SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Saturday’s 21st Annual LR Waste Services Southern Minnesota Spring Challenge marked the 127th time the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt circled the Deer Creek Speedway.
Nine-time USMTS national champ Kelly Shryock won the first-ever contest here in 2002, and now Lucas Schott has become the latest to savor the thrill of victory at the high-banked three-eighths-mile clay oval.
Much like Brand Davis did one night earlier at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Schott was a threat from the first green flag. He turned the quickest lap of the night during his heat race, and then led all 40 laps of the main event to secure his fourth win at The Creek and 13th of his USMTS career.
Much like he did on Wednesday at the Karl Chevrolet Hamilton County Speedway, Jim Chisholm made a daring move on the final lap to steal the win from the race-long leader. It worked on Gary Christian three nights ago but Schott could not be overcome on Saturday.
After erasing a nearly three-second advantage during the last half of the caution-free feature, Chisholm tried several different lines but couldn’t rattle Schott’s cage. One final attempt after taking the white flag saw tire smoke and sparks fly between the two but it was Schott who found the checkered flag first.
“It feels pretty good,” Schott said in victory lane. “We’ve been off and on this year and I just had the luck of the draw tonight.”
Schott’s good fortune, as he claims, resulted in a $5,000 paycheck at the end of the night for the 27-year-old from Chatfield, Minn., who ran the high side for most of the race before moving to the low side as Chisholm approached.
“Our car felt pretty good early and I could feel the pace slowing down and the lapped cars were starting to pull away from me on the bottom so there was something down there.
“It’s super hard to run the top for that long and then slow your pace down that hard. I was just too free on the bottom and I was too tight. I just couldn’t quite figure it out, but I knew Jim was there and I wasn’t going to lead all 39 and let him try to steal it again on the last one. So, I just did all I could to protect the bottom and we got the win. But that’s just racing. I’m glad the contact wasn’t hard enough, but there’s probably a shock bench or something.“
Chisholm settled for runner-up earnings while Davis rounded out the Featherlite Top-3 podium finishers. Notably, all three have won all four USMTS features this week.
It just so happens that all three are former two-time USRA national champions—Schott and Davis in USRA Modifieds and Chisholm in USRA B-Mods. His younger brother, Joe Chisholm, is also a two-time USRA B-Mod national champ and came home seventh in Saturday’s nightcap.
Like Davis, Terry Phillips came up short of notching his fifth USMTS win at Deer Creek as he finished fourth in front of the two most prolific USMTS racers in the track’s history. Rodney Sanders and Jason Hughes wound up fifth and six, respectively, and both are tied atop the list of winners here with 14 apiece.
Gabe Hodges finished eighth behind the younger Chisholm, Jake Timm back-pedaled from fifth on the grid to ninth at the finish line, and Kyle Brown slipped from third to tenth when all was said and done.
Feature Finish (40 Laps)
1. (1) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn.,,2. (4) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 3. (8) 50III Brandon Davis, Hayfield, Minn., 4. (2) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., 5. (6) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, 6. (14) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., 7. (7) 25 Joe Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 8. (9) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan., 9. (5) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn., 10. (3) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa, 11. (13) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan., 12. (18) 95 Keith Foss, Winona, Minn., 13. (21) 24 Aaron Benson, Clear Lake, Iowa, 14. (11) 55H A.J. Hoff, Mantorville, Minn., 15. (25) 10C Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa, Iowa, 16. (17) 51W J.T. Wasmund, Pine Island, Minn., 17. (24) 19SB Lance Mari, El Centro, Calif., 18. (12) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan., 19. (20) 15W Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn., 20. (16) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson, N.D., 21. (27) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla., 22. (26) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn., 23. (28) 01 Jacob Hobscheidt, Plattsmouth, Neb., 24. (15) 0 Jake O’Neil, Tucson, Ariz., 25. (23) 83 Kylie Kath, Claremont, Minn., 26. (19) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla., 27. (10) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls , Wis., 28. (22) 7 Al Hejna, Clear Lake, Iowa, 29. (29) 26S Steven Glenn, Hamilton, Mo.