3-26 Page 4

WISSOTA’s Ebert scores an early-season win in Texas Modified action

By Jeff Nun

PETTY, TX (March 2) - An electrifying finale to the 14th Annual USMTS Texas Spring Nationals took place Saturday night at the Rocket Raceway Park, as perennial WISSOTA competitor and Lake Shore, Minnesota racer Dan Ebert captured the feature win over a season-high field of 67 monster Modifieds.

Rebounding from a tumultuous night on Friday, Tyler Wolff rolled from first and paced the first 10 laps with Ebert and Winona, Minnesota’s Jake Timm closing in.

Dan Ebert, of Lake Shore, Minnesota (Allen Becker Photo)

The leaders entered lapped traffic on lap 15 with Wolff, Ebert and Timm nose to tail. Using a back-marker to his advantage, Ebert went high and snuck by Wolff, who was bottled up by the traffic.

Moments later, the caution waved for the first time as fourth-running Terry Phillips lost the handle of his machine, and Tyler Davis and Dereck Ramirez also got together. The caution was placed on Phillips, so Davis and Ramirez retained their positions.

A.J. Hoff, of Mantorville, MN, made the trip to Rocket Raceway Park in Texas for early March racing. He drove from 27th to a 15th-place finish in the finale. (Allen Becker Photo)

Chatfield, Minnesota’s Lucas Schott suffered a DNF in the Texas finale at Rocket Raceway Park near Petty, Texas. (Allen Becker Photo)

Rodney Sanders, Tanner Mullens and Jim Chisholm went to war for fourth after the restart, but Chisholm spun in turn three four laps later to cause another slowdown.

That restart allowed Mullens to slip by Timm for third, and then Kyle Brown nudged ahead. Meanwhile, Jason Hughes, who started 25th with a provisional, was into ninth by the halfway mark.

After yet another yellow flag for Wolff’s unfortunate spin, Kyle Brown blew past Mullens for second with Timm, Ramirez and Hughes not far behind.

But like Jack Sartain the night before, nobody was in the same class as Ebert, as he rolled in victory lane.

Rushford, Minnesota’s Alex Williamson took his No. 15 to a 10th-place finish March 2. (Allen Becker Photo)

“It’s not often when you’re racing — a lot of racers that are watching can understand — you have a car when you just hit it that right that night,” the 36-year-old said. “It’s not very often when you can just hit the setup perfect, and we did tonight. It was really awesome.”

Ebert’s margin of victory at the checkered flag was 3.154 seconds and put him at the top of the points battle with four races in the books.

The remaining podium spots went to 13th-starter Brown and Timm, while Mullens and 14th-starting Ramirez completed the top five.

Hughes, Mike Hansen, Davis, Sanders and Minnesotan Alex Williamson rounded out the top ten.

SUMMARY

USMTS Modifieds:

Feature 1 (50 Laps): 1. 60-Dan Ebert[2]; 2. 21K-Kyle Brown[15]; 3. 49-Jake Timm[3]; 4. 02-Tanner Mullens[14]; 5. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[19]; 6. 12-Jason Hughes[25]; 7. 12H-Mike Hansen[24]; 8. 65-Tyler Davis[13]; 9. 20-Rodney Sanders[7]; 10. 15W-Alex Williamson[26]; 11. 75-Terry Phillips[5]; 12. 7G-Gabe Hodges[21]; 13. 7-Sean Gaddis[9]; 14. 15-Kale Westover[22]; 15. 55H-AJ Hoff[27]; 16. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[20]; 17. 54T-Matthew Day[6]; 18. 58X-Gary Christian[18]; 19. 28-Cory Davis[11]; 20. 47M-Trey Melton[12]; 21. 4W-Tyler Wolff[1]; 22. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[16]; 23. 100-Lee Patton[8]; 24. 24C-Jim Chisholm[23]; 25. 2G-Kenny Gaddis[4]; 26. 69-Lucas Schott[10]; 27. 47-Jack Sartain[17]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 60-Dan Ebert[1]; 2. 20-Rodney Sanders[5]; 3. 28-Cory Davis[7]; 4. 4W-Tyler Wolff[12]; 5. 11N-Gene Nicholas[2]; 6. 58X-Gary Christian[11]; 7. 12B-Bryan Gunwall[9]; 8. 88R-AJ Vasquez[3]; 9. 81-Ricky Ingalls[10]; 10. 712-Trevor Hughes[6]; 11. 24M-Manuel Williams II[8]; 12. D25-David Tanner[4]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 54T-Matthew Day[1]; 2. 47M-Trey Melton[3]; 3. 44F-Fred Wojtek[5]; 4. 47-Jack Sartain[9]; 5. 15J-Jason Webb[7]; 6. 80XX-Jason Langford[11]; 7. 12-Jason Hughes[8]; 8. 32C-Mitchell Clement[6]; 9. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[2]; 10. 12C-Leland Cruz[4]; 11. 523-Landon Capps[10]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 75-Terry Phillips[3]; 2. 410-Justin McCoy[1]; 3. 21K-Kyle Brown[2]; 4. 55H-AJ Hoff[4]; 5. 02-Tanner Mullens[8]; 6. 13J-Triston Dycus[7]; 7. 25-Joe Chisholm[10]; 8. 15W-Alex Williamson[11]; 9. 37-John Neal Reid[9]; 10. 88-Sam Osman[5]; 11. 71M-Chad Melton[6]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 7-Sean Gaddis[1]; 2. 2G-Kenny Gaddis[5]; 3. 100-Lee Patton[10]; 4. 32-DJ Shannon[3]; 5. 15G-Geoff Lary[2]; 6. 4M-Bobby Malchus[8]; 7. 24-Manuel Williams Sr[6]; 8. 2SS-Mark Smith[7]; 9. 64-Casey Fowler[4]; 10. 88N-Nathan Smith[9]; 11. 91-Joe Duvall[11]

Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 69-Lucas Schott[1]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[3]; 3. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[6]; 4. 19R-Chris Kratzer[7]; 5. 10B-Brandon Givens[9]; 6. 45T-Eric Tomlinson[10]; 7. 12H-Mike Hansen[11]; 8. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[8]; 9. 22XX-Jason Gamez[4]; 10. 70-Jeremy Busby[5]; 11. 24W-Mason Williams[2]

Heat 6 (10 Laps): 1. 49-Jake Timm[3]; 2. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[1]; 3. 65-Tyler Davis[5]; 4. 12J-Jason Ingalls[4]; 5. 15-Kale Westover[7]; 6. 24C-Jim Chisholm[11]; 7. 99-Jared Baird[9]; 8. 7G-Gabe Hodges[6]; 9. 15L-Chris Lewis[8]; 10. 5-Jon Mitchell[10]; 11. 457-Boone Evans[2]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 65-Tyler Davis[3]; 2. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[2]; 3. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[1]; 4. 15-Kale Westover[7]; 5. 2SS-Mark Smith[12]; 6. 32-DJ Shannon[5]; 7. 13J-Triston Dycus[9]; 8. 88N-Nathan Smith[16]; 9. 99-Jared Baird[10]; 10. D25-David Tanner[19]; 11. 80XX-Jason Langford[6]; 12. 81-Ricky Ingalls[13]; 13. 24-Manuel Williams Sr[11]; 14. (DNF) 10B-Brandon Givens[4]; 15. (DNF) 15G-Geoff Lary[8]; 16. (DNS) 64-Casey Fowler; 17. (DNS) 712-Trevor Hughes; 18. (DNS) 24M-Manuel Williams II; 19. (DNS) 91-Joe Duvall

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[4]; 2. 47-Jack Sartain[2]; 3. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[1]; 4. 24C-Jim Chisholm[6]; 5. 25-Joe Chisholm[9]; 6. 4M-Bobby Malchus[8]; 7. 45T-Eric Tomlinson[7]; 8. 523-Landon Capps[17]; 9. 70-Jeremy Busby[16]; 10. 88R-AJ Vasquez[11]; 11. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[13]; 12. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[12]; 13. 22XX-Jason Gamez[14]; 14. 12J-Jason Ingalls[5]; 15. 19R-Chris Kratzer[3]; 16. 12C-Leland Cruz[15]; 17. 12-Jason Hughes[10]; 18. 24W-Mason Williams[18]

B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 21K-Kyle Brown[3]; 2. 58X-Gary Christian[5]; 3. 7G-Gabe Hodges[12]; 4. 12H-Mike Hansen[8]; 5. 410-Justin McCoy[1]; 6. 15W-Alex Williamson[10]; 7. 15J-Jason Webb[6]; 8. 37-John Neal Reid[13]; 9. 71M-Chad Melton[17]; 10. 44F-Fred Wojtek[2]; 11. 11N-Gene Nicholas[7]; 12. 12B-Bryan Gunwall[9]; 13. 88-Sam Osman[15]; 14. 55H-AJ Hoff[4]; 15. 457-Boone Evans[18]; 16. 32C-Mitchell Clement[11]; 17. 5-Jon Mitchell[16]; 18. 15L-Chris Lewis[14]

Ebert fourth from 20th in Texas opener

By Jeff Nun

PETTY, TX (March 1) - Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas, hosted the opening night of the 14th Annual Texas Spring Nationals, and local Lone Star State hero Jack Sartain left ’em scratching their heads.

Kale Westover used the pole position to claim the early while Sartain, who started 13th on the 28-car grid, began his march to the front.

Two caution flags in the first two laps — the second of which saw points leader Jason Hughes get upside down in a multi-car melee — kept the field bunched.

For the first half of the 20-lap race, Westover remained out front but Winona, Minnesota’s Jake Timm and Gary Christian were doing their best to keep Westover in sight. Little did they know the threat was behind them.

By lap 15, Sartain was already nipping at the leader’s heels. Then, using a lapped car as pick, stormed by Westover on the inside of turn two to grab the lead with 21 down and 19 to go.

Timm, who was working to chase down Sartain, brought out the next yellow when a flat right rear tire sent him out of contention for the win.

One lap later, Carlos Ahumada Jr. hooked the cushion and flipped his Hughes Chassis to force the second red flag of the contest.

With a $5,000 paycheck just a few feet away, Westover broke and collected a hard-charging Joe Duvall. The fifth and final caution set up a green-white-checkered finish, but Sartain wasn’t rattled and pulled away for the win.

“That was great. I didn’t know if I ever going to win one of these things,” Sartain said. “These guys are so good and it’s just hard when you don't race with them all the time. Luckily, I’ve got Tyler Davis and he tells me everything to do.”

It was Sartain’s second USMTS triumph in a little more than three years.

Christian had to settle for second, Terry Phillips was third, and Lake Shore, Minnesota’s Dan Ebert was actually the most prolific passer and finished fourth from 20th.

Tanner Mullens was fifth while Alex Williamson, Sean Gaddis, Davis, Timm and Mike Hansen completed the top 10.

SUMMARY

USMTS Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 47-Jack Sartain[13]; 2. 58X-Gary Christian[15]; 3. 75-Terry Phillips[7]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[20]; 5. 02-Tanner Mullens[10]; 6. 15W-Alex Williamson[17]; 7. 7-Sean Gaddis[21]; 8. 65-Tyler Davis[18]; 9. 49-Jake Timm[2]; 10. 12H-Mike Hansen[12]; 11. 45T-Eric Tomlinson[4]; 12. 24C-Jim Chisholm[22]; 13. 91-Joe Duvall[14]; 14. 15-Kale Westover[1]; 15. 99-Jared Baird[24]; 16. 2SS-Mark Smith[5]; 17. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[6]; 18. 12J-Jason Ingalls[28]; 19. 410-Justin McCoy[9]; 20. 69-Lucas Schott[26]; 21. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[25]; 22. 64-Casey Fowler[3]; 23. 19R-Chris Kratzer[27]; 24. 32S-DJ Shannon[16]; 25. 20-Rodney Sanders[19]; 26. 12-Jason Hughes[11]; 27. 457-Boone Evans[8]; 28. 81-Ricky Ingalls[23]

Heat 1 winner: Kale Westover[1]

Heat 2 winner: Boone Evans[1]

Heat 3 winner: Jake Timm[2]

Heat 4 winner: Eric Tomlinson[4]

Heat 5 winner: Justin McCoy[1]

Heat 6 winner: Terry Phillips[2]