WHEATLAND, Mo. – For J.C. Morton, it was important to defend the home dirt during the eighth annual Summit USRA Nationals Powered by MyRacePass.
The Springfield driver did just that Saturday night, fighting off Lucas Oil Speedway rival Kris Jackson to capture the B-Mod portion of the Summit USRA Nationals.
As the three-day event concluded, Dustin Sorensen picked up the American Racer USRA Modified feature to complete a three-night sweep and conclude the late-night/early morning program. Other feature winners included Mitch Hovden (Medieval Chassis USRA Stock Cars), Dylan Clinton (Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stocks) and David Thompson (USRA Tuners).
The three-day event, held at Lucas Oil Speedway for the first time, saw an event-record 320 entries. As an added twist, the features each started three-wide throughout the starting field.
In a dandy battle between long-time rivals, Morton held off a last-lap charge from Jackson in a thriller that had the fans on their feet.
Morton led all 30 laps, but his margin on the final circuit was his smallest of the race as he finished a car length in front to earn the $1,500 check.
“We had a really good run there and I have to thank all my sponsors,” Morton said. “The car was really good tonight. It’s been good all weekend. I got a little behind yesterday (running seventh in the B-Mod feature), but it gave me a good starting spot tonight and we capitalized on that.”
Morton started outside of row one in the unique three-wide lineup and made it work, taking the lead away from Jackson going down the backstretch on the opening lap. Jackson was on the pole after winning prelim features both Thursday and Friday.
By lap eight, Morton held a 1.4-second lead over Jackson when the race’s first caution appeared. Two laps after the restart, Andy Bryant moved around Jackson on the outside to grab second but those two swapped the runner-up spot the next time around.
Bryant advanced into second again on lap 15, but as he and Jackson battled that left Morton to stretch his advantage to 1.2 seconds by lap 20 as the top three – all former USRA National Champions – cleary broke away from fourth-place Mitchell Franklin.
Like Morton, Bryant worked the high groove to try and cut into the lead as Jackson remained in the low line and Jackson was able to get back into second on lap 26 – as the trio entered lapped traffic.
Jackson made one more bid on the white-flag lap, in turns three and four, but Morton was able to hang on and win by .191 seconds.
“It feels good just to bring it back home,” Morton said. “You’ve got all these out-of-towners coming in here and we’re all fighting for the same thing. To keep it here in Missouri, that’s a big thing.”
Bryant wound up third, 2.2 seconds behind Jackson. Franklin was fourth and Jim Chisholm, the USRA B-Mod national points leader, rounded out the top five.
Sorensen completed a perfect week by claiming the USRA Modified main event. He also won both of his preliminary-night features.
The success vaulted Sorensen into the national points lead in the division, along with a $3,000 prize.
“We weren’t even planning on coming down here until we saw we had a chance at national points,” Sorensen said. “I figured we’d come down here and make a run at it and now I think we have a pretty good shot at it.”
Tyler Wolff, an impressive feature winner in one of Friday’s prelim features, rolled from his middle of the front row starting spot to the early command ahead of Sorensen and Sanders. Those three were running, in that order, when a lap-seven caution flew.
The running order up front remained steady as fifth-place Jake Timm lost a wheel and hit the turn-one wall to bring out another caution on lap nine.
Sorensen pulled alongside Wolff entering turn three and made the pass coming to the flag stand to complete lap 14. A lap later, Sanders moved into second and Tanner Mullens into third as Wolff began to fade.
By the race’s midpoint, on lap 20, Sorensen had a 1.8-second lead over Sanders with Mullens four seconds behind the leader.
With a prolonged green-flag run, the leaders encountered lapped traffic by lap 25. That allowed Sanders to cut the Sorensen’s lead to a half-second, but he wasn’t able to get any closer.
Sorensen held on and won by .637 seconds over USMTS veteran Sanders. Mullens finished third with Wolff fourth and Matt Johnson fifth.
“This is awesome,” Sorensen said. “I was kind of nervous today, thinking it would be cool to win all three. I knew we had the car and motor to do it, as long as I didn’t mess anything up I was confident. I can’t thank everybody enough who helps me.”
Seven-time USRA Stock Cars National champion Hovden rolled to victory in Saturday’s stock car main event.
The fourth-starting Hovden took the lead away from Thornton going down the backstretch on lap 15. Those two broke away from the field from there with Hovden beating Thornton to the finish line by 1.3 seconds.
Josh Zieman was third with Lucas Oil Speedway track champion David Hendrix fourth and Todd Staley fifth.
Thornton, who won on both preliminary nights, started on the pole and led through six laps when the race was red-flagged after a four-car pileup in turn four. Andrew Borchardt rolled his car, but was not injured and the race remained green the rest of the way.
Clinton was in the right place at the right times, as he inherited the lead when two cars dueling in front of him got together and went on to take the USRA Hobby Stock victory.
Dustin Gulbrandson and Clinton started on the front and ran 1-2 through the first 16 laps when Tracy Halouska got by Clinton and into second.
Three laps later, Gulbrandson and Halouska banged into each other, running side by side for the lead. Both pulled off the track with damage and Clinton inherited the lead as the caution came out with six laps to go.
Two more cautions flew with just one lap completed, with Clinton maintaining the lead over Tyler Schlumbohm and Dylan Nelson. Clinton was able to hold on the rest of the way to hold off Schlumbohm by three car lengths. Scott Dobel rallied in to third with Joshua Lukeking fourth and Danny Sassman finishing fifth.
USRA Tuners national points leader Thompson crossed the finish line in third, but was elevated to the feature win when the two top finishers – Sean Leasure and Frank Lackey – were disqualified in post-race tech for illegal springs.
WHEATLAND, Mo. – For J.C. Morton, it was important to defend the home dirt during the eighth annual Summit USRA Nationals Powered by MyRacePass.
The Springfield driver did just that Saturday night, fighting off Lucas Oil Speedway rival Kris Jackson to capture the B-Mod portion of the Summit USRA Nationals.
As the three-day event concluded, Dustin Sorensen picked up the American Racer USRA Modified feature to complete a three-night sweep and conclude the late-night/early morning program. Other feature winners included Mitch Hovden (Medieval Chassis USRA Stock Cars), Dylan Clinton (Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stocks) and David Thompson (USRA Tuners).
The three-day event, held at Lucas Oil Speedway for the first time, saw an event-record 320 entries. As an added twist, the features each started three-wide throughout the starting field.
In a dandy battle between long-time rivals, Morton held off a last-lap charge from Jackson in a thriller that had the fans on their feet.
Morton led all 30 laps, but his margin on the final circuit was his smallest of the race as he finished a car length in front to earn the $1,500 check.
“We had a really good run there and I have to thank all my sponsors,” Morton said. “The car was really good tonight. It’s been good all weekend. I got a little behind yesterday (running seventh in the B-Mod feature), but it gave me a good starting spot tonight and we capitalized on that.”
Morton started outside of row one in the unique three-wide lineup and made it work, taking the lead away from Jackson going down the backstretch on the opening lap. Jackson was on the pole after winning prelim features both Thursday and Friday.
By lap eight, Morton held a 1.4-second lead over Jackson when the race’s first caution appeared. Two laps after the restart, Andy Bryant moved around Jackson on the outside to grab second but those two swapped the runner-up spot the next time around.
Bryant advanced into second again on lap 15, but as he and Jackson battled that left Morton to stretch his advantage to 1.2 seconds by lap 20 as the top three – all former USRA National Champions – cleary broke away from fourth-place Mitchell Franklin.
Like Morton, Bryant worked the high groove to try and cut into the lead as Jackson remained in the low line and Jackson was able to get back into second on lap 26 – as the trio entered lapped traffic.
Jackson made one more bid on the white-flag lap, in turns three and four, but Morton was able to hang on and win by .191 seconds.
“It feels good just to bring it back home,” Morton said. “You’ve got all these out-of-towners coming in here and we’re all fighting for the same thing. To keep it here in Missouri, that’s a big thing.”
Bryant wound up third, 2.2 seconds behind Jackson. Franklin was fourth and Jim Chisholm, the USRA B-Mod national points leader, rounded out the top five.
Sorensen completed a perfect week by claiming the USRA Modified main event. He also won both of his preliminary-night features.
The success vaulted Sorensen into the national points lead in the division, along with a $3,000 prize.
“We weren’t even planning on coming down here until we saw we had a chance at national points,” Sorensen said. “I figured we’d come down here and make a run at it and now I think we have a pretty good shot at it.”
Tyler Wolff, an impressive feature winner in one of Friday’s prelim features, rolled from his middle of the front row starting spot to the early command ahead of Sorensen and Sanders. Those three were running, in that order, when a lap-seven caution flew.
The running order up front remained steady as fifth-place Jake Timm lost a wheel and hit the turn-one wall to bring out another caution on lap nine.
Sorensen pulled alongside Wolff entering turn three and made the pass coming to the flag stand to complete lap 14. A lap later, Sanders moved into second and Tanner Mullens into third as Wolff began to fade.
By the race’s midpoint, on lap 20, Sorensen had a 1.8-second lead over Sanders with Mullens four seconds behind the leader.
With a prolonged green-flag run, the leaders encountered lapped traffic by lap 25. That allowed Sanders to cut the Sorensen’s lead to a half-second, but he wasn’t able to get any closer.
Sorensen held on and won by .637 seconds over USMTS veteran Sanders. Mullens finished third with Wolff fourth and Matt Johnson fifth.
“This is awesome,” Sorensen said. “I was kind of nervous today, thinking it would be cool to win all three. I knew we had the car and motor to do it, as long as I didn’t mess anything up I was confident. I can’t thank everybody enough who helps me.”
Seven-time USRA Stock Cars National champion Hovden rolled to victory in Saturday’s stock car main event.
The fourth-starting Hovden took the lead away from Thornton going down the backstretch on lap 15. Those two broke away from the field from there with Hovden beating Thornton to the finish line by 1.3 seconds.
Josh Zieman was third with Lucas Oil Speedway track champion David Hendrix fourth and Todd Staley fifth.
Thornton, who won on both preliminary nights, started on the pole and led through six laps when the race was red-flagged after a four-car pileup in turn four. Andrew Borchardt rolled his car, but was not injured and the race remained green the rest of the way.
Clinton was in the right place at the right times, as he inherited the lead when two cars dueling in front of him got together and went on to take the USRA Hobby Stock victory.
Dustin Gulbrandson and Clinton started on the front and ran 1-2 through the first 16 laps when Tracy Halouska got by Clinton and into second.
Three laps later, Gulbrandson and Halouska banged into each other, running side by side for the lead. Both pulled off the track with damage and Clinton inherited the lead as the caution came out with six laps to go.
Two more cautions flew with just one lap completed, with Clinton maintaining the lead over Tyler Schlumbohm and Dylan Nelson. Clinton was able to hold on the rest of the way to hold off Schlumbohm by three car lengths. Scott Dobel rallied in to third with Joshua Lukeking fourth and Danny Sassman finishing fifth.
USRA Tuners national points leader Thompson crossed the finish line in third, but was elevated to the feature win when the two top finishers – Sean Leasure and Frank Lackey – were disqualified in post-race tech for illegal springs.
WHEATLAND, Mo. – For J.C. Morton, it was important to defend the home dirt during the eighth annual Summit USRA Nationals Powered by MyRacePass.
The Springfield driver did just that Saturday night, fighting off Lucas Oil Speedway rival Kris Jackson to capture the B-Mod portion of the Summit USRA Nationals.
As the three-day event concluded, Dustin Sorensen picked up the American Racer USRA Modified feature to complete a three-night sweep and conclude the late-night/early morning program. Other feature winners included Mitch Hovden (Medieval Chassis USRA Stock Cars), Dylan Clinton (Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stocks) and David Thompson (USRA Tuners).
The three-day event, held at Lucas Oil Speedway for the first time, saw an event-record 320 entries. As an added twist, the features each started three-wide throughout the starting field.
In a dandy battle between long-time rivals, Morton held off a last-lap charge from Jackson in a thriller that had the fans on their feet.
Morton led all 30 laps, but his margin on the final circuit was his smallest of the race as he finished a car length in front to earn the $1,500 check.
“We had a really good run there and I have to thank all my sponsors,” Morton said. “The car was really good tonight. It’s been good all weekend. I got a little behind yesterday (running seventh in the B-Mod feature), but it gave me a good starting spot tonight and we capitalized on that.”
Morton started outside of row one in the unique three-wide lineup and made it work, taking the lead away from Jackson going down the backstretch on the opening lap. Jackson was on the pole after winning prelim features both Thursday and Friday.
By lap eight, Morton held a 1.4-second lead over Jackson when the race’s first caution appeared. Two laps after the restart, Andy Bryant moved around Jackson on the outside to grab second but those two swapped the runner-up spot the next time around.
Bryant advanced into second again on lap 15, but as he and Jackson battled that left Morton to stretch his advantage to 1.2 seconds by lap 20 as the top three – all former USRA National Champions – cleary broke away from fourth-place Mitchell Franklin.
Like Morton, Bryant worked the high groove to try and cut into the lead as Jackson remained in the low line and Jackson was able to get back into second on lap 26 – as the trio entered lapped traffic.
Jackson made one more bid on the white-flag lap, in turns three and four, but Morton was able to hang on and win by .191 seconds.
“It feels good just to bring it back home,” Morton said. “You’ve got all these out-of-towners coming in here and we’re all fighting for the same thing. To keep it here in Missouri, that’s a big thing.”
Bryant wound up third, 2.2 seconds behind Jackson. Franklin was fourth and Jim Chisholm, the USRA B-Mod national points leader, rounded out the top five.
Sorensen completed a perfect week by claiming the USRA Modified main event. He also won both of his preliminary-night features.
The success vaulted Sorensen into the national points lead in the division, along with a $3,000 prize.
“We weren’t even planning on coming down here until we saw we had a chance at national points,” Sorensen said. “I figured we’d come down here and make a run at it and now I think we have a pretty good shot at it.”
Tyler Wolff, an impressive feature winner in one of Friday’s prelim features, rolled from his middle of the front row starting spot to the early command ahead of Sorensen and Sanders. Those three were running, in that order, when a lap-seven caution flew.
The running order up front remained steady as fifth-place Jake Timm lost a wheel and hit the turn-one wall to bring out another caution on lap nine.
Sorensen pulled alongside Wolff entering turn three and made the pass coming to the flag stand to complete lap 14. A lap later, Sanders moved into second and Tanner Mullens into third as Wolff began to fade.
By the race’s midpoint, on lap 20, Sorensen had a 1.8-second lead over Sanders with Mullens four seconds behind the leader.
With a prolonged green-flag run, the leaders encountered lapped traffic by lap 25. That allowed Sanders to cut the Sorensen’s lead to a half-second, but he wasn’t able to get any closer.
Sorensen held on and won by .637 seconds over USMTS veteran Sanders. Mullens finished third with Wolff fourth and Matt Johnson fifth.
“This is awesome,” Sorensen said. “I was kind of nervous today, thinking it would be cool to win all three. I knew we had the car and motor to do it, as long as I didn’t mess anything up I was confident. I can’t thank everybody enough who helps me.”
Seven-time USRA Stock Cars National champion Hovden rolled to victory in Saturday’s stock car main event.
The fourth-starting Hovden took the lead away from Thornton going down the backstretch on lap 15. Those two broke away from the field from there with Hovden beating Thornton to the finish line by 1.3 seconds.
Josh Zieman was third with Lucas Oil Speedway track champion David Hendrix fourth and Todd Staley fifth.
Thornton, who won on both preliminary nights, started on the pole and led through six laps when the race was red-flagged after a four-car pileup in turn four. Andrew Borchardt rolled his car, but was not injured and the race remained green the rest of the way.
Clinton was in the right place at the right times, as he inherited the lead when two cars dueling in front of him got together and went on to take the USRA Hobby Stock victory.
Dustin Gulbrandson and Clinton started on the front and ran 1-2 through the first 16 laps when Tracy Halouska got by Clinton and into second.
Three laps later, Gulbrandson and Halouska banged into each other, running side by side for the lead. Both pulled off the track with damage and Clinton inherited the lead as the caution came out with six laps to go.
Two more cautions flew with just one lap completed, with Clinton maintaining the lead over Tyler Schlumbohm and Dylan Nelson. Clinton was able to hold on the rest of the way to hold off Schlumbohm by three car lengths. Scott Dobel rallied in to third with Joshua Lukeking fourth and Danny Sassman finishing fifth.
USRA Tuners national points leader Thompson crossed the finish line in third, but was elevated to the feature win when the two top finishers – Sean Leasure and Frank Lackey – were disqualified in post-race tech for illegal springs.
WHEATLAND, Mo. – For J.C. Morton, it was important to defend the home dirt during the eighth annual Summit USRA Nationals Powered by MyRacePass.
The Springfield driver did just that Saturday night, fighting off Lucas Oil Speedway rival Kris Jackson to capture the B-Mod portion of the Summit USRA Nationals.
As the three-day event concluded, Dustin Sorensen picked up the American Racer USRA Modified feature to complete a three-night sweep and conclude the late-night/early morning program. Other feature winners included Mitch Hovden (Medieval Chassis USRA Stock Cars), Dylan Clinton (Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stocks) and David Thompson (USRA Tuners).
The three-day event, held at Lucas Oil Speedway for the first time, saw an event-record 320 entries. As an added twist, the features each started three-wide throughout the starting field.
In a dandy battle between long-time rivals, Morton held off a last-lap charge from Jackson in a thriller that had the fans on their feet.
Morton led all 30 laps, but his margin on the final circuit was his smallest of the race as he finished a car length in front to earn the $1,500 check.
“We had a really good run there and I have to thank all my sponsors,” Morton said. “The car was really good tonight. It’s been good all weekend. I got a little behind yesterday (running seventh in the B-Mod feature), but it gave me a good starting spot tonight and we capitalized on that.”
Morton started outside of row one in the unique three-wide lineup and made it work, taking the lead away from Jackson going down the backstretch on the opening lap. Jackson was on the pole after winning prelim features both Thursday and Friday.
By lap eight, Morton held a 1.4-second lead over Jackson when the race’s first caution appeared. Two laps after the restart, Andy Bryant moved around Jackson on the outside to grab second but those two swapped the runner-up spot the next time around.
Bryant advanced into second again on lap 15, but as he and Jackson battled that left Morton to stretch his advantage to 1.2 seconds by lap 20 as the top three – all former USRA National Champions – cleary broke away from fourth-place Mitchell Franklin.
Like Morton, Bryant worked the high groove to try and cut into the lead as Jackson remained in the low line and Jackson was able to get back into second on lap 26 – as the trio entered lapped traffic.
Jackson made one more bid on the white-flag lap, in turns three and four, but Morton was able to hang on and win by .191 seconds.
“It feels good just to bring it back home,” Morton said. “You’ve got all these out-of-towners coming in here and we’re all fighting for the same thing. To keep it here in Missouri, that’s a big thing.”
Bryant wound up third, 2.2 seconds behind Jackson. Franklin was fourth and Jim Chisholm, the USRA B-Mod national points leader, rounded out the top five.
Sorensen completed a perfect week by claiming the USRA Modified main event. He also won both of his preliminary-night features.
The success vaulted Sorensen into the national points lead in the division, along with a $3,000 prize.
“We weren’t even planning on coming down here until we saw we had a chance at national points,” Sorensen said. “I figured we’d come down here and make a run at it and now I think we have a pretty good shot at it.”
Tyler Wolff, an impressive feature winner in one of Friday’s prelim features, rolled from his middle of the front row starting spot to the early command ahead of Sorensen and Sanders. Those three were running, in that order, when a lap-seven caution flew.
The running order up front remained steady as fifth-place Jake Timm lost a wheel and hit the turn-one wall to bring out another caution on lap nine.
Sorensen pulled alongside Wolff entering turn three and made the pass coming to the flag stand to complete lap 14. A lap later, Sanders moved into second and Tanner Mullens into third as Wolff began to fade.
By the race’s midpoint, on lap 20, Sorensen had a 1.8-second lead over Sanders with Mullens four seconds behind the leader.
With a prolonged green-flag run, the leaders encountered lapped traffic by lap 25. That allowed Sanders to cut the Sorensen’s lead to a half-second, but he wasn’t able to get any closer.
Sorensen held on and won by .637 seconds over USMTS veteran Sanders. Mullens finished third with Wolff fourth and Matt Johnson fifth.
“This is awesome,” Sorensen said. “I was kind of nervous today, thinking it would be cool to win all three. I knew we had the car and motor to do it, as long as I didn’t mess anything up I was confident. I can’t thank everybody enough who helps me.”
Seven-time USRA Stock Cars National champion Hovden rolled to victory in Saturday’s stock car main event.
The fourth-starting Hovden took the lead away from Thornton going down the backstretch on lap 15. Those two broke away from the field from there with Hovden beating Thornton to the finish line by 1.3 seconds.
Josh Zieman was third with Lucas Oil Speedway track champion David Hendrix fourth and Todd Staley fifth.
Thornton, who won on both preliminary nights, started on the pole and led through six laps when the race was red-flagged after a four-car pileup in turn four. Andrew Borchardt rolled his car, but was not injured and the race remained green the rest of the way.
Clinton was in the right place at the right times, as he inherited the lead when two cars dueling in front of him got together and went on to take the USRA Hobby Stock victory.
Dustin Gulbrandson and Clinton started on the front and ran 1-2 through the first 16 laps when Tracy Halouska got by Clinton and into second.
Three laps later, Gulbrandson and Halouska banged into each other, running side by side for the lead. Both pulled off the track with damage and Clinton inherited the lead as the caution came out with six laps to go.
Two more cautions flew with just one lap completed, with Clinton maintaining the lead over Tyler Schlumbohm and Dylan Nelson. Clinton was able to hold on the rest of the way to hold off Schlumbohm by three car lengths. Scott Dobel rallied in to third with Joshua Lukeking fourth and Danny Sassman finishing fifth.
USRA Tuners national points leader Thompson crossed the finish line in third, but was elevated to the feature win when the two top finishers – Sean Leasure and Frank Lackey – were disqualified in post-race tech for illegal springs.