By Lonnie Wheatley
DODGE CITY, Kan. (June 15) – The Lubbock Wrecker Service DCRP 305 Sprint Car Nationals turned out to be a lucrative venture for Arvada, Colo.’s Jake Bubak.
After topping both Thursday and Friday preliminary features, Bubak topped the Triple 8 Trucking Dash for Cash to earn the pole position for Saturday night’s 30-lap championship feature atop the Dodge City Raceway Park clay oval.
He then led every lap to run his weekend winnings to $6,300 including $1,500 in lap money and the $3,000 feature winner’s share.
It wasn’t as easy as it may sound, though, as Jason Martin kept the pressure on throughout and briefly slid past Bubak on a pair of occasions only to have the latter successfully counter the move.
Martin first slid past Bubak in turn four momentarily after a lap four restart and then repeated the move in traffic on the 17th circuit. Bubak successfully navigated past a pair of lapped cars and found open track once again when a final caution with a dozen laps remaining.
Bubak reached the tail of the field once again in the final pair of laps but was able to keep Martin at bay.
“I felt like I wasn’t as good as I needed to be in traffic, but we made it work,” Bubak commented afterward. “Once he showed me the bottom down in turn three and four, I changed my line up some and got a lot better.”
Martin settled for runner-up honors and collected an added $850 in lap money after holding down the second position over final 27 rounds.
After winning last year’s DCRP 305 Nationals, Jake Martens claimed the show position with Tony Bruce Jr. advancing four positions over the final half of the race to capture fourth. Brian Herbert rounded out the top five.
The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car weekend was co-sanctioned by Precise Racing Products DCRP Sprint Cars, the United Rebel Sprint Series and Sprint Series of Oklahoma.
Feature results – 1. Jake Bubak; 2. Jason Martin; 3. Jake Martens; 4. Tony Bruce Jr.; 5. Brian Herbert; 6. Taylor Velasquez; 7. Zach Blurton; 8. Jeremy Huish; 9. Luke Cranston; 10. Brandon Anderson; 11. Steven Richardson; 12. Ty Williams; 13. Tracey Hill; 14. David Luckie; 15. Ray Seemann; 16. Tanner Conn; 17. Steven Shebester; 18. J.D. Johnson; 19. Monty Ferriera; 20. Andy Shouse; 21. Chris Kelley; 22. Brett Becker.