Packed house at Aberdeen sees Gustin garner tenth win of 2010
ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen, S.D., hosted the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour for the first time Friday night, and the daring dirt-churning drivers did not disappoint the fans that jam-packed the grandstand to witness the inaugural event.
The crowd went wild and vocalized their approval when Jon Tesch of nearby Watertown, S.D., drew the pole position for the WIX Filters “A” Main and he made the best of his prime starting spot by leading the first 11 laps around the high-banked 1/3-mile dirt oval.
The race didn’t start off as fruitful for Rodney Sanders of Happy, Texas, as his fourth-place starting spot evaporated in the first turn when he slid off the embankment and was forced to tag the rear of the 24-car field for the complete restart.
Three consecutive cautions with four laps down also slowed the pace in the early stages of the contest, but the yellow flag waved just one more time in the final 36 laps.
Ryan Gustin followed Tesch’s line around the bottom of the racing surface and quickly moved into the second spot while Jason Hughes followed closely in third by using the extreme high side of the racetrack.
With the leaders struggling with lapped traffic, Hughes shot past both drivers to take the lead on lap 12. Gustin followed Hughes around Tesch the next time around, and then wrestled the lead away as they completed the 17th lap.
Tesch worked underneath Hughes two laps later and the two ran door to door down the back-stretch as they followed closely behind Gustin.
Action was slowed on lap 24 when Hughes slammed into the back of Chase Junghans’ machine as Junghans was forced to slow quickly to avoid Mike Steensma, who was exiting the racetrack. The result of the melee was Hughes leaving the race on the back of a wrecker.
When the race resumed, Gustin continued to hug the low line while Tesch moved to the top of the track. Meanwhile, Zack VanderBeek had his Victory Junction mount up to third, with Corey Dripps, Jason Krohn and Sanders running fourth, fifth and sixth.
Once he found a rhythm, Tesch quickly closed the gap between himself and Gustin and blew past the 19-year-old from Marshalltown, Iowa, with 10 laps to go. Five laps later, a lapped car impeded Tesch’s progress and Gustin regained command.
With four circuits remaining, Tesch slid over the embankment in turn 1 and drifted back to third behind VanderBeek before regaining control of his Modified. From there, Gustin cruised to the checkered flag to pocket the $2,000 top prize and his 10th USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour victory of the season.
It was also his fourth win in the Dart Great Plains Region presented by Allstar Performance, with second- and third-place finishes his other two results in six shows.
VanderBeek finished second in the main event, but made up no points in the regional points race where he trails Gustin. Tesch, who is third in the rankings, held on for a third-place paycheck with Dripps finishing fourth and Sanders roaring back to grab fifth after his first-lap miscue.
Sixth through tenth, respectively, went to Krohn, Kelly Shryock, Dereck Ramirez, Ryan Ruter and Aberdeen driver Kent Arment.
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