SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — It was a beautiful night for racing Friday at Deer Creek Speedway as the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt got the green light for the first night of the 26th Annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree after rain thwarted Thursday’s scheduled opener.
Legendary chassis builder Jason Hughes of Watts, Okla. — who has 14 career USMTS wins at ‘The Creek’ including three in a row when he swept the 2015 Featherlite Fall Jamboree — set the pace from the pole position but it was Jacob Bleess from nearby Chatfield, Minn., leading the first lap from the outside of the front row.
Bleess led comfortably in his new Longhorn Chassis for the first ten laps when the race’s first caution waved. The restart saw Hughes still second with another pair of veteran racers — Zack VanderBeek and Rodney Sanders — riding in third and fourth.
Jake Timm was hugging the short route around the high-banked 3/8-mile oval to move into the top ten after starting 13th on the grid following an ultra-tough heat race and a win in the first Real Racing Wheels B-main.
By the halfway point of the 40-lapper, Timm was tickling the top five and eventually into the third spot with 15 circuits remaining.
With under 10 laps to go, Bleess continued to race unchallenged in the top spot while a fierce three-car battle emerged for second between Hughes, Dustin Sorensen and Timm as they spent three laps running two- and three-wide every lap.
Bearing down on lapped traffic, Timm got a run on the leaders and shot underneath both Sorensen and Hughes to claim second place and then began to run down Bleess.
As they crossed beneath the flagstand with three laps to go, Timm nipped Bleess by a bumper as he was slowed by a lapped car on the outside.
Timm stayed true to the bottom and Bleess made a charge at the end, but it was the Winona, Minn., youngster who was first to see the checkered flag as he signed a $5,000 paycheck for his 11th career USMTS triumph.
It was his third win of the season and, perhaps more importantly, the trip to Victory Fuel Victory Lane propelled Timm back into the nationals points lead over Jim Chisholm by a mere four points.
“I didn’t feel real good right away and then I found the bottom probably ten laps in. I was able to get up through there. The yellows helped me out a lot,” Timm said. “At the end there when I was running fourth and Jason there and I think Dustin and Rodney were sliding each other, as bad as I wanted to get in there and mix it up with them and throw sliders and maybe try to top out, I knew they were wearing their tires out and I was being about as easy I could on them idling around the bottom.
“I just decided to stay there and play my cards and it worked out. That was a really fun race.”
Bleess and Sorensen completed the Featherlite top-three podium while Hughes captured the fourth spot followed by Brandon Davis.
Sanders slipped to sixth with 18th-starting Joe Chisholm, Lucas Schott, VanderBeek and Jim Chisholm rounding out the top 10.
The Featherlite Fall Jamboree wraps up Saturday with grandstands opening at 4 p.m. and racing getting underway at 6.