BRITT, Iowa – The Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship presented by Bad Boy Mowers rolled into the Hancock County Speedway Thursday night and produced a seventh winner in seven races with yet another shake up in the points battle.
Polesitter Bob Timm grabbed the lead at the start of the 35-lap WIX Filters “A” Main, but his time at the top lasted just one lap around the fast 3/8-mile oval as Tommy Myer powered underneath and into the lead at the completion of lap 1.
Mark Elliott quickly followed into second and put the heat on Myer, but three cautions over the final 34 laps was not enough to help his cause.
Rodney Sanders snuck by Elliott after a restart on lap 30, but he too had nothing for Myer. With the white flag waving, Jason Hughes powered around Sanders on the outside of turn 2 and came home in the runner-up spot after starting tenth.
Sanders was third and Elliott finished fourth ahead of Jason Krohn, Kelly Shryock, Jon Tesch, Mark Dotson, Tommy Weder Jr. and Timm.
The win was worth $3,000 to the ‘Bixby Bullet’ as he racked up his fifth win of the season and 41st of his career with the United States Modified Touring Series.
Points leader Ryan Gustin struggled from the drop of the green flag in his heat race until the checkered flag in the main event. What appeared to be a miscue that dropped him to the back of the field in his heat race turned out to be a piece of mud that pierced his face shield and actually dazed the 19-year-old.
After qualifying through the Real Racing Wheels “B” Main, he started 22nd in the main event and climbed as high as seventh at one point, but wound up eleventh on the final score sheets.
While the night produced a seventh different winner in seven aces during the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship presented by Bad Boy Mowers, from it also emerged the third different points leader of the title bout.
Hughes is now in command in his quest for a first USMTS National Championship and now leads Gustin by seven points (591 to 584). Zack VanderBeek continues to lurk in third with 560 markers, followed by Shryock (545), Myer (538), Tesch (507), Dereck Ramirez (496), Sanders (492), Tim Donlinger (488) and Krohn (480).
