Jim Chisholm served notice that he intends to defend his 2024 National Championship with the United States Modified Touring Series in the strongest manner that he can and he did so by taking the lead on the fifth lap and leading the rest of the forty lap opener for the twenty seventh season of the USMTS on Friday night at the Heart 'O Texas Speedway in Elm Mott.
Support classes for the USMTS opener on Friday were the Factory Stocks and the Limited Modifieds and the winners in those two classes were Westin Abbey and Denny Gieber.
It is hard to believe that the USMTS is beginning their twenty seventh season of racing. After all, it seems like just yesterday when Todd and Janet Staley bought the series and changed the name from the USMS to USMTS and then took off and ran with the idea of a traveling series for Modifieds when no one else had even contemplated such an idea. Well, it proved to be an outstanding business decision and the rest is history with the series seemingly in just as strong a position as it has ever been with a solid schedule at some of the finest race tracks in the country.
A tour of the pits before the races would reveal that last night's quick qualifier Casey Fowler did indeed blow a motor right off the bat in his heat race. They were forced to change engines today in the pits and the word was that the motor they blew was a brand new piece, racing in its first night of competition. They were discouraged, needless to say, but hope springs eternal that Friday night would be a better night for them.
An odd situation developed this weekend with the "preliminary" night of ARMS racing on Thursday night actually producing a larger car count that the USMTS did on Friday. Down three cars, the USMTS field of forty eight was still strong and not one to quibble with. A check of last year's point standings did reveal that they lost three of their top ten point drivers from last year in Jake Timm, Dan Ebert and Jason Hughes along with a no show by Tyler Davis. Both Timm and Ebert have moved on to Late Model racing in 2025 and Hughes is reportedly retiring from racing. Jason was in the pits on Friday but just helping his son on his car which now carries Jason's sponsors and even his car looks. It will be hard to imagine USMTS racing without Jason Hughes being in the field.
The USMTS continues to use a rather different method of qualifying their cars for the main event in 2025. They are back to qualifying the cars with the field split into two groups with three cars under the clock per session. The quickest driver overall, which happened to be Kale Westover at 15.581 seconds, then rolled a dice to determine the invert in the heat races. Tonight the quickest four in each heat were inverted. The drivers then earn passing points for their heats with the top twelve making the main and the rest in a B Feature. Two provisional starters set up the twenty four car field for the main. The method of time trialing and then both inverting heats and using passing points can be debated all night but the bottom line is, that is the way they do it and if you want to race with them, you have to adapt to how they run their show.
For the second straight night, the track didn't roll in as expected but Todd is true to starting a racing program on time, so the Mods had to qualify on a pretty slimy race track, with the first drivers out really having a challenging track to deal with which, I'm sure, pleased them no end. However, series announcer Erik Chesterman made it clear that their laps were going to be their only laps with no retries or "mulligans." This did help insure that the program started within mere minutes of the advertised time, unlike Thursday night.
The forty lap feature for the Modifieds would see Chisholm come from the fourth row to take the win. Kale Westover, by the luck of the redraw, started on the pole but on the opening lap he slipped up the track and allowed Keith Hammett to duck under him and record the lead for the first lap. Westover's night dipped even more when he rolled to a halt one lap later, triggering the first yellow of the event.
Chisholm had already moved to second with Kyle Strickler, Kyle Brown and Philip Houston close behind. Chisholm continued to pressure Hammett for the lead and on lap five Hammett slipped up the track and Chisholm shot under him to take over the top spot.
Three yellow flags slowed the action in the first eleven laps and with the USMTS utilizing the "choose" cone and also double file restarts even for the front row, after each yellow Chisholm had Strickler, not afraid to try the outside, right beside him. On each occasion however, Chisholm managed to fight off the North Carolina national Modified star and continue to maintain the lead.
The track started to go low side dominant and both Rodney Sanders and Tanner Mullens started to move up and they both put Strickler behind them by the halfway point of the race. Only Joe Chisholm stayed on the top side of the track and he pounded the cushion with fury while managing to stay up with the leaders.
Mark Smith collected Brown and Carlos Ahumada Jr. in a turn three pileup and after Smith then pounded the turn two wall five laps later, he was done and the yellow flags also stopped, setting up a fifteen lap race to the checkers.
Sanders was very strong and several times he got a nose under Jim Chisholm as they battled for the lead. Sanders appeared that he might be the fastest car at this point, but Chisholm was not going to give him the inside line.
In the last few laps, Sanders slid back a few car lengths with Jim Chisholm then continuing his strong run as he drove home for the win. Sanders, Mullens, Joe Chisholm and Strickler completed the top five. Sixteen cars completed the feature race with all on the lead lap.
Both the Factory Stocks and Limited Mods had improved car counts for Friday night's show and both provided entertaining feature races. The Factory Stock main saw a great battle between Westin Abbey and Johnny Torres for the win. While the lead position was only officially changed one time, in the early going of the race they were swapping the lead on each end of the track with slide jobs breaking out left and right.
However, each time, except for lap four, when Torres led at the line, Abbey was scored the lead driver. Cody Dixon was running third by the halfway point but then contact between himself and G.W. Egbert IV led to some hard feelings expressed on the track and a shuffle of the running order.
Meanwhile, the leaders hugged the low groove and while Torres rode right on the rear bumper of Abbey, Westin was able to hold on and take the win. Last night's winner Cameron Cook crossed the line third but failed in post race inspection, giving third to Egbert over Michael Bowles and Cody Frank.
Nineteen drivers started the Limited Mod feature race which also had its share of action. Three different drivers led at points of this race and hard feelings also developed over some of the activity during this fifteen lapper. Mark Fox started on the pole and led the opening lap before he was passed by Trevor Cogburn who was running an exciting line high up against the wall in the turns.
Cogburn led over Michael Dabney with Boone Evans moving up rapidly in the field to crack the top three and then engage in a slide job special as he fought with both Cogburn and Denny Gieber for the lead. Gieber had started seventh but smoothly moved forward and as the other leaders battled hard with each other, he was able to slip by and take over the point.
Things got pretty physical for second as the slide job intensity got even stronger but that came to an end with just three laps to go when Evans spun his way out of the contest. Gieber was very smooth right on the bottom and he would pull away for the win. Cogburn continued to pound the cushion in a late attempt to make a winning pass but it cost him second as last night's winner Coty Tupper who had started tenth, slipped under him for second on the last lap. Jake Smith and Dabney completed the top five. With the intensity displayed by the support classes for the first racing weekend of the year, I can't imagine how hard they must go at it by the time the heat and humidity of July hit!
Excellent last February weather continued on Friday with the promise of more when we turn the calendar to March on Saturday night. The same three classes will again be in action with the second point race for USMTS paying another five grand to the winner. RacinDirt will have the broadcast for those unable to jump in the car and drive to Texas on Saturday.
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