Sheppard Dominates as USMTS Completes Season

 Saturday night, November 7th, the USMTS wrapped up their 2020 racing season with the completion of the three program Southern Nationals at the RPM Speedway of Texas near Crandall. Along with this being the final race of the season for the USMTS crew, USRA sanctioned Limited Mods, Factory Stocks and Tuners would all be on the program. 

One hundred and forty six cars signed in for the four division program on another spectacular weather evening for November racing in Texas. The crowd was also by far the biggest of the weekend which I suppose should not have been a  surprise. With the first two shows of this weekend being mostly of the back gate generated revenue shows , Saturday night's show was much more of what the promoters would be looking for. 

One hundred and sixty eight different drivers participated during the three nights of racing with the featured Modified division topping the entry list all three nights. Before the show began, Brian Schoenbaum Jr was introduced to the crowd as he had clinched the USRA national Tuner championship. Again, for the third straight night, the entire program was available on Racing Dirt TV. If I misspoke in a recent report, my apologies to Racing Dirt head Trenten Berry who was on hand to direct the entire production. 

The program would be a mirror image of the previous night's program with the same number of heat races and B Features being presented that all led to the four main events. With the highest payoff of the weekend though, the Modifieds would go an extra ten laps in their main event while the other USRA classes would run a similar number of laps with the exception of the Tuners who were given a few more laps for their main. 

Despite having eight of their top ten drivers in series points on hand for the weekend, the USMTS regulars were licking their wounds just a bit after two nights of racing as they took their hits on Thursday and Friday with a local driver winning on Thursday and a Late Model invader topping the Friday night action. 

Saturday night's action would only leave the USMTS regulars more frustrated. For the second straight night, it would be two Late Model stars that would control the action for most of the Modified feature with Brandon Sheppard once again taking home the win. Terry Phillips would start up front  for the second straight night and he would take the early lead over Bo Day. Sheppard started in the second row and he wasted little time driving up to second and then starting to put the pressure on Phillips. Phillips was running a slightly higher line on the track and with the low groove seemingly the fastest, Sheppard quickly closed in on TP and began testing the waters on making a pass. 

Phillips simply couldn't get his car to hang on the bottom as he wished and it was only a matter of times before Sheppard was able to get inisde Phillips and take over the lead. Gradually Sheppard would pull away in the  first half of the race. Things started to get interesting when Sheppard caught the back of the pack and the drivers being overtaken were not nearly as gracious as they had been on Friday night and Sheppard had a tough time getting past the slower cars. Both Phillips and Tyler Davis, running a strong third, closed up on the leader.

However, just past the halfway point, a minor spin slowed the action and cleared the track for Sheppard. The last twenty four laps of the track ran off nonstop and Brandon pulled away to a comfortable lead. Phillips lost second to Davis but Tyler was unable to cut into Sheppard's sizeable lead. Brandon caught the back of the pack right at the end of the race but they didn't bother him as he moved past them and drove home for an unchallenged win. Sheppard furthered his statement to the effect that he is currently  perhaps the most talented and versatile driver around. Davis had a fine run for second with Phillips holding off a stiff challenge from Jake Gallardo for third. Both Gallardo and fifth finishing Dereck Ramirez made huge challenges with Gallardo coming from fourteenth and Ramirez from twenty sixth to fifth. Unlike his choice in the presidential race proudly plastered all over his race car, Ramirez was not a big loser on this night however Rodney Sanders and Ramirez both had to take provisional entries as the top two in national points. 

The other USRA classes were running for extra money also and several heats and multiple B Features were needed to set the main event. In the Factory Stocks, Tommy Davis Jr, after a couple of rocky nights, ended the season as national champion with a strong performance where he started in the front row and led all the way for the feature win. Only one yellow flag slowed the action and Davis Jr dominated as he quickly built up a big lead and maintained the event. For the second straight night Dalton Faulkner made a big advance as on Saturday he came from twelfth to finish as the runner up with Kyle Blanton third. 

The Limited Mod feature saw John O. Whittington overtake Cody Smith to get the win. Smith started in the front row and led much of the early going until Whittington made his move. Trying both high and then low, Whittington was finally successful in making a move past Smith and he then pulled away in the closing laps. Also making a strong drive was Shane Hebert who started fifteenth and drove all the way up to third. 

The Tuners ran a pitch perfect race with just a couple of early yellows followed by solid racing for seventeen laps. For winner Sean Leasure, this suited his interests as he took the lead from Steven Bevills by lap two and drove out to a comfortable lead on the way to a impressive win.  Steve Riojas went to a back up car for Saturday night and it proved to be a wise decision as he fought off Frank Lackey for the second place finish. 

This three night extravaganza completed the season for both the USMTS and RPM Speedway. The promoters of RPM seemed very pleased with how the weekend went and I would not be surprised  if this became an annual event and the farewell performance for USMTS every year. Thanks go out to everyone from RPM Speedway as well as everyone from the USMTS. Who ever ordered the weather did a fine job too!

 

Brandon Sheppard Dominates USMTS Run at RPM of Texas

 Night number two of the Southern Nationals for the USMTS Modifieds and USRA cars was held on Friday night, November 6th at the RPM Speedway of Texas just outside Crandall. It was a spectacular day for racing and a continuation of great racing weather here in the Lone Star state as it has been for much of the country. Who would expect that the weather would be in the seventy degree range even in Iowa and they would be adding last minute races to make up for those lost before racing could start this year? No doubt 2020 will go down in the history books as one of the craziest years ever for this country and the world at large. Here in Texas the warm weather is probably not so unseasonable but is still appreciated by everyone, especially those of us that know that the "other shoe" could drop at any moment. 

Night number two of the Southern Nationals would see more money on the line for the drivers in all classes that raced on Thursday night plus the USRA Tuners, mostly in pitch, would join the show for Friday and again on Saturday. 

Car counts were up in all classes with forty eight Mods signing in to race along with thirty nine Limited Mods and thirty eight Factory Stocks with nineteen Tuners also running. 

The most significant addition by far was in the Modified class where Illinois driver Brandon Sheppard, a driver some might recognize for his Late Model exploits, jumped into a Leon Ramirez car for the weekend shows. Sheppard just got done running his Late Model at the Charlotte Motor Speedway dirt track on Wednesday and Thursday, a place where in a normal year we probably would have been ourselves if not for the schedule and format change their due to the Pandemic. 

Sheppard clinches his second straight World Of Outlaws Late Model title on Thursday night and third in the last four years during which time he has proved himself to be the absolute best dirt track Late Model racer on the planet. At only twenty seven years of age, where his career will go and what goals he will accomplish is virtually without limit. 

What is neat about Sheppard is that with all that he had going on this week that he would even be interested in spending his time flying halfway across the country just to run a Modified for the weekend. But apparently he is enjoying racing this class also and of course is offered the best equipment by one of the most well heeled teams in the country for this type of racing. Sheppard does not have a lot of experience driving Modifieds as his career started right out in Late Models and he didn't build up to the Late Model experience like many drivers do, but he has taken to the class very quickly and well, thank you. 

That would be displayed later when he would dominate the forty lap feature race and pocket the top prize of three grand. That would be considered "chump change" to many as he just guaranteed the one hundred grand top prize in the Outlaws point fund but a real racer, as he is getting the reputation of being, just enjoys the experience and it's not all about the money. 

On a race track that was the polar opposite of what it had been on Thursday night, Sheppard trailed another Late Model star, Terry Phillips, for fourteen laps until Phillips suffered a mechanical breakdown and Sheppard inherited the lead. Phillips had been protecting the low groove with Sheppard stalking him when Phillips' car started showing heavy smoke from the rear end and when the car finally broke and spewed debris all over the track, the first yellow waved as Sheppard then took over the lead. 

Brandon's team mate this weekend, Dereck Ramirez, had made a strong run from tenth into second spot and looked to challenge but following the initial yellow and the only other one five laps later, Sheppard was able to slowly pull away both times and Ramirez simply had nothing to offer in the way of a challenge. 

Sheppard's only issue near the end of the race was heavy lapped traffic as he had to negotiate past seven slower cars to keep the gap between himself and Ramirez but he did so seamlessly and he crossed the checkered with three cars between himself and Ramirez. A race long battle for third saw Tyler Davis fight off Jake Gallardo for that spot with Chris Henigan completing the top five. 

Sheppard, who tipped that the Charlotte track was the worst ever this year with dust so bad that the Late Model teams had to redesign their cockpits to try and keep the heavy dust out of the cars as visibility became a serious issue, stated that his car was very maneuverable and he was able to move around on the track to pass slower cars, a major point on this night. For someone with very limited experience in Modifieds, Sheppard seems to know just how to drive them, of course a mark of a very gifted wheel man. 

The Limited Modifieds provided the most exciting finish of the night as they came to the checkered three wide battling for the lead. Early in the race it was Jimmy Day battling with Kale Westover for the lead with the two running look alike cars and confusing most of us with who was who. Cody Smith then moved up to challenge and he used the second groove to take over the lead. This race saw several early yellows and it would seem that on each return to  the green, the running order would get shuffled. 

Westover would then take over the lead and hold the top spot for a number of laps with Smith and then Kaden Honeycutt putting the pressure on. As the race neared its conclusion, Tommy Davis Jr, who would clinch the USRA national Limited Modified title on this night, would try the high side of the track. Not many drivers would try the high side as it didn't seem to working on the dry track but he was able to be productive on that line and he closed on Westover.

Racing down the back chute on the final lap, Davis Jr moved to the high side of Westover and Kale slid just off the bottom as he lost his groove for just a second or so. Honeycutt jumped on this and roared to the inside of Westover and they came to the line three wide. Honeycutt had an open lane on the bottom and he was able to edge into the lead and crossed the line first while Westover blocked the high side and prevented Davis Jr from passing him but at the same time giving up the lead. It was by far the closest finish of the weekend for a main event. 

Walter Hamilton, who is leading the national points in the Factory Stocks but has not clinched the title, certainly helped his own case on Friday night as he led from start to finish after starting on the pole for the Factory Stock feature. The Factory Stocks found the second groove or any higher line to simply not work for their bigger and heavier cars and everyone was battling for the inside line. 

Hamilton guarded that groove for twenty laps as he received some heavy pressure from Cody Myers who spent the entire race trying to root out the leader but being unsuccessful. Only one yellow flag slowed this race which found the field lining up on the inside line and looking for a mistake by fellow competitors to gain a spot. 

Dalton Faulkner, who showed a lot of speed, tried the higher line and very nearly pulled off a pass that would have gotten him second but he just couldn't quite pull it off and it ended up costing him third as Chris Davis ended up taking his place in line. Hamilton continued to block the low line and would go on for the win, a big one for him as he tried to hold off Tommy Davis Jr from becoming a double national champion. 

Nineteen Tuners took the green for their main event, a race that was stopped just once for race car body parts that were deposited on the track. Steven Bevills led from start to finish to take the apparent win. However, well after the fact and not announced to the crowd, Bevills ran into trouble in the tech area and his win was negated and instead he was disqualified for an unnamed violation. Perhaps he was singing out of tune. 

In any event, Bevills' DQ gave the win to Chris Lynn with Daniel Thompson and Bondy Cannon completing the top five. Brian Schoenbaum Jr clinched the national title on Friday night despite a less than stellar night that saw him start dead last in the feature after missing his heat race followed by a quick exit from the main event. 

The show moved along at a rapid pace with not a lot of yellow flags all night. The final checkered flag waved right at 10 pm, giving fans plenty of time to visit the pits afterward. As stated earlier, the track was the polar opposite of what it had been on Thursday with it being hard and very dry and a little dust to boot but for the most part, the large ridges and humps were gone. 

The three night program will wrap up on Saturday with even more money on the line for all classes with the Mods running for five grand to win, the Factory Stocks fifteen hundred and the Limited Mods seventeen hundred thanks to addition bonuses from a sponsor. The program will also be shown on Dirt Vision for those that don't feel the need to jump into their vehicles and drive to Texas for the night. 

Sartain Wins Wild USMTS Feature at RPM

 It was time to make a real old fashioned road trip so with great weather being promised, we headed out for the Lone Star state of Texas and a triple header of Modified racing at the RPM Speedway of Texas in Crandall for the last three USMTS races of 2020 for the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals. 

Along with three straight nights of Modified racing, USRA Limited Modifieds and Factory Stocks would be on the program with Tuners added for Friday and Saturday nights shows. 

This was the first time ever for us to be at RPM Speedway, a track we were told by a driver from "Up North" that we would be seeing some very competitive racing and a lot of s*** probably torn up! His prognostication proved to be right on. Later on we would see one of the wilder and most competitive Modified features of the year. 

RPM Speedway of Texas is a very wide quarter mile black dirt track. It has a large metal grandstand that runs most of the length of the front chute with a nice tower for officials behind the grandstand. A very strong p.a. system makes it easy to hear the announcers. Concession buildings and restrooms are behind the grandstand are are also very functional. Nice restrooms are also located in the pits which is something that many race tracks do not offer. The pits are huge for a quarter mile track as they start right at the entrance from turn four, wrap all the way down the back chute and extend quite a ways past the track. The pits can hold a large, large field of cars. The track lighting is a bit spotty with generally good lighting for the track but a couple of noticeable dark spots on the track. Noticeably missing at the track was a scoreboard which should be a requirement at any race track, just like it would be at any football field or baseball park. 

The track has medium banking and as one driver told me, in order to run the wall the track would need much more banking and because of the very tacky nature of the track on this night, most of the racing was done in the lower and middle grooves of the track. 

One very distinctive feature of the track that is quite unique is that the cars enter the track by passing between the grandstands and the front stretch wall with the flag stand between the driveway and the actual track. I have seen a few tracks like this, but not very many. One of the results of this set up is that cars can not return to the track if they pull off the track and on Thursday at least, pit crews were not allowed in the infield so essentially if a driver has any trouble with his car, he is done as there is no way to get a tire changed etc. and still return to the race. 

One certainty was that the track provided a warm welcome to its visitors and promoter Kevin Rogers came up to meet me in the grandstand when he was informed that we had traveled a distance to see the races and I got some free swag which I do not plan to report to the IRS. 

Even though I didn't know a lot of the drivers here, I was still able to visit with a few and get a little information about the track. One driver that I did stop to talk with was Modified veteran Terry Phillips who was working on his GRT chassis when I walked by. He reported that his last race of 2020 will be the Duel in the Desert next week where he will again drive a car for Jordan Grabouski. Then he gets ready for the Wild West Shootout in January. Phillips surprised when he said he is putting together a new Late Model for Arizona and that it will be a Capital chassis car. 

Another driver I spoke with was local racer Lee McCullough who gave me some info on the Factory Stock class. These cars look like Stock Cars but have less horsepower than the Stock Cars. They are very popular in this part of the country and have big fields of cars at many tracks. They also now have a lot of big money shows, probably because they can make these shows work due to large fields of entries. Lee, second in track points here this year, was driving a different car this weekend as his regular car owner was done for the year and he didn't have a good night, not making the main. 

I also spoke to young Modified driver Ronnie Yanacsek who lives up in the panhandle of Texas. The twenty year old is a student at Texas A & M but all his classes are virtual this year. It has been a tough year for Ronnie, having wrecked one car and blowing up one motor and now he is just trying to get as many laps in as he can. In an interesting move, he will hustle home from RPM, change over his MB car and then race at Vegas next week as an IMCA Mod. This will require a lot of work, including changing motors and as Phillips said, there would be no way he would do that which is why he drives for Nebraskan Grabouski. 

For the last USMTS weekend of 2020, eight of the top ten in series points are on hand and while neither would have a very good night later, Rodney Sanders and Dereck Ramirez would clinch the first and second place in series points later on Thursday. With forty four cars on hand, five heats and a pair of B Features would set the field for the main event. 

The Modified feature would be one of the wildest of the year and at the end, a glorious night for the local race drivers. Twenty four cars would start the main on a very fast but rough race track. Apparently they have had a lot of rain in the area lately so the corners were soft. I walked the track after the show and the corners were still very tacky with not a hint of a dry or slick track. It was "hammer down" but the problem was that there were some significant ruts in both corners, some of the biggest I've seen at a track this year. With the tight corners that the drivers really set their cars sideways for, hitting one of those ruts would send the cars wobbling in various directions and we did see that throughout the main. However, that didn't keep the drivers from running side by side and really running hard. 

Early on it was Bo Day and Bobby Malchus battling for the lead, with them trading back and forth for the top spot. Then Fito Gallardo moved in to challenge and Fito was very fast but spent nearly as much time chasing the car through the infield as he did on the track. There was hard contact between Day and Gallardo when the yellow flew for a marker tire on track. 

On the restart, perhaps due to that contact, Day spun in front of the whole field in turn one but all were able to avoid him but Day went off on the hook. Amazingly, despite all the wild action, those were the only yellow flags of the race. 

Then it was Machus receiving pressure from Gallardo and Jack Sartain who charged up from eighth on the grid. He was able to blast into the lead but just when it seemed like he would pull away, Cody Leonard, who was very fast in his heat, moved in to challenge for the lead. In fact, as the last few laps ran down, Leonard was able to dive into the lead but then Sartain crossed him over to regain the lead, protect the bottom on the last lap and take the win in a frantic feature race. Gallardo would finish third, Clyde Dunn would advance from twelfth to fourth with Marchus holding on for fifth as Texas drivers held the top six spots at the finish. 

There were thirty six Factory Stocks on hand and they ran four heats and couple of B Features to set their twenty four car field for the main event. Their main was a good race with not many yellows and some good battles up front. At the end, it was Bobby Ruffin who came up from the third row to take the win. Dalton Faulkner made a late charge from tenth to finish a close third with Jason Hood third. 

Limited Mods were also on the schedule and their were thirty three of them that signed in. They also ran four heats and a couple B Features to set their field. The Limited Mods are much like the IMCA Southern Sport Mods and I was very surprised to see that two classes sanctioned by USRA were running on Hoosier tires. 

After some early jockeying for position it was Coty Tupper who took the win after a good battle with Kale Westover who was running in both open wheel divisions. Finishing third in another competitive race was Thomas Blackwell. The Limited Mods raced well also with a few yellows for minor issues to slow the action. 

The whole show was clicked off at a rapid pace with the final checkered flag waving just after 10 pm. Both of the "support" classes were running for good money with even more on the line the rest of the weekend with the fields expected to just grow. As soon as the show was completed, the track equipment was on the track, packing the surface as they work to smooth the surface for the Friday night show. 

Schott Seals USRA Title With "Hummer" Win

 The first annual MODster Mash wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, November 1st at the Whitworth family's Humboldt Speedway in East Central Kansas. About a two hour pull almost straight East from Wichita, the Humboldt Speedway has been the site of many epic Modified shows over the years as this quarter mile oval, sitting next to the Whitworth family residence, has long been one of the towers of power when it comes to Modified racing in the Midwest. Having lost their King of America special way back in March to the Pandemic, this would be one of the biggest races of the year at "The Hummer" with Sunday night's winner taking home five grand. Also racing on this night would be the B Mods once again while the local Midwest Mods and USRA Tuners would also be a part of this early starting special. 

Along with big cash on the line to the winners, national champions in both the Mods and B Mods would be settled on this Sunday with the top two in each division on hand and ready to settle the issue. And for the third straight night, the sun would be shining and it would be a beautiful, if somewhat cool end to the USRA season. However, despite the sunny skies, a week's worth of rain, snow and ice made the track surface softer than normal and for the third straight night the racing conditions would be a bit choppier than would normally expected at this venue. 

I was finally able to catch up with USMTS and USRA head Todd Staley to pick his brain on a couple of issues. Foremost on my mind was to find out the thinking behind choosing to qualify the Modifieds this weekend when this series has long be a "draw a pill, line up for your heat and then race your way into the main" instead of opening up the show with time trials. 

Todd told me that he was experimenting this weekend for next year as some have suggested with the higher paying shows(more on this later) that a pill draw alone should not set the running order for the all important heat races. So he opted to try the qualifying format this weekend even though he told me that he wasn't that excited about doing time trials. So I told him that if he didn't like time trials, for goodness sakes lets not even consider them for next year! Actually his main reason for not having time trials would be because he would be afraid it would cost him cars and I fully agree with that. There are a number of teams out there that feel that if they can draw a decent starting spot, they can hang right with the "big boys" but if they have to qualify, they fell that they would likely end up starting behind them in heat races with little chance of garnering enough passing points to even make the mains so what would be the point in even showing up and trying. I already had a couple drivers tell me this weekend already exactly that same thing so I think that Todd will have plenty to "chew on" before he decides on a format for 2021. 

Todd said that the schedule will be coming out in a week or two but did throw me a couple of "teasers" before that announcement. The USMTS season will consist of around forty to fifty shows next year with several multi day shows planned. The plan next year is less overall shows and more big events.  All feature races in 2021 will pay five grand to the winner of one day shows and ten grand for multi day shows such as Ogilvie and Cedar Lake. The KOA at Humboldt will be the last weekend in March with the season starting earlier in March in Texas. The point champion in 2021 will earn seventy grand. 

As usual the Humboldt Speedway always has something new for each racing season as they never stop improving and adding to their facility. Even with this crazy season, they were able to add to the cat walk and give the pit side folks more good viewing locations. With a cat walk already in place in turn four, they adding a new one of the back straightaway near the middle of the track and just before the back chute exit. However, we are still waiting on that promised scoreboard that would be so valuable here as apparently the one that they purchased turned out to be a dud that wouldn't work so they are still looking. Hopefully they find one for 2021. 

The car counts were down just a bit for the finale as would logically be expected but there were still fifty Modifieds and twenty nine B Mods that signed in to race on Sunday along with twenty one of the Midwest Mods and a half dozen Tuners to give the four cylinder fans a thrill. The format was the same as the previous two nights except the number of heats and B Features was reduced by the numbers on hand. Late Model drivers continue to shine in time trials(which is probably logical since they get more practice doing TT, unfortunately) with Brandon Sheppard quickest under the clock at 15.778 seconds. All that honor did was give him the chance to start behind Schott, Tyler Wolff and Tanner Mullins in a heat race and when he had mechanical issues he had to make a remarkable drive from ninth to win a B Feature and qualify for the main. That drive may have been the best seen all weekend. 

There was plenty to be decided on Sunday with two USRA national titles to be determined. Remember when I mentioned that it was surprising that Lucas Schott was not at Eighty One Speedway on Saturday night after racing at Lakeside on Friday. Well, it turns out that he was playing the odds as he makes every attempt to win the Modified title for the second time. With his prime challenger Jake Gallardo opting to follow the MODster tour and go to Eighty One, Schott and team instead loaded up and drove five and a half hours farther South to race at Monarch Motor Speedway in Wichita Falls TX instead, hoping to pick up a win. 

This turned into a peculiar night for them as there were only eleven Mods at Monarch so they used the bold strategy of dropping out of their heat race so they could start in the back of the feature. Since USRA rewards with more points for passing cars in the main events, Schott was playing the odds and when he started tenth and then won the main, it gave him a few more point lead over Gallardo who did not have a good night at Eighty One. Schott and crew then jumped back on the freeway and headed to Humboldt so they could race head to head on Sunday with a slight edge in their pockets. 

But as it turned out, that strategy wouldn't be needed as "Cool Hand Luke" then drove a masterful race to a runaway win in the forty lap finale to MODster Mash at Humboldt, pocketing the first place money plus also claiming the national title. 

The setup couldn't have been better with Schott and Gallardo starting side by side in the front row but Schott quickly jumped out to a big lead while Gallardo's hopes were dashed quickly when he cut down a tire and had to pit under yellow with only four laps completed. He would come back out but eventually give up and pull into the infield, out of the race. 

Schott, meanwhile, was dominating the action as he kept pulling out to big leads, only to see the yellow wave all too frequently in the first half of the race; six times in all. The second half of the race ran off nonstop and Luke was able to pull away, all the time being careful with the rugged conditions. It was interesting that most of the field was bucking and rearing around the track, soft in the corners, while Schott seemed to be on rails and wasn't providing any of the "air time" that many others were getting. He carefully handled the rest of the race and took the title just as the script would have asked for, winning the main event and driving to victory lane for two separate celebrations. 

Brooks Strength showed exactly that as he fought off several tough challenges to race home for the second spot. It was a hotly contested position as Jake O'Neal, Jimmy Owens, Dereck Ramirez, Sheppard and Tanner Mullins were all at some point fighting for the spot but Strength held them off to take the second spot with the "O Show" settling for third. 

Things were just as important over in the B Mod pits as the pressure was on between Jim Chisholm and Kris Jackson as they raced for a national title too. Chisholm would start fourth in the main event while Jackson would start eighth and with a slightly larger lead than the split in the Mods was, Chisholm was just looking for a good finish and to keep Jackson behind him. 

The B Mods would put on a whale of a show with only one yellow flag and a three car battle that was bordering on spectacular. Patrick Royalty and Shadren Turner battled back and forth for the lead in this race, going side by side for many laps with each taking their shot to lead as they continued to jockey back and forth. Suddenly they were joined by young Dillon McCowan and it became a three car battle for the top spot. 

They would go three wide off turn four in a spectacular show and McCowan was just too fast for the other two as he split them, took over the lead and then sprinted away from the field in the closing laps. Meanwhile, Chisholm was hanging just back of the lead battle, running with the top drivers and keeping Jackson behind him. 

While McCowan would continue on for a very impressive win, Royalty would come home second and Chisholm drove to a smooth and smart third place finish and thus ensure himself of a national title. The youth were served in this division with race winner McCowan only sixteen and Chisholm just one year older. It will be fun to mark these two in the coming years and see where their talent leads them. 

This could just as well have been a two division program that would have allowed the show to get done a bit earlier for those taking to the highways to head home and get ready for Monday work. The Tuners couldn't put on much of a show with only six cars but at least it went without a yellow flag slowdown as Cayden Vance dominated for the win. The Midwest Mods endured themselves to no one with their performance as they smashed and spun their way to a gut wrenching eight yellow flag marathon. It finally got so bad that track officials pulled the plug and they finished with a green, white and checkered conclusion laps short but surprisingly, they were able to finish the last two circuits without another spin. 

Winner Casey Burnett did have a tale to tell as he was the early leader until he spun in turn one following, not surprisingly, a yellow for a spin when he himself looped in front of the full field, triggering a multi car smasharoo  that eliminated a few cars and sent front bumper sales sky rocketing. 

Burnett then went to the tail but with some good driving and utilizing all the yellows to his advantage, he was able to drive back up through the field and take the win over Jackson McGowan. Burnett was one of at least two leaders to spin while holding the top spot and fans began to wonder if indeed anyone could keep their car pointed the correct direction long enough to take the checkered. 

Even with the two divisions trying their best to stretch out the show, track officials kept things moving and the final checkered waved somewhere before 8:30 pm. As always, thanks to the Whitworth family and their officials for a job well done along with Todd, Janet, Jeff, Brice and everyone else with the USRA for their help this weekend. Three nights of quality Modified racing this late in the season was a joy to be a part of .