The doubleheader weekend of USMTS Modified racing concluded on Saturday night, March 1st at the Heart 'O Texas Speedway in Elm Mott and what a weekend it was for the racing Chisholm family out of Osage Iowa.
On Friday night, Jim, the defending USMTS Modified Series point champion, started off the new year with a bang as he won the opening night event while younger brother Joe had a solid run, finishing in the fifth spot. Their domination of the weekend continued on Saturday when Joe won his first ever USMTS main event, fighting off Tanner Mullens to get the win. Jim did not have quite as good of luck however, as after starting sixteenth in the main event and working his way into the top five by the halfway point of the contest, a flat tire sent him to the pits for a replacement and he would have to settle for ninth and repassing much of the field for a second time.
The undercard action saw the Limited Mods and Factory Stocks also run full program with Louisiana's Coty Tupper winning for the second time this weekend and Boone Evans made a late race pass to take the Factory Stock main event.
It was a spectacularly beautiful March night for auto racing and a big crowd packed the HOT for the last appearance of the USMTS at this track in 2025. Attrition had taken a small toll on the field by Saturday as forty three drivers signed in for Modified racing. Thus, with this number of entries, the field was split into four big heat races as opposed to six rather small heats that we saw on Friday night. The field was still split in halves for qualifying and the top twelve in passing points automatically moved to the feature.
Reece Solander and Jamie Burford where the quickest under the clock with Burford, the former Late Model star who is making a return to Modified racing after nine years, was fastest overall at 15.070 seconds. After that he struggled though and came up one spot short of making the feature through a B and had to rely on a provisional starting spot. Burford drew a "5" for the invert, one of the most important events of the night for the drivers.
Changing up from the previous two nights when the track was just too slimy for fair qualifying for those that drew low pills, the track was considerably drier on Saturday and while qualifying went much smoother, many drivers struggled with their heats, with many more yellows for spins etc. than the previous nights. I also felt that the track was the feature was not as good as the previous nights, while the fast groove seemed narrower and tougher to pass on.
With the first race of the season in the books, the number of cars added to the feature increased with Trevor Hughes, Gary Christian and Mark Smith joining Burford as additions, making it twenty six cars for forty laps for the top prize of five grand.
Joe Chisholm drew the outside pole on the redraw and with the top side fast for those that wanted to get up to the top, he jumped into the early lead over Carlos Ahumada Jr and Tanner Mullens. Ahumada Jr would start to slip back in the field though, with Mullens moving to second and both Kyle Strickler and Rodney Sanders moving forward.
A multi car pileup on lap thirteen slowed the action for a second time and this almost proved to be Joe Chisholm's downfall. The choose cone was in effect once again and for some strange reason that boggled the minds of those paying attention, despite the fact that Chisholm had been ripping the cushion lap after lap, he chose the bottom for the restart.
Mullens just licked his lips in anticipation and sure enough, when the green dropped, Mullens blew past to take over the lead. He maintained that spot for the next six laps, despite another slowdown for another big crash and having Chisholm all over his rear bumper.
But Joe showed that he was the faster of the two drivers, as on lap nineteen, after working Mullens hard for several laps, he was able to pull off a slider and race back into the top spot. They raced that way through the halfway point of the event, with Strickler and Sanders joined by Jim Chisholm in the top five.
Jim may have succeeded his brother as the quickest driver on the track at this point as he has worked his way forward after starting in the eight row and in fact was able to get past Sanders for fourth before disaster struck. He slowed on lap twenty four with a flat tire and was forced to pit along with Strickler who suffered the same problem.
Thus the lineup for the restart was really shuffled with both Solander and Kyle Brown appearing for the first time in the top five. After all the yellows in the first half of the race, the last sixteen laps ran off green to checkers and Joe showed that he was quickest of all, pulling to a nearly full straightaway lead. However, his fans could never relax because even though he had a comfortable lead, he made things exciting by pushing so hard and his hammering style of racing saw him twice almost overshoot the second turn and cause disaster for himself. But somehow he bailed himself out each time and saved the night for himself.
In the last few laps he caught the back of the pack and with passing tough with the fast lane full, they might have helped Chisholm and he wisely slowed down, followed them and eased his chances of flying off the end. Mullens would close up some but Joe still had a comfortable lead at the checkers.
Terry Phillips made a strong run of his own after starting fifteenth as after not even being in the top five until the very end, he continued to charge and got by both Solander and Sanders to finish a strong third, despite fighting some health issues with his vision over the weekend. Eighteen drivers finished the contest and with the numerous yellows, all were on the lead lap.
An interesting development occurred in the Limited Mod class. Friday night winner Denny Gieber who won the race on Friday racing a B Mod, switched cars on Saturday night and was instead running a Southern Sport Mod. The move was not a helpful one as he would finish midpack on Saturday.
The driver that has been hot here all weekend, Coty Tupper, would dominate the Limited Mod feature. Tupper, who has been speedy all weekend, has also faired well when it came to the redraw as he started outside pole on both Thursday and tonight and won both nights. When he started tenth on Friday, he had to work very hard and have some breaks to get up to second at the finish.
Tupper blew away from Kyle Wilkins as the start and opened up a large lead over the field. There was some good battling back in the pack though, as Jake Smith, Dan Wheeler, Wilkins and Casey Brunson battled hard, exchanging slide jobs in what was an entertaining fight for position.
After starting tenth, Trevor Cogburn used the same banzai style that he had shown on Friday night to advance through the pack but when he tried to slide job two drivers on the same corner it didn't work out and his spin at the midpoint of the race was the only slowdown of the event.
The final half of the race ran off green to checkers with Tupper building up nearly a full chute lead over the field. Smith used a couple more slide jobs to work his way into second but he was way too far behind to be a factor. Wheeler finished third and Wilkins had bad luck when he blew a motor on the final lap and gave up a good finishing spot. Brunson ended up fourth ahead of T.J. Evans.
Things looked pretty cut and dried in the Factory Stock feature until a late race yellow really changed things around. Michael Bowles started on the pole and sprinted away from Steve Grantz in the early going, and eventually opened up a comfortable lead over Grantz.
Brian Johnson, who had started twelfth, gradually worked his way to the front and moved into third by the halfway point of the race with Boone Evans close behind but both were considerably behind the top two.
However, this all changed with just five laps to go when a spinning car triggered the first and only yellow of the race. This bunched up the pack and suddenly it was a three car race for the win with both Johnson and Evans pulling up beside Bowles and they went three wide for the win.
Johnson was able to edge past Bowles with two to go but then Evans dove under Johnson and took over the lead as they saw the white flag. Evans pulled away on the final lap as he came from tenth for the win with Johnson a close second and Bowles a disappointed third as the late yellow certainly cost him the win.
USMTS was back in rhythm on Saturday night with a show that started right on time, ended much earlier than the previous nights and also saw no breaks at all, rolling right into main events as soon as the last qualifying was done.
The Modified drivers now have a full week to put things back together and wash up the equipment before they head to Rocket Raceway Park near Petty Texas for the next round of USMTS racing next Friday and Saturday.
As always, thanks to the folks at USMTS and ARMS for a solid weekend of Modified racing and also to the staff at HOT for their work on what was likely a grueling weekend of racing to begin their long season here in Texas.
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