Donlinger Holds Off Hughes For Kasson Checkers

The final stop of a six-night swing for the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) was a stop at the Dodge County Speedway in Kasson, Minnesota Sunday night. Thirty-six modifieds were on hand to try their luck at picking up a win before a two-week layoff off the Hunt trail. Dereck Ramirez and Tim Donlinger were the lucky ones to redraw the front row for the forty-lap feature.

Ramirez would take the point at the drop of the green flag although Donlinger would stay on his rear bumper. Donlinger saw an opening entering turn one after Ramirez chose to drive a little bit higher line, handing Donlinger the lead on lap seven. Fourt-place starter Jason Hughes slowly workd the top side of the speedway to pass Steve Wetstein for third and three laps later advance to the runner up spot by lap twelve. Ryan Gustin was also charging hard on the outside as he climbed to sixth on lap fourteen. Gustin would pick off two more cars on the following lap just before the caution flag waved to bunch the field back up.

At that point, Jon Tesch was the hard charger of the show as he started fourteenth and found himself solidly in the top five. The restart proved to be in Wetstein's favor as he got by Gustin on the inside to take over the third spot before another yellow waved three laps later. Gustin would wind up losing a couple spots on this restart after his car pushed high in turn one, allowing the front four cars to distance themselves from the rest of the field.

Wetstein and Hughes would swap the second position a time or two while both were closing in on Donlinger's lead. The final caution of the race came with eight laps remaining to set up a great finish. Hughes grabbed the lead just before the caution and led the field to the green, but Donlinger would regain control as the field neared the white flag. Coming out of turn four, Hughes would try to make the last second effort to steal the win away from Donlinger but came up .009 seconds short as Tim Donlinger pulled off the exciting win in front of a packed house in Kasson. Hughes finished a close second, Steve Weststein third, Kely Shryock fourth, and Zack VanderBeek rounded out the top five.

Unofficially by my calculations, Shryock now holds an 80-point advantage over Hughes with five races left on the Hunt. Ryan Gustin lost some valuable points last night as he now trails by 114 points, but still holds down the third spot.

Shryock 1219
Hughes 1139
Gustin 1105

As mentioned above, the USMTS has almost two weeks off before hitting the road as they venture north to the North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minnesota on September 18-19. The following weekend will conclude the USMTS national tour culminating with the Fall Jamboree at the Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley on Sept 24-26.

- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!