SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — After a month-long hiatus, the outlaw modifieds of the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt made their annual September journey to the Deer Creek Speedway on Thursday for opening night of the 25th annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree.
With 81 cars and drivers on hand for the longest-running event for the United States Modified Touring Series, 30 drivers earned a spot in the 35-lap main event after right qualifying and eight tough-as-nails heat races.
Earning the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award, Rodney Sanders led the field to the green flag start with the last two USMTS National champions — Dereck Ramirez and Dustin Sorensen — giving chase and bringing Jake Timm battling through the first left-hander.
Timm, who had a series-best four wins entering the night, slipped into third as they raced down the back-stretch, but before the lead trio got back to the flagstand he slowed at the exit of turn four before pulling into the infield with terminal ignition problems.
The race got back underway with Sanders once again pulling away from the field, but Sorensen was able to stay within striking distance while Ramirez, Tanner Mullens and Jason Hughes were quite a ways back and battling hard for third.
On lap 11, Sanders went underneath the lapped car of Jeremy Nelson when Nelson’s machine suddenly slowed and tagged the concrete wall.
With no way to avoid the mess, Sorensen’s car collided with Nelson’s to bring out the second caution flag of the race and sending both to an early end to their nights.
Mullens, Ramirez, Brandon Davis, Hughes and Kylie Kath gave the fans at ‘The Creek’ a show as they diced for the next five positions behind the leader, but none of them nor any of the multiple lapped cars he had to deal with could keep Sanders out of Tralo Victory Lane.
“I felt like it was going to be top dominant, at least (in turns one and two) pretty much all night, but this end was starting to go away and usually it trickles back down,” Sanders said after collecting a $3,000 paycheck. “I felt like I was kind of just stalling out at the end, but we had a good car and track position really helps, but this car has been on a rail lately.”
Quietly, the 33-year-old from Happy, Texas (now residing in Minnesota), has put together the kind of sparkling season that earned him four USMTS National Championships.
With Thursday’s series-best fourth win of the 2023 campaign and 116th of his career, Sanders put a little more distance between himself and Hughes—a fellow four-time series champ—in the points standings with 30 nights complete and just seven remaining, including the next two nights here at the Featherlite Fall Jamboree.
And to add to the historical significance of Thursday’s effort by “The Rocket,” the victory was his 14th at the Deer Creek Speedway which ties him with Hughes for the most USMTS wins at the three-eighths-mile high-banked clay oval.
Between them, the two have won 28 of the 126 main events at this facility.
For his part, Hughes wound up fourth behind Mullens and Davis, and one spot ahead of his fellow Sooner State speedster, Dereck Ramirez, who held on for fifth.
The finish:
Rodney Sanders, Tanner Mullens, Brandon Davis, Jason Hughes, Dereck Ramirez, Kylie Kath, Joe Chisholm, Tyler Wolff, Parker Hale, Jim Chisholm, Alex Williamson, Lucas Schott, Zack VanderBeek, Will Krup, Jake O’Neil, Terry Phillips, Jacob Bleess, Gary Christian, Darron Fuqua, Don Gerritsen Jr., Dan Ebert, Nick Murgic, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Steve Lavasseur, Cayden Carter, Joe Duvall, Josh Angst, Dustin Sorensen, Jeremy Nelson, Alexandria, Jake Timm.