Phillips Gets Emotional
Win in USMTS King of America Kickoff
Despite a storied career
that’s been ongoing longer than most of his competitors
have been alive, to say that Thursday was monumental on
many levels for Terry Phillips would be a monumental
understatement.
Against a teeth-gnashing pack of
62 formidable challengers, the second-generation racer
from Springfield, Missouri, stood alone at the top after
dominating the opening night main event at RacinDirt
USMTS King of America XII presented by Shock Hitch.
In his more than 40 starts here at the Humboldt
Speedway, this was his third feature win and second in a
King of America preliminary feature. The $12,000-to-win
main event—which takes place Saturday—remains the lone
crown jewel event missing from the hall-of-famer’s
trophy case.
The 56-year-old veteran was the
Sybesma Graphics Pole Award winner and he parlayed that
advantage into a wire-to-wire victory in Thursday
night’s 35-lapper at ‘The Hummer.’ He led every lap to
pocket $3,000 and his 39th career USMTS triumph.
Phillips’s first 38 were behind the wheel of a GRT, but
this was his first for his new Bloodline Race Cars
chassis company.
“Man, it’s been a lot of hard
work. I’ve got Cole my main here that helps build these
cars here with us tonight, my daughter, Tommy Boy my new
crew chief here,“ Phillips said. “I’m a little emotional
tonight because I just retired from Late Model racing
today. Sold out. So it’s all about the Modifieds now.
Maybe we’ll be hard on ‘em or something.
“I’m a
bit of a perfectionist but in the end I think it pays
off—I was taught that way by my Dad (hall-of-famer Larry
Phillips) so it’s just a great night to feel this good
and put a pretty good whoopin’ on them… He had me
welding frames together in high school so it started a
long time ago. I’m proud of the bloodline crew tonight
and there’s more of these to come.”
The race was
nothing close to a runaway though. As is usually the
case in a summit USMTS main event with 29 starters on a
tight quarter-mile bullring, heavy lapped traffic midway
through the feature kept the rest of the top five within
sight of the leader.
The two constants were
four-time USMTS National Champion Jason Hughes—the
winningest driver at Humboldt with 13 career wins,
including King of America V in 2015—and Dan Ebert who is
slowly but surely piling up wins and experience on the
USMTS campaign.
Help arrived for Phillips when a
mid-race caution gave him a clear line of sight and
allowed him to jump out ahead of his pursuers. It also
brought into play Ryan Gustin as ‘The Reaper’ patiently
searched for a way around the side-by-side second- and
third-place runners Hughes and Ebert, but nothing would
stand in the way of Phillips as he pedaled to an
emotional and historic win on Thursday night.
“Gustin, he can drive anything with four wheels whether
it’s a go kart or a drag car. Total respect for him,”
Phillips added. “I knew Jason was there because he hit
me in the bumper on every restart.”
“I just kind
of pushed him,” Hughes said laughingly. “I didn’t know
when he was gonna start and I wasn’t gonna be left there
behind. I knew he’d try and sucker us on that.”
Hughes came from sixth on the grid to finish second
while Gustin slipped by Ebert late to claim the third
sport on the podium.
Adding to the level of
impressiveness and nostalgia, six of the previous nine
King of America champions followed Phillips across the
finish line. The main event also featured five former
USMTS National Champions with a combined ten titles
between them.
If things keep going his way this
weekend and beyond, Phillips just might be able to check
off two bucket list crowns between Saturday and
November’s finale.
Darron Fuqua and Tyler Wolff
finished fifth and sixth after starting 14th and 15th,
respectively. Defending King of America winner Jake
O'Neil was seventh 2016 King of America winner Zack
VanderBeek pocketed an eighth-place prize.
Last
year’s points runner-up Tanner Mullens was ninth and
Johnny Scott, who won his first and only USMTS National
championship in 2018, completed the top 10.
Of
note, four-time USMTS titlist Rodney Sanders finished
11th and the 2021 USMTS belt-wearer, Dereck Ramirez,
wound up 18th.
The swarm returns to the Humboldt
Speedway for RacinDirt King of America XII presented by
Shocker Hitch and the 8th Annual Battle at The Bullring
on Friday and Saturday. For more information, check out
the
Fast Facts.
The Humboldt Speedway is a
1/4-mile semi-banked clay oval located off of US 169 to
the Humboldt exit, then 0.1 mile west, then 0.5 mile
south, then 0.9 mile east to 1663 Georgia Rd, Humboldt,
KS 66748.
The Summit USMTS National Championship
presented by RacinDirt currently features 46 nights of
racing at 15 of America's premier dirt track racing
venues in nine states for its Silver Anniversary season.
Just the winners of those events are set to earn more
than $300,000 with nearly $2 million in purses and prize
money earmarked for the 2023 campaign.
Watch
every USMTS event online live and on-demand from
anywhere on any device with
RacinDirt. Download the app at
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OFFICIAL RESULTS United States Modified
Touring Series Summit USMTS National Championship
presented by RacinDirt RacinDirt USMTS King of
America XII presented by Shock Hitch – Night 1 of 3
Humboldt Speedway, Humboldt, Kansas Thursday, March
23, 2023
Showing finishing position,
starting position in parentheses, car number, driver and
hometown. Heat race lineups are determined via group
qualifying. The top 12 in heat race passing points
advance to the Summit Racing Equipment “A” Main.
SIMPSON PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS HEAT RACE #1 (8
laps): 1. (2) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore,
Minn. 2. (4) 55 Ryan Gustin, Marshalltown, Iowa 3.
(6) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn. 4. (1) 15 Alex
Williamson, Rushford, Minn. 5. (3) 19SB Lance Mari,
El Centro, Calif. 6. (7) 91 Joe Duvall, Claremore,
Okla. 7. (11) 7 Al Hejna, Clear Lake, Iowa 8. (5)
11X Tom Berry Jr., Des Moines, Iowa 9. (8) 7X Chris
Dawson, Lubbock, Texas 10. (10) 1M Curt Myers,
Cameron, Wis. 11. (9) 40 Jessy Willard, Mound City,
Kan.
FAST SHAFTS HEAT RACE #2 (8 laps):
1. (2) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa 2. (1)
4RJ Jared Russell, Wagoner, Okla. 3. (3) 65X Carlos
Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas 4. (4) 56X Broc Bowen,
Fannin, Texas 5. (7) 10B Brandon Givens, Wichita,
Kan. 6. (6) 4 Jeremy Nelson, Alexandria, Minn. 7.
(8) 8 Dillon McCowan, Urbana, Mo. 8. (5) 58X Gary
Christian, Broken Bow, Okla. 9. (9) 15WX Kale
Westover, Altus, Okla. 10. (10) 127 Paden Phillips,
Chanute, Kan. 11. (11) 22B Rick Beebe, Shawnee, Kan.
EDELBROCK HEAT RACE #3 (8 laps):
1. (2) 88 Tanner Williamson, Fort Frances, Ont., Canada
2. (4) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan. 3. (5) 0 Jake
O'Neil, Tucson, Ariz. 4. (3) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid,
Iowa 5. (6) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark. 6.
(10) WW1 Ricky Alvarado, Delta, Colo. 7. (7) 96 Taton
Hansen, Spicer, Minn. 8. (11) 747 Colton Eck,
Goddard, Kan. 9. (9) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield,
Minn. 10. (8) 6ST Joseph Thomas, Glyndon, Minn.
11. (1) 25C Cody Thompson, Sioux City, Iowa
WIELAND HEAT RACE #4 (8 laps): 1.
(2) 1ST Johnny Scott, Las Cruces, N.M. 2. (5) 12
Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla. 3. (4) 20 Rodney Sanders,
Happy, Texas 4. (6) 26G Ryan Gierke, Villard, Minn.
5. (9) 90 Steve Wetzstein, West Concord, Minn. 6. (1)
33X Justin Froemming, Garfield, Minn. 7. (3) 12H Mike
Hansen, Dickinson, N.D. 8. (7) 01 Jacob Hobscheidt,
Plattsmouth, Neb. 9. (10) 32 Jesse Young, Warner,
S.D. 10. (8) 174 Ethan Dotson, Bakersfield, Calif.
VP RACING HEAT RACE #5 (8 laps):
1. (2) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa 2. (1) 16 Austin
Siebert, Grandview, Mo. 3. (5) 02 Tanner Mullens,
Wichita, Kan. 4. (3) 38T Dylan Thornton, Orcutt,
Calif. 5. (4) K9 Will Krup, Mt. Carmel, Ill. 6.
(8) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla. 7. (7) 712
Trevor Hughes, Salina, Okla. 8. (6) 45 Chase Holland,
Success, Miss. 9. (9) 99T T.J. Tolan, Valley Center,
Kan. 10. (10) 17 Jon Plowman, Woodbine, Iowa
SUPER CLEAN HEAT RACE #6 (8 laps):
1. (4) 21X Austin Bonner, Elk City, Okla. 2. (1) 20T
Trevor Anderson, Watertown, S.D. 3. (6) 75 Terry
Phillips, Springfield, Mo. 4. (10) 87 Darron Fuqua,
Mayetta, Kan. 5. (2) 308 Pat Hoffman, Rice Lake, Wis.
6. (5) 10C Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa, Iowa 7. (3) 99L
Steve Lavasseur, River Falls, Wis. 8. (8) 16B Randy
Brown, Chowchilla, Calif. 9. (7) 15W Wyatt Gaggero,
Wichita, Kan. 10. (9) 78 Billy Jack Brutchin,
Gladewater, Texas
REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #1 (15 laps, top 4 advance): 1. (2) 4RJ
Jared Russell, Wagoner, Okla. 2. (3) 20 Rodney
Sanders, Happy, Texas 3. (1) 65 Tyler Davis,
Haysville, Kan. 4. (5) 38T Dylan Thornton, Orcutt,
Calif. 5. (4) 90 Steve Wetzstein, West Concord, Minn.
6. (6) WW1 Ricky Alvarado, Delta, Colo. 7. (11) 11X
Tom Berry Jr., Des Moines, Iowa 8. (9) 8 Dillon
McCowan, Urbana, Mo. 9. (12) 99L Steve Lavasseur,
River Falls, Wis. 10. (15) 1M Curt Myers, Cameron,
Wis. 11. (8) 308 Pat Hoffman, Rice Lake, Wis. 12.
(17) 22B Rick Beebe, Shawnee, Kan. 13. (14) 99T T.J.
Tolan, Valley Center, Kan. 14. (16) 78 Billy Jack
Brutchin, Gladewater, Texas 15. (13) 32 Jesse Young,
Warner, S.D. 16. (10) 45 Chase Holland, Success,
Miss. 17. (7) K9 Will Krup, Mt. Carmel, Ill.
REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #2 (15 laps, top 4
advance): 1. (1) 87 Darron Fuqua, Mayetta,
Kan. 2. (2) 16 Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo. 3.
(3) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas 4. (6) 4
Jeremy Nelson, Alexandria, Minn. 5. (4) 56X Broc
Bowen, Fannin, Texas 6. (8) 7 Al Hejna, Clear Lake,
Iowa 7. (5) 10B Brandon Givens, Wichita, Kan. 8.
(7) 19SB Lance Mari, El Centro, Calif. 9. (13) 15WX
Kale Westover, Altus, Okla. 10. (10) 96 Taton Hansen,
Spicer, Minn. 11. (16) 6ST Joseph Thomas, Glyndon,
Minn. 12. (9) 33X Justin Froemming, Garfield, Minn.
13. (11) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla. 14.
(14) 7X Chris Dawson, Lubbock, Texas 15. (12) 16B
Randy Brown, Chowchilla, Calif. 16. (15) 127 Paden
Phillips, Chanute, Kan. 17. (17) 40 Jessy Willard,
Mound City, Kan.
REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #3 (15 laps, top 4 advance): 1. (3) 4W
Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark. 2. (1) 26G Ryan
Gierke, Villard, Minn. 3. (5) 15 Alex Williamson,
Rushford, Minn. 4. (7) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward,
Okla. 5. (4) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa 6. (6)
10C Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa, Iowa 7. (8) 91 Joe
Duvall, Claremore, Okla. 8. (10) 712 Trevor Hughes,
Salina, Okla. 9. (11) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson,
N.D. 10. (2) 20T Trevor Anderson, Watertown, S.D.
11. (16) 174 Ethan Dotson, Bakersfield, Calif. 12.
(13) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn. 13. (12) 01
Jacob Hobscheidt, Plattsmouth, Neb. 14. (17) 25C Cody
Thompson, Sioux City, Iowa 15. (9) 747 Colton Eck,
Goddard, Kan. 16. (14) 15W Wyatt Gaggero, Wichita,
Kan. 17. (15) 17 Jon Plowman, Woodbine, Iowa
SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT “A” MAIN (35 laps):
1. (1) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo. 2. (6) 12
Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla. 3. (12) 55 Ryan Gustin,
Marshalltown, Iowa 4. (7) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore,
Minn. 5. (14) 87 Darron Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan. 6.
(15) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark. 7. (10) 0
Jake O'Neil, Tucson, Ariz. 8. (4) 33Z Zack
VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa 9. (11) 02 Tanner
Mullens, Wichita, Kan. 10. (5) 1ST Johnny Scott, Las
Cruces, N.M. 11. (16) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas
12. (21) 15 Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn. 13. (26)
K9 Will Krup, Mt. Carmel, Ill. 14. (19) 65 Tyler
Davis, Haysville, Kan. 15. (28) 10B Brandon Givens,
Wichita, Kan. 16. (25) 11X Tom Berry Jr., Des Moines,
Iowa 17. (13) 4RJ Jared Russell, Wagoner, Okla.
18. (24) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla. 19. (20)
65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas 20. (17) 16
Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo. 21. (22) 38T Dylan
Thornton, Orcutt, Calif. 22. (8) 88 Tanner
Williamson, Fort Frances, Ont., Canada 23. (27) 21K
Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa 24. (29) 21 Jacob Bleess,
Chatfield, Minn. 25. (23) 4 Jeremy Nelson,
Alexandria, Minn. 26. (2) 21X Austin Bonner, Elk
City, Okla. 27. (9) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa
28. (18) 26G Ryan Gierke, Villard, Minn. 29. (3) 49
Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
Lap Leader:
T. Phillips 1-35. Total Laps Led:
T. Phillips 35. Margin of Victory:
1.029 seconds. Time of Race:
24 minutes, 51.903 seconds (3 cautions).
Provisional Starters: Berry, Krup.
Emergency Provisionals: K. Brown, Givens,
Bleess. FK Rod Ends Hard Charger:
Gustin (started 12th, finished 3rd). Entries:
63. Next Race: March 24,
Humboldt Speedway, Humboldt, Kan. Summit
USMTS National Championship Points: Hughes 260,
Phillips 254, Ebert 247, Wolff 237, Fuqua 232, Krup 225,
Timm 221, Givens 221, Berry 219, O'Neil 212.
Grant Junghans USMTS Rookie of the Year Points:
Krup 225, Berry 219, Christian 181, Nelson 168,
Lavasseur 163. Miller Welders USMTS
Manufacturers Championship Points: Hughes 24
Bloodline 20, Mullens 20, MBCustoms 15, Rage 13, Elite
13, LG2 13. Callies/JE Pistons USMTS Engine
Builder of the Year Points: Mullins 26, Cornett
24, Durham 20, ProPower 19, OFI 16, ECE 16.
Contingency Awards: Aero Race Wheels
– Plowman. American Racer – Hansen. Beyea Custom
Headers – Ebert. BigDeal Car Care – T. Phillips,
Gustin. Bryke Racing – Givens. BSB Manufacturing –
Thornton. Carquest – T. Phillips. Champ Pans –
Fuqua. Collins Brothers Towing – K. Brown.
Deatherage Opticians – Davis. Edelbrock – T.
Williamson. Fast Shafts – VanderBeek. FK Rod Ends
– Gustin. Hooker Harness – A. Williamson. Hyperco
– Chisholm. Integra Racing Shocks & Springs –
Ramirez. Keyser Manufacturing – Scott. KSE Racing
Products – Mullens. MD3 – T. Phillips. Mel
Hambelton Racing – Hughes. Mesilla Valley
Transportation – T. Williamson. Midwest Wrap Co. – T.
Williamson. Penske Racing Shocks – Krup. PEM
Racing Gears & Drivetrain – Thompson. QA1 – Fuqua.
Quarter Master – Mullens. RacerWebsite.com – Willard.
Salty’s BBQ & Catering – Gustin. Simpson Performance
Products – Ebert. Summit Racing Equipment – Bowen, K.
Brown, Wetzstein, Willard. Super Clean – T. Phillips.
Swift Springs – Timm, Fuqua, T. Phillips. Sybesma
Graphics – T. Phillips. VP Racing – T. Phillips.
Wehrs Machine & Racing Products – Willard. Wilwood
Disc Brakes – O’Neil.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
USMTS OFFICIAL
SPONSORS: American
Racer Racing Tires, Beyea
Headers, Callies
Performance Products, Chevrolet
Performance, Fast
Shafts, FK
Rod Ends, KSE
Racing Products, Malvern
Bank, Mesilla
Valley Transportation, Nitroquest
Media, PEM
Racing Gears & Drivetrain, RacinDirt, Summit
Racing Equipment, Super
Clean, VP
Racing, Wieland.
USMTS PARTICIPATING SPONSORS: ARMI
Contractors, Boomtest
Well Service, Boubin
Tire & Automotive, Brodix
Cylinder Heads, Collins
Brothers Towing, D&T
Marriott Enterprise, LLC, DAY
Motorsports, Duvall
Electric, Gunshepherd.com, Hacienda
Mechanical, Kenny's
Tile, Mel
Hambelton Racing, Midwest
Wrap Co., Miller
Welders, PBM
Performance Products, Rancho
Milagro Racing, S&S
Fishing & Rental, Salty's
BBQ & Catering, Shocker
Hitch, Shop
Quik Stores, YouDirt.com.
USMTS CONTINGENCY SPONSORS: AERO
Race Wheels, AFCO
Racing Products, Allstar
Performance, BigDeal
Car Care, Bryke
Racing, BSB
Manufacturing, Champ
Pans, Deatherage
Opticians, Edelbrock, Hooker
Harness, Hyperco, Integra
Racing Shocks and Springs, JE
Pistons, K1
RaceGear by Ryan Bowers Motorsports, Keyser
Manufacturing, MD3, MSD
Performance, Penske
Racing Shocks, Performance
Bodies & Parts, QA1, Quarter
Master, RacerWebsite.com, Real
Racing Wheels, Simpson
Performance Products, Swift
Springs, Sybesma
Graphics, Wehrs
Machine & Racing Products, Wilwood
Racing.
USMTS RACETRACKS:
81 Speedway,
Ark-La-Tex Speedway,
Arrowhead Speedway,
Cedar Lake Speedway,
Deer Creek Speedway,
Fayette County Speedway,
Hamilton County Speedway,
Humboldt Speedway,
I-70 Speedway,
Lakeside Speedway,
Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track,
Lucas Oil Speedway,
Mason City Motor Speedway,
Ogilvie Raceway,
Rocket Raceway Park.
##
Contact Info:
Jeff Nun
Chief Communications Officer
United States Modified Touring Series, Inc. (USMTS)
1715 W 2nd St, PO Box 905
Webster City, IA 50595
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