Sanders
Steals USMTS Win From Wolff
Rodney Sanders has led
countless laps with the Summit USMTS National
Championship presented by RacinDirt since his first win
in 2009, and Saturday night he added one more as he won
a legendary race that will be remembered for years to
come.
In the past, the Tri-State Speedway in
Pocola, Okla., has produced some beauties for USMTS
drivers and fans. Saturday’s 9th Annual USMTS Juggernaut
was something to behold.
Long-time racer Bret
Holman made the 90-minute drive from Rogers, Ark., and
that resulted in a victory in Simpson Race Products Heat
Race #1, and the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award for the
40-lap main event.
Holman got the hole shot and
pulled away to lead the opening lap with series points
leader Jake Timm and Grant Junghans USMTS Rookie of the
Year points leader Jacob Hobscheidt in hot pursuit.
While Holman remained faithful to the shortest lane
around the 3/8-mile red clay oval, Timm and Hobscheidt
used every inch of the racing surface to search for a
way to catch the leader.
Meanwhile, the thrilling
battle at the front of the field was so good that many
likely missed the incredible run toward the front by
Tyler Wolff and Dan Ebert, along with the fierce
four-car fight between Tanner Mullens, Jason Hughes,
Sanders and Darron Fuqua.
Fuqua climbed from 21st
on the starting grid to eighth by the halfway point of
the race, but had mechanical trouble and wound up back
in 21st on the final score card.
Timm found the
high line to his liking and tracked down Holman, finally
snagging the top spot with 19 laps complete and 21
remaining.
Lapped traffic was no problem for Timm
as he extended his lead to five car lengths in less than
a minute. Back-markers spelled trouble for Holman,
however, as Wolff used a lapper to his advantage to
claim the second spot.
The Gorsuch Performance
Caution Flag was displayed on the first lap, but the
yellow didn’t appear again until lap 29 when Mike Hansen
stopped on the racetrack with his Hughes Racing Chassis
engulfed in smoke.
That pause bunched the field
with Timm in control for the restart and the usual
suspects hot on his heels, but Timm remained the one
pursued through the 30th orbit.
The rest of the
race was a blur with eight lead changes among three
drivers—and those were just the ones at the flagstand.
Many more took place around the track.
After a
near-spin by Timm it gave Wolff the top spot on lap 31.
He led just two laps. Timm regained the lead for a
single lap. Wolff took it back and set the pace through
lap 37.
Again, Timm edged in front at the
start-finish line to officially lead lap 38, but Wolff
was the leader when they took the Hochatown Saloon White
Flag with Sanders nudging past Timm to make it a
three-car fight for the $5,000 top prize.
With
Wolff uncharacteristically hugging the low line, Sanders
blasted around the track near the outside wall. At the
checkered flag, Sanders inched ahead and beat Wolff to
the line by a mere 0.130 of a second (about a bumper).
“I knew we had a good car all along and I just got
caught up with some cars, but Tyler got up there quick,”
Sanders said in Victory Fuel Victory Lane. “If I’m going
to beat anybody at the line I hate it to be him. We’re
really good friends and them guys help me out a lot.”
After leading just the final 50 feet of the race,
Sanders scored his 118th career win with the USMTS, but
first of the year as his defense of his fifth USMTS
title.
“I knew there was some speed up there and
I didn’t want to show it too quick, but I knew Ebert and
Jake (Timm) were running up there too so that last lap I
knew Tyler had no clue and you know he’s running a good
line on the bottom so my only hope was just too rip a
good lap and it worked out. It was a heck of racetrack.
Despite having to settle for second-place, Wolff
smiled with the knowledge he had a good MBCustoms Race
Car with a lot of speed.
“I was just trying to
stay calm and finish the race,” Wolff revealed. “I was
just trying to hit my marks, and on the last lap I
thought about moving up to block and Rodney but I’m
proud of Rodney and proud of our team. We had we had a
lot of speed and had a good finish finally so we'll just
carry on with this rest of summer. We have we should be
in pretty good shape.”
Behind Wolff, Timm
completed the Featherlite Top-Three podium with another
strong run and another good points night for himself and
his Rage Chassis.
“I definitely didn’t want that
yellow,” said Timm. “I really had no idea where to be
and I heard on the RACEceiver that Tyler was in second.
I thought for sure he was pounding the wall down so I
was like ‘Better get up there and at least get in front
of him, and then I came in down here (turn one). The
rest was history, but that was a fun race. Awesome race
track.”
Sanders and Wolff started 14th and 15th
on the grid, respectively, and both passed a field-best
13 cars. Sanders, however, garnered the FK Rod Ends Hard
Charger Award with his superior finishing position.
Ebert was fourth and remains ahead of Timm in the
ARMI Contractors South Region points. Hobscheidt rounded
out the top five, and sixth through tenth went to
Hughes, Mullens, Kyle Brown, Alex Williamson and Jake
O'Neil.
Let's try this again:
Next weekend, the series returns to the Deer Creek
Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., for some unfinished
business from last September, along with the USRA
B-Mods.
The 25th Annual USMTS Featherlite Fall
Jamboree-do happens Friday and Saturday, April 26-27,
and will also be the first two events in the Collins
Brothers Towing USMTS North Region presented by
Featherlite.
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OFFICIAL RESULTS
United States Modified Touring Series Summit USMTS
National Championship presented by RacinDirt ARMI
Contractors South Region presented by Gene Nicholas, LLC
9th Annual USMTS Juggernaut Tri-State Speedway,
Pocola, Okla. Saturday, April 20, 2024
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 RACE
PRODUCTS HEAT RACE #1 (10 laps): 1. (1) 17H
Brent Holman, Rogers, Ark. 2. (5) 49 Jake Timm,
Winona, Minn. 3. (9) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla.
4. (6) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas 5. (3) 65
Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan. 6. (8) 75 Terry
Phillips, Springfield, Mo. 7. (7) 87 Darron Fuqua,
Mayetta, Kan. 8. (10) 0 Jake O'Neil, Tucson, Ariz.
9. (4) 91 Joe Duvall, Justice, Okla. 10. (2) 33 Jaren
Martin, Republic, Mo.
FAST SHAFTS HEAT
RACE #2 (10 laps): 1. (1) 02 Tanner Mullens,
Wichita, Kan. 2. (5) 01 Jacob Hobscheidt,
Plattsmouth, Neb. 3. (7) 58X Gary Christian, Broken
Bow, Okla. 4. (9) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn.
5. (8) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla. 6. (10) 4W
Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark. 7. (3) 2SS Mark
Smith, Anthony, N.M. 8. (6) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage,
Iowa 9. (4) 71 Chad Melton, Mineral Wells, Texas
10. (2) 30 Dalton Kirk, Edgerton, Kan.
EDELBROCK HEAT RACE #3 (10 laps): 1. (3) 15W
Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn. 2. (8) 19SB Lance
Mari, El Centro, Calif. 3. (1) 55H A.J. Hoff,
Mantorville, Minn. 4. (6) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid,
Iowa 5. (4) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls, Wis.
6. (5) 5 Jon Mitchell, Texarkana, Texas 7. (10) 65X
Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas 8. (2) 11N Gene
Nicholas, Lowell, Ark. 9. (7) 8 Jeremy Vaughn,
Pocola, Okla. 10. (9) 88 Sam Osman, Spiro, Okla.
WIELAND METAL SERVICES HEAT RACE #4 (10
laps): 1. (1) 19R Chris Kratzer, Haysville,
Kan. 2. (4) 32 D.J. Shannon, Merced, Calif. 3. (3)
712 Trevor Hughes, Westville, Okla. 4. (6) 7G Gabe
Hodges, Lebo, Kan. 5. (9) 16 Austin Siebert,
Grandview, Mo. 6. (10) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson,
N.D. 7. (8) 51 Eddie Martin, Stilwell, Okla. 8.
(5) 26S Steven Glenn, Hamilton, Mo. 9. (7) 5S Chad
Smith, Springdale, Ark. 10. (2) 17 Trinten Turney,
Wolfe City, Texas 11. (11) 70 Jeremy Busby, Graford,
Texas
REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #1 (11
laps, top 5 advance): 1. (1) 712 Trevor
Hughes, Westville, Okla. 2. (4) 4W Tyler Wolff,
Fayetteville, Ark. 3. (2) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid,
Iowa 4. (9) 0 Jake O'Neil, Tucson, Ariz. 5. (8) 87
Darron Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan. 6. (6) 75 Terry Phillips,
Springfield, Mo. 7. (11) 91 Joe Duvall, Justice,
Okla. 8. (3) 16 Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo. 9.
(14) 88 Sam Osman, Spiro, Okla. 10. (5) 65 Tyler
Davis, Haysville, Kan. 11. (10) 11N Gene Nicholas,
Lowell, Ark. 12. (7) 5 Jon Mitchell, Texarkana, Texas
13. (13) 33 Jaren Martin, Republic, Mo. 14. (12) 8
Jeremy Vaughn, Pocola, Okla. DNS – 70 Jeremy Busby,
Graford, Texas
REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #2 (12 laps, top 5 advance): 1. (1) 20
Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas 2. (3) 4R Dereck
Ramirez, Woodward, Okla. 3. (4) 12H Mike Hansen,
Dickinson, N.D. 4. (2) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan.
5. (9) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa 6. (5) 99L Steve
Lavasseur, River Falls, Wis. 7. (11) 71 Chad Melton,
Mineral Wells, Texas 8. (6) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr.,
El Paso, Texas 9. (7) 51 Eddie Martin, Stilwell,
Okla. 10. (13) 30 Dalton Kirk, Edgerton, Kan. 11.
(10) 26S Steven Glenn, Hamilton, Mo. 12. (12) 5S Chad
Smith, Springdale, Ark. 13. (14) 17 Trinten Turney,
Wolfe City, Texas 14. (8) 2SS Mark Smith, Anthony,
N.M.
SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT “A” MAIN (40
laps): 1. (14) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy,
Texas 2. (15) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark.
3. (4) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn. 4. (11) 60 Dan
Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn. 5. (2) 01 Jacob Hobscheidt,
Plattsmouth, Neb. 6. (8) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts,
Okla. 7. (6) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan. 8.
(17) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa 9. (5) 15W Alex
Williamson, Rushford, Minn. 10. (19) 0 Jake O'Neil,
Tucson, Ariz. 11. (10) 58X Gary Christian, Broken
Bow, Okla. 12. (22) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa
13. (7) 19SB Lance Mari, El Centro, Calif. 14. (13)
712 Trevor Hughes, Westville, Okla. 15. (16) 4R
Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla. 16. (27) 8 Jeremy
Vaughn, Pocola, Okla. 17. (23) 75 Terry Phillips,
Springfield, Mo. 18. (1) 17H Brent Holman, Rogers,
Ark. 19. (20) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan. 20. (26)
26S Steven Glenn, Hamilton, Mo. 21. (21) 87 Darron
Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan. 22. (12) 55H A.J. Hoff,
Mantorville, Minn. 23. (18) 12H Mike Hansen,
Dickinson, N.D. 24. (25) 91 Joe Duvall, Justice,
Okla. 25. (3) 19R Chris Kratzer, Haysville, Kan.
26. (24) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan. 27. (9) 32
D.J. Shannon, Merced, Calif.
Lap Leaders:
Holman 1-19, Timm 20-30, Wolff 31-32, Timm 33, Wolff
34-37, Timm 38, Wolff 39, Sanders 40. Total
Laps Led: Holman 19, Timm 13, Wolff 7, Sanders
1. Margin of Victory: 0.130 second.
Time of Race: 28 minutes, 5.359 seconds
(3 cautions). Provisional Starters:
Davis, Duvall, Glenn, Phillips, Vaughn. FK
Rod Ends Hard Charger: Sanders (started 14th,
finished 1st). Entries: 41.
Next Race: April 26-27, Deer Creek
Speedway, Spring Valley, Minn. Summit USMTS
National Championship Points: TBA.
ARMI Contractors USMTS South Region Points:
TBA. Grant Junghans USMTS Rookie of the Year
Points: TBA. FK Rod Ends USMTS Hard
Charger Points: TBA. Miller Welders
USMTS Manufacturers Championship Points: TBA.
Callies/JE Pistons USMTS Engine Builder of the
Year Points: TBA.
Contingency
Awards: Aero Race Wheels – J. Martin.
American Racer – Hoff. Bear Graphix – Hoff. Beyea
Custom Headers – Ebert. Bryke Racing – Ramirez.
BSB Manufacturing – Fuqua. Champ Pans – Hobscheidt.
Danny Crane Racing Engines – J. Hughes. Deatherage
Opticians – Smith. Edelbrock – Williamson. Fast
Shafts – Mullens. Featherlite Trailers – Sanders,
Wolff, Timm. FK Rod Ends – Sanders. Gorsuch
Performance Solutions – Sanders. Hooker Harness –
Chisholm. Hyperco – Kratzer. Integra Racing Shocks
& Springs – Holman. Keyser Manufacturing – O’Neil.
KSE Racing Products – Williamson. MD3 – Holman.
Mel Hambelton Racing – Lavasseur, Melton. MSD
Performance – Ebert. Penske Racing Shocks – Mari.
PEM Racing Gears & Drivetrain – Hansen. QA1 – Timm.
Quarter Master – Williamson. RacerWebsite.com –
O’Neil. Rush RaceGear by Austin Witt – J. Hughes.
Simpson Race Products – Holman. Summit Racing
Equipment – Davis, Duvall, Lavasseur, Mullens, Turney.
Sweet Manufacturing – Vaughn. Swift Springs – Holman,
Sanders. Sybesma Graphics – Holman. Total Power
–Christian. Victory Fuel – Sanders. VP Racing –
Sanders. Wehrs Machine & Racing Products – Vaughn.
Wilwood Disc Brakes – Mullens.
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USMTS OFFICIAL SPONSORS: American
Racer Racing Tires, Beyea
Headers, Callies
Performance Products, Chevrolet
Performance, Fast
Shafts, Featherlite
Trailers, FK
Rod Ends, KSE
Racing Products, Malvern
Bank, Mesilla
Valley Transportation, Nitroquest
Media, PEM
Racing Gears & Drivetrain, RacinDirt, Summit
Racing Equipment, TicketSmarter, VP
Racing - Heartland, Wieland.
USMTS PARTICIPATING SPONSORS: ARMI
Contractors, Boomtest
Well Service, Boubin
Tire & Automotive, Brodix
Cylinder Heads, Collins
Brothers Towing, Gene
Nicholas, LLC, Hacienda
Mechanical, Hochatown
Saloon, Mel
Hambelton Ford, Miller
Welders, PBM
Performance Products, Rancho
Milagro Racing, Salty's
BBQ & Catering, Shop
Quik Stores, YouDirt.com.
USMTS CONTINGENCY SPONSORS: AERO
Race Wheels, AFCO
Racing Products, Allstar
Performance, Bear
Graphix, Bryke
Racing, BSB
Manufacturing, Champ
Pans, Danny
Crane Racing Engines, Deatherage
Racing Opticians, Edelbrock, Gorsuch
Performance Solutions, Gunshepherd.com, Hooker
Harness, Hyperco, Integra
Racing Shocks and Springs, JE
Pistons, Keyser
Manufacturing, MD3, Mel
Hambelton Racing, MSD
Performance, Penske
Racing Shocks, Performance
Bodies & Parts, QA1, Quarter
Master, RacerWebsite.com, Real
Racing Wheels, Rush
RaceGear by Austin Witt, Simpson
Performance Products, Sweet
Manufacturing, Swift
Springs, Sybesma
Graphics, Total
Power, Victory
Fuel, Victory
Vault, Wehrs
Machine & Racing Products, Wilwood
Racing.
USMTS RACETRACKS:
81 Speedway,
Arrowhead Speedway,
Beatrice Speedway,
Boothill Speedway,
Casino Speedway,
Cedar Lake Speedway,
Deer Creek Speedway,
Fairmont Raceway,
Fayette County Speedway,
Granite City Motor Park,
Hamilton County Speedway,
Heart O’ Texas Speedway,
Humboldt Speedway,
Hunt County Raceway,
Lakeside Speedway,
Lucas Oil Speedway,
Mason City Motor Speedway,
Mississippi Thunder Speedway,
Off Road Speedway,
Ogilvie Raceway,
Park Jefferson Speedway,
Rocket Raceway Park,
Route 66 Motor Speedway,
RPM Speedway,
Tri-State Speedway.
##
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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