Sanders spooks USMTS foes on second night of Halloween Havoc
ARDMORE, Okla.—On a cool Halloween night, Rodney Sanders of Happy, Texas, notched his 26th victory of the season Friday night as the United States Modified Touring Series invaded the Southern Oklahoma Speedway for the second of three nights at the inaugural Halloween Havoc.
Although the two-time reigning USMTS National Champion led all 40 laps of the main event, tonight’s contest was much closer than the eight-second-margin-of-victory stomping Sanders put on the field on June 28.
Two moves by Sanders were the defining moments of the race, the first of which was at the drop of the green flag when he beat polesitter Kelly Shryock to the flagstand to lead the first lap.
After holding a comfortable ten-car-length lead over Shryock for most of the race, the second move of the race came with five laps to go when Sanders used a slide job to get around the lapped car of Clyde Dunn Jr. and secure the victory.
“It locked down around the top a little past halfway there, and I was just following Clyde around where it was fast,” Sanders said after the race. “I figured if I had any kind of lead I probably lost it while I was following so I knew I had to do something.”
With Shryock glued to his rear bumper, Sanders finally got a run on Dunn and drove in hard entering turn 3 and then sliding up in front of his fellow MB Customs pilot while Shryock followed around the outside of Dunn.
From there, Sanders was able to hold Shryock at bay and crossed the finish line with a half-second advantage over the nine-time USMTS National Champion to claim the $3,000 winner’s share of the prize money.
With his runner-up finish, Shryock scored his second top-five in as many nights driving his Skyrocket that his team converted from a crate mod to a full-blown USMTS Modified earlier this week.
Grant Junghans, who earned his second Sybesma Graphics Pole Award of the weekend earlier in the program, followed Shryock for the duration of the contest and collected a third-place paycheck while 14th-starting Jeremy Payne and Jason Hughes rounded out the top five.
Bryan Rowland grabbed the sixth spot, Thomas Tillison Jr. started and finished seventh, Johnny Bone Jr. passed seven cars to finish eighth, Jake Gallardo came from 20th on the grid to take ninth and Terry Phillips bounded back from a solo spin on lap 9 to garner the tenth position.
The stars and cars of the USMTS will be back in action Saturday for the finale of the inaugural Halloween Havoc, racing for $4,000 to win the 50-lap feature race. Limited Modifieds will also be on the racing card.
Spectators get in for $20 while kids ages 6-12 and seniors are just $15. Pit passes are $40 on Saturday. Racing starts at 7 p.m.
To snag your in-home front-row seat, check out www.racindirt.com for live racing action online.
The Southern Oklahoma Speedway is a semi-banked 3/8-mile clay oval located 0.7 mile east of I-35 (exit 29) on US 70, then 1.8 miles south on US 77. For more information call 405-627-1766 or click www.southernoklahomaspeedway.com to visit the track's official website.
To learn more about the United States Modified Touring Series, visit www.usmts.com online or call 515-832-7944. You can also like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usmts, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/usmts or check out our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/usmtstv.
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OFFICIAL RESULTS
United States Modified Touring Series
Inaugural Halloween Havoc – Night 2 of 3
Southern Oklahoma Speedway, Ardmore, Okla.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Showing finishing position, starting position in parentheses, car number, driver, hometown, chassis/engine builder, laps completed and money won. The top 12 drivers in passing points accumulated in the heat races were locked into the “A” Main, with the top 8 re-drawing for starting positions 1-8.
C&R RACING HEAT RACE #1 (8 laps):
1. (5) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla.
2. (4) 87 John Webb, Pauls Valley, Okla.
3. (3) 11x Wesley Veal, Princeton, Texas.
4. (7) 20r Bryan Rowland, Woodward, Okla.
5. (6) 7D Austin Theiss, Hockley, Texas.
6. (9) J17 Chase Allen, Midlothian, Texas.
7. (2) 85L Mickey Lassiter, Piedmont, Okla.
8. (10) 82 Jimmy Williams, Dennison, Texas.
9. (1) 0 Bob Lane, Andover, Kan.
10. (8) 123 Logan Robertson, Shamrock, Texas.
JRi SHOCKS HEAT RACE #2 (8 laps):
1. (2) 44 Kelly Shryock, Fertile, Iowa.
2. (3) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo.
3. (6) 2s Stormy Scott, Las Cruces, N.M.
4. (5) 3 Daniel Tarkington, Checotah, Okla.
5. (8) 31 Neal DeBord, Amarillo, Texas.
6. (4) 75 Alan Sharpensteen, Amarillo, Texas.
7. (1) 00 David Gould, Clara, Okla.
8. (9) 21 John Allen, Chanute, Kan.
9. (7) J17 Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M.
EDELBROCK HEAT RACE #3 (8 laps):
1. (3) 97 Cade Dillard, Robeline, La.
2. (6) 85 Thomas Tillison Jr., Wellston, Okla.
3. (8) 12t Tyler Townsend, Longview, Texas.
4. (5) 88xxx Clyde Dunn Jr., Sunnyvale, Texas.
5. (4) 24 Sean Jones, Mansfield, Texas.
6. (7) 17 Austin Bonner, Elk City, Okla.
7. (9) 25D Donnie Shipp, Princeton, Texas.
8. (2) 55H Buddy Honaker, Davis, Okla.
9. (1) 21D Ed Dunn, Chattanooga, Okla.
PBM PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS HEAT RACE #4 (8 laps):
1. (2) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas.
2. (9) 2 Grant Junghans, Manhattan, Kan.
3. (1) 60 William Gould, Calera, Okla.
4. (6) 186 Jeremy Payne, Springfield, Mo.
5. (3) 5T Randy Timms, Wheatland, Okla.
6. (7) 12B Johnny Bone Jr., Pea Ridge, Ark.
7. (8) 41M Steve McMackin, Greenville, Texas.
8. (5) 51x Danny Florence, McKinney, Texas.
9. (4) 33h Steve Hawkins, Noble, Okla.
REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #1 (12 laps, top 6 advance):
1. (5) 5T Randy Timms, Wheatland, Okla.
2. (6) 12B Johnny Bone Jr., Pea Ridge, Ark.
3. (4) J17 Chase Allen, Midlothian, Texas.
4. (10) 55H Buddy Honaker, Davis, Okla.
5. (8) 85L Mickey Lassiter, Piedmont, Okla.
6. (2) 3 Daniel Tarkington, Checotah, Okla.
7. (7) 25D Donnie Shipp, Princeton, Texas, Skyrocket/BMS, $90.
8. (3) 31 Neal DeBord, Amarillo, Texas, /, $90.
9. (13) 123 Logan Robertson, Shamrock, Texas, Hughes/PPE, $90.
10. (1) 60 William Gould, Calera, Okla., Shaw/BMS, $90.
11. (9) 82 Jimmy Williams, Dennison, Texas, /, $90.
12. (11) 0 Bob Lane, Andover, Kan., LaneBuilt/Lane, $90.
13. (12) 21D Ed Dunn, Chattanooga, Okla., C&E/C&E, $90.
REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #2 (12 laps, top 6 advance):
1. (1) 186 Jeremy Payne, Springfield, Mo.
2. (2) 88xxx Clyde Dunn Jr., Sunnyvale, Texas.
3. (9) 21 John Allen, Chanute, Kan.
4. (11) J17 Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M.
5. (3) 7D Austin Theiss, Hockley, Texas.
6. (4) 24 Sean Jones, Mansfield, Texas.
7. (6) 75 Alan Sharpensteen, Amarillo, Texas, SRP/GMPP, $90.
8. (5) 17 Austin Bonner, Elk City, Okla., GRT/JRM, $90.
9. (7) 41M Steve McMackin, Greenville, Texas, DirtWorks/Cotton, $90.
10. (10) 51x Danny Florence, McKinney, Texas, /, $90.
11. (8) 00 David Gould, Clara, Okla., /, $90.
12. (12) 33h Steve Hawkins, Noble, Okla., /, $90
“A” MAIN (40 laps):
1. (2) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, MBCustom/Geddes, 40, $3000.
2. (1) 44 Kelly Shryock, Fertile, Iowa, Skyrocket/ASI, 40, $1700.
3. (4) 2 Grant Junghans, Manhattan, Kan., MBCustom/Sput’s, 40, $1200.
4. (14) 186 Jeremy Payne, Springfield, Mo., GRT/Durham, 40, $900.
5. (6) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., Hughes/Mullins, 40, $800.
6. (11) 20r Bryan Rowland, Woodward, Okla., LG2/ProPower, 40, $700.
7. (7) 85 Thomas Tillison Jr., Wellston, Okla., Hughes/Geddes, 40, $600.
8. (15) 12B Johnny Bone Jr., Pea Ridge, Ark., TRE/Homegrown, 40, $500.
9. (20) J17 Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M., LG2/AOS, 40, $450.
10. (9) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., GRT/Hatfield, 40, $400.
11. (13) 5T Randy Timms, Wheatland, Okla., Hughes/Geddes, 40, $375.
12. (10) 2s Stormy Scott, Las Cruces, N.M., LG2/ProPower, 40, $350.
13. (12) 11x Wesley Veal, Princeton, Texas, Shaw/Wornhor, 40, $325.
14. (17) J17 Chase Allen, Midlothian, Texas, CAM/Herring, 40, $300.
15. (19) 55H Buddy Honaker, Davis, Okla., Hughes/Wells, 39, $290.
16. (16) 88xxx Clyde Dunn Jr., Sunnyvale, Texas, MBCustom/Mullins, 39, $280.
17. (22) 3 Daniel Tarkington, Checotah, Okla., TRE/BMS, 32, $270.
18. (18) 21 John Allen, Chanute, Kan., Skyrocket/Sput’s, 29, $260.
19. (23) 24 Sean Jones, Mansfield, Texas, LG2/Brooks, 23, $250.
20. (21) 7D Austin Theiss, Hockley, Texas, LG2/Durham, 21, $250.
21. (3) 12t Tyler Townsend, Longview, Texas, Hughes/PTS, 17, $250.
22. (5) 97 Cade Dillard, Robeline, La., LG2/105, 9, $250.
23. (8) 87 John Webb, Pauls Valley, Okla., MBCustom/Mullins, 0, $250.
DNS - 85L Mickey Lassiter, Piedmont, Okla., TRE/, 0, $100.
Lap Leader: Sanders 1-40.
Total Laps Led: Sanders 40.
Margin of Victory: 0.570 second.
Provisional Starters: none.
Sybesma Graphics Pole Award: Junghans.
Next Race: Saturday, Nov. 1, Southern Oklahoma Speedway, Ardmore, Okla.
Contingency Awards:
American Racer – not awarded.
Beyea Custom Headers – goodsport.
Brass Monkey Racing Products – J. Allen.
C&R Racing – Hughes.
Edelbrock – Dillard.
FK Rod Ends – Honaker.
Forty9Designs.com – C. Allen, Jones.
Fuel Safe – Rowland.
GRT Race Cars – Bonner.
Hooker Harness – Veal.
JRi Shocks – Shryock.
KEVKO Oil Pans & Components – Gallardo.
Keyser Manufacturing – Phillips.
Marsh Racing Wheels – Webb.
Mesilla Valley Transportation – not awarded.
MSD Ignition – Sanders, Shryock.
PBM Performance Products – Sanders.
Power Lift Racing Products – Tarkington.
Real Racing Wheels – all non-qualifiers.
Sybesma Graphics – Junghans.
VP Racing Fuels – Sanders.
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USMTS OFFICIAL SPONSORS: American Racer Racing Tires, AMP Energy, Casey’s General Stores, Chix Gear, COMP Cams, Day Motor Sports, Farm Boy BBQ Sauce, Intercomp, KEVKO Oil Pans & Components, MSD, Nitroquest Media Group, RACEceiver, RacinDirt.com, Snickers, SpiderWeb Modular Storage Solutions, Swan Energy, VP Racing Fuels.
USMTS PARTICIPATING SPONSORS: Arizona Sport Shirts, ASi Racewear, BRODIX Cylinder Heads, Double H Bands, ElbowsUp.com, Erson Cams, Integra Racing Shocks & Springs, Major League Bowhunter, Mesilla Valley Transportation, New Vision Graphics, Olympic Fire Protection, Penn Transport, Road Runner Crane, Road Runner Trucking, S&S Fishing & Rental, United Cellular Services, Widow Wax.
USMTS CONTINGENCY SPONSORS: AFCO Racing Products, Bell Racing Helmets, Beyea Custom Headers, Brass Monkey Racing Products, C&R Racing, CPD Racing Tools, Edelbrock, Fast Shafts, FK Rod Ends, Forty9 Designs, Fuel Safe, Genesis Racing Shocks, GRT Race Cars, Hooker Harness, JRi Shocks, Keyser Manufacturing, KSE Racing Products, Marsh Racing Wheels, PBM Performance Products, Power Lift Racing Products, Quarter Master, Real Racing Wheels, Sybesma Graphics, Tiger Rear Ends.