WEBSTER CITY, Iowa -- Kelly Shryock took the lead, lost the lead and then defending his lead en route to winning the main event Saturday night as the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship powered by Swan Energy invaded the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa.
Shryock took the lead from his outside front row starting spot, but polesitter Dereck Ramirez battled past the nine-time USMTS National Champion after a restart on lap 2 to regain the point with three laps complete.
Two laps later, Shryock pulled even with Ramirez before negotiating the sweeping turn at the half-mile speedplant and powering around Ramirez to move back in front on the sixth circuit.
Caution flags on laps 12 and 21 kept the field bunched up but Shryock was flawless on each restart while Ramirez, defending USMTS National Champion Jason Hughes and hometown favorite Mark Elliott continued to apply pressure.
Elliott disposed of Ramirez for second on lap 21 and began to narrow the gap between himself and Shryock. But misfortune struck on lap 24 when the yellow flag made its fourth appearance of the race when Elliott slowed on the track with a flat tire.
Back under green, the fastest car on the track was Rodney Sanders. The 21-year-old from Happy, Texas, won the Real Racing Wheels “B” Main earlier to get a spot in the WIX Filters “A” Main where he maneuvered his way from 17th into the runner-up spot with six laps to go.
But it seemed that following Shryock was a bad omen as Sanders saw his chances at victory slip away when he tagged the outside wall in turn 3 with just four laps remaining.
Shryock was perfect again on the race’s final restart as he held Hughes and Ramirez at bay for the remaining two-mile stretch to pick up a $2,110 paycheck and his tenth win of the season.
Tommy Myer came from the 11th starting spot to finish fourth, but it was Ryan Gustin who garnered the Mesilla Valley Transportation Hard Charger Award by finishing fifth after rolling off 18th on the grid.
Sixth through tenth were Zack VanderBeek, Mark Dotson, Jon Tesch, Kevin Pittman and Jason Krohn.
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