DODGE CITY, Kansas -- Shane Adams of Dodge City walked away from Dodge City Raceway Park with slightly heavier pockets Wednesday night as he took the top prize of $500 in the second annual Hornets Nationals.
Adams didn't have an easy time as Dodge City's Dion Trent and Jeff Taylor pretty much dominated the first half of the 25-lap feature.
On lap 13 everything changed when Trent and Taylor encountered lap traffic -- in addition to aggressively battling each other. The two tangled and found themselves off the track and out of the lead, allowing Adams to take control.
"They were getting aggressive. . .I saw it coming and I just -- once I saw those two side by side I just kind of backed off and went up high. I'm like that's all I could do," Adams said. "I was real worried, though. We started lapping people and I'm like somebody's gonna spin and mess me up, so I just backed off and kinda stood up there a ways. I looked in my rearview mirror and the second (place) guy was a ways back and I'm like 'I'll just take it easy," Adams said of holding down the lead.
In addition to Adams taking home the big prize, Dodge City's Trevor Roth captured second while Ben Gordon, of Cimarron, took third.
In the Super Hornets, Brian "The Shark" Shirley, Dodge City, won the 25-lap feature in impressive fashion.
Shirley ran away with it until, in the waning laps of the race, Dodge City's Bill Taylor spun out of control forcing a red flag and forcing the field to close up next to Shirley. That didn't seem to matter as upon the restart Shirley was off and running only to never look back.
"The car ran really good. A couple, three weeks ago it quit working very well. Made some tire changes -- kinda changed things around. It started working good. I won last week and the car worked good. It worked good enough I didn't even unload it this week to work on it. I just left it on the trailer how I raced it last week. The only thing to do was put gas in it -- that's kind of the neat part about this class, you don't have to work on them as much as you do the other classes," Shirley said.
Shirley encourages anyone wanting to put together a hornet car to do so."I'd like to see more cars in it, and there will be. It's a fun class. Even though we don't get any pay, it doesn't cost anything to race. They give us a pit pass to get in next week, therefore it's not like you're kicking any money out. It's not a bad deal," Shirley went on to say.
Shirley also said it's not hard to find a hornet car. He said there are quite a few four-cylinder cars in the papers for less than $300 and you can usually have those up and race-ready in a couple of days.
Rounding out the Super Hornets winners were Mike Padget of Dodge City who placed second and Bob Bailey, Dodge City, who ran third.
Padget was a busy man as he pulled double-duty racing appearing in the Thunder Car Nationals as well. Padget, who won the 10-lap heat race, found himself and fellow DCRP Thunder veteran, Justin Weil of Dodge City, starting in back as the field was inverted.
Padget and Weil worked their way through the field and left the other participants in the dust. The two battled each other until on lap 13, of the 15-lap feature, Weil bumped Padget to take the lead. Padget never recovered, later spinning out in turn four and wound up in fifth position.
Weil never relinquished his position and found his way to the winner's circle and paydirt. "It was tough coming up through the field. Mike Padget was extremely hard to get around. It was a race until the end of the race. The whole time I thought I could hear him behind me. I knew he was there, but it turned out for the best," Weil said of the win.
"In the heat I started in the back row and came up through the field and ended up second. Couldn't get around Mike. Then in the feature they inverted the field which put me in the back again and Mike got in front of me early. I thought it was over then, but we managed to reel him up and come through traffic and get it done," Weil went on to say.
Weil said he enjoys the Thunder class saying these cars are just a larger version of the hornet cars. "Basically a thunder car is a big hornet. It is a stock car. You can't do anything to the suspension, you can't do anything to the motors -- they're stock motors. And basically you have to put a four-post cage in it . . . The cars are a real cheap class. They're just about as expensive as a hornet -- just a little bit more maintenance," Weil said.
Weil said the Thunder class is a fun class to be involved in and knows he wouldn't be in the winner's circle without his sponsors and the assistance of his pit crew. In addition to the Hornets and Thunder Cars, DCRP played host to the karts.
The 5hp Junior Kart Division saw Tyler Knight of Wright avenge last Saturday's loss to Alex Wessel, Dodge City. Knight finished first as Wessel was relegated to second. Tommy Wessel, also of Dodge City, came in third.
In 100cc Karts, it was Ric Marboeuf, Dodge City, who took the checkered flag from Jesus Huizar.
It would seem the Blue Wazoom Division is same song, different verse as the Stasa brothers from Kingman finished one and two. This week it was Patrick who took the top prize and Jeff finished second. Dodge Citian Michael Houdeshell finished third.
Racing resumes July 13 with the usual lineup of modifieds, stocks, hornets and trucks. Children interested should bring their bicycles for the bicycle races to be held at intermission. For more info log on at www.DodgeCityRaceway.com.
