By Lonnie Wheatley
DODGE CITY, Kan. (Aug. 15) – Monty Nordyke scored his first Dodge City Raceway Park win in the Prelude to the IMCA SportMod Mayhem while Dakota Sproul continued his recent run of IMCA Modified supremacy by racing to his third consecutive DCRP triumph Saturday night.
In the 20-lap Prelude to next weekend’s SportMod Mayhem, Nordyke capitalized on Luke Stallbaumer’s mechanical woes and then held off son Brendyn over the closing rounds for his first DCRP score.
Nordyke became the race’s fourth different leader when he battled past Bart Baker on a lap 14 restart that followed a caution for Stallbaumer’s disabled mount on the backstretch. After Dan Rogers led the opening round, Stallbaumer had battled past Baker for the point on the eighth circuit only to suffer race-ending driveline issues seven laps shy of the checkered flag.
With Monty Nordyke taking command, Brendyn Nordyke tried to steal his thunder only to fall two car-lengths short at the stripe with Baker, Mike Lunow and Rogers rounding out the top five.
In the 20-lap IMCA Modified main event, Sproul rallied from the ninth starting position to take the lead away from Nick Link on the eighth lap en route to a straightaway triumph over Clay Sellard, who worked past Link in the closing rounds for runner-up honors.
A runner-up finisher on three occasions already this season, Chris Oliver broke into victory lane for the first time of the DCRP season by topping the 15-lap IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature.
Duane Wahrman added his second IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock win of the season by racing to the checkered flag in the 15-lap main event.