By John Curtis
Globe Sports Edito Globe Sports Editor

Supermodified Racing League 2000 season champion Troy Regier stands in front of his No. 10 car during a promotion of SRL cars at Western Beverage on E. Wyatt Earp Blvd. Regier look to extend his SRL winning streak to five races tonight at Dodge City Raceway Park. Rick Druse/Daily Globe

Without its marquee driver, but plenty of up-and-coming talent, the Supermodified Racing League comes to town for a 30-lap series feature at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Dodge City Raceway Park.

Last year's DCRP champion, Indy Racing League driver Davey Hamilton, will not be here tonight because he is recovering from injuries received in the IRL race at Texas Speedway in Fort Worth.

But last year's season champion Troy Regier and CART journeyman Ken Hamilton will headline tonight's action on the 3/8-mile oval.

Regier won last year's season series by 87 points and won the 1998 and 1999 season titles in the Western Supermodified Racing Association.

This season, he has won the last four SRL races after blowing an engine in the 2001 season opener in the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway -- a race he had won the last three years.

"We're having a good year," Regier said. "The car has been perfect almost every time and I think my team works twice as hard as anybody else. A lot of my success goes to my team. It was important to come into this season strong, but we blew the engine in the Copper World Classic. Since then, we have been on a roll."

Regier is not surprised by the success he has had the last few years.

"I expect a lot of myself and I think I have a lot of God-given talent to do this," he said. "I'm real thankful that things are happening this way because anything can go wrong on any night and I'm thankful for the crew and the owners that I have."

He has won the SRL events at Las Vegas, Madera (Calif.) Speedway, the Diamond Cup Races championship at Boise, Idaho and at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo.

Regier is also trying to impress IRL owners to sign him for the 2002 season by doing well in the SRL this season.

"I'm working on an Indy-car deal and I should know by July 1 if I should have something signed for next year," he said. "The super-modifieds are a great stepping stone because the cars are so fast. We were only two seconds slower than them at Pikes Peak. You have to be smooth with Indy cars and the supers are a great car to learn in."

Ken Hamilton will be driving in son Davey's car during the SRL's Midwest swing. The elder Hamilton owns Meridian Speedway in Boise and took over the supermodified car when asked by his son after surgery in Indianapolis due to the crash at Texas Speedway.

"I had helped him get started when he was a teenager," said Ken Hamilton. "I told him that I would help him if he stayed off the drugs. He drove my cars until 1986. We have raced together and against one another for many years now.

"They operated on him Sunday night and he said he needed me to drive his car for him during the Midwest tour. He went back to sleep and woke up an hour later and said 'Dad, you have to run this thing for me.' I told him 'If that's what you want, then that's what I'll do.' I enjoy the racing, but I wish he was here doing it."

Hamilton's first race was at Pikes Peak, where he finished second to Regier in the feature.

"I haven't driven supermodifieds for three years now because I became too busy at the race track, so I sold my car," he said. "I ended getting eight hot laps before we qualified second.

"It's just a matter of me getting used to his car, which was similar to how I set my car up. The more drastic change was me getting used to running at the high speeds again. With the shorter track, we should be more competitive, so I'm expecting to have a lot of fun here."

Hamilton said he will study sheets about how his son ran last year's race and the advice of crew chief Larry Trigueiro Jr. to come up with a gameplan to succeed in this year's race.

"We didn't have to change a whole lot," said Trigueiro on what changes had to be made for the change in drivers. "They are built pretty similar and the car is pretty much the same.

"We changed the speed of the steering, which is something you change with every driver. We've raced for Davey for 16 years, so we know how he wants the car. We also have the resources to adapt with a different driver and we've started this off well with a second at Pikes Peak."

Although Regier didn't drive at DCRP, he says that he understands from other SRL drivers that the track is nice and doesn't expect to make many changes to his car.

"(The track) is kind of like the new one that (Roger) Penske built in Irwindale, Calif.," he said. "I'm looking forward to it. Any new track like this is great and we should be lightning-fast and should be exciting and fast for the fans.

"It will be a change, but not as much of a change from our race before Pikes Peak at Meridian -- where you go from a 1/4-mile track where you can't get on the gas all the way there to a one-mile where you can stand on the gas the whole race. This place should be pretty fast."