PARK CITY, Kan. — The campaign for the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt finished just like it started with Tyler Davis finding victory lane in the season opener and Saturday’s finale at his home track — 81 Speedway.
“81 Speedway with USMTS was a curse for me for a long time,” Davis said. “I couldn’t hit my ass for nothing and I just knew if it kept digging we could do it.”
On March 5, Davis dominated the final night of the 12th annual Texas Spring Nationals at the Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas. He earned $10,000 for that win and added $10,030 Saturday night with his second career USMTS triumph.
Despite six cautions that resulted in a 35-minute finale and saw half of the 28 starters out of the race before the checkered flag waved, the race itself was one of the more entertaining of the year with a typical 81 Speedway nail-biter of a finish that came down to the final corner to decide the winner.
With Rodney Sanders chasing Davis, Darron Fuqua passed Sanders for second place on lap 11 when Jason Hughes, who was running fifth, tagged the wall in turn two to force the third caution of the race.
Back under green, Fuqua found his way around Davis on the high side and took the lead with 12 down, but two laps later a broken rear-end caused him to stop atop turn four and his shot at a second win this season went up in smoke.
At the halfway mark it was Davis, Sanders, Dereck Ramirez, Jason Ingalls and Tyler Wolff occupying the top five, but Ingalls and Ramirez became casualties on laps 23 and 26, respectively.
All eyes were on Davis and Sanders at the front as each racer navigated the super-fast three-eighths-mile dirt oval located about 20 miles from Davis’s doorstep in Haysville.
With three to go, Sanders got underneath Davis and they banged rear tires but Davis held serve at the flagstand, but Sanders stayed within striking distance and passed on several chances to throw a danger-laced slide-job at the leader.
Coming to checkered flag, Sanders pulled side-by-side with the leader as they exited turn four, but Davis was able to fend off the four-time USMTS National Champion and won by about six feet in the drag race to the finish line.
“I didn’t know how many more times I could hold that wheel around (turns) three and four up top,” Davis added. “I knew I couldn’t let off the gas because they were coming on the bottom and they kind of baited me. I got passed and I made sure not to do that again so I just know if I stayed in the bottom down (in turns one and two) and slowed it down and just ripped the top as hard as I could it would be all right but I don’t know how many more restarts I could have took.”
While Davis got his second win of the season, Sanders was unable to get his second of the year and had to settle for second and his 16th top-five finish of the year.
Along with his victory, Davis was made aware that he has also clinched the Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series national crown for USRA Modifieds.
“We had about 30 people tell us how stupid we were when we started this year and I didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s a badass race car… We ran it all year and it ain’t slowed down with lick.
“I don’t think we’ve ever got around 81 that hard before. It was everything I had. I was grabbing hands of wheels when I needed to and racing with the best guys in the country they give me room. Rodney could easily slam the door on me but he didn’t.”
Behind the front-row starters and top two finishers, Wolff claimed a well-deserved third-place paycheck after rolling off ninth on the starting grid.
The finish:
Tyler Davis, Rodney Sanders, Tyler Wolff, Dan Ebert, Tanner Mullens, Terry Phillips, Trevor Hughes, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Brandon Givens, Dalton Kirk, Cayden Carter, Wyatt Gaggero, Chris Clark, Shane DeVolder, Dereck Ramirez, Jason Ingalls, Jacob Bleess, Bryce Schniepp, Matthew Day, Kyle Brown, Chris Kratzer, Darron Fuqua, Dustin Sorensen, Jason Hughes, Jeremy Nelson, Zack VanderBeek, Chase Holland, Joe Duvall.