Traugott Stampedes Again at DCRP as Williams, Sproul, Munoz & Wahrman Also Post Wins
DODGE CITY, Kan. (May 6, 2017) – Cole Traugott continues to hold the hot hand in IMCA Modifieds at Dodge City Raceway Park, rallying from the fourth row to take the $1,200 winner’s share in Saturday night’s Fifth Annual Modified Stampede atop the 3/8-mile clay oval.
While the Woodward racer notched his second Modified Stampede win in a row and his eighth win in his last eight visits, Ty Williams drove to his second Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Car win in a row, Dakota Sproul and Angel Munoz both scored last-lap thrillers in the IMCA Sport Modifieds and IMCA Stock Cars, respectively, and Duane Wahrman took IMCA Hobby Stock honors.
In the 30-lap Modified Stampede, Traugott took advantage of a pair of cautions in the opening half of the race to maneuver into the lead for keeps aboard the Ramirez Motorsports No. 9 entry.
“If it weren’t for the cautions, I’m not sure if I would have found it,” Traugott said in victory lane. “That middle lane cleaned up some and I guess I was the first one to find it. This car was working perfect.”
While Traugott managed to climb from eighth to fourth in the opening handful of laps, the chances of continuing his DCRP domination seemed slim as he trailed the lead duo of Randy Wilson and Clay Sellard by a full straightaway and third-runner Austin Walker by a half-straight.
But when the first caution flew after 11 laps for a turn two spin, Traugott pounced on Walker for third and gave chase to the lead duo.
A second and final caution flew four rounds later, with Traugott once again taking advantage by battling past Sellard on the high side on the 16thround and then working his way around Wilson for the lead on the 17th lap.
Traugott stretched it out over the ensuing rounds, with Sellard working his way past Wilson for second by the 22nd round. Traugott was too far gone though, taking the checkered flag nearly a half straightaway ahead of Sellard with Wilson settling for third. Austin Walker took fourth with David Murray working his way up from tenth to round out the top five.
Cautions played a role in the 20-lap Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Car feature with Arcadia, Oklahoma’s Ty Williams leading all the way to post his second win in a row aboard the Myers Racing Engines No. 911.
In this case, however, cautions kept Williams in clean air and out of traffic.
“It’s good when you keep seeing traffic in front of you, that means you’re going good,” Williams said. “You’ve gotta keep it straight as an arrow on a track like this, I just kept hoping nobody would rail around on the high side.”
Redrawing the pole position, Williams outgunned Tracey Hill for the lead at the outset and paced the early circuits. Hill closed in and was poised to challenge for the point, only to spin from contention in turn two on the eighth round.
Williams was in command ahead of Zach Blurton and Taylor Velasquez the rest of the way, with Blurton moving in to mount a charge as traffic began to factor in over the closing laps.
With Blurton on Williams tail tank as the white flag flew, Hill and Lance Davis tangled directly in front of the leaders exiting turn two with further disaster narrowly averted.
Williams stretched it out on the green-white-checkered restart to secure the win ahead of Blurton with Velasquez getting a reprieve on a lap 12 caution to secure the third position ahead of Kris Moore. Brian Herbert rounded out the top five.
The 20-lap IMCA Sport Modified feature came down to a thrilling final two laps with Ellis, KS, racer putting the topside to good use to race past Brian Davidson to snare the win.
With Sproul working forward from 11th, Davidson raced past early leader Dan Rogers on the seventh circuit but soon had company in the form of Jeffrey Abbey. Abbey worked past Davidson momentarily on the 16th lap only to lose power moments later to precipitate the race’s first caution.
Davidson denied a Kevin Tabor bid on the restart but had a three-car swarm of Tabor, Sproul, and three-time track champ Jeff Kaup on his heels on a 19th lap restart.
Two-wide racing prevailed with Sproul surging ahead on the final circuit while Kaup worked the high side as well to capture second. After losing the lead in the closing laps during the season opener, Davidson fell from the lead to third on the final lap with Tabor in fourth as Rogers rounded out the top five.
The 20-lap IMCA Stock Car feature offered up an equally enthralling finish with Angel Munoz slipping underneath Michael Pepper in the final pair of corners to snare his second win in a row.
Starting third and fifth, Pepper and Munoz broke away from the field in one-two fashion in the opening handful of laps with Jason Rogers working into third soon after.
The non-stop race was on between two-time and reigning champ Pepper and Colorado hot shoe Munoz. Munoz put on the pressure as the laps progressed and then pounced as Pepper gambled on the high side of a lapped car in the final two turns.
Munoz slipped by on the low side to take the win ahead of Pepper with Rogers, Ron Hartman, and Dusty Witthuhn rounding out the top five.
The IMCA Hobby Stocks offered up a first-time track winner with Duane Wahrman scoring the win in the 15-lapper.
Wahrman raced by early leader Brett Copeland on the seventh round and then fought off challenges from Reagan Sellard over the closing rounds to secure the win. Sellard crossed the stripe second with Cody Williams and Bryan Habiger both rallying from early incidents to capture third and fourth. Tyler Walker rounded out the top five.
Action continues at Dodge City Raceway Park with Lewis Automotive and Military Appreciation night on Sunday, May 28, featuring championship chase action for the Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars and IMCA Hobby Stocks. All military personnel and dependents will be admitted free.
Dodge City Raceway Park
May 6, 2017, Results:
IMCA Modifieds – Fifth Annual Dodge City Modified Stampede:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 85c-Clay Sellard, 2. 1n-Nick Link, 3. 21-Jeremy Chambers, 4. 3c-Dale Wanger, 5. 7s-David Solberg, 6. 44-Mike Lunow, 7. 22T-Trent Gray, 8. 7n-William Nusser, 9. 01-Jesse Smith.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 97m-David Murray, 2. 16-Kevin Gray, 3. A2-Randy Wilson, 4. 24b-Chris Bragg, 5. 71-Jessie Hoskins, 6. K98-Danny Keller, 7. 26-Tom Beavers, 8. 06-Chad Taylor. DNS: 2L-Tracy Link.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 9-Cole Traugott, 2. 3h-Ryan Heger, 3. 7x-Chris Dawson, 4. 44T-Tanner Black, 5. 88J-Jack Kirchoff, 6. 75-Randle McRoberts, 7. 25-Kale Beavers, 8. 36-Travis Simmons.
“B” Main (12 Laps): 1. 44-Mike Lunow, 2. 7s-David Solberg, 3. 26-Tom Beavers, 4. 88j-Jack Kirchoff, 5. 22T-Trent Gray, 6. 25-Kale Beavers, 7. 71-Jessie Hoskins, 8. 36-Travis Simmons, 9. 06-Chad Taylor, 10. 7n-William Nusser, 11. 75-Randle McRoberts, 12. K98-Danny Keller, 13. 01-Jesse Smith. DNS: 2L-Tracy Link.
“A” Main (30 Laps): 1. 9-Cole Traugott, 2. 85c-Clay Sellard, 3. A2-Randy Wilson, 4. 44T-Tanner Black, 5. 97m-David Murray, 6. 1n-Nick Link, 7. 24b-Chris Bragg, 8. 3h-Ryan Heger, 9. 3c-Dale Wanger, 10. 16-Kevin Gray, 11. 21-Jeremy Chambers, 12. 22T-Trent Gray, 13. 44-Mike Lunow, 14. 26-Tom Beavers, 15. 88j-Jack Kirchoff, 16. 25-Kale Beavers, 17. 71-Jessie Hoskins, 18. 7x-Chris Dawson, 19. 7s-David Solberg.
Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Cars:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 97-Brian Herbert, 2. 2J-Zach Blurton, 3. 11k-Tyler Knight, 4. 17x-Craig Jecha, 5. 51r-Ross Essenberg, 6. 9d-Lance Davis, 7. 3-Ryan Walters.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 28-Tracey Hill, 2. 49-Kris Moore, 3. 72-Ray Seemann, 4. 49x-Mike Peters, 5. 0-Steven Richardson, 6. 10-Jordan Knight, 7. 8-Justin Pack.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 2. 33-Koby Walters, 3. 911-Ty Williams, 4. 8J-Brandy Jones, 5. 18-Brandon Sprott. DNS: 11-Keefe Hemel.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 911-Ty Williams, 2. 2j-Zach Blurton, 3. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 4. 49-Kris Moore, 5. 97-Brian Herbert, 6. 33-Koby Walters, 7. 0-Steven Richardson, 8. 72-Ray Seemann, 9. 8j-Brandy Jones, 10. 11k-Tyler Knight, 11. 51r-Ross Essenberg, 12. 10-Jordan Knight, 13. 9d-Lance Davis, 14. 11-Keefe Hemel, 15. 18-Brandon Sprott, 16. 17x-Craig Jecha, 17. 28-Tracey Hill, 18. 3-Ryan Walters, 19. 49x-Mike Peters, 20. 8-Justin Pack.
IMCA Sport Modifieds:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 12-Bobby Bills, 2. 22r-Dan Rogers, 3. 40-Cody Pancake, 4. 18-Kyle Wiens, 5. 21m-Joey Maupin, 6. 57-Tanner Brunson, 7. 62-Marvin Ward.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 37-Jeffrey Abbey, 2. 7-Jarett Lunow, 3. 55b-Brian Davidson, 4. 24T-Tyler Bragg, 5. 10T-Toby Witthuhn, 6. 65-Kohl Ricke. DNS: 7jc-Jeremy Couse.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 92-Jeff Kaup, 2. 56m-Mike Appel, 3. 08-Dakota Sproul, 4. 8-Brian May, 5. 10-Alex Wiens, 6. 29-Skyler Wissman, 7. 12h-Drew Hill.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 08-Dakota Sproul, 2. 92-Jeff Kaup, 3. 55b-Brian Davidson, 4. 12-Kevin Tabor, 5. 22r-Dan Rogers, 6. 56m-Mike Appel, 7. 40-Cody Pancake, 8. 10-Alex Wiens, 9. 7-Jarett Lunow, 10. 12h-Drew Hill, 11. 18-Kyle Wiens, 12. 65-Kohl Ricke, 13. 21m-Joey Maupin, 14. 62-Marvin Ward, 15. 24T-Tyler Bragg, 16. 37-Jeffrey Abbey, 17. 57-Tanner Brunson, 18. 10T-Toby Witthuhn, 19. 8-Brian May, 20. 29-Skyler Wissman.
IMCA Stock Cars:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 37-Jason Rogers, 2. 10-Dusty Witthuhn, 3. 52T-Travis Baird, 4. 3k-Michael Smith, 5. 28-Jack Pepper, 6. 101-Troy Smith, 7. 57-Brady Bauer, 8. 17m-Shannon Maughlin.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 2m-Angel Munoz, 2. 22-Michael Pepper, 3. 55h-Ron Hartman, 4. 89-Gregg Schell, 5. 16b-William Bauer, 6. 97x-Ondre Rexford, 7. 33-Marlin Hogie, 8. 52-Larry Baird, 9. 26T-Travis McLemore.
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 2m-Angel Munoz, 2. 22-Michael Pepper, 3. 37-Jason Rogers, 4. 55h-Ron Hartman, 5. 10-Dusty Witthuhn, 6. 52T-Travis Baird, 7. 89-Gregg Schell, 8. 3k-Michael Smith, 9. 28-Jack Pepper, 10. 16b-William Bauer, 11. 57-Brady Bauer, 12. 97x-Ondre Rexford, 13. 101-Troy Smith, 14. 52-Larry Baird, 15. 33-Marlin Hogie. DNS: 17m-Shannon Maughlin, 26T-Travis McLemore.
IMCA Hobby Stocks:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 17w-Duane Wahrman, 2. 2m-Matt O’Hair, 3. 2-Jason Cleveland, 4. 99-Gerald Walker, 5. 19-Brett Copeland, 6. 22-Donald Kaup, 7. 81d-Mike Davis, 8. 12x-Norman Rogers. DNS: 44b-Kenny Rabe.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 77-Cody Williams, 2. 007-Bryan Habiger, 3. 2s-Reagan Sellard, 4. 55-Jacob Huse, 5. 20-Tyler Walker, 6. 69-Danny Schulte, 7. 7-Tom Reed, 8. 40J-Josh Hrabe, 9. 3-Brian Thomas.
“A” Main (15 Laps): 1. 17w-Duane Wahrman, 2. 2s-Reagan Sellard, 3. 77-Cody Williams, 4. 007-Bryan Habiger, 5. 20-Tyler Walker, 6. 69-Danny Schulte, 7. 19-Brett Copeland, 8. 99-Gerald Walker, 9. 81d-Mike Davis, 10. 55-Jacob Huse, 11. 22-Donald Kaup, 12. 40J-Josh Hrabe, 13. 2m-Matt O’Hair, 14. 2-Jason Cleveland, 15. 3-Brian Thomas. DNS: 7-Tom Reed, 12x-Norman Rogers, 44b-Kenny Rabe.
Sources: Lonnie Wheatley/Dodge City Raceway Park PR