Close but no cigar at Cedar Lake Speedway

NEW RICHMOND, Wis. -- Rodney Sanders chased race-long leader Lucas Schott for 29 laps Friday night, took command with six laps to go and then held on to win the USMTS Casey’s Cup Series event at the Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis.

Two weeks ago, the pair took advantage of a “bye week” on the USMTS campaign to make a trip to Cedar Lake for some “seat time” at the state-of-the-art 3/8-mile high-banked clay oval. They finished first and second with Schott getting the trophy and $5,000 top prize.

Moving into second on lap 7, Sanders kept Schott in his crosshairs throughout Friday night’s 35-lapper, but the 23-year-old from Happy, Texas, spent the better part of the race slugging it out with Joey Jensen, Craig Thatcher and Darrell Nelson for second place.

With Sanders down low, Jensen in the middle and Thatcher up high, the first five laps saw more three-wide racing than not before Sanders broke free on lap 5 with Schott nearly a straight-away ahead in the distance.

Heavy lapped traffic near the midway point allowed Sanders to close the gap on Schott, and Several back-to-back cautions on lap 20 kept the whole field close together for the last 15 laps of the race.

Nelson powered ahead of Sanders on the last of the restarts with the left front of Sanders’ machine climbing the right rear tire of Nelson, but Sanders regained control and the runner-up spot three laps later. The duo swapped positions two more times during the next four laps before Sanders took the spot back for good on lap 28.

One lap later, ‘The Rocket’ blasted by Schott and went on to win by three car-lengths en route to a $4,000 payday. It was his 14th career USMTS victory, tying him with Terry Phillips for tenth on the all-time wins list.

Schott, who turns 17 next month, had to settle for the runner-up spot for the second night in a row. He led most of Thursday’s feature at the Eagle Valley Speedway but relinquished the lead to Ryan Gustin with six laps to go in that one too.

Eleventh-starting Trent Follmer got by Nelson with three laps to go and scored a third-place finish while Joey Jensen rounded out the top 5 finishers. Craig Thatcher, Dereck Ramirez, Daniel Hilsabeck, Kelly Shryock and Jason Miller completed the top 10.

Shryock passed 11 cars from his 20th starting spot to earn the Mesilla Valley Transportation Hard Charger Award.

Miller, Thatcher, Sanders and Schott captured heat race checkers while Mike Steensma and Gustin won the two Real Racing Wheels “B” Mains, but were the first two competitors to drop out of the main event.

A second night of action is on tap at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday night featuring the USMTS Modifieds and UMP “Hell Tour” Late Models on the same bill. The first heat race is slated to start at 7 p.m.

USMTS Modified feature highlights from both nights of The Masters is available for RacinDirt.com subscribers. Click here and become a Premier Member to get on-demand, high-definition, flag-to-flag coverage of most USMTS races this season. In addition to high-quality crystal clear video, RacinDirt.com also offers a huge archive of original content from some of the best writers and photographers in dirt track racing.

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 – USMTS Casey’s Cup Series
Farm Boy BBQ Sauce Northern Region presented by Day Motor Sports
15th Annual Masters
Cedar Lake Speedway, New Richmond, Wis.
Friday, June 14, 2013

Showing finishing position, starting position in parentheses, car number, driver, hometown, chassis/engine and money won. The top 12 drivers in passing points accumulated in the heat races are locked into the “A” Main, with the top 8 re-drawing for starting positions 1-8.

PBM PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS HEAT RACE #4 (8 laps):
1. (4) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn.
2. (3) 4r Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla.
3. (1) 22d Daniel Hilsabeck, Adel, Iowa.
4. (5) 37 Kelly Estey, Hibbing, Minn.
5. (7) 54 Jeremy Houle (R), Ham Lake, Minn.
6. (6) 3 Kelly Shryock, Fertile, Iowa.
7. (2) 89 Eric Pember, Pittsville, Wis.
8. (8) 90 Steve Wetzstein, West Concord, Minn.
9. (9) 31 Corey Dripps, Waterloo, Iowa.

“A” MAIN (35 laps):
1. (6) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, MBCustom/Geddes, $4000.
2. (3) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn., Hughes/Sput’s, $1500.
3. (11) 31t Trent Follmer, Princeton, Minn., Shaw/Tim’s, $1000.
4. (12) 44 Darrell Nelson, Hermantown, Minn., LG2/Tim’s, $800.
5. (4) V2 Joey Jensen, Forest Lake, Minn., GRT/Tim’s, $800.
6. (5) 91 Craig Thatcher, Knapp, Wis., GRT/TriStar, $700.
7. (9) 4r Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla., Hughes/ProPower, $650.
8. (16) 22d Daniel Hilsabeck, Adel, Iowa, Sidebiter/Mullins, $600.
9. (20) 3 Kelly Shryock, Fertile, Iowa, Skyrocket/ProPower, $700.
10. (8) 12m Jason Miller, Osceola, Wis., Hughes/Mullins, $400.
11. (10) 2c Dave Cain, Corcoran, Minn., Shaw/Tim’s, $350.
12. (17) 99h Trevor Hunt (R), Kearney, Mo., GRT/Mullins, $475.
13. (22) 1k Pat Graham, Ames, Iowa, Skyrocket/Karl, $400.
14. (15) 54 Jeremy Houle (R), Ham Lake, Minn., MBCustom/Speedwerx, $375.
15. (7) 33z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa, Hughes/Sput’s, $450.
16. (1) 00 Masen Big Eagle (R), Manor, Sask., Canada, GRT/Tim’s, $350.
17. (21) 16 Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo., GRT/Mullins, $300.
18. (24) 31 Corey Dripps, Waterloo, Iowa, Rage/RoushYates, $400.
19. (19) 2s Stormy Scott, Las Cruces, N.M., LG2/ProPower, $400.
20. (23) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., Hughes/Mullins, $450.
21. (18) 37 Kelly Estey, Hibbing, Minn., MasterSbilt/Tim’s, $300.
22. (2) 1st Johnny Scott, Las Cruces, N.M., Hughes/ProPower, $400.
23. (14) 19r Ryan Gustin, Marshalltown, Iowa, Hughes/Mullins, $300.
24. (13) 10 Mike Steensma, Luverne, Minn., MBCustom/Sput’s, $300.

Lap Leaders: Schott 1-29, Sanders 30-35.
Total Laps Led: Schott 29, Sanders 6.
Margin of Victory: 1.411 seconds.
Farm Boy BBQ Sauce Northern Region Points: S. Scott 722, J. Jensen 689, VanderBeek 672, Schott 668, Ramirez 649, Hughes 641, Shryock 635, J. Scott 624, Hunt 576, Dripps 562.
Rookie of the Year Points: Hunt 1457, Galloway 1371, Big Eagle 1159, Shane Sprinkle 380, Jeff Conner 371.
COMP Cams Engine Builder of the Year Points: ProPower 191, Mullins 166, Sput’s 158, Geddes 140, RoushYates 138.
Tiger Rear Ends Manufacturers Championship Points: Hughes 210, GRT 169, MBCustoms 162, Skyrocket 152, LG2 150.

Contingency Awards:
MSD Ignition – Sanders, Schott.
PBM Performance Products – Schott, Sanders.