant Florence, 4. 27n-Angel Munoz, 5. 721-Troy Gemmill, 6. 7s-David Solberg, 7. 3h-Ryan Heger, 8. 87-Rich Tegethoff, 9. K17-Ryan Keller.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 57-Joel Lane, 2. 1n-Nick Link, 3. 7n-William Nusser, 4. 88J-Jack Kirchoff, 5. 22T-Trent Gray, 6. 98-Danny Keller, 7. 3c-Casey Joe Gemmill, 8. D14-Derek Dechant, 9. 94-Jim Graves.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 85c-Clay Sellard, 2. G3-Brendon Gemmill, 3. 25-Tom Beavers, 4. 2L-Tracy Link, 5. 16-Kevin Gray, 6. 3d-Daniel Gottschalk, 7. 201-Nate Ginest, 8. 01-Jesse Smith.
“B” Main (12 Laps): 1. 3d-Daniel Gottschalk, 2. 721-Troy Gemmill, 3. 201-Nate Ginest, 4. 22T-Trent Gray, 5. 3h-Ryan Heger, 6. 16-Kevin Gray, 7. 01-Jesse Smith, 8. 7s-David Solberg, 9. 98-Danny Keller, 10. 94-Jim Graves, 11. 87-Rich Tegethoff, 12. K17-Ryan Keller, 13. D14-Derek Dechant, 14. 3c-Casey Jo Gemmill.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 85c-Clay Sellard, 2. G3-Brendon Gemmill, 3. 721-Troy Gemmill, 4. 24c-Brandon Conkwright, 5. 3d-Daniel Gottschalk, 6. 7n-William Nusser, 7. 66d-Dylan Sherfick, 8. 27n-Angel Munoz, 9. 201-Nate Ginest, 10. 25-Tom Beavers, 11. 01-Jesse Smith, 12. 16-Kevin Gray, 13. 3h-Ryan Heger, 14. 22T-Trent Gray, 15. 7s-David Solberg, 16. 57-Joel Lane, 17. 88J-Jack Kirchoff, 18. 1n-Nick Link, 19. 2L-Tracy Link, 20. 27-Grant Florence.
IMCA Sport Modifieds:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 14w-Blaine Walt, 2. 44-Mike Lunow, 3. 37-Bart Baker, 4. 9-Monty Nordyke, 5. 8-Brian May, 6. 10-Alex Wiens, 7. 28k-Ryan Kirchoff.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 17m-Shannon Maughlin, 2. 92-Jeff Kaup, 3. 01-Kent Lampe, 4. 18-Kyle Wiens, 5. 56m-Mike Appel, 6. 9jr-Brendyn Nordyke, 7. 22ss-Shay Simoneau.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 14w-Blaine Walt, 2. 17m-Shannon Maughlin, 3. 44-Mike Lunow, 4. 18-Kyle Wiens, 5. 8-Brian May, 6. 92-Jeff Kaup, 7. 9jr-Brendyn Nordyke, 8 18-Kyle Wiens, 9. 22ss-Shay SImoneau, 10. 28k-Ryan Kirchoff, 11. 56m-Mike Appel, 12. 01-Kent Lampe, 13. 37-Bart Baker, 14. 9-Monty Nordyke (DQ).
IMCA Stock Cars:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 2m-Angel Munoz, 2. 57-Dalton Bauer, 3. 16-Will Bauer, 4. 54p-Kyle Pfeifer 5. 89-Gregg Schell, 6. 20m-Perry Misner, 7. 11-Ron Rich, 8. 97x-Ondre Rexford.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 25x-Troy Burkhart, 2. 3-Chris Oliver, 3. 95-Tyler Tipton, 4. F0-Anthony Finch, 5. 22-Donald Kaup, 6. 33-Marlin Hogie, 7. 21-Josh Siebert, 8. 25p-Mike Petersilie.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 3-Chris Oliver, 2. 16-Will Bauer, 3. 57-Dalton Bauer, 4. 2m-Angel Munoz, 5. 97x-Ondre Rexford, 6. 25x-Troy Burkhart, 7. 20m-Perry Misner, 8. 11-Ron Rich, 9. 22-Donald Kaup, 10. 33-Marlin Hogie, 11. F0-Anthony Finch, 12. 21-Josh Siebert, 13. 54p-Kyle Pfeifer, 14. 89-Gregg Schell, 15. 95-Tyler Tipton, 16. 25p-Mike Petersilie.
IMCA Hobby Stocks:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 17w-Duane Wahrman, 2. 2m-Matt O’Hair, 3. 250-Tathan Burkhart, 4. 21-Brian Stitch, 5. 57-Chad Kelley, 6. 24b-Sheri Berger, 7. 5s-Derrick Sprott, 8. 83-Ryan Swinney.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 2s-Reagan Sellard, 2. D68-Dion Priddy, 3. 81-Skeets Salazar, 4. 18m-Austin Meis, 5. 7-Tom Reed, 6. 22-David Burrow, 7. 19-Brett Copeland.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 250-Tathan Burkhart, 2. 2s-Reagan Sellard, 3. 17w-Duane Wahrman, 4. 2m-Matt O’Hair, 5. 21-Brian Stitch, 6. D68-Dion Priddy, 7. 18m-Austin Meis, 8. 7-Tom Reed, 9. 57-Chad Kelley, 10. 24b-Sheri Berger, 11. 19-Brett Copeland, 12. 81-Skeets Salazar, 13. 5s-Derrick Sprott, 14. 83-Ryan Swinney (DNS), 15. 22x-David Burrow (DQ).