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From Jeff Nunn at USMTS media...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Standing-room-only crowd sees Sanders rocket to USMTS win at Route 66 Motor Speedway
AMARILLO, Texas (May 1) – The USMTS Castle Rock Recruiting Southern Series made its maiden voyage to the Route 66 Motor Speedway in Amarillo, Texas, Saturday night with a crowd of nearly 3,000 spectators on hand to witness the mud-slinging Modifieds tackle the 3/8-mile high-banked oval.
One week earlier, Rodney Sanders used the weekend off from USMTS competition to dial-in his machine at his hometown track. He won his heat race from the last starting position and led every lap of the feature race.
Sanders returned again this weekend to take on the best of the best in dirt Modified racing in the inaugural “Amarillo Ambush presented by RaceDayPrints.com” at the closest venue on the schedule to his residence 36 miles away in Happy, Texas.
Although not a brief thirty-minute drive, the Route 66 Motor Speedway is also the closest racetrack on the USMTS Castle Rock Recruiting Southern Series campaign trail for Bumper Jones of Las Cruces, N.M. Jones jumped out from his second row starting spot to take the lead on the first lap in Saturday night’s 40-lap WIX Filters “A” Main.
While Jones extended his lead to nearly a full straight-away, Sanders was clawing his way to the front with points leader Jason Hughes and Marshalltown, Iowa’s Ryan Gustin following him around the top side of the racing surface.
A mid-race caution wiped out Jones’ advantage, and Sanders was able to steal the top spot away on lap 28. Jones fought back to regain the lead the next time around, but Sanders but his mount back in front on lap 30 and paced the final ten laps to score the victory to the delight of the standing-room-only audience.
The win was his second career USMTS triumph and worth $2,000 to the 20-year-old.
Jones hung on for a career-best runner-up paycheck while Hughes finished third after starting 16th and picked up his second straight PBM Performance Products Hard Charger Award. Gustin took fourth and outside front row starter Alan Sharpensteen of Amarillo rounded out the top five finishers at the finish line.
Scott Green, Kelly Shryock, Tommy Weder Jr., Melvin Pilcher and Jon Tesch wound up sixth through tenth, respectively.
Packing a load of passing points for the second night in a row, Hughes extended his advantage in the USMTS Castle Rock Recruiting Southern Series standings to 146 points (765 to 619) over Shryock. Morgan Bagley dropped to third with 616 markers, followed by Jones (607), Sanders (593), Randy Timms (574), Green (569), Dereck Ramirez (543), Steve Holzkamper (506) and John O Whittington (464).
Tomorrow (Sunday, May 2) will find the USMTS touring titans invading the Lubbock Motor Speedway for the third first-time-ever event of the weekend. The track is known for its three- and sometimes four-wide battles on the speedy bullring near Lubbock, Texas.
Pit gates open at 1 p.m., grandstands open at 2, hot laps are at 3:30 and the first heat race gets the green flag at 4 p.m. A full program of Sport Mods, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks and Enduros are also on Sunday’s menu.
The Lubbock Motor Speedway is a 1/3-mile high-banked clay oval located south of Lubbock on I-27 to 114th St., then 1.5 miles east on CR 7300. For more information, call 806-438-1642 (office) or 806-748-0750 (track) or check them out at www.lubbockmotorspeedway.com online.
To learn more about the United States Modified Touring Series, visit www.usmts.com online or call 515-832-7944. You can also follow the USMTS on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
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