PETTY, Texas — Tyler Davis notched his first victory with the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt on Saturday, leading all but one lap of the 50-lap main event and pocketing $10,000 in the 12th annual Texas Spring Nationals finale at Rocket Raceway Park.
Starting on the outside of the front row, Davis paced the opening lap but Jacob Bleess snuck by to lead the second lap. Undaunted, Davis battled back to lead the third and every other lap en route to the checkered flag, but it wasn’t without pressure.
Early on it was Dereck Ramirez and Tanner Mullens putting the heat on Davis but as the laps clicked off it was Jason Hughes looking for vindication for his runner-up finish 24 hours earlier.
Using a provisional starting spot, Hughes rolled off 25th and by lap 33 he was fourth. He blasted by Mullens and Ramirez with four laps to go and then chased Davis to the finish line, coming up just short for the second straight night.
For Davis, however, we was visibly the smoothest in the corners and never made a mistake to open the door for his former chassis builder.
“I can’t tell you guys how much diesel fuel I’ve wasted going up and down these roads and coming home short every time with an excuse or ‘faded late’ or whatever,” the elated winner revealed in victory lane. “To be honest I started to doubt if I should quit doing this s— so, man this is unbelievable.”
“I got to give a big shout out to my wife and daughter at home, and J.R. Sartain who let me start my own race team again. If it wasn’t for him. I wouldn’t be here. I couldn’t afford to come here. There’s so many people who’ve given so much for me to even be able to come out on these roads, and it dates back to people who first started helping me. You know, I don’t even know what to say.”
Just two laps slowed the pace during the first half of the race, but a rash of six yellow flags during the final 12 laps kept the leaders close and the lapped traffic out of play.
“I wanted the lapped cars every time the yellow came out,” Davis said. “I thought ‘Man, here comes the slide job’ and I finally figured out how to get through the hole and maintain it. I seen that white flag and I couldn’t believe it.
“You know I think it was Jason Hughes that rolled up beside me there and he’s taught me a lot. He builds a great race car and I ran him for a long time so I’ve got to give a big thanks to him, his whole crew and everybody. He taught me a lot of how to race out here on the road.”
Ramirez wasn’t far behind and crossed beneath the checkered flag in third but was disqualified after the race when his machine failed to make the minimum weight.
Originally fourth, Rodney Sanders was credited with third, Terry Phillips took the fourth spot and Mullens rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Tyler Davis, Jason Hughes, Rodney Sanders, Terry Phillips, Tanner Mullens, Darron Fuqua, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Dustin Sorensen, Dan Ebert, Kale Westover, Brandon Givens, Cayden Carter, Jayson Good, Tyler Wolff, Dylan Thornton, Jacob Bleess, Chris Dawson, Chris Clark, Kyle Brown, Lance Mari, Lucas Schott, Joe Duvall, Shane DeVolder, Jake Timm, Landon Atkinson, Mike Hansen, Dereck Ramirez.