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LA MONTE, Mo. (June 26) – Rodney Sanders had been close before, but the 19-year-old from Happy, Texas, finally sealed he deal Friday night as he captured the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour event at the LA Raceway in La Monte, Mo. After two seasons of racing under the USMTS banner in his family-owned Modified, Sanders teamed up with Bryan Rowland for an all-out assault on the 2009 campaign. Rowland got his career-first win earlier this season in a USMTS Southern Series event while Sanders recorded 13 top-five and 22 top-ten finishes this year before tasting victory for the first time Friday night. Sanders drew the outside of the front row for the start of the 35-lap Sunoco “A” Main and raced wheel to wheel with polesitter Chad Wheeler for the first lap around the smooth 3/8-mile dirt oval, leading the first lap by a nose. Nobody got any closer than that until the final lap of the caution-free contest. While Sanders stretched his advantage to as much as a full straight-away during the first half of the race, Jason Hughes was working his way to the front of the pack from the seventh spot, grabbing second from Wheeler on lap 17. Hughes shortened the distance between himself and Sanders with each passing lap, and finally moved up on the leader's bumper with three laps to go. With Sanders struggling to find a way around a lapped car running the same line on the darkening racing surface, Hughes took a peek to the inside on the final lap. Sanders, however, was able to out-race Hughes down the back-stretch and crossed the finish line with Hughes glued to his tail. Despite turning the fastest lap times over the final 10 laps, the absence of a yellow flag left Zack VanderBeek without an opportunity to challenge the lead duo, but took home a third-place finish and the PBM Performance Products Hard Charger Award after starting 13th. VanderBeek earned his spot in the main event after winning the first Real Racing Wheels “B” Main from the 10th starting spot. Wheeler hung on for a fourth-place paycheck while AFCO Pole Award winner Jason Krohn rounded out the top-5 finishers. Sixth through tenth, respectively, went to Dustin Boney, Johnny Bone Jr., Jim Moody, Dean Wille and Jason Thompson. In contrast to the last three USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour races where a rough and tacky-fast racing surface contributed to less than half of the field finishing the feature races, the track surface at the LA Raceway Friday night was dry and smooth as all 26 main event starters finished the race. Hughes continues to lead the Bear Tire Mo-Kan Region points standings, while Sanders jumped into the runner-up spot and trails Hughes by 30 points (913 to 883). VanderBeek is third with 862 markers, followed by Kelly Shryock (859), Boney (795), Bone (769), Dereck Ramirez (767), Rowland (743), Jon Tesch (717) and Scott Green (714). DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER ... On Saturday night, the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour makes their long-awaited return to the “Diamond of Dirt Tracks” as they return to the state-of-the-art Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. The 2nd running of the “Diamond of Dirt Tracks” Modified Nationals will see pit gates opening at 4:00 and grandstand gates opening at 5:00. Hot laps begin at 6:45 and the first heat race takes the green flag at 7:00. Also on the racing card will be the Show-Me Late Model Series. Race fans can pick up $2-off coupons on Friday at the Casey's General Stores locations in Lincoln, Stockton and Warsaw. Check out www.caseys.com for more information or to find the location nearest you. The Lucas Oil Speedway is a 3/8-mile semi-banked clay oval located 0.2 mile south of US 54 on SR 83, then east. For more information, call the track hotline at 417-282-5984 or visit www.lucasoilspeedway.com online. UPCOMING EVENTS: Sat., June 27 … Lucas Oil
Speedway, Wheatland, Mo. As they did on Friday night from the LA Raceway, WatchModsLive.com will be providing a live feed of the Lucas Oil Speedway show. The entire event will be broadcast live online and in real time. For more information, go to WatchModsLive.com. To learn more about the United States Modified Touring Series, call the headquarters at (515) 832-7944 or visit www.usmts.com online for the latest news and information from the USMTS. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OFFICIAL RESULTS Showing finishing position, car number, driver, hometown and starting position in parentheses. The top 12 drivers in passing points accumulated in the heat races are locked into the Sunoco “A” Main, with the top 8 re-drawing for starting positions 1-8. ISKY RACING CAMS HEAT
RACE #1 (8 laps): NEW VISION GRAPHICS
HEAT RACE #2 (8 laps): BRODIX HEAT RACE #3 (8
laps): AWESOME RACEWEAR HEAT
RACE #4 (8 laps): INTERCOMP HEAT RACE #5
(8 laps): REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #1 (15 laps, top 5 advance): REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #2 (15 laps, top 5 advance): SUNOCO “A” MAIN (35
laps): Lap Leader:
Sanders 1-35. Contingency Awards: = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = USMTS TITLE SPONSOR: Casey’s General Stores. USMTS OFFICIAL SPONSORS: American Racer Racing Tires, Awesome Racewear, AwesomeRaceSuits.com, BRODIX Cylinder Heads, COMP Cams, Intensitee Custom Racewear, Intercomp, Karl Chevrolet, KEVKO Oil Pans & Components, New Vision Graphics, Nitroquest, PBM Performance Products, Sunoco Race Fuels. USMTS PARTICIPATING SPONSORS: ASi Racewear, Bear Tire, Big Dog Chassis & Fabrication, DandyLand Farms, Day Motor Sports, Diamond Oil Company, Dirthead.com, Gressel Oil Field Service, Just Say Yes, Ramirez Race Cars, Lone Star Super Gas, Olympic Fire Protection, Ruter Farms, WatchModsLive.com, Yeager Machine. USMTS CONTINGENCY SPONSORS: AFCO Racing Products, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Dynatech Racing Exhaust, Hyperco, ISKY Racing Cams, KSE Racing Products, Marsh Racing Wheels, Out-Pace Racing Products, Quarter Master, QuickTime Performance Race Parts, Real Racing Wheels, US Brake.
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