PETTY, Texas — The Rocket Raceway Park hosted the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt on Friday for opening night of the 14th Annual Texas Spring Nationals, and local Lone Star State hero Jack Sartain left the rest of the field scratching their heads.
Another one-hit wonder entering the weekend liftoff, Kale Westover used the pole position to claim the early lead while Sartain, who started 13th on the 28-car grid, began his march to the front.
Two Gorsuch Performance caution flags in the first two laps—the second of which saw points leader Jason Hughes get upside down in a multi-car melee—kept the field bunched.
For the first half of the 20-lap race, Westover remained out front but Jake Timm and Gary Christian were doing their best to keep Westover in sight. Little did they know the threat was behind them.
By lap 15, Sartain was already nipping at the leader’s heels. Then, using a lapped car as pick, stormed by Westover on the inside of turn two to grab the lead with 21 down and 19 to go.
Timm, who was working to chase down Sartain, brought out the next yellow when a flat right rear tire sent him to the Danny Crane Racing Engines hot pit, and out of contention for the win.
One laps later, Carlos Ahumada Jr. hooked the cushion and flipped his Hughes Chassis to force the second red flag of the contest.
With a $5,000 paycheck just a few feet away, Westover broke and collected a hard-charging Joe Duvall. The fifth and final caution set up a green-white-checkered finish, but Sartain wasn’t rattled and pulled away for the win.
“That was great. I didn’t know if I ever going to win one of these things,” Sartain said. “These guys are so good and it’s just hard when you don’t race with them all the time. Luckily, I’ve got Tyler Davis and he tells me everything to do.”
It was Sartain’s second USMTS triumph in a little more than three years, but the first for Davis’s new BOM Motorsports MK1 Race Cars.
“The car was excellent tonight. I kind of found me a groove that worked. I just gassed the hell out of it.
“Down here in three and four there was a little thin strip and I could literally get the car turned in and put it on the mat and just drive all the way through three and four wide open. I kept going ‘Man, this is going to go away but it stayed with me the whole race.”
Although the Royse City racer passed 12 cars en route to his visit to Victory Fuel Victory Lane, Christian did one better and passed 13 on his way to a runner-up finish despite a wheel-banging restart earlier that almost took them both out of the race.
Completing the Featherlite top-three finishers was Terry Phillips while Dan Ebert was actually the most prolific passer as he started 20th before climbing his way to a fourth-place finish and the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award.
Feature Finish (40 Laps)
1. (13) 47 Jack Sartain, Royse City, Texas, 2. (15) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla., 3. (7) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., 4. (20) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn., 5. (10) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan., 6. (17) 15W Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn., 7. (21) 7 Sean Gaddis, Diana, Texas, 8. (18) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan., 9. (2) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn., 10. (12) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson, N.D., 11. (4) 45T Eric Tomlinson, Robinson, Texas, 12. (22) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 13. (14) 91 Joe Duvall, Justice, Okla., 14. (1) 15 Kale Westover, Altus, Okla., 15. (24) 99 Jared Baird, Norman, Okla., 16. (5) 2SS Mark Smith, Anthony, N.M., 17. (6) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas, 18. (28) 12J Jason Ingalls, Longview, Texas, 19. (9) 410 Justin McCoy, Grandview, Texas, 20. (26) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn., 21. (25) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla., 22. (3) 64 Casey Fowler, Grand Saline, Texas, 23. (27) 19R Chris Kratzer, Haysville, Kan., 24. (16) 32S D.J. Shannon, Merced, Calif., 25. (19) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, 26. (11) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., 27. (8) 457 Boone Evans, Bullard, Texas, 28. (23) 81 Ricky Ingalls, Longview, Texas