Roger Manning Claims Second Modified Win of the Season at Bridgeport Motorsports Park

Roger Manning led green to checkered, negotiated a half dozen restarts, and held off a final lap charge by Sam Martz Jr. to take his second win of the season at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.

Roger took the early lead by nearly 2 seconds on the field until lap 10 when a hard charging Billy Osmon closed the gap and raced Manning side by side until lap 15 when a broken shock brought out a caution and sent Osmon to pits.  In the final fifteen laps, Roger held off a spirited charge from Sam Martz Jr to take his 2^nd modified win of his career by a .22 margin of victory and become the first modified driver at Bridgeport this season to post two wins.

The Manning family starting racing at Bridgeport in 1985 when Roger’s dad Don Manning raced in modified until 1997.  Roger’s first time ever in a race car was on June 25, 2016, on the 5/8 with a sportsman motor.  Roger’s last win was on June 24, 2017, with a sportsman motor on the old 5/8 track.

After a move to modified in 2018 Roger’s next win & first modified win would be seven years later followed by his second modified only four races later.   There has been a whole lot of changes over the years from sportsman motors to big block and finally 358 spec motors with many different cars and paint schemes, but his home and primary track has always remained at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.

The year’s leading up to Roger’s first modified win were challenging both on and off the track as Roger reflected “We had the whole big block to spec thing going on for a while and then COVID hit the 2020 season and that was pretty much that.  2021 pretty much went down to a bicep tear injury while weight training, but I did get on track for the final three races of the season.”

“I got back on track for the majority of the 2022 season and raced a full 15 race schedule. I ended the season with the pan hard bar breaking and sending me hard into the wall resulting in a thumb injury.  The 2023 season was really limited due to the thumb injury early in the season and then arm injury returned limiting us to only two races in 2023.”

“That brings us to 2024 which has turned out to be our best season ever.  We have had a very good car and been very competitive right from opening day this year just dealing with some breakage and bad racing luck between our two wins.  After the seven years we spent to get to our next win, and then to get our second win 4 weeks later, this all seems unbelievable considering we did it with two completely different motors.”

“The one thing we have been battling all season long this year is our engine overheating, and it has caused us to abort what would have been some pretty good early season feature runs.  I knew going into the night of the first win that if I could keep the motor cool and could stay clean, we had a chance to win from the pole.”

“We had a comfortable lead of around 3 seconds over 2^nd place Mike Franz for the first 14 laps but then Billy Pauch Jr and Dillon Steuer arrived, and things got real tight right through to the checkered flag.  Billy and Dillon were all over my bumper for the final 15 laps.  In addition, I had the challenge of 6 restarts with these guys during this race. I’m usually pretty good with restarts because dad always taught me that good restarts have got to be part of your package to be successful.  The car handled perfectly all day, and the cautions actually helped me out since the car was running hot and I was able to drop the motor temperature during the caution laps.  I race with Billy Jr almost every week and to hold him off for 15 laps was a real accomplishment for sure.  It was amazing to be in victory lane again after seven years.”

“In are next three races we came back down to earth with our racing luck and mechanical failures. In the very next race after our first win, we got in a tangle and wrecked out early in the feature.  The next race two races were the twin 20’s and that’s when we broke our Leindecker motor in hot laps and was a DNS in both features.  I felt a vibration and pulled off and later we later discovered the number 2 connecting rod was broken.”

Roger continued “We got a tip from Billy Pauch Sr. that his former car owner Bob Bruneau had a motor available.  We got that motor in the car for this week and the motor was strong and pulled well it’s first time on track in hot laps.”

“In the heat some suspension bolts came loose, so we didn’t handle that well and went from 1^st to 3^rd but made the handicap and got the pole position.

“It was a completely different feature car and race from our first win when the car was nearly perfect.  For this feature the setup was off and the car had a push which afterwards we found was due to a shock that was bent in the heat race.  The track was slick, and the car was a handful, so I was just hanging on.  Like the first win, we again had 5 or 6 cautions and restarts to deal with but again we were able to manage them without any loss of track position.”

“This time it was Billy Osmon riding my bumper hard and racing side by side until he had to go to the pits for a broken shock but then Sam Martz Sr emerged in 2^nd on lap 15 and we virtually raced side by side right without any contact right to the checkered flag.”

“We have been striving and trying to get the first win for seven seasons and always coming up short.  It was thrilling to get our first win and then to get a second one a few weeks later is just unbelievable.  I can’t describe the feeling.  I knew the motor would be good right away based on what Billy, Kevin, John Stangle and my dad have said about the Bruneau motors and Bob himself.  He’s a straight up, genuine and a great guy that doesn’t cut corners and only uses the best parts.”

“All the broken motors. failed parts, and wrecks have brought us to this point, and we will hopefully continue to only get better from here.  There were a lot of gut-wrenching days, long nights and disappointing weeks but it was all worth it to get where we are now with two amazing wins this season already. Now we need to add some weekly consistency and finish each feature.  We didn’t finish the 7 other races earlier this season and now need to work on finishing every week and improving with top five finishes.   I would like to thank dad, Louie and all my sponsors for making all this possible.”