BRITT, Iowa — For the first time in more than a decade, the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt visited Hancock County Speedway, with a field of 50 road warriors in the pits for the Hobo 100k Nickel Nationals.
Britt is home to the National Hobo Convention, celebrating the rich history of American hobos—hardworking travelers who left their mark on the railroads and on U.S. nickels. The hobo nickel was a carved buffalo nickel, a piece of art and trade among hobos.
On Friday night the USMTS put 100,000 of them ($5,000) up for grabs to the ground-pounding, spoiler-wielding USMTS Modified winner.
Polesitter Jake Timm led the opening four laps but slipped up too high in turn four, which allowed Tanner Mullens and Kyle Strickler to race by and dropping Timm to third.
Mullens crossed the stripe to lead the fifth lap, but Strickler roared around the top to move in front of Mullens to lead lap six.
The race stayed green while Strickler ran away from his pursuers, but on lap 20 Kylie Kath went up in smoke, forcing Strickler to take evasive action. At the same time, Mullens slowed on the back-stretch.
Kath’s misfortune forced the first G-Style Transport Caution flag to wave and erasing a huge lead for “The High Side Tickler.” With a swarm of tough customers chasing him from afar, Strickler built his lead back a nearly a full straight-away when the yellow flag waved with just eight laps remaining.
The restart saw Mullens give Strickler a scare as he edged in front, but Strickler fought back and regained the lead albeit with some added wrinkles in the sheet metal on his CDR Race Car machine.
Reece Solander came into the picture late, forcing Mullens to protect his second-place run while Strickler galloped away for this second USMTS win of the 2025 campaign.
“This place has been so good to me,” Strickler said in Victory Lane. “To come here with the USMTS for the first time and win is awesome. Hats off to Tanner, he raced me so clean. I gave him probably a little less room than I should’ve, but I really wanted to win this one.
“On the last lap, he could have sent a haymaker and come across my nose, but he’s definitely a class act, and with most of these guys you race with here at USMTS. I feel like this is the highest level of Mod racing.
The $5,000 winner’s share of the prize money was earned with a brand new powerplant by Kevin Stoa Engineering under the hood of his G-Style Transport machine.
“Went home, did our homework, came back, changed our colors, changed our luck… Everything’s looking good,” Strickler added. “I can’t say enough about G-Man (car owner and fellow racer Troy Girolamo) and my buddy Hunter Marriott. He hooked us up with some motors and, damn this Kevin Stoa motor runs awesome.”
Strickler, Mullens and Solander claimed to the steps on the podium, with Brandon Davis finishing fourth.
The finish:
Kyle Strickler, Tanner Mullens, Reece Solander, Brandon Davis, Rodney Sanders, Jacob Bleess, Jim Chisholm, Ryan Wetzstein, Terry Phillips, Zack VanderBeek, Joe Chisholm, Gary Christian, Kaylin Lopez, Shadren Turner, Kyle Brown, Dustin Wiederhoeft, Al Hejna, Alex Williamson, Lucas Schott, Jake Timm, Trevor Hughes, Lance Mari, Kylie Kath, Jason Langford, Taton Hansen, Bill Crimmins.
