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BRODY ROA SURPRISED MANY IN RETURN TO HIS OWN CAR AT SANTA MARIA

2024-09-06 19:50

(Cypress, CA, September 4, 2024) In what was a surprise to everyone from the fans in the grandstands to the other drivers in the pit area, Brody Roa showed up in his own #91R when Inland Rigging presented the Ultimate Sprint Car Series "Race For Chase" last Sunday night at the Santa Maria Speedway. It was the first time the veteran driver was on the track in his familiar green race car since the final event of the 2022 season.

Last year, Roa won the USAC/CRA championship in the Tom and Kristy Dunkel Inland Rigging #17R. The car was a combined effort using Roa's chassis, the same one he drove at Santa Maria and engines supplied by Dunkel. At Sunday's race, the car was powered by an engine that the Garden Grove, California racing star purchased out of Pennsylvania.

When the bright green #91R rolled onto the track on Sunday at Santa Maria, it was met with excitement from the fans. While it was a surprise to them, it was not a spur-of-the-moment deal. In fact, the friendly driver had been working on it all year.

"I kind of picked away at it all year," Roa said about putting his own deal back on the track. "I slowly pieced it back together. Getting it painted and stuff. We didn't have an engine the whole time. The engine finally showed up in the middle of July."

While the engine arrived over a month and a half ago, the veteran driver continued to take his time getting everything together. The fact of the matter is he did not even plan on racing last weekend. From the start of the year, August 31st was marked as an off day on his schedule. That was also the day that there was a conflict between the USAC/CRA and USCS schedules. USAC/CRA was slated to be at Kern and USCS was scheduled at Santa Maria. That conflict is what opened the door for Roa to get the #91R on the track.

"I had August 31st marked off my schedule all year as not racing that night," Roa explained. "Malyssa (USCS president Malyssa Perkins) rescheduled Santa Maria for September 1st. Jayson (Jayson May owner of the #8M Roa has been driving) obviously wanted somebody in the car for Kern. That is his home track and all of his sponsors are right there. So, Jake Andreotti ran the #8M car the whole weekend and we decided to put my car together to race at Santa Maria."

The biggest obstacle in getting his program up and running was not a minor detail. Roa did not have an engine! He went on the hunt and found it in the sprint car hotbed of Pennsylvania.

"It is an old Dash 12 some guy in Pennsylvania had," Roa said of his new engine. "He did all of the machine work on it and assembled it. He had Kreitz dyno it, and it looks good on the dyno sheet. It runs pretty good. I was really pleased with how it ran Sunday. It was pretty strong for a Dash 12. They are older engines and not as big a hitter as what we had the past 12 years or so with some All-Pros from Shaver. It was kind of back to the first engine I had when I started 410 racing. They are kind of soft and super drivable. You can just stand on the throttle and worry about turning the steering wheel."

Last Sunday at the track where he has had the most success in his career, Roa qualified second fastest in his eight-car group with a time of 13.890. That was the seventh fastest of the 26 cars that showed up to race at the 60-year-old speed plant. He followed that up by going from his fourth-place starting spot to finishing third in his 10-lap heat.

For the 30-lap main on the track that was anything but smooth as a baby's behind or a pool table on the night, Roa began in the 11th position. The wily veteran momentarily raced up to fifth. However, things unraveled after that.

"We had some decent speed," Roa recalled. "We ran third in our heat race and we were not the fastest in our group. With the format, running third in our heat started us pretty far back in the main."

"There was just kind of one strip of moisture and grip in the racetrack," Roa continued. "In that strip it was really rough and it was really hard to get by guys. I had a really good restart in the middle of the race and I was fifth or maybe sixth. Got by a couple of guys I was stuck behind most of the race and then the caution came out on the same lap. They got put back in front of us."

Not long after the race restarted, Roa tangled with another car in turn three and flipped toward the turn four crash wall, ending his night.

"I think a lapped car that was a couple cars ahead of me got woahed up in the corner and everybody checked up," he said of the end of his race. "I just didn't get her woahed up in time. I haven't even taken it out of the trailer yet. Looking at it in the pits after the races it looks like it is just front end damage. Some radius rods, a couple shocks, and a Jacob's ladder at this point. All the cheap stuff. I said that (cheap stuff) with air quotes. I don't think it was really a big hit. Watching the video it almost looked like it spun like a top on the top of the car. Hopefully, the chassis is okay and we will put her back together."

While the race did not end the way he hoped, Roa did achieve a goal he set out to when he put the car together. The night was all about family.

"It was really just my family," Roa said of the crew that was there for the night. "Had my dad, uncle, mom, wife, and daughters. That was the gang. I wanted to have the family deal together one more time. That was the whole point of getting the gang back together and doing it for fun."

Roa is off the next couple of weeks but will return to action on September 21st when the USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series returns to its home track, the "Southern California Home of Major League Sprint Car Racing," Perris Auto Speedway. The racing veteran has a lot of advertising space available on the car and is seeking marketing partners for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. If interested, use the contact information at the top of this release.

"Yeah, every little contribution helps," Roa stated when asked if he would like to add some sponsors. "I don't know how much we will race it, and when we will race it. After crashing Sunday night, that cost a lot of money. We are always looking for somebody to jump on board. We have blank sides of the hood, so there is plenty of room."

Roa would like to thank his sponsors, "Biker" Bruce Fischer, ALR Virtual Services, Burris Racing, Caltrol, Competition Suspension, Simpson Race Gear, Rod End Supply, Driven Racing Oil, Baldwin Filters, and NGK Spark Plugs. If you would like to be a marketing partner in 2024, contact Roa using the information at the top of this release.

@roygamityanauctioneer @burris_racing_usa @mikeburrisoc @csishocks @theoriginalloosebruce @alrvirtualservices @simpsonracegear @moleculesports @rodendsupply @baldwinfilters @ngkracing @originalngksparkplugs @usacnation @usac_cra @perrisautospeedway @b_roa91 @tai_xoxo_roa @joegibb83, @caltrolinc @narc410 @drivenracingoil

Brody Roa's 2024 Racing Results

03/16/24 Perris Auto Speedway USAC/CRA Sprint Cars 4th A Main

03/23/24 Cocopah Speedway USAC/CRA Sprint Cars DNS - Broke

04/06/24 Mohave Valley Raceway USAC/CRA Sprint Cars DNS - Broke

04/20/24 Bakersfield Speedway USCS Sprint Cars 1st A Main

04/27/24 Perris Auto Speedway USAC/CRA Sprint Cars 8th A Main

05/04/24 Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway USCS Sprint Cars Rained Out

05/18/24 Bakersfield Speedway USCS Sprint Car Series 1st A Main

05/25/24 Perris Auto Speedway USAC/CRA Sprint Cars 3rd A Main

09/01/24 Santa Maria Speedway Ultimate Sprint Cars 17th A Main

This release was produced by Scott Daloisio Sports (909) 226-7768 mailto:sdaloisiosports@gmail.com