AMARILLO, Texas — On a weekend where the best of the best in the dirt modified world raced without roofs around the Route 66 Motor Speedway, Jake O’Neil matched his Friday night effort and thrilled the crowd with a spectacular triumph on Saturday over a strong field of USMTS Modifieds.
The 11th Annual USMTS Amarillo Ambush featured two nights of action at the wide high-banked clay oval in Amarillo, Texas, with competitors chasing points in both the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt competitors and ARMI Contractors USMTS South Region presented by Gene Nicholas, LLC.
Young gun Derek Scott from nearby Canyon, Texas, set the pace after garnering the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award, but he was quickly overwhelmed by a swarm of hungry USMTS Modifieds.
O’Neil, who started ninth in the 50-lap finale on Saturday, struggled early on. In fact, the Tucson, Ariz., speedster was still ninth after ten laps of racing, but that’s when he started to make his move toward the front.
Meanwhile, Dan Ebert led the opening lap and then 19 more circuits while surviving a pair of Gorsuch Performance Caution Flags, including one that sent Rodney Sanders to the Danny Crane Racing Engines Hot Pit to change a flat tire.
After the lap-10 yellow, Tyler Wolff began inching closer to Ebert and finally made the pass to lead lap 21. Mark Smith followed into second two laps later and applied pressure to Wolff just before a caution on lap 24 for a spin at the top of Turn Four.
At the halfway point, the top two title contenders were beating a path to the front of the pack. Jake Timm, who started 20th, was up to sixth by lap 25 while 21st-starting Jim Chisholm was tickling the top ten.
For the restart on lap 29, O’Neill was fourth behind Wolff, Ebert and Smith. Despite taking the shortest way around the 3/8-mile oval, Wolff watched as O’Neil danced into the lead using the high side as the duo crossed beneath the flag stand to complete lap 33.
A final caution with ten laps to go offered no help to Wolff as he was unable to challenge O’Neil who completed the 50-lapper with a margin of victory of less than a second over Wolff.
“I just held it to the floor,” O’Neil said with a smile in Victory Fuel Victory Lane as he recounted an earlier miscue in the race that almost sent him over the berm in Turn Four. “I was so tight. I really thought we were in trouble there, but the longer we went the better I was getting. The bottom was good, but you can’t pass ‘em where they’re at.”
O’Neil’s second triumph in as many nights increased his weekend bankroll to $10,000 with his pair of five-grand feature wins in the Texas Panhandle. It was his sixth win in 2024 and the 36th of his USMTS career which ties him for tenth on the all-time list with USMTS legend Jon Tesch.
Wolff, who started 11th, settled for the runner-up finish while New Mexico racer Mark Smith held off Timm to get the third step on the Featherlite Trailers top-3 podium.
Terry Phillips finished fifth with Jake Gallardo, Chisholm, Sanders, Ebert and Tyler Davis rounding out the top ten.
For his efforts, Timm also earned the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award after passing 16 of his fellow racers in the Summit Racing Equipment A-Main.
The USMTS road warriors return to the Mel Hambelton Racing USMTS Central Region for the final time on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26.
The series competes in the 13th Annual USMTS Jayhawk Classic at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., on Friday before returning to the popular 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan., on Saturday for the 4th Annual USMTS Modified Spooktacular.