FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. – After a disappointing performance on Thursday that cost him the points lead, Ryan Gustin bounced back in a big way Friday night with a dominating performance at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway in the seventh event of the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship presented by Bad Boy Mowers.
Gustin started fifth in Friday’s WIX Filters “A” Main, but it took him just over three laps to grab the lead from polesitter Jay Ihrke.
By the tenth lap, Gustin’s advantage was a full straight-away, and with no cautions to assist his chasers the 19-year-old from Marshalltown, Iowa, sailed to his 21st career USMTS victory and his second $3,000 payday in the last three races.
He lapped four drivers currently ranked in the top 10 in points and his dominating drive also allowed him retake the points lead he lost to Jason Hughes one night earlier at the Hancock County Speedway in Britt, Iowa.
Zack VanderBeek got around Ihrke midway through the race and took home the runner-up paycheck while Ihrke held off Hughes for the third spot.
Jason Krohn wound up fifth, Andy Bohnstengel scored a sixth-place finish, Tommy Myer came from 14th on the grid to get seventh, 13-year-old Lucas Schott passed eight cars to earn the eighth spot, Josh Angst earned the PBM Performance Products Hard Charger Award by racing from 24th to 9th and Tommy Weder Jr. rounded out the top-10 finishers
