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ALLISON, Iowa (Sept. 2) – With a little help from his friends, Jason Hughes captured his third victory of the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship Wednesday night at the Highway 3 Raceway in Allison, Iowa, during the 5th Annual Hawkeye Summer Classic presented by Car Country and Schroeder Racing Products. Al Hejna captured the pole for the 30-lap Sunoco “A” Main and jumped out to a six-car-length advantage over R.C. Whitwell at the end of the first lap. The next time around, Ryan Gustin blasted around the outside of Whitwell to take over second place and set his sights on Hejna. For the next four laps, Hejna and Gustin checked out, building nearly a full-straight-away lead over Zack VanderBeek, Whitwell and Hughes. Meanwhile, a three-wide fight for the ninth spot saw Dustin Boney, Kelly Shryock and Colt Mather exit turn 4 side by side with Shryock's machine getting sandwiched between the two and his hood flying up into his field of vision. Luckily for the eight-time USMTS National Champion, a caution flag on lap 6 ended his slide backwards through the running order and allowed him to get his hood repaired. On the restart, VanderBeek slid underneath Gustin to move into second and Hughes blasted by Whitwell for fourth while Hejna began building up his advantage once again. Gustin fought back with a rim-riding line around the top of the track, but his crowd-pleasing acrobatics came to an end on lap 13 when he tagged the fence in turn 3 to bring out the race's second caution flag. Again Hejna overpowered the field when the green flag waved to restart the race while Tommy Myer, who came from 13th after winning the first Real Racing Wheels "B" Main, darted past Tim Donlinger to take fourth in the first turn. Hughes muscled his way around VanderBeek for second, and Myer edged his Snickers-sponsored mount into third one lap later. With 20 and one-half laps down and a comfortable lead on Hughes, Hejna's Harris chassis brushed the back-stretch wall and the veteran saw his hopes of victory evaporate as he limped to a stop at the top of the racetrack between turns 3-4. Hejna's departure left Hughes with the lead, which he never relinquished over the final caution-free 10 laps. VanderBeek was able to get by Myer for second on the restart, but never got close enough to challenge the leader and had to settle for the runner-up paycheck while Myer took third place and the PBM Performance Products Hard Charger Award. Donlinger kept his hopes of a second straight USMTS National Championship alive with a fourth-place finish. Like Myer, Dustin Boney passed 10 cars in 30 laps and ended up with his second top-5 finish of the 'Hunt.' Sixth through tenth, respectively, went to Ryan Dolan, Jon Tesch, Shryock, Mark Schulte and 2007 USMTS National Champion Jason Krohn. The win, worth $3,000 was the ninth for Hughes during this year's USMTS Casey's General Stores National Tour and 16th overall including his seven USMTS Dirthead.com Southern Series triumphs. Hughes also narrowed Shryock's lead in the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship points as drivers reached the halfway point in the 18-race campaign. Jumping from fourth to second in the rankings, Hughes now trails Shryock by 71 markers (847 to 776), while Rodney Sanders fell to third with 767 points. VanderBeek is fourth with 762, followed by Dereck Ramirez (744), Gustin (732), Donlinger (709), Tesch (688), Myer (670) and Krohn (656). LEAVE IT TO BEAVER ... The Buena Vista Raceway held its first USMTS event last year in front of a standing-room-only grandstand. It was no different this past June and officials expect nothing less than another epic battle when they return to the Alta, Iowa, bullring tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 3) for the Inaugural Battle at the Beaver presented by Cookies Bar “B” “Q” Sauce — event #10 of 18 in the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship. Kelly Shryock won the inaugural event in 2008 and Al Hejna held off Corey Dripps to take the checkers three months ago on June 4. Pit gates will open at 5:00, grandstands open at 6:00, hot laps begin at 6:45 and the first heat race is scheduled to take the green flag at 7:30. Also on the racing card will be Stock Cars, SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. All four classes will be governed under IMCA or USRA rules. Corey Dripps and his Cheetos-sponsored Modified will be at the Casey's General Store located at 303 E. Hwy. 7 in Alta from 12:00 to 2:00. Fans can pick up $2-off discount coupons for Thursday night's races at Casey's General Stores locations in Alta, Aurelia and Storm Lake. For more information, or to find the Casey's location nearest you, check out www.caseys.com online. The Buena Vista Raceway is a 3/8-mile semi-banked clay oval located 0.5 mile east of CR M31 on SR 7 (at the Buena Vista County Fairgrounds). For more information, call 712-664-2662 or 712-284-2561 or visit www.buenavistaraceway.com online. Remaining events in the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Championship: Thu Sep 3 … Buena Vista
Raceway, Alta, IA - Battle at the Beaver presented by Cookies Bar “B” “Q”
Sauce ($3,000 to win) 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): REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #1 (10 laps, top 5 advance): REAL RACING WHEELS “B”
MAIN #2 (10 laps, top 5 advance): SUNOCO “A” MAIN (30
laps): Lap Leaders:
Hejna 1-20, Hughes 21-30. 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, Fast Shafts, 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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