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Sides Swipes Boothill Showdown Opener at DCRP

“It’s been a long time,” were the first words Jason Sides uttered after winning Friday night’s World of Outlaws Sprint Car series “Boothill Showdown” opener at Dodge City Raceway Park.

That pretty well summed it up for the Bartlett, TN, racer after capturing his first series victory since 2012.

While Sides took top World of Outlaws honors, Jason Lunow wired the field for his first IMCA Sport Modified win of the year and Minnesota’s Dexter Dvergsten made a late move to capture Colorado Lightning Sprints glory.

The $10,000 triumph aboard the Wetherington Tractor Service/King Racing Products No. 7s machine was a hard earned one to boot, with Sides slipping around Donny Schatz on the 14th round then denying several strong challenges from the red-hot Schatz over the balance of the frantically-paced non-stop 30-lapper.

“I love this place, I love racing here,” Sides said of the Dodge City Raceway Park clay oval where he also won in 2011 and fell just inches short of another triumph in 2013.

With Sides gridding the feature field fifth, David Gravel and Jason Johnson led the way to the green flag with “The Ragin’ Cajun” gunning into the early lead in just his second start since returning from an early season injury.

Johnson paced the early rounds with Schatz going to work early on trying to get out front. With Johnson up top, Schatz kept looking to the low side and made it work with a pass for the lead in turns one and two on the seventh round.

A 19th win of the year for Schatz would be no “gimme” though, with traffic making it a challenge for the frontrunners.

Mired behind a pair of cars, Johnson tried to recapture the lead with Sides joining in on the lead mix.

Traffic worked to Sides’ favor when he took second from Johnson on the 12th lap and then two laps later, Sides made his way past Schatz as well.

Schatz didn’t just go away though. When Sides stumbled once in traffic on the 18th circuit, Schatz fell just short of capitalizing. Sides slipped away briefly over the next handful of rounds, but with the laps winding down Schatz made one last charge and was within just three car-lengths with a handful of laps to go.

But when Sides skillfully cleared a pair of lapped cars on the 27th round to establish some breathing room, it was game over.

And the dry spell was over as well.

“It’s been a couple years now,” Sides explained. “We’re just out here having a pretty fun time most of the time, it just shows that you have to keep plugging away it at.”

Schatz settled for runner-up honors with Joey Saldana making a late move around Daryn Pittman to capture the show position nearly a straightaway behind the lead duo. Saldana netted Hard Charger honors after starting ninth.

Pittman, who swept last year’s “Boothill Showdown” and has topped three of four previous event features, settled for fourth with Jason Johnson rounding out the top five. The balance of the top ten included Kerry Madsen, Brad Sweet, Logan Schuchart, Paul McMahan and Steve Kinser.

Steve Kinser, Madsen and Johnson topped heat race action after Logan Schuchart set a quick time of 12.708 seconds in qualifying.

In IMCA Sport Modified action, home town shoe Jason Lunow led all the way to become the seventh different winner in as many events this season.

Lunow weathered three cautions in the opening half of the 20-lapper then fended off Bart Baker over the closing rounds to secure the win. Josh Appel chased the lead duo to the stripe in third with current points leader Jeff Kaup and Brian May rounding out the top five.

With the Colorado Lightning Sprints joining in on the “Boothill Showdown” for the second consecutive year, Dexter Dvergsten made the 1,000 mile trek from Greenbush, MN, worthwhile by making a late move around Bobby Layne to win the 20-lap feature.

While Dvergsten started from the pole position, fellow front row starter Layne gunned into the lead at the outset and set the pace ahead of Troy Ullery, who slipped by Dvergsten on the opening round.

Layne had things under control until Ullery moved in to challenge as the laps wound down. Ullery pulled to the inside to challenge with just four laps to go, only to spin in turn two after the lead duo made contact.

Back up to second after the caution, Dvergsten took quick advantage when Layne pushed exiting turn four on the 17th round. Dvergsten paced the final four circuits to take the win ahead of Wally Butler and Skyler Wissman as Layne slipped back to fourth. Rick Hench rallied from the 18th starting position to round out the top five.

Round two of the World of Outlaws “Boothill Showdown” takes place Saturday night at Dodge City Raceway Park along with a full card of IMCA Sport Modifieds and Colorado Lightning Sprints.

Dodge City Raceway Park – July 3 “Boothill Showdown” Results:

World of Outlaws Sprint Cars:

Qualifying - 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 12.708; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.733; 3. 9-Daryn Pittman, 12.751; 4. 7S-Jason Sides, 12.761; 5. 7-David Gravel, 12.782; 6. 71M-Joey Saldana, 12.851; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 12.886; 8. 49-Brad Sweet, 12.917; 9. 41-Jason Johnson, 12.963; 10. 11-Steve Kinser, 12.971; 11. 29-Kerry Madsen, 12.992; 12. 2-Shane Stewart, 12.997; 13. 1A-Jacob Allen, 13.032; 14. 51-Paul McMahan, 13.035; 15. 1X-Don Droud Jr, 13.155; 16. 31B-Kevin Swindell, 13.243; 17. 1J-Danny Jennings, 13.308; 18. O5-Brad Loyet, 13.482; 19. 17-Mikey Kuemper, 13.836; 20. 51A-Andy Anderson, 14.013; 21. 97-Brian Herbert, 14.158

Heat 1 - (8 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) - 1. 11-Steve Kinser [1]; 2. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2]; 3. 7S-Jason Sides [3]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [4]; 5. 31B-Kevin Swindell [6]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [5]; 7. 17-Mikey Kuemper [7]

Heat 2 - (8 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) - 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [1]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [2]; 4. 51-Paul McMahan [5]; 5. 7-David Gravel [3]; 6. 1J-Danny Jennings [6]; 7. 51A-Andy Anderson [7]

Heat 3 - (8 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) - 1. 41-Jason Johnson [2]; 2. 2-Shane Stewart [1]; 3. 9-Daryn Pittman [4]; 4. 71M-Joey Saldana [3]; 5. O5-Brad Loyet [6]; 6. 1X-Don Droud Jr [5]; 7. 97-Brian Herbert [7]

Dash - (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 8 starting positions of A-feature) - 1. 7-David Gravel [2]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson [1]; 3. 9-Daryn Pittman [4]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [5]; 5. 7S-Jason Sides [3]; 6. 11-Steve Kinser [7]; 7. 29-Kerry Madsen [8]; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart [6]

A-Main - (30 Laps) - 1. 7S-Jason Sides [5] [$10,000]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [4] [$5,000]; 3. 71M-Joey Saldana [9] [$3,000]; 4. 9-Daryn Pittman [3] [$2,700]; 5. 41-Jason Johnson [2] [$2,500]; 6. 29-Kerry Madsen [7] [$2,200]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet [11] [$2,000]; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart [8] [$1,800]; 9. 51-Paul McMahan [14] [$1,600]; 10. 11-Steve Kinser [6] [$1,450]; 11. 2-Shane Stewart [12] [$1,300]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [10] [$1,200]; 13. 7-David Gravel [1] [$1,100]; 14. O5-Brad Loyet [18] [$1,000]; 15. 31B-Kevin Swindell [16] [$950]; 16. 1X-Don Droud Jr [15] [$900]; 17. 1A-Jacob Allen [13] [$850]; 18. 1J-Danny Jennings [17] [$750]; 19. 51A-Andy Anderson [20] [$725]; 20. 17-Mikey Kuemper [19] [$700]; 21. 97-Brian Herbert [21] [$700].

Lap Leaders: Jason Johnson 1-6, Donny Schatz 7-13, Jason Sides 14-30.

IMCA Sport Modifieds:

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 33k-Jason Lunow, 2. 8-Brian May, 3. 12-Kevin Tabor, 4. 40d-Steven Dent, 5. 55d-Don Strecker, 6. 00-Rick Julian, 7. 56m-Mike Appel.

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 37-Bart Baker, 2. 7j-Jamie French, 3. 92-Jeff Kaup, 4. 42-Alan Brewster, 5. 3s-Adam Stenzel, 6. 21j-Jeremy Sigler, 7. 3r-Garrett Roach.

Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 81T-Tristen Barton, 2. 22r-Dan Rogers, 3. 65j-Josh Appel, 4. 18-Kyle Wiens, 5. 5r-Kaleb Roach, 6. 11r-Eric Pfeifer, 7. 25c-Darren Coyle.

“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 33k-Jason Lunow, 2. 37-Bart Baker, 3. 65j-Josh Appel, 4. 92-Jeff Kaup, 5. 8-Brian May, 6. 56m-Mike Appel, 7. 22r-Dan Rogers, 8. 5r-Kaleb Roach, 9. 21j-Jeremy Sigler, 10. 18-Kyle Wiens, 11. 3r-Garrett Roach, 12. 3s-Adam Stenzel, 13. 40d-Steven Dent, 14. 55d-Don Strecker, 15. 25c-Darren Coyle, 16. 7j-Jamie French, 17. 12-Kevin Tabor, 18. 11r-Eric Pfeifer, 19. 81t-Tristen Barton, 20. 00-Rick Julian, 21. 42-Alan Brewster.

Colorado Lightning Sprints:

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 13T-Alan Truscinski, 2. 7-Scott Wilson, 3. 11c-Glenn Waterland, 4. 69-Paul Babich, 5. 30-Scott Heikes, 6. 3-Richard Marchbank, 7. 9f-Andy Flood, 8. 01x-Darren Hillberg, 9. 25-Michael Retromer.

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 1T-Troy Ullery, 2. 35w-Wally Butler, 3. 01-Bobby Layne, 4. 11-Dexter Dvergsten, 5. 2-Blaine Schubarth, 6. 60e-Mark Billings, 7. 7L-Deneen LeTurgez, 8. 1L-Don Johnson.

Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 31-Steve Becker, 2. 24b-Johnny Boos, 3. 88-Rick Davis, 4. 29-Skyler Wissman, 5. 2r-Roland Bernard, 6. 1-Rick Hench, 7. 10-Alex Truscinski, 8. 23-Cullen Potoker.

“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 11-Dexter Dvergsten, 2. 35w-Wally Butler, 3. 29-Skyler Wissman, 4. 01-Bobby Layne, 5. 1-Rick Hench, 6. 7-Scott Wilson, 7. 69-Paul Babich, 8. 31-Steve Becker, 9. 24b-Johnny Boos, 10. 2r-Roland Bernard, 11. 11c-Glenn Waterland, 12. 2-Blaine Schubarth, 13. 88-Rick Davis, 14. 30-Scott Heikes, 15. 10-Alex Truscinski, 16. 9f-Andy Flood, 17. 7L-Deneen LeTurgez, 18. 1T-Troy Ullery, 19. 1L-Don Johnson, 20. 13T-Alan Truscinski, 21. 3-Ricahrd Marchbank, 22. 60e-Mark Billings, 23. 23-Cullen Potoker, 24. 01x-Darren Hillberg, 25. 25-Michael Retromer.

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