WHEATLAND, Mo. — The United States Racing Ass’n Hobby Stocks got their moment in the Summit USRA Nationals spotlight Wednesday night at Lucas Oil Speedway, with Dustin Gulbrandson walking away with the Summit Shootout feature win.
Gulbrandson took over the lead with five laps to go and then held off Tracy Halouska. Gulbrandson earned $500 for his 18th feature victory of the season.
Gulbrandson, who started fourth, stalked Halouska for much of the race after the second-starting Halouska took the lead on lap two and held it until lap 11. That’s when Gulbrandson made what would be the winning pass, going on the outside on the front straightaway to seize the lead.
Gulbrandson held on from there to beat Halouska by .725 seconds at the finish.
“Hats off to Lucas Oil and everybody here for putting on the event,” Gulbrandson said. “It’s an awesome track to come to. The racing surface right there is about as good as you’re going to get.
“Tracy’s always fun to race with. We come out of the same shop and race together and help each other a lot. I knew we were gonna race each other clean there for the win. I’m just lucky to come out of top.”
Gulbrandson said the win doesn’t necessarily put a target on his back as a favorite for the remainder of the week, as qualifying races are held Thursday and Friday prior to Saturday’s final-night main event.
“There’s a lot of good guys in this class and a lot of fast guys,” Gulbrandson said. “We’ll just see what happens and hopefully everything stays going good and we have a little luck on our side.”
Scott Dobel finished third with Jeremy Crimmins in fifth. The Hobby Stock Summit Shootout featured track champions and Summit Shootout qualifying race winners.
Bobby Williams used consistency to win the Lucas Oil Speedway Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod track championship, despite not winning a feature. But the Hermitage driver took a trip to victory lane in the first USRA B-Mod feature on Wednesday night.
Williams started fourth and took over the lead on lap six. He held off seventh-starting Ryan Gillmore by 1.2 seconds with Kris Jackson driving from ninth to third.
“The track was really, really good,” Williams said. “My niece, she is on the quarter panel of the car. She is having heart surgery tomorrow so I’m glad we could get this done for her.”
Mike Striegel, normally the Lucas Oil Speedway flagman, started from the pole and led all 20 laps in the second B-Mod feature. The “Wheatland Outlaw” outdistanced runner-up Terry Schultz, who charged from seventh, by 2.6 seconds in a caution-plagued 20-lapper. Colson Kirk came home in third.
“The race track was top-dominant which suited me perfect, because I started front row outside,” Striegel said. “The only thing I was thinking of, man the fans are gonna give me so much crap if I can’t win this race. It’ll be a long season next year.”
The third B-Mod feature, J.C. Morton followed up his Summit Shootout win a night before by driving to a feature win. Morton got around Brandon Hare for the lead on lap five and drew away from there, beating Hare by 2.5 seconds at the checkers. Kyle Slader finished third.
“We finally got this Bloodline Race Car rolling,” Morton said. “Me and Brandon Hare threw some sliders back and forth early. The bottom was good in one and two. Finally I snookered by him and the yellow came out and that made the race right there.”
Tyler Davis passed Nic Bidinger going into turn three on lap 16 and held off a hard-charging Rodney Sanders on a restart with three to go for the first Modified feature win.
Davis, the USRA national points leader, held off Sanders by just under one second as both locked themselves into Saturday’s finale. Trevor Hughes was third.
“It’s relieving to be done and we can sit back and relax the rest of the week until the weekend,” Tyler Davis said of his locked-in status for the Saturday’s feature.
Brandon Davis took the second Modified feature, a night after earning a Summit Shootout feature win.
Davis had a 2.3-second lead over Tyler Wolff that was wiped away on a lap-12 caution. But he was able to hold off Kylie Kath, who charged late, to win by .441 seconds. Tyler Wolff was third.
“It feels good to come down here to an unknown track and run good,” Brandon Davis said. “Hopefully we can run good on Saturday.”
Josh Cain took the lead on lap 13, when Rob Moseley slid too high in turn four, and went on to earn the USRA Stock Cars first feature win.
Once he took over the top spot, Cain checked out and drove away to a 3.7-second win over Mitch Hovden. Moseley, after leading 10 of the first 11 laps, settled for third.
Mitch Keeter was the fourth and final leader of the second Stock Cars feature, leading the final four laps to earn the win.
Bryant Bennett spun while leading as he and Keeter entered turn three on lap 16. Keeter inherited the lead as the caution flew and held on the rest of the way. Chris Dishong wound up in second with Jason Josselyn third.
“That was a lot of fun. I hadn’t raced USRA in a few years,” Keeter said. “I’ve been racing Late Models the last three or four years and I haven’t raced these cars since 2003 or ’04.”
The third Stock Cars feature saw defending USRA Nationals champ Dylan Thornton led all 20 laps for a convincing win over runner-up William Garner.
Thornton built a four-second margin with two laps remaining when a caution wiped out his lead, but was able to navigate the restart and drive to the win. Mason Beck was third.
eren’t very good last night, but stayed up late and worked on it and got it better, I guess,” Thornton said. “Now we’ll see how Saturday goes.”