ROA PREVAILS IN PHOTO FINISH AT KERN COUNTY
Bakersfield, California (April 29, 2023)………Brody Roa led early, and he led often on Saturday night at The Dirt Track at California’s Kern County Raceway Park.
However, Roa (Garden Grove, Calif.) earned every bit of his fourth AMSOIL USAC CRA Sprint Car victory of the season, clawing his way back into contention during the final five laps before beating Mitchel Moles to the stripe by a wheel, .026 seconds ahead in his Tom & Christy Dunkel/BR Performance No. 17R.
Initially, Jake Andreotti (Castro Valley, Calif.), who had won the USAC Western States Midget feature earlier in the evening, took control by crawling the bottom from his outside front row position to lead the first 13 laps.
However, his smooth cruise was anything but when 13th running Brent Owens (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) spun to a stop on the topside of turn one right in front of the lead pack. Without much room to maneuver, Andreotti tagged the idle Owens, damaging his front suspension and knocking him out of his bid for first career USAC CRA victory and into a 17th place finishing spot.
Sixth starting Roa had worked his way from sixth to second before the yellow and took over the lead from that point forward. However, Roa’s lead lasted only five more laps as Moles slid past Roa in turn one to snag the lead on lap 19. Simultaneously, hard charging Tommy Malcolm (Corona, Calif.) was able to slip underneath Roa to take over second.
Roa gathered himself up and steadily moved forward once more, taking back second from Malcolm on lap 23 before charging past Moles for the lead on the bottom of turns three and four on lap 26.
Seemingly with the race in hand at the moment, Roa’s lead evaporated during the last two circuits as Moles made a last-ditch effort in an attempt to secure his first USAC CRA win. As Roa went to the high line for the final two turns, Moles clung to the bottom and surged toward Roa. Roa, however, had just enough momentum off the high line to nip Moles by a narrow margin.
Moles came home second in the finishing order with Malcolm third, Charles Davis Jr. (Buckeye, Ariz.) fourth and Austin Williams (Yorba Linda, Calif.) fifth.
Brody Fuson (Bakersfield, Calif.) was the night’s Woodland Auto Display fastest qualifier. Cody Williams (Norco, Calif.) and A.J. Bender (San Diego, Calif.) scored heat race wins sponsored by FlowDynamics, Inc., In Memory of Jim & Chet Gardner, BillsJerky.net and WC Friend Company.
The triumph for Roa was the first of his USAC CRA career at Kern County pushed his point lead to a commanding 120 markers after winning four of the first seven series events to start the 2023 season.
Roa’s 17th career series win ranks fifth on the all-time USAC CRA Sprint Car win list, three behind 2007 series champion Tony Jones for fourth.
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AMSOIL USAC CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: April 29, 2023 – The Dirt Track at Kern County Raceway Park – Bakersfield, California
WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. Brody Fuson, 51, Van Meter-14.415; 2. Brody Roa, 17R, Dunkel/BR-14.628; 3. Mitchel Moles, 73, Ford-14.658; 4. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-14.786; 5. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-14.819; 6. Jake Andreotti, 8m, May-14.867; 7. Austin Williams, 2, Williams-14.913; 8. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-15.103; 9. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-15.128; 10. Verne Sweeney, 98, Guerrero-15.268; 11. Brent Owens, 71, Martin-15.311; 12. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-15.314; 13. Kyle Edwards, 39E, Edwards-15.356; 14. Dawson Faria, 12B, Faria-15.406; 15. Grant Sexton, 22, Sexton-15.413; 16. Hannah Mayhew, 43, Mayhew-15.865; 17. James Herrera, 5J, Herrera-15.963.
FLOWDYNAMICS INCORPORATED / IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cody Williams, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Charles Davis Jr., 4. Austin Williams, 5. Brody Fuson, 6. Kyle Edwards, 7. Grant Sexton, 8. James Herrera, 9. Brent Owens. NT
BILLSJERKY.NET / WC FRIEND COMPANY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. A.J. Bender, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Tommy Malcolm, 4. Brody Roa, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Dawson Faria, 7. Verne Sweeney, 8. Hannah Mayhew. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brody Roa (6), 2. Mitchel Moles (5), 3. Tommy Malcolm (4), 4. Charles Davis Jr. (3), 5. Austin Williams (1), 6. Logan Calderwood (8), 7. Brody Fuson (7), 8. A.J. Bender (12), 9. Dawson Faria (14), 10. Kyle Edwards (13), 11. Cody Williams (9), 12. Grant Sexton (15), 13. James Herrera (17), 14. Brent Owens (11), 15. Verne Sweeney (10), 16. Hannah Mayhew (16), 17. Jake Andreotti (2). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Jake Andreotti, Laps 14-18 Brody Roa, Laps 19-25 Mitchel Moles, Laps 26-30 Brody Roa.
IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER HARD CHARGER: Brody Roa (6th to 1st)
NEW AMSOIL USAC CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Brody Roa-544, 2-Cody Williams-434, 3-Austin Williams-422, 4-Tommy Malcolm-415, 5-Charles Davis Jr.-383, 6-Logan Calderwood-327, 7-R.J. Johnson-324, 8-A.J. Bender-322, 9-Chase Johnson-237, 10-Ricky Lewis-226.
NEXT AMSOIL USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: May 6, 2023 – Mohave Valley Raceway – Mohave Valley, Arizona
