He won the Beacon Championship at CeJay Speedway in Wichita, Kansas in 1947 in a track roadster.
He also raced on the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) circuit in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Missouri.
Roper heard about the first race at a three-quarter-mile dirt track in Charlotte, NC by reading a note about it in Zack Mosley's The Adventures of Smilin' Jack comic strip in his local newspaper.
Chief NASCAR inspector Al Crisler disqualified Dunaway's car because car owner Hubert Westmoreland had shored up the chassis by spreading the rear springs, a favorite bootlegger trick to improve traction and handling.
Roper continued racing in midgets in Kansas until he broke a vertebra in a sprint car accident in Davenport, Iowa in 1955.
On June 23, 2000, he died in Newton, Kansas from heart and liver complications related to cancer.