1-30 Page 21

Nate Reinke, pictured here in 2023, had a great showing in New Mexico. He finished 7th on January 13 and had the most successful series overall at Vado of all WISSOTA-region drivers in the class. (Mike Spieker File Photo)

Ebert delivers for another top-five in the Mods; Reinke & Christ capture top-10s in X Mods

By Meghan Diemel, Editor
All The Dirt! Racing News

VADO, NM (January 13) - The fifth night of the annual Wild West Shootout got underway Saturday, January 13. Winners included Gary Christian in the Modifieds, and Nick Rivera in the X Mods.

Rivera and Christy Barnett brought the X Mod field to green. After the initial start was called back, Rivera was the early leader, followed by Barnett, JC Morton, Eric McNutt, and Lisbon, North Dakota’s Nate Reinke in fifth.

With three laps down, Morton moved to second, followed closely by McNutt, as Barnett slipped back to fourth and was under fire from Reece Solander for the spot. Reinke hung back in sixth.

With five laps down, Reinke moved back into fifth, while out front Rivera had a healthy lead.

Two laps later, Reinke got by Solander to fourth, with Solander and Jesse Haynie close behind.

With 13 laps to go, Rivera was under heavy pressure from Morton for the lead. They were side by side, with Morton along the bottom and Rivera up top. Morton had enough momentum to get by along the bottom in one and two, but Rivera would fire back along the backstretch and into three and four.

They caught the tail of the field with six laps to go and they were two-wide ahead of the leaders. Rivera was able to find a way to thread through the openings, as Morton searched desperately for a hole to get by. With three to go it was still anyone’s race; Rivera held the lead, with Morton down low. They were side by side in a dead heat with two laps to go, but Rivera was able to eek out the win ahead of Morton, Jesse Haynie, Josh Cain and Christy Barnett in the top five. Reinke finished in seventh, while fellow North Dakotan Jaden Christ was eighth.

In the Modifieds, the field was led to green by Terry Phillips and Christian. Christian was the early leader followed by Phillips, Lake Shore, Minnesota’s Dan Ebert in third, Tyler Davis in fourth and Noah Daspit in fifth. Tyler Wolff moved into fourth the following lap, displacing Davis to fifth.

With four laps complete, Ebert began to feel the heat from Wolff, while out front Phillips continued to chase Christian. Ebert and Wolff were side by side for several laps for third, before Phillips, Ebert and Wolff began to cut into Christian’s lead.

With 13 to go, Christian began to stretch his advantage back out, as Phillips held second, and Ebert and Wolff continued to battle for third in the best battle on the track.

With nine laps to go, Christian began to catch the back of the field. Phillips was slowly catching Christian, and was just a few car lengths behind with three laps remaining. Christian caught the next swath of lapped cars, and Phillips closed in closer. Christian was able to pull away down the backstretch on the final lap to take the win. Phillips was second, Wolff won the race-long battle for third, Ebert was fourth, and Daspit was fifth.

Davis, Dereck Ramirez, Carlos Ahumada, Jr., Jake Gallardo and Cade Dillard completed the top 10.

SUMMARY

Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 58X-Gary Christian[2]; 2. T75-Terry Phillips[1]; 3. 4W-Tyler Wolff[7]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 5. 34-Noah Daspit[6]; 6. 65-Tyler Davis[4]; 7. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[9]; 8. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[11]; 9. J17-Jake Gallardo[13]; 10. 97-Cade Dillard[14]; 11. 20-Rodney Sanders[17]; 12. 19SB-Lance Mari[5]; 13. 89-AJ Diemel[10]; 14. 02-Tanner Mullens[19]; 15. 69-Lucas Schott[16]; 16. 32-DJ Shannon[8]; 17. 0-Jake O'Neil[21]; 18. 45-Chase Holland[20]; 19. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[23]; 20. 88-Chad Wheeler[12]; 21. 131J-Johnny Scott[18]; 22. 88S-Nathan Smith[15]; 23. 16-Chris Henigan[22]; 24. 71-Philip Houston[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 65-Tyler Davis[4]; 2. 88S-Nathan Smith[2]; 3. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[6]; 4. 02-Tanner Mullens[3]; 5. 71T-Billy Wilker[1]; 6. 20-Rodney Sanders[11]; 7. 24X-Xavier Ortega[5]; 8. 0-Jake O'Neil[10]; 9. 9R-Jimmy Ray[9]; 10. 37-John Neal Reid[7]; 11. 11W-Lucas Ward[8]; 12. (DNS) 96C-Carson Ditsch

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 88-Chad Wheeler[1]; 2. 32-DJ Shannon[5]; 3. T75-Terry Phillips[10]; 4. 16-Chris Henigan[4]; 5. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[3]; 6. 111-Logan Drake[8]; 7. 131-Royal Jones[9]; 8. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[7]; 9. 57-Duke Erickson[11]; 10. 24-Rick Ortega[6]; 11. 2X-Gene Weaver[12]; 12. 64S-Jay Sale[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 19SB-Lance Mari[4]; 2. 4W-Tyler Wolff[6]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard[5]; 4. 34-Noah Daspit[11]; 5. 27X-Calvin Iverson[7]; 6. G17-Fito Gallardo[3]; 7. 55G-Braden Gress[2]; 8. 28-Tom Georges[10]; 9. D25-David Tanner[8]; 10. 7G-Gabe Hodges[9]; 11. 54T-Matthew Day[1]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 58X-Gary Christian[5]; 2. 60-Dan Ebert[7]; 3. 69-Lucas Schott[4]; 4. 45-Chase Holland[2]; 5. 131J-Johnny Scott[8]; 6. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[9]; 7. 71-Philip Houston[11]; 8. 77-Ronnie Yanacsek[1]; 9. 2SS-Mark Smith[3]; 10. 11N-Gene Nicholas[6]; 11. 37T-Coty Tanquary[10]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. J17-Jake Gallardo[1]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[5]; 3. 89-AJ Diemel[7]; 4. 77X-CJ Hulsey[4]; 5. 12-Paul Miles[2]; 6. J7-Jake Boles[10]; 7. 33-Jaren Martin[9]; 8. 1T-Cameron Thomas[6]; 9. 75-Alan Sharpensteen[3]; 10. 18JR-Ricardo Olague Jr[8]; 11. (DNS) 30-James Newton

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[1]; 2. 02-Tanner Mullens[5]; 3. 0-Jake O'Neil[9]; 4. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[3]; 5. G17-Fito Gallardo[10]; 6. 111-Logan Drake[6]; 7. 2SS-Mark Smith[15]; 8. 131-Royal Jones[7]; 9. 77X-CJ Hulsey[4]; 10. 77-Ronnie Yanacsek[14]; 11. 18JR-Ricardo Olague Jr[16]; 12. 11W-Lucas Ward[19]; 13. J7-Jake Boles[2]; 14. 57-Duke Erickson[11]; 15. 9R-Jimmy Ray[13]; 16. 12-Paul Miles[8]; 17. 64S-Jay Sale[20]; 18. 2X-Gene Weaver[18]; 19. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[12]; 20. 24-Rick Ortega[17]; 21. 30-James Newton[21]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 131J-Johnny Scott[1]; 2. 45-Chase Holland[5]; 3. 16-Chris Henigan[3]; 4. 71-Philip Houston[4]; 5. 27X-Calvin Iverson[2]; 6. 33-Jaren Martin[7]; 7. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[6]; 8. 7G-Gabe Hodges[14]; 9. 24X-Xavier Ortega[10]; 10. 11N-Gene Nicholas[17]; 11. 28-Tom Georges[9]; 12. D25-David Tanner[13]; 13. 37-John Neal Reid[16]; 14. 71T-Billy Wilker[8]; 15. 55G-Braden Gress[11]; 16. 1T-Cameron Thomas[12]; 17. 75-Alan Sharpensteen[15]; 18. 37T-Coty Tanquary[18]; 19. 54T-Matthew Day[19]; 20. 96C-Carson Ditsch[20]

X-Mods:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. A0S-Nick Rivera[1]; 2. 18-JC Morton[4]; 3. X15-Jesse Haynie[9]; 4. 3J-Josh Cain[10]; 5. 44-Christy Barnett[2]; 6. 5-Reece Solander[7]; 7. 71-Nate Reinke[5]; 8. 1J-Jaden Christ[11]; 9. M17-Rob Moseley[6]; 10. 15A-Mike Anderson[20]; 11. 24-Jonathon Ortega[17]; 12. 198-Jake Haddox[15]; 13. 19-Lucas Rodin[16]; 14. 5M-Eric McNutt[3]; 15. 17-Peyton Gallardo[12]; 16. 7-Willie Gammill[14]; 17. 7CC-Colby Williams[19]; 18. 12-Mike Rosales[22]; 19. 21X-Tanner Kade[23]; 20. 14J-Jacob Hodges[18]; 21. 96-Dusty Riggs[13]; 22. 44JT-Jaime Torres[21]; 23. 58-Chad Reid[24]; 24. 23H-Hector Barraza[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. X15-Jesse Haynie[2]; 2. 198-Jake Haddox[1]; 3. 18-JC Morton[8]; 4. 7CC-Colby Williams[5]; 5. 24-Jonathon Ortega[6]; 6. 95-Mason Day[4]; 7. 15-Tracy Denby[3]; 8. 7C-John Carney[7]; 9. 40-Ruben Ortega[10]; 10. 102-Leonidas Tanner[9]; 11. (DNS) 241-David Jay Jr

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Christy Barnett[5]; 2. 5M-Eric McNutt[6]; 3. 71-Nate Reinke[8]; 4. 17-Peyton Gallardo[7]; 5. 7-Willie Gammill[9]; 6. 20D-Drew Pattat[1]; 7. 94-Justin Garrett[3]; 8. Y23-Ethan Young[4]; 9. 05-Aasa Flores[10]; 10. 81-Devon Jobin[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Reece Solander[3]; 2. A0S-Nick Rivera[9]; 3. 44JT-Jaime Torres[1]; 4. 58-Chad Reid[5]; 5. 02-Deuce Teague[4]; 6. 24M-Shane McNutt[8]; 7. 24S-Scott Morlang[6]; 8. 47CC-Conner Williams[7]; 9. 28T-Brian Barrett[2]; 10. (DNS) 23B-Israel Ortega

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 3J-Josh Cain[1]; 2. 23H-Hector Barraza[5]; 3. M17-Rob Moseley[8]; 4. 21K-Brian Kleine[2]; 5. 1S-Scott Bintz[3]; 6. 28A-Aiden Frazier[4]; 7. 14J-Jacob Hodges[6]; 8. 27N-Colton Polen[9]; 9. M77-Cameron Martin[7]; 10. (DNS) 10-Enrique Barraza

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 1J-Jaden Christ[1]; 2. 96-Dusty Riggs[2]; 3. 19-Lucas Rodin[3]; 4. 12-Mike Rosales[4]; 5. 05N-Jimmy Nicholas[5]; 6. 15A-Mike Anderson[7]; 7. 22T-Gregory Muirhead[6]; 8. 21X-Tanner Kade[8]; 9. 21A-Andrew Hodges[9]; 10. (DNS) 96V-Victor Barraza

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 24-Jonathon Ortega[3]; 2. 7CC-Colby Williams[1]; 3. 44JT-Jaime Torres[2]; 4. 21X-Tanner Kade[11]; 5. 24M-Shane McNutt[4]; 6. 15-Tracy Denby[10]; 7. 02-Deuce Teague[5]; 8. 1S-Scott Bintz[6]; 9. 23B-Israel Ortega[17]; 10. 28A-Aiden Frazier[7]; 11. 47CC-Conner Williams[12]; 12. 24S-Scott Morlang[8]; 13. 22T-Gregory Muirhead[9]; 14. 102-Leonidas Tanner[15]; 15. Y23-Ethan Young[13]; 16. 21A-Andrew Hodges[14]; 17. 81-Devon Jobin[16]; 18. 96V-Victor Barraza[18]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 14J-Jacob Hodges[8]; 2. 15A-Mike Anderson[5]; 3. 12-Mike Rosales[2]; 4. 58-Chad Reid[1]; 5. 21K-Brian Kleine[3]; 6. 95-Mason Day[6]; 7. M77-Cameron Martin[14]; 8. 7C-John Carney[11]; 9. 28T-Brian Barrett[15]; 10. 94-Justin Garrett[10]; 11. 05N-Jimmy Nicholas[4]; 12. 40-Ruben Ortega[13]; 13. 27N-Colton Polen[9]; 14. 20D-Drew Pattat[7]; 15. 241-David Jay Jr[16]; 16. 05-Aasa Flores[12]; 17. 10-Enrique Barraza[17]