PETTY, Texas — An electrifying finale to the 14th Annual USMTS Texas Spring Nationals took place Saturday night at the Rocket Raceway Park as Dan Ebert captured the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt feature win over a season-high field of 67 monster modifieds.
Rebounding from a tumultuous night on Friday, Tyler Wolff rolled from first-place after earning the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award and paced the first 10 laps with Ebert and Jake Timm closing in.
The leaders entered lapped traffic on lap 15 with Wolff, Ebert and Timm nose-to-tail. Using a back-marker to his advantage, Ebert went high and snuck by Wolff who was bottled up by the traffic.
Moments later, the Gorsuch Performance Caution Flag waved for the first time as fourth-running Terry Phillips lost the handle of his machine while Tyler Davis and Dereck Ramirez also got together, but both got their spots back as Phillips delivered the yellow.
Rodney Sanders, Tanner Mullens and Jim Chisholm went to war for the fourth spot after the restart but Chisholm spun in turn three four laps later to cause another slowdown.
That restart allowed Mullens to slip by Timm for third, and then Kyle Brown nudged ahead. Meanwhile, Jason Hughes was making the best of his provisional 25th starting spot and was ninth by the halfway mark.
After yet another yellow flag for Wolff’s unfortunate spin, Kyle Brown blew past Mullens for second with Timm, Ramirez and Hughes not far behind.
But like Jack Sartain the night before, nobody was in the same class as Ebert rolled in Victory Fuel Victory Lane after leading the final 40 circuits of the 50-lapper around the popular three-eighths-mile clay oval.
“It’s not often when you’re racing—a lot of racers that are watching can understand—you have a car when you just hit it that right that night, the 36-year-old from Lake Shore, Minn., said. “It’s not very often when you can just hit the setup perfect, and we did tonight. It was really awesome.”
Ebert’s margin of victory at the checkered flag was 3.154 seconds and put him at the top of the points battle with four races in the books.
The rest of the top three were 13th-starting Brown and Timm, while Mullens and 14th-starting Ramirez completed the top five.
Feature Finish (50 Laps)
1. (2) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn., 2. (15) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa, 3. (3) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn., 4. (14) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan., 5. (19) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla., 6. (25) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., 7. (24) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson, N.D., 8. (13) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan., 9. (7) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, 10. (26) 15W Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn., 11. (5) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., 12. (21) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan., 13. (9) 7 Sean Gaddis, Diana, Texas, 14. (22) 15 Kale Westover, Altus, Okla., 15. (27) 55H A.J. Hoff, Mantorville, Minn., 16. (20) 01 Jacob Hobscheidt, Plattsmouth, Neb., 17. (6) 54T Matthew Day, Farmersville, Texas, 18. (18) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla., 19. (11) 28 Cory Davis, Seminole, Texas, 20. (12) 47M Trey Melton, Lubbock, Texas, 21. (1) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark., 22. (16) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas, 23. (8) 100 Lee Patton, Ruston, La., 24. (23) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 25. (4) 2G Kenny Gaddis, Diana, Texas, 26. (10) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn., 27. (17) 47 Jack Sartain, Royse City, Texas