8.11.18 Sooner Late Models Results

By John Rittenoure – ENID, Okla. (August 11, 2018) – Winning races has not been a problem for Kip Hughes. But winning at home has.

Three times this season Hughes has come up short in Sooner Late Model Series races at his home track of Enid Speedway where he co-promotes with Mark Brill. However, Saturday nothing stood in his way and Hughes easily won his third Sooner Series victory of the season.

And it came at Enid Speedway.

“It has been a lot of work in the making, but it always good to win at home,” said Hughes afterwards.

In the seasons first race at Enid Hughes looked fast in his heat only to swap motors prior to the main event. On another night cut tires plagued the Enid resident. The third event at home last month was not much better. Hughes only finished ninth.

“Every night except for tonight we have broke some motors and had flat tires,” Hughes recalled. “We have changed some stuff in our motor program and we are real happy with it now. We finally kept one together tonight.”

Th 25-lap feature atop the high banked 3/8’s mile oval got underway with Eric Brill jumping into the early lead over Sloppy Hogg. However, the yellow quickly waved as Brill slammed into the wall entering turn three while racing with Hogg for the lead. Brill was not hurt, but he was unable to restart.

Hogg restarted with the lead, but it was short lived. Hughes was quick to challenge and passed Hogg for the lead on lap 3. Hughes pulled away from the field despite catching lapped traffic on lap 12. Hughes continued his pace winning by a straightaway margin over Brandon Givens.

Changes to the cars setup paid off for Hughes this time.

“Last weekend at Hutchinson we tried some stuff and we hit on something,” Hughes said. “It suits my driving style now and is so easy to drive now anyone could come out of the stands and drive this thing.”

Hughes felt the car could go anywhere on the track, but he never had to find out choosing to stay in the low groove throughout the race.

“I think I could have, but the bottom was so good I never got off of it.,” he said. “We are happy. Moving forward now I think we hit on something and can pick us off some more (wins).”

Hughes was using a crate motor and feels like that is the way to go in the future.

“They are a lot more drivable,” Hughes said. “They are real smooth. We can use a lot softer tire. They just run good. Our open motor cost around $46,000. The bill on this one is $3,500.

“I think this will be good things to come for the Sooner Series.”

After Hughes moved into the lead Hogg held onto second until lap 16 when Givens drove around. Late in the race Damain Patocka wheeled into third leaving Hogg with fourth Jeremy Bishop rounded out the top five.

In Sooner Modified action Tanner Mullens raced to his second straight victory at Enid Speedway. Mullens led from the opening green and pulled away from the field to win over hard charging Dustin Allen and series points leader Greg Burt.

Sooner Late Model Series

Enid Speedway, Enid, Okla.

August 11, 2018

Car count: 18

Heat 1 (10 laps)

1, 36-Jason Redman. 2, ZZ-Sloppy Hogg. 3, 10-4-Adam Popp. 4, 1-Eddie Tidwell. 5, 94-Wesley Kreckerberg. 6, 66-Hayden Ross.

Heat 2 (10 laps)

1, 4-Kip Hughes. 2, 03-Jeremy Bishop. 3, 2G-Brandon Givens. 4, 229-Damian Patocka. 5, 81-Mark Harrison. 6, 9G-Joseph Gorby.

Heat 3 (10 laps)

1, 65-Eric Brill. 2, 33-Steve Hawkins. 3, 77-Kyle Sweeney. 4, 15-Wayne Bush. 5, 57-Andy McElfresh. 6, 99-Cliff Morrow. (DNS).

A Feature (25 laps)

1, 4-Kip Hughes. 2, 2G-Brandon Givens. 3, 229-Damian Patocka. 4, ZZ-Sloppy Hogg. 5, 03-Jeremy Bishop. 6, 81-Mark Harrison. 7, 9G-Joseph Gorby. 8, 1-Eddie Tidwell. 9, 77-Kyle Sweeney. 10, 10-4-Adam Popp. 11, 33-Steve Hawkins. 12, 94-Wesley Kreckerberg. 13, 15-Wayne Bush. 14, 65-Eric Brill. 15, 66-Hayden Ross. DNS: 36-Jason Redman, 57-Andy McElfresh, 99-Cliff Morrow.

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Sooner Modified Series

Enid Speedway, Enid, Okla.

August 11, 2018

Heat 1 (8 laps)

1, 66-Greg Burt. 2, 23X-Logan Robertson. 3, 29-Dustin Choate. 4, 12G-Jeremy Green. 5, 4C-Zach Nickell. 6, 3-Logan Macy. 7, 23-Bryon Root.

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Heat 2 (8 laps)

1, 02-Tanner Mullen. 2, 7-Treyton Gann. 3, 7C-J.D. Choate. 4, 05-Milt David. 5,11-Dustin Allen. 6, 64-Jeremy Hamen.

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A Feature (20 laps)

1, 02-Tanner Mullen. 2, 11-Dustin Allen. 3, 66-Greg Burt. 4, 23X-Logan Robertson. 5, 7C-J.D. Choate. 6, 7-Treyton Gann. 7, 29-Dustin Choate. 8, 4C-Zach Nickell. 9, 23-Bryon Root. 10, 64-Jeremy Hamen. 11, 12G-Jeremy Green.12, 05-Milt David. 13, 3-Logan Macy.