Inland Rigging Drivers Roa and Dunkel Offer Double Trouble for Western World Competitors - Speedway Digest

Much to the chagrin of the competition, the Inland Rigging Racing Team is sending three cars to this weekend’s Western World Championships at Arizona’s Cocopah Speedway. Two 410 sprint cars will be at the disposal of USAC/CRA point leader Brody Roa. In addition to the 410s, the team is bringing a 360 for Roa’s teammate Tommy Dunkel to contest the ASCS portion of the show. Both of the drivers will be competing each night on the lightning-quick Arizona oval.

Roa, who is in the midst of a dream season where he has won more than 50% (winning 8 of the first 15 races) of the USAC/CRA races, comes into the weekend with a commanding 127-point lead with only three races remaining in the 2023 campaign. After this weekend’s programs, the series will wrap up next Saturday, November 11^th, at Perris Auto Speedway. A good performance at Cocopah will literally wrap up Roa’s second 410 sprint car championship. In 2019 he finished on top of the heap in the now defunct USAC Southwest Series standings. That was an 18-race series that saw all but five of the races staged in the “Grand Canyon State.”

For the second year in a row, Cocopah Speedway was the launch pad for the USAC/CRA Sprint Car season. On the last weekend in January, the stars of the series descended on the Southwest Arizona track. In his first two appearances driving for Tommy and Christy Dunkel’s Inland Rigging team, Garden Grove, California star Roa won both main events. That catapulted him into a lead that he has not relinquished for the past nine months.

Before the main event at this year’s Cocopah season opener, Roa qualified third fastest and placed fourth in his heat before capturing the main event. Twenty-four hours later, he was the eighth fastest qualifier and won his heat race before dramatically taking the lead on the next to last lap for his second win of the weekend.

Roa made five starts at Cocopah in 2022. The first three came in January when he placed fourth, fifth, and sixth in three nights of racing. On his second trip to the track near Yuma for the 2022 Western World, things did not go as well as planned for the “Pride of Garden Grove” when he placed 15^th in each main event.

For Dunkel, who has excelled in his first full sprint car season, it will be his first time racing at Cocopah and his initial outing with the American Sprint Car Series. The friendly driver has contested a majority of his races this season in a 360. His three best outings came at the Ventura Raceway where he won the main event on April 8^th. He then posted second-place finishes on the same beachside oval on July 8^th and August 2^nd.

When the series heads back to Cocopah in 2024, Dunkel will be in a 410 and running for the USAC/CRA Rookie of the Year award. Thus far in 2023, the Menifee, California businessman has started three USAC/CRA races. He finished 14^th and 11^th in the first two. His best finish was an eighth at Perris Auto Speedway on July 15^th. He can start one more main event in the series this season and still be eligible for next year’s Rookie of the Year award. That will probably happen next week at the series finale at Perris Auto Speedway.

If you would like to see the Inland Rigging drivers and their immaculate sprint cars in action at this Friday and Saturday’s Western World Championships in person, gates at the Cocopah Speedway will open at 4:00 p.m. with racing at 6:00. Reserved seats are $35.00 and general admission is $25.00. Students 13-17 are $15.00. Kids 12 and under get in for free. The track is located at 3450 W County 15^th Streets in Somerton, Arizona (85360). The track website is racecocopahspeedway.com and the office phone number is (602) 292-7607. For those who cannot make it to the Arizona speed plant, the race will be shown live on Speed Sport TV. Ordering or more information is available at https://speedsport.tv/videos/30446.

After next week’s race at Perris, the Inland Rigging drivers will conclude their 2023 season in the sprint car portion of the 82^nd Annual Turkey Night Grand Prix at Jim Naylor’s Ventura Raceway on November 24^th and 25^th.

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

Inland Rigging PR