Tyler Roahrig made his return to Outlaw Super Late Model racing one for the memory bank on Friday night at Kalamazoo Speedway. A total of 19 Outlaws unloaded at Kzoo for the annual spring showdown for the wedge bodied warriors. Roahrig, who took a stint away from Outlaws to focus on a USAC Silver Crown effort, came back to Kzoo with four Intimidator 100 wins in his pocket, and an eye on a fifth.
Mark Shook, who Roahrig says has been the driver to beat in OSLM competition in recent years, appeared to again be in contention for another marquee Outlaw win after being fastest in both rounds of afternoon practice. Roahrig, though, turned up the heat in Qualifying getting fast time by nearly a tenth of a second over Shook with a time of 12.482 seconds. The work was hardly done for Roahrig with Kalamazoo's traditionally big inverts, Friday was no exception. With a baseline invert of 6, Roahrig's dice roll of 12 set up an 18-car invert for the 100-lap contest giving Jacob Maynard and Marty Crawford the front row.
A good start for Roahrig put him on cruise control at the beginning of the race moving up five spots early before getting shuffled to the outside and falling back again. Then, a multi-car pile-up at the exit of turn four changed the entire complexion of the race for Roahrig who says he had the accident missed but was run into from behind and pushed into the wall forcing him to head down pit lane.
Roahrig made two trips to the pits to repair his No.24 machine and then set back on a course to the front. As Roahrig made his way to the front, he got the break he needed when a caution flew near the halfway point. A near-40 lap battle for the lead ensued between himself and Mark Shook, which nearly saw Roahrig take the lead on lap 61 before a caution reset the field and that battle once again. The duo battled for another 20 laps before he took the lead for good with 19 laps to go.
“We restarted and the next thing I know we were in second behind Shook. Mark’s been the best Outlaw car around the last two years or whatever. It was a really hard, clean race with him like it always is, I have a ton of respect for him and his team. It’s fun to race hard and clean with someone who’s as high caliber of a driver as Mark is. I had to work really hard to get around him, it wasn’t easy by any means.”
Roahrig ran just two Outlaw Super Late Model races in 2023 before making the decision to park the car in June to focus on his open-wheel duties. He plans on making more starts with the Outlaw as the season progresses, as his 500 Sprint Car Tour and USAC Silver Crown schedules allow.
“It was really fun to get back in this thing. It’s been almost a year since I’ve gotten to run this car. You always hear through the grapevine different stuff, people wrote us off or whatever, but this car is nine years old. I knew it could still run good, I changed quite a bit on it over the winter and try to update it a little and it seems like it worked out, so I’m happy with it.”
Intimidator 100 Results:
Tyler Roahrig
Steve Needles
Adam Terry
Phil Bozell
TK Whitman
Matt Frazier
Monte Tolan
Mark Shook
Doug True
Trever McCoy
Jacob Maynard
Jeff Ganus
Mark Nienhouse
Lane Head
Blake Childers
Brian Bergakker
Bubba Brooks
Buddy Head
Marty Crawford
Story - Zach Hiser/Koty Geyer
Photo - Koty Geyer