Rain pushed the original date for King of America XIII back more than a month, and the rust showed as completing Thursday’s opener at Humboldt Speedway was a tall task.
The Summit USMTS Modifieds suffered through two red flags during the first half of the main event which extended the time to complete the race to more than an hour.
Caution flags during the first eight laps saw former winners Jason Hughes, Rodney Sanders and Lucas Schott joining several others in bending body parts. For drivers such as Tyler Wolff and Broc Bowen, they had to deal with much more than just sheet metal damage.
Sybesma Graphics Pole Award winner Dean Wille set the pace to start the feature, which extended to 33 laps as a tribute to Barbi VanBeek — the mother of USMTS superstar Zack VanderBeek, who was unable to attend tonight’s event after laying his mother to rest yesterday.
Wille led four laps before Alex Williamson powered past around the top of the Humboldt Speedway to gain the lead on lap five.
Terry Phillips snuck by Williamson following the race’s first restart, but another quick yellow flag allowed Williamson to retain the lead. He led until Darron Fuqua assumed the top spot with 10 laps in the books.
After the first 11 circuits took more than 45 minutes to get through, the final 23 took less than 10 minutes to finish with Fuqua leading the rest of the way in his first start of the 2024 season.
Not only was it his first time in action this year, but it was also his career-first USMTS win at ‘The Hummer’ and just his second overall. He pocketed $3,000 for his efforts.
“We got to take a break and get some priorities taken care so we can concentrate a little bit,” Fuqua said about his absence from the first four USMTS event in Texas. “We unloaded really good. This is my first Mullens car — my oldest — and it’s just been really good so I decided to pull it out.
“I always run good here at the King of America. I think we got second twice the last four years or something, so I would settle for a second again but I’d really like to get (a win).”
Phillips held on for the runner-up spot while 13th-starting Cade Dillard finished third to put him on the Featherlite Top-3 podium. Jake Timm started 20th and climbed to a fourth-place paycheck by the end, and also garnered the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award.
Williamson rounded out the top five with Jeremy Nelson, Dereck Ramirez, Jacob Hobscheidt, Cayden Carter and defending King of America champ Dan Ebert completing the top 10.