SPRING VALLEY, Minn. – Reigning USMTS national champion Rodney Sanders showed his mastery of the Deer Creek Speedway with a wire-to-wire victory in Saturday’s 18th Annual USMTS Southern Minnesota Spring Challenge powered by Boomtest Well Service.
With a 32-car starting field for the 40-lap main event, the 31-year-old from Happy, Texas, was put to the test early on when he reached lapped traffic just nine laps into the contest with Zack VanderBeek, Tyler Wolff, Tanner Mullens and Darron Fuqua following close behind.
Wolff was briefly able to get by VanderBeek on lap 13 as they maneuvered in and out of slower traffic, but VanderBeek eventually found his groove and put some distance between himself and Wolff while Sanders was setting sail out front.
The race’s only caution was brief and occurred on lap 15, wiping out a nearly-three-second lead for Sanders but giving the leader some clean air in front of him with all but three starters still in competition.
Jake O’Neil was looking to score his fourth straight USMTS win at the Deer Creek Speedway and squirted past Mullens for fourth on the restart. Five laps later, points leader Dereck Ramirez slipped into the top five while VanderBeek began to chip away at Sanders’ advantage up front.
VanderBeek pulled alongside Sanders at the flagstand to complete the 28th lap with Sanders still leading by a bumper just as the leaders found the back of the field again.
This time, however, Sanders was flawless in lapped traffic and extended his lead over the field, eventually pulling away to a 2.459-second triumph.
“I didn’t really know where to be,” Sanders said in victory lane. “I felt like (the track) was starting to clean up on the bottom and I didn’t really know if it was rubbering-up but it was starting to clean up really well and I saw Zack one time show his nose.
“If I had a clear track I felt pretty good but you know anything can happen. You know this is a really tough deal this year. Kudos to Todd (Staley) and everybody that makes all this happen. This is big money for us.”
The win was worth $10,000 and the 11th at Deer Creek for the four-time series champ — the 111th of his career in Summit USMTS National Championship fueled by Casey’s competition.
Despite coming up one spot short of a win, VanderBeek scored his first top-five finish of the season and a $5,000 consolation prize for his effort while Wolff was a solid third at the finish line.
Mullens got the best of O’Neil for the fourth spot after a spirited battle between the two that lasted most of the race.
Ramirez came from 12th on the grid to finish sixth—good enough to hold a one-point lead over Sanders heading into Sunday’s night’s tripleheader finale in Decorah, Iowa.
Jason Cummins, Lucas Schott, Darron Fuqua and Landon Atkinson rounded out the top 10.
The finish:
Rodney Sanders, Zack VanderBeek, Tyler Wolff, Tanner Mullens, Jake O’Neil, Dereck Ramirez, Jason Cummins, Lucas Schott, Darron Fuqua, Landon Atkinson, Johnny Scott, Dustin Sorensen, Brooks Strength, Terry Phillips, Joel Alberts, A.J. Hoff, Jason Hughes, J.T. Wasmund, Dan Ebert, Jesse Glenz, Tyler Davis, Lance Mari, Lucas Lee, Curt Myers, Brandon Givens, Jacob Bleess, Jayson Good, Will Krup, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Brandon Davis, Al Hejna, Chris Oertel.