POCOLA, Okla. — Night after night and year after year, the best of the best racers in dirt modified racing are drawn to the Summit USMTS National Championship fueled by Casey’s, and that produces what is arguably the most intense racing in all of motorsports.
They did it again Saturday night at the Tri-State Speedway, giving fans in attendance at the 3/8-mile high-banked red clay oval in Pocola, Okla., one of those races that will be talked about for a generation.
With 57 cars and drivers squeezing into the pit area for the seventh annual USMTS Drive4JRT.com Juggernaut presented by Hacienda Mechanical, the 40-lap main event odyssey began with Austin Siebert pacing the 26-car field to the start from the Sybesma Graphics Pole Position.
With four-time USMTS national champion Jason Hughes starting next to him, the 34-year-old from Grandview, Missouri, took control at the waving of the green flag with Hughes giving chase followed by Kenny Gaddis and former track champ Lonnie Robins.
Behind them a great three-car battle starring Dereck Ramirez, Terry Phillips and Rodney Sanders bubbled up to the surface from the get-go.
Despite heavy pressure from Hughes throughout the first 10 laps, Siebert remained solidly smooth through the center of the racing surface and began to inch further away as the leaders found lapped traffic near the halfway point of the 40-lapper.
Hughes — a three-time USMTS feature winner here — stayed busy in fending off challenges from Phillips, Sanders and Ramirez while they danced in and out of a swarm of back-markers until the race’s first of yellow flag waved on lap 22.
The pause didn’t appear to bother Siebert as he went right back to the middle lane and kept his pursuers at bay while Hughes and Ramirez stayed side-by-side with Phillips and Sanders fighting for real estate right behind them.
With 25 laps in the books, Hughes got a good run off turn two and looked to pull alongside Sibert down the back-stretch. In a race where inches matter, minor contact to Siebert’s right rear quarter panel from the left front of Hughes’ racecar sent the leader into a spin as they entered the third turn.
The race’s second caution resulted in Siebert retaining the top spot while Hughes was forced to tag the rear of the field and all but wiping out any chance of snapping his nearly-four-year dry spell dating back to September 3, 2017, when he won his 155th USMTS feature two weeks before clinching his fourth series title.
It will never be known what might have been, but what was over the final 15 laps was something to behold.
Sanders, who won the last time the USMTS was here last June, got by Ramirez after the restart and then drove up to challenge Siebert for the lead. He used a strong run into the third turn to drive under and slide up in front of the leader, but Siebert was back in charge by the time they reached the flagstand to complete laps 27.
Ramirez, who remained faithful to the shortest way around the racetrack for the first 28 laps, remained there and regained second place from Sanders one lap later. Then on lap 30, he pulled even with Siebert but trailed by a nose at the stripe.
Siebert and Ramirez raced door to door every lap after that, never touching and neither ever enjoying more than a half-car-length advantage at the end of each lap. Ramirez led for the first time on lap 35, but Siebert fought back to lead the next time around.
Laps 37 and 38 were scored in favor of Siebert while Ramirez, who is three months his senior, was noted as the leader at the white flag. Ramirez was able to pull slightly ahead on the final circuit and crossed beneath the checkered flag with a half-second cushion over Siebert—the widest margin for the leader over the last dozen laps.
“That was fun,” Ramirez said after climbing from his No. 4R Cornett-powered Boomtest Well Service Hughes Racing Chassis machine. “I pride myself on being a clean racer and I didn’t want to dirty him up. I felt like on the last lap there I got far enough ahead of him that I was going to clear him going in the corner so I had to do what I had to do. You’ve got to win a race and that’s what we do this for.
“He did a heck of a job, you know, he’s up there running his line and I’m down there searching and I’m trying different things on the bottom and finally there at the end I kind of widened my entry and made it work. Man that was awesome. I hope you fans liked that one. That was a pretty good race there.”
His second win in eight starts this season—and now the new Wrisco Points Leader—Ramirez took a moment to reflect on his support system.
“I’ve got to dedicate this win to a family back home. Brandon Miller and his family, they lost their dad (Eugene Shahan) and he actually started going with us this year. We got him a victory down there in Texas and this one’s for him. We’re going to miss him and I know he’d be right here with us, and I’m sure he’s up there watching me today so this is for him. And this is for my dad (Leon Ramirez). He’s been battling cancer and seems like every time we get good news we get bad news and I owe all this racing to him. I love him and I love my family and I just hope he gets better and so it’s for you too dad.”
While Dereck Ramirez was the name written on the $10,000 winner’s paycheck, Siebert was pleased with his effort and $5,000 consolation prize.
“Such a heartbreaker,” he said. “We’re getting close to the end, I thought I had it and that would’ve been our first win and that would have been huge. We were racing, he was good, he was better than us today. There’s things I could’ve probably done different but it was a lot of fun.”
Sanders was the third driver to cross the finish line but was disqualified during post-race technical inspections for an unapproved suspension component. That relegated him to the rear of the main event finishing order and cost the not-so-happy hotshoe from Happy, Texas, a total of 41 series points.
That moved tenth-starting Tanner Mullens to third on the final score sheets with Lucas Schott and Tyler Wolff coming home fourth and fifth. Jake O’Neil, Dan Ebert, Phillips, Johnny Scott and Robins rounded out the top ten.