CRANDALL, Texas — Taking turns being interviewed in victory lane after a main event win with the Summit USMTS National Championship fueled by Casey’s, Dereck Ramirez took his turn Thursday following a wire-to-wire effort at the RPM Speedway.
In an electrifying points battle between himself and Jake O’Neil, Ramirez wears the Wrisco Points Leader spoiler with his 19th career win while O’Neil settled for an eighth-place paycheck.
Ramirez got a good start and outraced polesitter Jason Ingalls to lead the opening lap while Lucas Schott followed into the runner-up spot the next time around with Tyler Wolff trading slide jobs with Ingalls for third.
Meanwhile, defending series champ Rodney Sanders advanced from 20th to 10th in the running order just five laps into the race while countless two- and three-wide battles dotted the multi-grooved bullring.
Despite the top contenders continually dealing with lapped traffic, the race’s first caution didn’t occur until six laps to go when Sanders, Chris Kratzer, Clyde Dunn Jr. and Brandon Givens were stopped and facing the wrong way between turns three and four.
Sanders—who came into the program third in the standings behind O’Neil and Ramirez—left the track on the hook of a tow truck, damaging his hopes of a fifth USMTS title.
With his two-second breathing room extinguished, Ramirez led Wolff, Schott, Ingalls and Carlos Ahumada Jr. back to the green flag for the restart.
Last Sunday, Ramirez was tentative heading into the corner after a late restart at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union, Iowa, which allowed Wolff to slide into the lead briefly before Ramirez regrouped and regained the top spot.
Thursday night, Ramirez put his lesson learned into action and kept Wolff and Schott at bay before driving off to claim the checkered flag and $5,000 top prize.
Ramirez, who scored his fifth win of the season, has swapped appearances with O’Neil for the last six races.
Ramirez also edged one spot ahead of O’Neil on the all-time wins list too, now leading O’Neil 19 to 18. The one common denominator for both drivers is the Cornett-powered engines under their hoods.
Ahumada was fourth while Tanner Mullens advanced from 16th on the starting grid to finish fifth.
The finish:
Dereck Ramirez, Tyler Wolff, Lucas Schott, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Tanner Mullens, Nathan Smith, Dan Ebert, Jake O’Neil, Jason Ingalls, Clyde Dunn Jr., Jake Gallardo, Dustin Sorensen, Jason Hughes, Brandon Givens, Chris Kratzer, Tyler Davis, Colton Horner, Jayson Good, Bobby Malchus, Chris Clark, Curt Myers, Rodney Sanders, Terry Phillips, Lance Mari, Zack VanderBeek.