ELKO, Minn. – Tommy Myer captured a rain-shortened main event Saturday night as the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour returned to the Elko Speedway for the second and final night of the 2nd Annual AMSOIL Dirt Nationals.
With Myer leading and 32 of the scheduled 40 laps in the books, the first caution of the WIX Filters “A” Main occurred when third-running Mike Steensma came to a stop on the racing surface after contact with a lapped car resulted in a flat tire.
During the delay, the rain arrived to seal the victory for Myer and thwart an impending battle for the spot from Ken Schrader.
From the outside of the front row, Steensma snagged the lead at the start of the race, but Myer ran him down and grabbed the position away on lap 11.
Meanwhile, Ken Schrader was clawing his way to the front and moved around Steensma at the race’s halfway point. With the leaders maneuvering through lapped traffic, Schrader was reeling in Myer when the action was stopped with eight laps to go.
After several minutes of weather-watching, too much rain had fallen and continued to fall, so officials were forced to pull the plug and call the event complete.
For Myer, it was his third triumph in his last five starts and fourth overall this season – all of them coming in the highly-competitive Yeager Machine Upper Midwest Region.
The $3,000 win was the 40th of his United States Modified Touring Series career.
Polesitter Doug Hillson held on for a third-place finish, followed by Ryan Gustin, Tim Donlinger, Corey Dripps, Friday night’s winner Jason Krohn, Ryan Ruter, Al Hejna and Kelly Shryock.
Jon Tesch finished 11th but earned the PBM Performance Hard Charger Award after passing 13 Modifieds from his 24th starting spot.
Gustin remains the Yeager Machine Upper Midwest Region points leader with Myer trailing by just 12 points (901 to 889). Krohn is close behind with 869 markers, followed by Shryock (862), Donlinger (820), Tesch (800), Zack VanderBeek (710), Hillson (696), Dereck Ramirez (678) and Steve Wetzstein (647).
