COLCORD, Okla. — The inaugural ARMI Contractors All-American wrapped up Saturday night and the all-new state-of-the-art Arrowhead Speedway did not disappoint.
The one-third-mile dirt oval delivered for the race fans, and delivered two hometown victories for Jason Hughes, who built the winning chassis and collected $20,023 for his second win of the weekend with the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt.
Hughes—a four-time USMTS national champion—saw his chance at a fifth title disappear on Friday as Rodney Sanders won the main event to clinch his fifth USMTS crown instead.
Hughes snapped a six-year winless drought on Thursday, and there were no complaints from Hughes on Saturday night as the 49-year-old veteran collected $23,723 along with the 156th and 157th wins of his USMTS career over a 72-hour stretch.
“Thursday night was our first one in a long time, and we knew we had to get that monkey off our back and they’d start rolling around for us,” Hughes said with a grin after his win. “We’ve had a really good car for quite a while. We just ain’t got the luck to finish it up but we got ‘er done this weekend.”
Hughes primarily kept the right rear of his USMTS Modified up against the outside wall, churning for any moisture he could find in the track. Occasionally, however, Jake Timm forced him to move to the middle and bottom of the racing surface, throwing caution to the wind more than a couple of times.
“That was a lot of fun. I’ve always paid for my own stuff and had a little bit of sponsor help—and we’ve always appreciated all that—but when you do that you’ve got to really take care of your equipment so you don’t abuse it and you can run it again next week,” Hughes revealed. This damn time I figured out you just got to drive it like you hate it, and if you wreck it you build another one and go on.”
For most of Saturday’s 50-lapper, Timm gave Hughes all the pressure he could ask for. In fact, he snuck by Hughes just before the yellow flag appeared for the third and final time with eight laps to go.
Back under green, Hughes was able to keep Timm at bay and crossed beneath the checkered flags with about two car-lengths to spare. It was the third straight runner-up finish of the weekend for the son of hall-of-famer Bob Timm, who also owns the Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis.
“I knew I couldn’t go out there and make any mistakes because (Jake Timm) ain’t going to make many. I could see him driving under there and he slid me once and I had to turn back underneath him. He ran us really clean. We’ve raced against him a lot, and we’ll race against him a lot more like that.”
While Timm settled for the second step on the podium one again, Swift Springs Fast Qualifier Jim Chisholm charged up to third by race’s end with Tanner Mullens clawing his way from 18th on the starting grid to cross the finish line in fourth.
Jake O’Neil, who swapped the second spot with Jake Timm for a few laps, fell back to fifth on the final board.
And then there were two
Just two races remain for the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt, beginning with the 7th Annual Grant Junghans Memorial presented by Shop Quik at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, on Friday, October 27.
Rained out earlier this summer, the event features a $12,002 top prize and no less than $1,302 for every racer taking the green flag in the main event.
The 2023 campaign for the USMTS takes place on Saturday, October 28, at the 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas, with the fourth running of the Modified Spooktacular.
Feature Finish (50 Laps)
1. (2) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., 2. (4) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn., 3. (13) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 4. (18) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan., 5. (3) 0 Jake O’Neil, Tucson, Ariz., 6. (10) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, 7. (5) 88 Chad Wheeler, Muskogee, Okla., 8. (16) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas, 9. (22) 11X Tom Berry Jr., Des Moines, Iowa, 10. (1) 75M Gunner Martin, Sugar Creek, Mo., 11. (15) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla., 12. (26) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., 13. (9) K9 Will Krup, Mt. Carmel, Ill., 14. (7) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa, 15. (27) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa, 16. (23) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan., 17. (6) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark., 18. (21) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla., 19. (25) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn., 20. (11) 10C Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa, Iowa, 21. (12) 4D Bo Day, Greenville, Texas, 22. (8) 18 Chase Junghans, Manhattan, Kan., 23. (14) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls, Wis., 24. (19) 88S Nathan Smith, Anthony, N.M., 25. (28) 712 Trevor Hughes, Westville, Okla., 26. (17) 4 Jeremy Nelson, Alexandria, Minn., 27. (20) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan., 28. (24) 87 Darron Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan.