Jody Kropp Scores Clean Sweep In Memory Of Derek Dowson

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- WISSOTA dirt modified veteran Jody Kropp was a regular on the Montana Dirt Late Model Tour in 2004, but has been without a ride in 2005. When John Dowson found himself busy getting his daughter settled into college, he asked friend Kropp to wheel his dirt late model in the tour event at Electric City Speedway on Saturday night. Kropp ended up drawing the pole position for the heat action, winning that and then again drawing the pole for the feature race. Kropp was a wire to wire $600 winner in the feature run to finish off his perfect night. Fellow racer Jim Zaremski, the winner the previous weekend, had renumbered his car to #40 to honor the memory of Dowson's son Derek, who had been killed in an accident. Derek wore #40 as a high school player. After a sixth place heat finish, Dave Freeman battled to second in the feature to cut Rock Degele's point lead down to ten tallies. Degele was third in the feature ahead of fifth ranked Kelly Hample.

There was a nine car WISSOTA dirt late model turnout. Kropp and Belgrade's Bob Scott had the front row for the heat race, but Rich Herman drove to the bottom to get around both Scott and Hample, moving to second behind Kropp. A yellow for a spun Ron Fuller allowed Degele to close on the two leaders, but he settled for a third place finish behind Kropp and Herman. Zaremski was fourth ahead of Hample. The redraw for the feature lineup put Kropp and Herman on the front row. Herman fall back to fifth early in the action as Kropp, Hample and Freeman battled out front. A late race spin again tightened the field up to leader Kropp, but he stayed out front for the win. Freeman ran second ahead of Degele. Zaremski had a last lap incident that dropped him to last as Hample ran fourth ahead of Herman, Fuller, Scott and Rory Minster.

An earlier rain out will be made up at Gallatin Speedway on Sept 2nd. That will be the final point night for the tour as the three track's September specials will not carry points. The Govenor's Cup runs on Sept 3 at Billings, the Summer Nationals run in Belgrade on Sept 9 and the annual Montana Roundup has it's two night slot in Great Falls on Sept 23-24. The Governor's Cup is actually a two night show in Billings, but the late models are only part of the Saturday slate.

Summary Heat-Jody Kropp, Rich Herman, Rock Degele, Jim Zaremski, Kelly Hample. Main-Kropp, Dave Freeman, Degele, Hample, Herman, Ron Fuller, Bob Scott, Rory Minster, Jim Zaremski.