After picking up the win Saturday, Jason Hughes returned to action Sunday afternoon looking to keep his hot winning streak alive. Hughes picked up the final USMTS Southern Series victory last December while also pocketing a cool $16,000 payday out in Las Cruces, New Mexico last weekend. He picked up a USMTS Southern Series win back in February and took top honors Saturday in Humboldt as the 2010 USMTS National Tour got kicked off.
Sunday's track would be completely different then Saturday night's track. Saturday saw a heavy track in which ruts surfaced and threw cars around all night long. Track crews did an excellent job to get the surface smoothed up for Sunday's afternoon race, and the end result saw more cars finish.
Iowan Zack VanderBeek had the lucky draws on Sunday, as he not only drew the pole for his heat race, but a lucky young fan coincidentally redrew him the pole for the night's forty-lap main event. He would be joined on the front row with local favorite Whitey Folk. Folk was in attendance Saturday, but enjoyed the view from the grandstand side.
VanderBeek would get the advantage on the start and pull ahead by a couple carlengths. At the completion of the first lap, however, Folk would get sideways in turn two and stack up about three cars or so to bring out an early caution. VanderBeek would find the young Texas hotshoe Rodney Sanders and New Mexico driver Johnny Scott right on his heels on the restart. Scott made it count as he would slip by VanderBeek to take over the race lead, but the pace soon slowed again when Scott's right-side door panel fell off to bring out the caution flag.
On the ensuing restart, Jason Hughes entered his hat into the mix as he used the outside to pass VanderBeek for the runner-up spot. A lap later, he used the inside lane to pass Scott for the lead. Scott began to slip deeper in the field as Tommy Weder Jr., VanderBeek, and Johnny Bone Jr. all got by within the next several laps. The caution flag waved again on lap thirteen, and VanderBeek took advantage as he snuck under Weder Jr. for second. Bone Jr. was on a mission towards the front, however, as he passed both cars on the inside. Weder Jr. was able to get back by VanderBeek at that time.
Lapped traffic helped Bone Jr. close the gap to race leader Hughes. At one point, Bone Jr. made contact with Hughe's left-rear quarter panel and got him loose coming out of turn four. Hughes was able to keep control of his hotrod and keep the lead. Bone Jr. pressured Hughes for a handful of laps before Hughes was able to distance himself lap by lap as he went on to take the checkered flag. Bone Jr. settled for second, Tommy Weder Jr. third, Zack VanderBeek fourth, and Rodney Sanders rounded out the top five.
Defending National Champion Kelly Shryock struggled Sunday as he broke suspension parts in the left-front wheel area in his heat race. That meant he started towards the rear of one of two b-main events in which the top six would transfer to the feature. Shryock suffered a flat tire on the very first lap of competition, but he caught a break when the caution came out. He was able to change the tire and battle back to finish fourth. Shryock advanced ten positions to finish eleventh in the feature.
The USMTS National Tour will next be in action at the Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska on Friday and Saturday, March 26-27. However, the USMTS will be in action this upcoming weekend as they invade Oklahoma for a couple shows. Friday, March 19th they'll be at the Outlaw Motor Speedway near Muskogee, Oklahoma and then travel to West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma on Saturday. Now that I read the USMTS press release, both National Tour and Southern Series points will be awarded at both of these shows.
For more information, check out www.usmts.com. You can also check out www.racedayprints.com for photos from Humboldt.
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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