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!
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