WHEATLAND, Mo. — With 289 cars in the pits, the eighth annual Summit USRA Nationals powered by MyRacePass got underway Thursday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Two familiar faces to southwest Missouri fans made their presence felt on the first of three nights, as Kris Jackson and J.C. Morton picked up feature wins in the USRA B-Mod division.
With 103 USRA B-Mods, 70 USRA Modifieds and 72 Stock Cars, the fields were split and there were two A Features contested in each of the B-Mod, American Racer USRA Modified and Medieval Chassis USRA Stock Cars) divisions.
Also picking up feature wins on the first of three nights were Jake Timm and Dustin Sorensen (American Racer USRA Modifieds), Josh Zieman and Dylan Thornton (Medieval Chassis USRA Stock Cars) and Dustin Gulbrandson (Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stocks).
Drivers accumulate points Thursday and Friday toward starting positions for Saturday night’s feature races in each division.
In Thursday’s first B-Mod feature, Jackson started seventh and quickly made a charge to the front. The six-time Lucas Oil Speedway track champion and former USRA B-Mod national champ passed Shadren Turner for the lead on lap three and set sail from there.
Jackson had a 3.4-second lead when a caution flag flew on lap 11, bunching the field just past the midway point. Jackson was in command with a 1.4-second lead with three laps remaining when another caution forced him to deal with one more restart – which he did without issue.
Jackson hugged the inside groove in the turns the rest of the way and finished 1.6 seconds in front of Turner with Tyler Kidwell third, Brandon Hare fourth and Parker Hale in fifth.
“I’m just glad to be here. It’s a tough group of cars,” Jackson said, noting a deep field with many he’s traveled to compete against in past USRA Nationals. “But they’re at my house now.”
USRA B-Mod national points leader and reigning national champ Jim Chisholm rallied to finish eighth after having to come through a B Feature and starting in 14th.
In the second B-Mod feature, Morton emerged from a battle with Andy Bryant as the former USRA B-Mod national champions settled it in the final laps of a caution-free 20 laps.
Bryant moved from his fourth-starting position and past J.C. Newell and into the lead on lap three. He held it until Morton took it away on lap 18, beating him to the flagstand by a few feet as the duo battled each other and heavy lapped traffic.
“I made the move up to the top and it started rolling really good and I made it to him,” Morton said. “Then we kind of switched lanes and then we caught the lapped cars and were all over the place at that point.”
Bryant slipped high in turn two on the final lap and that gave Morton some breathing room the rest of the way.
Newell finished third with Terry Schultz fourth and Dan Wheeler was fifth.
It was an all-Minnesota night in the USRA Modifieds as Jake Timm and Dustin Sorensen, earned victories in the twin features.
Timm won the opener in decisive fashion. After leading the opening circuit, he surrendered the point for three laps before retaking it for good on lap five.
Timm led by 1.9 seconds when he avoided a spinning Chase Jones, directly ahead of him, on lap 15. That brought out a caution and allowed Cory Crapser to restart on his bumper with Dean Wille in third.
Timm cruised over the final five laps. He finished 1.4 seconds in front of Crapser with Willie third, Matt Johnson fourth and Josh Angst fifth.
Sorensen led all the way in the second Modified feature, fighting off a challenge from Rodney Sanders to prevail by just under one second.
Starting outside of row one, Sorensen quickly jumped to the lead and opened a 1.7-second gap by lap three as third-starting Sanders settled in behind him.
That’s how it remained as the duo found heavy traffic amid lapped cars by lap 13. Sanders pulled right on the leader’s bumper, but Sorensen never wavered and wound up opening up his gap over the final five laps.
“He showed me his nose one time and I kind of got after it a little more,” Sorensen said. “Hopefully I didn’t do nothing dirty to him. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”
Tyler Wolff came home third with Darron Fuqua fourth and Joe Duvall fifth.
Josh Zieman, led the final 17 laps to earn the first USRA Stock Car feature win.
“I’ll tell you what man, we worked really hard for this,” Zieman said. “I’ll bet you good money that I worked harder than the rest of them tonight.”
Zieman had a great restart on lap four, going past from third to first. He and Mitch Hovden never were separated my more than a couple of car lengths until a caution on lap 14, when Hovden slipped just a bit as the race returned to green.
Zieman took advantage to open up a 1.1-second lead with three to go and held on from there. He wound up 1.8 seconds in front of Steve Jackson with Kevin Sustaire capturing third. Hovden, a seven-time USRA Stock Car national champion, faded to finish fourth with Lynn Panos in fifth.
Dylan Thornton made the decisive pass just after the mid-point and went on to win the second USRA Stock Car feature. He held off Pat Graham and David Hendrix down the stretch.
“I didn’t know what to expect. We had never set foot in this facility until our heat race tonight,” Thornton said. “But it’s a beautiful facility and we’re happy to be here.”
It looked for much of the race that the sixth-starting Hendrix was the driver to beat. He picked up three positions on the opening lap and then sprinted to the lead on lap two, going past Dixon and Pat Graham.
Lucas Oil Speedway’s track champion this season, Hendrix extended the lead to just over one second when a lap-seven caution bunched things up. Action resumed with just one lap completed before another caution. On the lap-nine restart, fifth-starting Thornton got around Hendrix to grab the lead.
Hendrix gave chase, pulling right behind Thornton lap after lap until a caution with three to go set up a three-lap sprint to the finish.
On the restart, Graham passed Hendrix as Thornton continued to lead as those two dueled behind him. Thornton held on for the win, finishing a half-second in front of Graham with Hendrix right behind. Dillon Anderson was fourth and Burl Woods finished fifth.
Six-time USRA Hobby Stocks National Champion Dustin Gulbrandson captured the opening-night feature win.
Third-starting Gulbrandson edged past Steve Larson by inches coming to the flagstand to complete lap four to take the lead after Larson had paced the first three circuits.
Following the race’s third caution, on lap eight, a lengthy green-flag run saw Gulbrandson open a 2.7-second lead over Larson when a lap-17 caution wiped out the cushion and left it a three-lap shootout for the win.
Gulbrandson was able to hang on as the race returned to green, winning by two car lengths over Larson. Tracy Halouska finished third with Justin Lichty fourth and Tyler Schlumbohm fifth.