DECORAH, Iowa — Jake O’Neil notched his second USMTS Nordic Nationals in three seasons at the Winneshiek Raceway on Sunday.
The hard-earned win was his fourth of the 2022 campaign, and his 24th victory in Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt competition, breaking a tie with Al Hejna—also a two-time winner of this event—on the all-time wins list.
Starting at the tail of a stacked heat race, O’Neil was only able to get to the fifth spot. That put him in the second Real Racing Wheels “B” Main which he promptly won to give himself the 14th starting spot in the 40-lap feature race.
Hoping to snap a winless drought dating back to Sept. 3, 2017, four-time USMTS National Champion Jason Hughes beat polesitter Darron Fuqua to the flag stand to lead the opening lap, and then paced the next 16 circuits before Fuqua found a way around to lead lap 18.
A trio of cautions between laps 20 and 24 kept the field within striking distance for the final 16 laps, but it was the 30-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., battling his way to the front with points leader Dustin Sorensen, who started 15th, following O’Neil to the front.
Continuing to charge toward his career-first USMTS triumph, Fuqua pace laps 18-35 before bobbling in turn four, and handing the lead over to Tanner Mullens on lap 36.
O’Neil followed into second place and Mullens mirrored Fuqua’s error, handing the lead over to O’Neil who cruised the final three laps to his fourth win of the season and another $10,000 payday.
A half-inch of rain earlier in the day forced officials to spend the day getting the facility in tip-top racing condition.
Mullens held off Fuqua for second while Sorensen snuck into fourth place late in the race.
O’Neil’s final margin of victory was 1.127 seconds in the 20-minute affair.
The Finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. (14) 0 Jake O’Neil, 2. (7) 02 Tanner Mullens, 3. (1) 87 Darron Fuqua, 4. (15) 19 Dustin Sorensen, 5. (8) 49 Jake Timm, 6. (6) 4R Dereck Ramirez, 7. (19) 69 Lucas Schott, 8. (24) 10C Cayden Carter, 9. (3) 60 Dan Ebert, 10. (20) 19SB Lance Mari,11. (10) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, 12. (17) 75 Terry Phillips, 13. (16) 4 Jeremy Nelson, 14. (21) 21 Jacob Bleess, 15. (23) 20 Rodney Sanders, 16. (9) 21K Kyle Brown, 17. (25) 8C Chris Clark, 18. (4) 45 Chase Holland, 19. (2) 12 Jason Hughes, 20. (11) 44S Shane DeVolder,21. (13) 4W Tyler Wolff, 22. (5) 55H A.J. Hoff, 23. (12) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., 24. (22) 7 Al Hejna, 25. (18) 1M Curt Myers