Brody Roa Rolls Into Central Arizona Raceway This Friday and Saturday

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Inland Rigging team driver Brody Roa heads to the Central Arizona Raceway this Friday and Saturday, March 3rd and 4th, as the point leader in the 24th season of USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series racing.  The veteran driver positioned himself at the top of the point heap after sweeping the season-opening main events at the Cocopah Speedway at the end of January. 

Roa, who hails from Garden Grove, California, is no stranger to the track that is located an hour south of Phoenix.  He has competed there multiple times over the years in 360 and 410 sprint cars.  His last 410 appearances came in 2019 when he won the series championship in the now-defunct USAC Southwest Sprint Car Series.  In three races that year, he had one second, a third, and a single fourth-place finish on the track.  In 360 action, Roa posted a win in Jayson May’s #8M in the inaugural CAS Sprint Car race at the track on September 6, 2020.

“Brad Whitfield has taken it over,” Roa said of the new Central Arizona Raceway promoter.  “He puts a lot of work into Cocopah and I know he will put a lot of work into Casa Grande.  I hope he doesn’t touch it too much because I think it gets really racy when it slicks off.  Especially three and four where it really starts crowning over the top.  It does not have a peak.  You have to have a lot of patience on the top to not get over it.  That is what I have always kind of liked about that place, three and four.

“One and two is really narrow and has a ton of banking,” Roa continued.  “You just kind of bury it in there. It has so much banking that it kind of sucks the car down onto the track.  Kind of like when we were running the wing car.  I think three and four is kind of the driver’s end of the place.  I hope he does not change much on that end of the racetrack.  It is so round and has so much banking, I am not sure if there is anywhere out here (California) that compares to it.”

Roa carries a 14-point lead into this weekend’s races and he is very pleased after his first two races in a DRC Chassis.  Before January, he had never driven a DRC.  The car and driver performed harmoniously with each other at Cocopah.  In addition to capturing the first place prize money for both main events there, he won each of his heat races. In qualifying, he was third fastest on night one and eighth quickest on the second evening.

“Nope,” Roa laughed when asked if he made any changes to the DRC Chassis in preparations for the Casa Grande track.  “We took it apart and changed engines.  We had to put the second engine in for this race.  That is the only thing we have changed.  We had some issues and we were really lucky to finish the way we did at Cocopah with the first engine.  Pretty big bummer for Tom and Christy (team owners Tom and Christy Dunkel) but at least we picked up the win.”

This weekend begins a very busy racing stretch for Roa.  All told, he will be racing eight times in 29 days.  After this week’s competition at Central Arizona, he will head to the Imperial Valley Raceway where he will be joined by teammate Tom Dunkel in a two-night open competition show on March 10th and 11th. One week later, he will head to Perris Auto Speedway for the annual Sokola Shootout.  The following week he will journey to Central California for a pair of races on the 24th and 25th.  The event on the 24th will be at Peter Murphy’s Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford.  The following night the team will make the short journey to the legendary Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.  The veteran racer will close five straight weekends of racing when he heads to Arizona’s Mohave Valley Raceway on April 1st for round six of the USAC/CRA Series.

“I like it for periods of time,” Roa responded when asked about a busy racing docket.  “The schedule though kind of gets too busy.  I like to be home with Addison (his two-year-old daughter) and Tailor (his wife) and now we have a second one coming.  Bringing the race team back home and putting it in my garage is going to be a lot of fun and good for the family.” 

After the January races at Cocopah, Roa, Tailor, and Addison flew to Florida for a vacation at Walt Disney World.  It was there in front of the Magic Kingdom that Addison announced she is going to be a big sister in July.

“The due date is July 27th on grandma’s birthday,” the beaming dad said.  “My wife’s family are huge Disney fans.  So we went and thought that would be a cool place to announce it.  We did it with a little pair of pink checkered shoes for a little racing touch.  We are very excited.”

For fans who would like to see Roa in person at the Central Arizona Raceway this Friday and Saturday, gates will open at 4:00 p.m. and racing will get underway at 6:00.  The track is located on the Pinal County Fairgrounds at 512 S Eleven Mile Corner Rd, Casa Grande, AZ (85194).  The office phone is (602) 292-7607.  For those who cannot make it to the track, both nights will be streamed live via pay-per-view on Speed Sport TV at the following link https://speedsport.tv/. 

As always, Roa would be more than happy to jump in a race car on his weekends off from the #17R. His entire schedule is printed below.  If anybody wishes to contact him about open dates, they can do so at 714-932-7994 or mailto:[email protected]    

The team wants to thank the following sponsors for making the 2023 season possible. Inland Rigging, Dunkel Farms, United Asset Sales, Osborne Speed & Machine, Sander Engineering, “Biker” Bruce Fischer, ALR Virtual Services, Burris Racing, Caltrol, Competition Suspension, K-1 Race Gear, Molecule, Rod End Supply, Driven Racing Oil, Baldwin Filters, and NGK Spark Plugs. 

BRP PR

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