By USMTS (Park City, KS) -- The Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt was back at the 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan., for a second night of the inaugural Ed Gressel Memorial on Friday, and Tyler Wolff was back in flawless form as he notched his second wire-to-wire triumph of the 2023 campaign.
Several of his chasers stayed close early on but Wolff always found an extra burst of speed whenever anybody got close. Yellow flags on laps 13 and 22 wiped out his lead on two occasions, but both kept him from having to deal with a swarm of soon-to-be lapped cars.
Thursday’s winner, Tanner Mullens, and Cayden Carter kept Wolff in their sights but neither threatened the rim-riding Wolff for the lead. That all changed after the second restart when Rodney Sanders powered around the high side of the 3/8-mile dirt oval to jump from sixth to second in less than a lap.
From there, Sanders stayed within striking distance of Wolff, finally making a charge with two laps to go. ‘The Rocket’ peaked underneath Wolff’s No. 4W Lobo Racing machine but Gary Christian’s broken ride sitting at the top of turn 2 forced the race’s third yellow flag to wave.
Two more quick cautions occurred but on each occasion Wolff drove away from Sanders, eventually taking the checkers with about a five-car-length cushion over the four-time Summit USMTS National Champion.
Despite starting third, Wolff led all 35 laps and pocketed the $5,000 winner’s share of the prize money.
“I am a mess, I am wore out but that's a good run there,” an elated Wolff said in victory lane. “I knew that start would be critical and thought I’d had to take advantage of it. I gotta thank (Jimmy) Mars and ECE Racing Engines. We put a different engine in it and this thing screams. We’ve been having to tone it down all weekend.
“I trust Rodney very well and know that he’s not going to do anything crazy. He’s a teammate of mine so I really appreciate that, but it was awesome to see him up around behind me. It made me happy I knew that we had two good MB cars. and that’s good.”
RacinDirt co-owner/pit reporter Trenton Berry advised Wolff to get a designated driver if he went anywhere after his victory celebration because no Kansas State Trooper would believe he hadn’t been drinking.
“I got enough for bail, we’re good,” replied Wolff, who was soaked with warm Coors Light—one of Ed Gressel’s favorite beverages.
With the win, Wolff now has four at four racetracks in four states. He’s the first two-time winner this season and the 16th different winner in the 27 USMTS main events held at the 81 Speedway.
Behind Sanders, Jake O'Neil crossed the finish line third with Carter finishing fourth and Dereck Ramirez taking the checkers in fifth. Mullens, Tom Berry Jr., Terry Phillips, Tanner Black and Darron Fuqua completed the top 10.
After finishing second in the Kansasland Dash 4 Cash, Ramirez had the chance to start on the outside of Mullens on the front row when Mullens turned down the cash bonus, but the 2021 Summit USMTS National Champion opted to take $1,250 and start sixth, putting O’Neil in the second starting spot next to Mullens.
On Saturday, the Kansasland Dash 4 Cash is worth $1,000 with special thanks to Rock Island Recycling, Duvall Electric and McCowan Farms.
Racing continues Saturday with the Gressel Memorial finale that will see no less than $10,000 going to the winner. The JLR Property Management 316 A-Mods and AutoTech Service Super Stocks join the on-track action.
With his efforts Friday night, Wolff becomes the new points leader heading into Saturday’s finale and will bolt on the coveted dayglo orange Weiland Points Leader spoiler for tomorrow’s show. O’Neil jumped to second and Hughes slipped to third after sitting atop the rankings since the second event of the season. Phillips and Fuqua round out the top five.
For complete event information, check out the FAST FACTS or visit 81speedway.com.
• 81 Speedway will host a Cornhole Tournament and silent auction for door panels on Saturday. Winners will receive cornhole boards as prizes. Click here to register. Space is limited. The cost is $50 per team and the tournament starts at 10 a.m. for more information call (316) 304-1454 or email 81speedwayevents@gmail.com.
• VP Racing Fuels-Heartland is adding incentives to driver's in Saturday's main event. If the driver who starts 2nd wins, hey will get an extra $200 in honor of the Gressel Racing No. 2G driven by Brandon Givens. If the driver who starts 19th wins, he will get an extra $1,900 in honor of the No. 19R driven by Ryan Gustin. If the driver who starts 25th wins, he will get an extra $2,500 in honor of the No. 25 driven by Scott Green.
• The Ed Gressel Memorial features a special one-of-a-kind victory lane banner. The 10x20 sign will be autographed by USMTS drivers, and then after Saturday's finale one lucky person will take the banner home. Proceeds will go to the choice of Ed's widow Cinde Gressel. Bidding started Thursday.
• Adam Gressel will offer a $1,000 cash award for Saturday's hard charger, which could make it a total of $1,100 for the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award.
• Even more 'Reaper Madness' ensues as Chris Sutton with the RPM Speedway in Hays, Kan., has a crisp $100 bill for the 19th-place finisher in honor of the Gressel Racing No. 19R driven by Gustin, who garnered two Summit USMTS National Championships while driving for Gressel Racing.
For its Silver Anniversary season, the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt currently features 45 nights of racing at 15 of America's premier dirt track racing venues in nine states. The winners of those events are set to earn more than $300,000 with nearly $2 million in purses and prize money earmarked for the 2023 campaign.
Watch every USMTS event online live and on-demand from anywhere on any device with RacinDirt. Download the app at Roku, Amazon Fire, iOS, Apple TV or on Google Play.
Visit usmts.com for schedules, points, photos, souvenirs, videos and more. Follow our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Click here to get USMTS news delivered to your inbox.
RESULTS
Summit Racing Equipment A Feature 1 (35 Laps): 1. 4W-Tyler Wolff[4]; 2. 20-Rodney Sanders[7]; 3. 0-Jake O'Neil[2]; 4. 10C-Cayden Carter[3]; 5. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[6]; 6. 02-Tanner Mullens[1]; 7. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[5]; 8. 75-Terry Phillips[8]; 9. 44T-Tanner Black[9]; 10. 87-Darron Fuqua[14]; 11. 24C-Jim Chisholm[15]; 12. 21-Jacob Bleess[10]; 13. 12-Jason Hughes[17]; 14. K9-Will Krup[12]; 15. 4-Jeremy Nelson[25]; 16. 65-Tyler Davis[18]; 17. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[11]; 18. 45-Chase Holland[13]; 19. 10B-Brandon Givens[21]; 20. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[20]; 21. 21K-Kyle Brown[28]; 22. 60-Dan Ebert[16]; 23. 58X-Gary Christian[19]; 24. 25C-Cody Thompson[22]; 25. 30-Dalton Kirk[23]; 26. 55-Chris Kratzer[24]; 27. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[26]; 28. 15WX-Kale Westover[29]; 29. 38T-Dylan Thornton[27]; 30. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[30]
Real Racing Wheels B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 45-Chase Holland[2]; 2. 24C-Jim Chisholm[4]; 3. 12-Jason Hughes[8]; 4. 58X-Gary Christian[3]; 5. 10B-Brandon Givens[16]; 6. 30-Dalton Kirk[7]; 7. 15WX-Kale Westover[14]; 8. 16-Austin Siebert[5]; 9. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[1]; 10. 21K-Kyle Brown[17]; 11. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[11]; 12. 96-Taton Hansen[19]; 13. 44K-Kelsie Foley[21]; 14. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[15]; 15. 11N-Gene Nicholas[9]; 16. 22N-Kevin Newell[18]; 17. 747-Colton Eck[6]; 18. 7-Al Hejna[12]; 19. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[20]; 20. 91-Joe Duvall[13]; 21. (DQ) 38T-Dylan Thornton[10]
Real Racing Wheels B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 87-Darron Fuqua[1]; 2. 60-Dan Ebert[4]; 3. 65-Tyler Davis[3]; 4. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[9]; 5. 25C-Cody Thompson[20]; 6. 55-Chris Kratzer[5]; 7. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[18]; 8. 8-Dillon McCowan[11]; 9. G3-Brendon Gemmill[13]; 10. 712-Trevor Hughes[2]; 11. 4-Jeremy Nelson[14]; 12. 25-Scott Green[10]; 13. 99T-TJ Tolan[16]; 14. 7D-Davis Givens[12]; 15. 40-Jessy Willard[17]; 16. 18-Bobby Mayfield[8]; 17. 22B-Rick Beebe[6]; 18. 49-Jake Timm[7]; 19. 7E-Steve Emond[15]; 20. 127-Paden Phillips[19]
Dash 1 (6 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[2]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[1]; 3. 0-Jake O'Neil[3]; 4. 10C-Cayden Carter[4]; 5. 4W-Tyler Wolff[6]; 6. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[5]; 7. 20-Rodney Sanders[7]; 8. 75-Terry Phillips[8]
Simpson Performance Products Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44T-Tanner Black[2]; 2. 0-Jake O'Neil[6]; 3. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[7]; 4. 16-Austin Siebert[3]; 5. 24C-Jim Chisholm[8]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[1]; 7. 25-Scott Green[9]; 8. 4-Jeremy Nelson[4]; 9. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[10]; 10. 40-Jessy Willard[11]; 11. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[5]
Fast Shafts Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[4]; 2. 75-Terry Phillips[5]; 3. 20-Rodney Sanders[6]; 4. 747-Colton Eck[2]; 5. 18-Bobby Mayfield[1]; 6. 22B-Rick Beebe[9]; 7. 7D-Davis Givens[3]; 8. 7-Al Hejna[10]; 9. 99T-TJ Tolan[8]; 10. 22N-Kevin Newell[11]; 11. 44K-Kelsie Foley[7]
Edelbrock Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Jacob Bleess[2]; 2. 4W-Tyler Wolff[6]; 3. 712-Trevor Hughes[4]; 4. 55-Chris Kratzer[3]; 5. 65-Tyler Davis[10]; 6. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[7]; 7. 11N-Gene Nicholas[11]; 8. G3-Brendon Gemmill[8]; 9. 91-Joe Duvall[5]; 10. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[1]; 11. 25C-Cody Thompson[9]
Wieland Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[1]; 2. K9-Will Krup[4]; 3. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[6]; 4. 87-Darron Fuqua[5]; 5. 12-Jason Hughes[2]; 6. 30-Dalton Kirk[8]; 7. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[9]; 8. 15WX-Kale Westover[7]; 9. 7E-Steve Emond[10]; 10. 127-Paden Phillips[3]
VP Race Fuels Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 10C-Cayden Carter[3]; 2. 45-Chase Holland[2]; 3. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[5]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[4]; 5. 58X-Gary Christian[6]; 6. 49-Jake Timm[8]; 7. 38T-Dylan Thornton[10]; 8. 10B-Brandon Givens[1]; 9. 21K-Kyle Brown[7]; 10. 96-Taton Hansen[9]
Qualifying 1: 1. 0-Jake O'Neil, 00:18.377[2]; 2. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr, 00:18.457[3]; 3. 4-Jeremy Nelson, 00:18.608[1]; 4. 16-Austin Siebert, 00:18.753[4]; 5. 44T-Tanner Black, 00:18.896[11]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:18.957[5]; 7. 99L-Steve Lavasseur, 00:19.038[6]; 8. 24C-Jim Chisholm, 00:19.111[9]; 9. 25-Scott Green, 00:19.385[8]; 10. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr, 00:19.639[10]; 11. 40-Jessy Willard, 00:19.784[7]
Qualifying 2: 1. 20-Rodney Sanders, 00:18.347[7]; 2. 75-Terry Phillips, 00:18.356[8]; 3. 02-Tanner Mullens, 00:18.760[5]; 4. 7D-Davis Givens, 00:18.765[11]; 5. 747-Colton Eck, 00:18.807[1]; 6. 18-Bobby Mayfield, 00:18.829[4]; 7. 44K-Kelsie Foley, 00:18.911[3]; 8. 99T-TJ Tolan, 00:19.215[10]; 9. 22B-Rick Beebe, 00:19.697[2]; 10. 7-Al Hejna, 00:19.886[9]; 11. 22N-Kevin Newell, 00:20.543[6]
Qualifying 3: 1. 4W-Tyler Wolff, 00:17.888[10]; 2. 91-Joe Duvall, 00:18.140[9]; 3. 712-Trevor Hughes, 00:18.432[5]; 4. 55-Chris Kratzer, 00:18.482[11]; 5. 21-Jacob Bleess, 00:18.501[3]; 6. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin, 00:18.571[7]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt, 00:18.609[6]; 8. G3-Brendon Gemmill, 00:18.702[2]; 9. 25C-Cody Thompson, 00:18.737[1]; 10. 65-Tyler Davis, 00:18.754[8]; 11. 11N-Gene Nicholas, 00:18.800[4]
Qualifying 4: 1. 11X-Tom Berry Jr, 00:17.874[2]; 2. 87-Darron Fuqua, 00:18.111[3]; 3. K9-Will Krup, 00:18.117[9]; 4. 127-Paden Phillips, 00:18.148[10]; 5. 12-Jason Hughes, 00:18.155[6]; 6. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek, 00:18.162[7]; 7. 15WX-Kale Westover, 00:18.524[5]; 8. 30-Dalton Kirk, 00:18.573[8]; 9. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero, 00:18.592[4]; 10. 7E-Steve Emond, 00:20.807[1]
Qualifying 5: 1. 58X-Gary Christian, 00:17.892[1]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez, 00:17.911[9]; 3. 60-Dan Ebert, 00:17.939[6]; 4. 10C-Cayden Carter, 00:18.011[7]; 5. 45-Chase Holland, 00:18.041[5]; 6. 10B-Brandon Givens, 00:18.102[8]; 7. 21K-Kyle Brown, 00:18.174[4]; 8. 49-Jake Timm, 00:18.215[10]; 9. 96-Taton Hansen, 00:19.200[2]; 10. (DQ) 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:17.928[3]
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JLR PROPERTY MANAGMENT 316 A-MODS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 2K-Kendall Kemp[2]; 2. 37D-Dakota Dale[6]; 3. 65B-Brett Davis[10]; 4. 20G-Jake Greider[4]; 5. 41-Chevy Coleman[5]; 6. 96-Logan Johnson[8]; 7. 171-Edward Leecy[15]; 8. 020-Frederick Freeman[7]; 9. 60-Cody Kretchmar[16]; 10. 69-Cecil Dymond[21]; 11. 34-Rickey Bonham[20]; 12. 14-Eric Jarvis[19]; 13. 3T-Tanner Thiel[22]; 14. 86A-Ashley Main[24]; 15. 54-Jim Roney[12]; 16. (DNF) 0K-Kevin Kemp[18]; 17. (DNF) 29C-Cooper Weis[1]; 18. (DNF) 52C-Alex Cammon[17]; 19. (DNF) 86S-lee steffen[23]; 20. (DNF) 7-Skyler Allen[14]; 21. (DNF) 58-TJ Cain[3]; 22. (DNF) 5*-Jason McGehee[9]; 23. (DNF) 25C-Johnny Cammon[11]; 24. (DNS) 98-Kenton Allen
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 41-Chevy Coleman[4]; 2. 29C-Cooper Weis[8]; 3. 58-TJ Cain[7]; 4. 54-Jim Roney[1]; 5. 7-Skyler Allen[3]; 6. 52C-Alex Cammon[6]; 7. 14-Eric Jarvis[5]; 8. (DNF) 86A-Ashley Main[2]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 2K-Kendall Kemp[2]; 2. 20G-Jake Greider[4]; 3. 96-Logan Johnson[1]; 4. 65B-Brett Davis[6]; 5. 171-Edward Leecy[5]; 6. 60-Cody Kretchmar[8]; 7. 34-Rickey Bonham[7]; 8. 3T-Tanner Thiel[3]
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 37D-Dakota Dale[1]; 2. 020-Frederick Freeman[2]; 3. 5*-Jason McGehee[3]; 4. 98-Kenton Allen[4]; 5. 25C-Johnny Cammon[8]; 6. 0K-Kevin Kemp[5]; 7. 69-Cecil Dymond[7]; 8. 86S-lee steffen[6]
AUTOTECH SERVICE SUPER STOCKS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 36-Chris Purkey[2]; 2. 13R-Robert Lamb[9]; 3. 164-James Weve[8]; 4. 7-Jerry Eveland[4]; 5. 2W-Richard Wilson[5]; 6. 09B-Kyle Blocher[7]; 7. 84T-Mark Courtright[12]; 8. 28-Tim Ozbun[13]; 9. 924-Lionel Stilwell[14]; 10. (DNF) 75-Jerrod Reimer[1]; 11. (DNF) 311-Jerry Richey[6]; 12. (DNF) 19-Shane Cook[3]; 13. (DNF) 45A-Aric Kick[11]; 14. (DNF) 54-Mike McIlvain[10]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 2W-Richard Wilson[1]; 2. 7-Jerry Eveland[5]; 3. 19-Shane Cook[2]; 4. 164-James Weve[3]; 5. 13R-Robert Lamb[6]; 6. 45A-Aric Kick[4]; 7. 28-Tim Ozbun[7]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 36-Chris Purkey[2]; 2. 75-Jerrod Reimer[6]; 3. 311-Jerry Richey[3]; 4. 09B-Kyle Blocher[5]; 5. 54-Mike McIlvain[1]; 6. 84T-Mark Courtright[4]; 7. 924-Lionel Stilwell[7]