Gustin garners 10th Annual Stars & Stripes Shootout victory

Gustin garners 10th Annual Stars & Stripes Shootout victory

KASSON, Minn. (May 30) – With qualifying for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour powered by Swan Energy already in the books Sunday night, the rain that threatened all day finally arrived and rained out main event action at the Dodge County Speedway in Kasson, Minn., forcing the Real Racing Wheels “B” Mains and WIX Filters “A” Main to be completed Monday afternoon.

Fresh off his ninth win of the season Saturday night at the nearby Deer Creek Speedway, Ryan Gustin drew the pole for the 40-lap main event and grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag.

After two laps, however, 2008 USMTS National Champion Tim Donlinger worked his way around Gustin to take the lead.

Jon Tesch eventually got by Gustin too, and then set his sights on Donlinger. With 16 laps in the books, Tesch blasted into the lead and proceeded to build a huge advantage over the field.

With 11 laps to go, Tesch was working lapped traffic with a comfortable lead when a backmarker got sideways next to him and made contact with Tesch, giving him a flat tire and bringing out the race’s fifth caution.

Donlinger inherited the lead for the restart, with Gustin applying heavy pressure to his outside. Gustin finally made the pass on lap 33 and then sailed away for his tenth USMTS main event victory of the season.

While Gustin pocketed the $2,000 winner’s share of the purse, Donlinger crossed the finish line in second but was disqualified during post-race technical inspections due to an engine setback violation.

Bob Timm was advanced to the runner-up finish, with Rodney Sanders getting third, Kelly Shryock fourth and Jason Krohn in fifth. Al Hejna, Colt Mather, Jason Miller, Zack VanderBeek and Jeff Larson rounded out the top-10 finishers.