New Egypt Speedway Mud Hop Results July 19, 2014

Gareis Jr, Dunn, Somodi and Doescher among Winners at New Egypt Saturday Night

This is one school bus kids in the stands were probably happy to see over summer vacation

By: Bill Romba

New Egypt Speedway is known as a hub for local dirt track racing action every Saturday night during the summer. But this past weekend, the familiar names of Pauch, Godown and Blewett were replaced with names like George Gareis Jr, Justin Dunn, Greg Doescher and Tony Somodi as the track played host to a mud hop, demolition derby and 4-Cylinder Enduro race.

As the fans began to make their way to the grandstands, the event kicked off with the four demo derby drivers taking to the front stretch. Cody Mount, Anthony Brookshire (also known as Captain Crash), Gareis Jr and Steven Curlis Jr took to beating and banging and once the dust cleared, Gareis, who had one of the smallest cars in the event, was the only car left standing after taking out the rest of the competition.

After Gareis collected his trophy and the forklift collected the three dead cars from in front of the flag stand, the main event began behind victory lane. In what looked like any 5-year-old boy’s wildest dream, eight different classes of large, loud trucks lined up to see who could drive through a giant mud hole the fastest, slinging mud and getting all kinds of dirty along the way.

The first class to run was class number three and after nine trucks made passes through the mud it was Doescher who emerged victorious with a time of 61.777 seconds, beating out “Chad” and “Hippie Steve”, who were second and third respectively. Doescher was also the only driver in class to emerge from the other side of the hole and record a time, as the other eight trucks got stuck and had to have their distance recorded. Later on in the evening, Doescher won in the class four and class two competitions. He also made it all the way through the hole in those classes as well, living up to his nickname, Greg “the Bull” Doescher.

The other standout from New Egypt’s second mud hop of the year was Tony Somodi, who took the win in both class five and class one competition at the end of the night. Somodi beat out Chuck Flesh by two feet with a distance of 161 feet in class five. Not long after, he won class one with a distance of 174.3 feet, beating second place Wally Backman (no, not the New York Mets second baseman) and third place Kenny Wickham.

The ATV class also provided some excitement for the the close to 800 fans in attendance and saw a girl beat out the three boys in the class. Liz Marsh took the win with a distance of 115.2 feet, barely edging out second place Sean Green who was stopped at 114.10 feet.

Once the trucks left the infield, the Enduro cars took the track to close out the night with a 25 lap race. Justin Dunn started on the pole in his black number 69, with Robby Dunn starting outside in the black 51 car. The front row managed to survive the carnage that took place behind them and finish where they started, with Justin beating Robby by a straightaway. John Webster’s 43-W finished third, but not after having to battle Paul Hartwig for the position.

So after an eventful night filled with small cars and big trucks, its back to racing next Saturday night July 26th. New Egypt Speedway will return to its regular format next week with their annual Powder Puff/Bike Night sponsored by National Parts Supply and featuring the 358 Modifieds, Sportsman, and Street Stocks taking to the track.