OGILVIE, Minn. — Jake O’Neil’s magical month of dirt modified success continued Saturday night at the Ogilvie Raceway with a dominant performance on the final night the 4th Annual USMTS vs Wissota Mod Wars.
Gabe Hodges blasted off from the front row of the 50-lap Summit Racing Equipment main event and led the opening handful of laps before giving way to Jeremy Nelson.
But just like the previous night it was O’Neil tracking down the Gopher State gasman and taking the lead before the halfway point of the race following a caution flag.
“Something broke in this thing and it was all I could do to stay on course,” O’Neil said. “The car was falling really bad and I was having a really hard time getting around the corners… We got to lapped cars and I kind of used them as a pick to get some room.
“About two to go it started to vibrate and then kind of laying down so I don’t know what kind of issues we got, but there’s a bunch of them.”
The 32-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, pocketed the top prize of $11,000 and with his triumph on Friday and top-five finish Thursday, the lone LG2 Race Cars chassis in the field this weekend added nearly $17,000.
He also took home contingency awards from Beyea Headers, Edelbrock, Featherlite Trailers, Gorsuch Performance Solutions, MD3, MSD Performance, Swift Springs, Victory Fuel and VP Racing valued at more than $2,000.
Terry Phillips gave a veteran-style effort and wound up second with Jim Chisholm joining the Featherlite Trailer top three podium celebration in Victory Fuel Victory Lane.
With his win, O’Neil tied 2007 USMTS national champion for 11th on the all-time wins list with 33. It was the third for O’Neil in his last four starts.
Tanner Mullens raced from 14th on the starting grid to finish fourth while Jake Timm powered from 18th to fifth and earned the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award.
Sixth through tenth in the final rundown were Alex Williamson, Wissota legend Shane Sabraski, defending USMTS national champion Rodney Sanders, Zach Benson and defending USRA Modified national champ Tyler Davis.
Timm emerged from ‘The Big O’ still clinging to the points lead over Chisholm in the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt while Chisholm kept his slim margin over Timm in the Collins Brothers Towing USMTS North Region presented by Featherlite.
Sanders is third in both points battles as the mid-point of the USMTS schedule looms on July 18 in Fairmont.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. (3) 0 Jake O’Neil, Tucson, Ariz., 2. (5) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., 3. (4) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 4. (14) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan., 5. (18) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn., 6. (6) 15W Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn., 7. (19) 7A Shane Sabraski, Rice, Minn., 8. (7) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, 9. (15) 17B Zach Benson, Princeton, Minn., 10. (8) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan., 11. (11) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla., 12. (20) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn., 13. (22) 18A Landon Atkinson, Little Falls, Minn., 14. (23) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn., 15. (2) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan., 16. (10) 55H A.J. Hoff, Mantorville, Minn., 17. (25) 89 J.T. Johnson, Milaca, Minn., 18. (1) 4 Jeremy Nelson, Alexandria, Minn., 19. (17) 2C Dave Cain, Corcoran, Minn., 20. (12) 14W Clayton Wagamon, Ramsey, Minn., 21. (27) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls , Wis., 22. (16) 12P Joey Price, Great Falls, Mont., 23. (9) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa, 24. (24) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa, 25. (26) 21 Jacob Hobscheidt, Plattsmouth, Neb., 26. (21) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., 27. (13) 11 Jody Bellefeuille, Carlton, Minn.