Fayetteville Motor Speedway
Roffers pads Clash points lead at Fayetteville
By Thomas Pope
DirtonDirt.com correspondentFAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 20) — Luke Roffers of Concord, N.C., climbed one step closer to claiming his first Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series championship Saturday night at Fayetteville Motor Speedway, earning his fifth series victory of the season to take a 21-point lead into the tour’s season finale next weekend.
Roffers led every lap of Saturday’s 40-lap event, scoring $4,000 payday in topping two-time defending series champion Dennis Franklin of Gaffney, S.C. Hometown driver Scott Autry was third at the finish with Jeff Smith of Dallas, N.C., and Mike Gault of Gaffney, S.C., rounding out the race’s top five finishers.
The race took three attempts at a start to get going with Roffers getting tangled in a spin on each of the first two attempted starts. But he survived both incidents and jumped ahead of Franklin on the third start.
The victory continues Roffers’ push for redemption following last year’s late-season collapse in the series championship battle.
“It seemed like last year we couldn’t catch a break, but this year we’ve had some decent luck,” Roffers said. “We’ve been up front when we needed to be. We run races when we needed to. Just like tonight … turned around twice, and still come back to win the race, I think it says a lot about my guys. We’re focused on winning this deal.”
Franklin pressured Roffers at times during the event but couldn’t get a run strong enough to take the lead. He settled for second, crossing the finish line less than two car lengths behind Roffers.
“He actually had a better car than I did,” said Franklin, who entered the event fifth in the series standings. “It’s like when I’d run up on the back of him, my car wouldn’t turn in the bottom. It just wouldn’t steer at all, just like the air would come off the nose. I would have to come out of the gas or hit him right in the quarter-panel.”
The race was marred by an incident after the finish when Dean Bowen got into the back of Doug Sanders’ race car, causing Sanders to crash into the infield barriers and flip over. Sanders reported a sore right hand from the accident but was otherwise uninjured.
Notes: Roffers drives a Rocket Chassis with sponsorship from Wolf-Pack Racing, Cal-Les-2 Transport, Wayne Roffers Trucking, Chad Roffers Trucking, Roffers Wildlife Studio and Wisconsin Lock & Load. … The victory is Roffers 10th overall on the series. He eclipsed his mark of four wins from last season. … The Carolina Clash wraps up its season with a $4,000-to-win event Oct. 27 at 311 Motor Speedway in Madison, N.C.
Carolina Clash @ Fayetteville: (1) Luke Roffers, (2) Dennis Franklin, (3) Scott Autry, (4) Jeff Smith, (5) Mike Gault, (6) Ross Bailes, (7) Travis Yow, (8) Doug Sanders, (9) Dean Bowen, (10) Michael Marlow, (11) Craig Shuffield, (12) Gary Mabe, (13) Ricky Weeks, (14) Scott Shirey, (15) Dale Hammond, (16) Wayne Hughes, (17) Zack Mitchell, (18) Chuck Smith, (19) Johnny Pursley, (20) Dustin Mitchell, (21) Damon Kotke, (22) Timmy Carroll, (23) Mike Parker. Fast qualifier (among 23 entries): Franklin, 18.047 seconds.
