ELDON, Mo. — As promised, the Summit USMTS National Championship fueled by Casey’s returned to the Lake Ozark Speedway on Friday for the third annual USMTS Battle at the Beach presented by PEM.
And as he has done 105 times now, points leader Rodney Sanders found his way to the front and scored the feature win.
Dereck Ramirez beat polesitter Adam Kates to the corner and led the first four laps before succumbing to the pressure from Sanders on the fifth lap.
That was all she wrote as four cautions were no help to his pursuers and Sanders paced the final 36 laps to reign in his series-best eighth win of the 2020 campaign with a 3.502-second cushion over Ramirez.
The win was worth $3,000 to the 30-year-old from Happy, Texas, and his first at the state-of-the-art facility nestled in the Lake of the Ozarks.
Ramirez was able to hang on for the runner-up paycheck ahead of Tyler Wolff and Jason Hughes after the trio battled in close quarters throughout the race.
Tanner Mullens came from 13th to complete the top five.
The finish:
Rodney Sanders, Dereck Ramirez, Tyler Wolff, Jason Hughes, Tanner Mullens, Austin Siebert, Casey Skyberg, Brooks Strength, Terry Phillips, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Joe Duvall, Tyler Davis, Lance Mari, Adam Kates, Ryan Middaugh, Clint Johnson, Mitch Keeter, Cody Jolly, Jason Pursley, Gene Nicholas, Scott Bryant, Jake O’Neil, Kevin Blackburn, Nathan Hagar, Zack VanderBeek, Dustin Hodges