By USMTS (Park City, KS) -- An explosive night of money and memories were made Saturday during the finale of the inaugural Ed Gressel Memorial at the 81 Speedway featuring the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt.
Before the start of the main event, racers lined up in their traditional four-wide salute to the fans but this night was extra special as the front row of cars was filled by Brandon Givens, Scott Green, Tanner Mullens and Jake O’Neil—all of whom have sat in the driver’s seat of a Gressel Racing USMTS Modified.
PHOTO CREDIT: Tyler Rinken
Dereck Ramirez bested Will Krup to take control of the feature race on the opening lap. Meanwhile, fourth-starting Jake Timm lost nearly 20 spots with an opening-lap miscue that saw him scoot through the infield, but found his way back into the top 10 by lap 10.
Ramirez and Krup raced side-by-side on laps 5 and 6 before Ramirez reached the back of field by lap 11 and began to distance himself from Krup as he navigated lapped traffic flawlessly.
Lap 24 saw Jason Hughes, running third, break just before the race’s midway point which resulted in the first caution of the contest. On the restart, Ramirez took the field back to green with Krup, 13th-starting Terry Phillips, Dan Ebert, Tom Berry Jr., Timm, O’Neil, Jacob Bleess, Gary Christian and Rodney Sanders filling the first 10 positions.
Phillips got by Krup on the restart while Berry followed T.P. into third the next time around. The next time around, Phillips screamed around the top and wrestled the lead away from Ramirez.
A second caution on lap 28 opened the door for O’Neil as he restarted fourth but became the new leader two laps later and proceeded to make his chasers get smaller and smaller in his rearview mirror (if USMTS allowed mirrors).
While O’Neil raced away, Timm continued his rebound with a pass of Ramirez for fifth with a dozen laps remaining. On lap 39, Darron Fuqua tagged the wall and then stopped to force the third yellow flag. Meanwhile, Phillips broke something under his Bloodline Race Cars machine and retired from the race under caution.
Back under green, O’Neil left the field in his wake. Timm passed Krup for second at the white flag and then narrowly lost the race for the runner-up paycheck to Berry at the checkered flag.
“Most people don’t know but (Ed Gressel) gave me my first chance out racing the tour and I really owe it to him and Cinde for being here. Honestly, if it wasn’t for them I probably wouldn’t be out here right now,” O’Neil revealed in his victory lane speech. “I would have never got that start to get going and I really got to thank them for everything they did for me.”
In picking up his first win of the year, O’Neil came alive midway through the race after tumbling as far back as 12th at one point. With 24 laps in the books he was 10th but seven laps later he was leading the main event.
“We’ve been down in the dumps lately because the car’s been so terrible--either the car is or I am, one or the other—but we talked to Jimmy (Owens) right before the feature and he pretty much said ‘You’re screwed’ but try this. We threw some crazy stuff at it just to try to do something and I was so tight at the beginning and so terrible I just gassed on it I don't know what to tell you, I just I did everything I could,” O’Neil said. “I think the starts definitely helped me. I had way too much gear and I’d carry about 400 mph going into the corner and I couldn’t slow down so I just used that to my advantage.
“I couldn’t believe it, honestly. I was I was back there… I don’t know I felt like 150th or 10th but I was just fighting and digging everywhere I could to gain ground on somebody and then Jake Timm going out over here, then he passed me. I was like ‘Man, this ain’t good but I just entered wide open and I found a line that actually stuck. I slowed down a bunch (in turn 1) and quit blowing the tires off and that seemed to help. That's kind of when I noticed I got Dereck there and I felt a little bit of grip and as long as I kept my car straight I was okay.”
In the end, O’Neil was okay to the tune of $10,000 as the 31-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., notched his 29th career USMTS victory and third at the 81 Speedway while taking over the series points lead to boot.
While O’Neil, Berry and Timm shared the podium, Krup was a solid fourth with 14th-starting Rodney Sanders completing the top five. Cayden Carter was sixth while Wolff took a provisional to start 25th but found his way to a seventh-place effort. Ebert, Jeremy Nelson and Christian rounded out the top 10.
Following the Real Racing Wheels “B” Mains, the top eight drivers in heat race passing points competed in the six-lap Kansasland Dash 4 Cash. As the winner, Tanner Mullens accepted the $6,000 cash prize to give up the pole position to start 12th in the main event. He suffered mechanical problems and wound up 19th—one spot behind Ramirez who also did not finish the 50-lap distance.
Saturday’s prize started off at $1,000 thanks to Kansasland Tire, Rock Island Recycling, Duvall Electric and McCowan Farms but a flurry of donations over the last 24 hours led to an epic ballooning of the prize money to $5,000 if Mullens could have won the race.
Making it perhaps the richest six-lap dash in dirt racing history, special thanks to the following contributors: Becky Ramirez, Brian Franz, F.O.E. Enterprises, Cinde Gressel, RacinDirt, USMTS, J.R. Sandlian, Broadway Truck & Auto Salvage, Special T’s, Two M Motorsports, Action Engineering, Arrowhead Speedway, Darren Bennett, Brad Carger & Alysea Pressler, Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Mike & Elaine Sorensen, 1-800-JUNK-PRO, Chandler Dan’s Catering and the Chesterman family.
The Ed Gressel Memorial featured a special one-of-a-kind victory lane banner. The 10x20 sign was autographed by USMTS drivers, and then after Saturday’s finale one lucky person took home the banner from the silent auction that went on all weekend. The winner was Tom Paulson—a long-time racer and supporter of fellow drivers—with a $10,000 donation that will benefit a charity of Cinde Gressel’s choice.
During Saturday’s who, Jon Tesch stepped forward to award $500 to the 14th-place finisher. That money went to Brandon Givens, the last man to pilot a Gressel Racing race car.
Adam Gressel added $1,000 for the feature race’s hard charger, making it an $1,100 cash bonus to the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award winner. That prize went to Carter, who started 16rh and finished 6th. Provisional starters were not eligible
Chris Sutton with the RPM Speedway in Hays, Kan., awarded $100 to the 19th-place finisher in honor of the Gressel Racing No. 19R driven by Ryan Gustin, who garnered two Summit USMTS National Championships while driving for Gressel Racing. Oddly enough, that money went to Mullens, another former Gressel driver.
Webster City waiting: In just four short days, the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa, will host an open practice night on Wednesday, April 26, followed by three straight nights of action Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 27-29, for the 13th Annual Spring Classic.
For complete event information, check out the FAST FACTS or visit hamiltoncospeedway.com.
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 of the 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 (50 Laps): 1. 0-Jake O'Neil[8]; 2. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[10]; 3. 49-Jake Timm[3]; 4. K9-Will Krup[2]; 5. 20-Rodney Sanders[14]; 6. 10C-Cayden Carter[16]; 7. 4W-Tyler Wolff[25]; 8. 60-Dan Ebert[4]; 9. 4-Jeremy Nelson[18]; 10. 58X-Gary Christian[11]; 11. 15WX-Kale Westover[32]; 12. 21-Jacob Bleess[7]; 13. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[19]; 14. 10B-Brandon Givens[22]; 15. 38T-Dylan Thornton[6]; 16. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[15]; 17. 65-Tyler Davis[29]; 18. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[1]; 19. 02-Tanner Mullens[12]; 20. 24C-Jim Chisholm[23]; 21. 96-Taton Hansen[31]; 22. 45-Chase Holland[26]; 23. 75-Terry Phillips[13]; 24. 87-Darron Fuqua[20]; 25. 44T-Tanner Black[17]; 26. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[24]; 27. 25C-Cody Thompson[21]; 28. 127-Paden Phillips[9]; 29. 12-Jason Hughes[5]; 30. 55-Chris Kratzer[30]; 31. 21K-Kyle Brown[28]; 32. 91-Joe Duvall[27]
Real Racing Wheels B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 75-Terry Phillips[1]; 2. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[2]; 3. 44T-Tanner Black[3]; 4. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[5]; 5. 25C-Cody Thompson[6]; 6. 24C-Jim Chisholm[10]; 7. 96-Taton Hansen[8]; 8. 15WX-Kale Westover[18]; 9. 8-Dillon McCowan[12]; 10. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[9]; 11. 21K-Kyle Brown[16]; 12. 45-Chase Holland[14]; 13. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[11]; 14. 44K-Kelsie Foley[13]; 15. 11N-Gene Nicholas[4]; 16. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[19]; 17. 7D-Davis Givens[7]; 18. 40-Jessy Willard[15]; 19. 7-Al Hejna[17]
Real Racing Wheels B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[1]; 2. 10C-Cayden Carter[7]; 3. 4-Jeremy Nelson[4]; 4. 87-Darron Fuqua[5]; 5. 10B-Brandon Givens[3]; 6. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[6]; 7. 65-Tyler Davis[10]; 8. 4W-Tyler Wolff[17]; 9. 712-Trevor Hughes[8]; 10. 30-Dalton Kirk[2]; 11. 91-Joe Duvall[9]; 12. 16-Austin Siebert[14]; 13. G3-Brendon Gemmill[15]; 14. 22B-Rick Beebe[13]; 15. 25-Scott Green[12]; 16. 747-Colton Eck[18]; 17. 99T-TJ Tolan[11]; 18. 55-Chris Kratzer[16]; 19. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[19]
Dash 1 (6 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[1]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[3]; 3. K9-Will Krup[4]; 4. 49-Jake Timm[5]; 5. 60-Dan Ebert[2]; 6. 12-Jason Hughes[7]; 7. 38T-Dylan Thornton[8]; 8. 21-Jacob Bleess[6]
Simpson Performance Products Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 38T-Dylan Thornton[1]; 2. 0-Jake O'Neil[4]; 3. 60-Dan Ebert[5]; 4. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[6]; 5. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[2]; 6. 10C-Cayden Carter[7]; 7. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[9]; 8. 16-Austin Siebert[3]; 9. G3-Brendon Gemmill[8]; 10. 7-Al Hejna[10]
Fast Shafts Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Jake Timm[4]; 2. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[2]; 3. 12-Jason Hughes[5]; 4. 58X-Gary Christian[6]; 5. 7D-Davis Givens[3]; 6. 25C-Cody Thompson[9]; 7. 99T-TJ Tolan[8]; 8. 45-Chase Holland[7]; 9. 4W-Tyler Wolff[1]; 10. 15WX-Kale Westover[10]
Edelbrock Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. K9-Will Krup[6]; 2. 30-Dalton Kirk[2]; 3. 11N-Gene Nicholas[1]; 4. 87-Darron Fuqua[4]; 5. 4-Jeremy Nelson[5]; 6. 65-Tyler Davis[3]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan[7]; 8. 25-Scott Green[9]; 9. 21K-Kyle Brown[8]; 10. 747-Colton Eck[10]
Wieland Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[2]; 2. 75-Terry Phillips[3]; 3. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[6]; 4. 20-Rodney Sanders[5]; 5. 96-Taton Hansen[1]; 6. 91-Joe Duvall[4]; 7. 24C-Jim Chisholm[9]; 8. 44K-Kelsie Foley[8]; 9. 55-Chris Kratzer[7]; 10. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[10]
VP Race Fuels Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Jacob Bleess[1]; 2. 127-Paden Phillips[4]; 3. 10B-Brandon Givens[2]; 4. 44T-Tanner Black[7]; 5. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[5]; 6. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[3]; 7. 712-Trevor Hughes[6]; 8. 22B-Rick Beebe[8]; 9. 40-Jessy Willard[9]; 10. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[10]
Qualifying 1: 1. 11X-Tom Berry Jr, 00:17.871[5]; 2. 60-Dan Ebert, 00:18.054[2]; 3. 0-Jake O'Neil, 00:18.425[4]; 4. 16-Austin Siebert, 00:18.508[9]; 5. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt, 00:18.792[1]; 6. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:18.873[10]; 7. 10C-Cayden Carter, 00:18.912[8]; 8. G3-Brendon Gemmill, 00:18.996[6]; 9. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero, 00:19.327[7]; 10. 7-Al Hejna, 00:19.642[3]
Qualifying 2: 1. 58X-Gary Christian, 00:18.294[10]; 2. 12-Jason Hughes, 00:18.478[6]; 3. 49-Jake Timm, 00:18.495[2]; 4. 7D-Davis Givens, 00:18.506[1]; 5. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr, 00:18.662[9]; 6. 4W-Tyler Wolff, 00:18.706[7]; 7. 45-Chase Holland, 00:18.919[5]; 8. 99T-TJ Tolan, 00:19.026[3]; 9. 25C-Cody Thompson, 00:19.299[8]; 10. 15WX-Kale Westover, 00:19.368[4]
Qualifying 3: 1. K9-Will Krup, 00:18.121[7]; 2. 4-Jeremy Nelson, 00:18.464[5]; 3. 87-Darron Fuqua, 00:18.497[1]; 4. 65-Tyler Davis, 00:18.807[3]; 5. 30-Dalton Kirk, 00:18.852[8]; 6. 11N-Gene Nicholas, 00:18.904[6]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:19.051[10]; 8. 21K-Kyle Brown, 00:19.053[4]; 9. 25-Scott Green, 00:19.470[9]; 10. 747-Colton Eck, 00:19.470[2]
Qualifying 4: 1. 4R-Dereck Ramirez, 00:17.846[10]; 2. 20-Rodney Sanders, 00:17.953[4]; 3. 91-Joe Duvall, 00:18.273[2]; 4. 75-Terry Phillips, 00:18.313[8]; 5. 02-Tanner Mullens, 00:18.318[7]; 6. 96-Taton Hansen, 00:18.463[3]; 7. 55-Chris Kratzer, 00:18.679[1]; 8. 44K-Kelsie Foley, 00:18.681[9]; 9. 24C-Jim Chisholm, 00:18.686[5]; 10. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr, 00:19.006[6]
Qualifying 5: 1. 712-Trevor Hughes, 00:18.153[6]; 2. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek, 00:18.203[8]; 3. 127-Paden Phillips, 00:18.258[2]; 4. 99L-Steve Lavasseur, 00:18.271[1]; 5. 10B-Brandon Givens, 00:18.291[4]; 6. 21-Jacob Bleess, 00:18.322[7]; 7. 44T-Tanner Black, 00:18.347[5]; 8. 22B-Rick Beebe, 00:18.559[9]; 9. 40-Jessy Willard, 00:18.559[3]; 10. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin, 00:18.559[1
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HEYGLASSMAN.COM STOCK CARS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 2M-Angel Munoz[7]; 2. 99A-Aaron Esparza[4]; 3. 47X-Landon Maddox[10]; 4. 82-Joey Richmond[1]; 5. 12C-Clint Smith[8]; 6. 9-Scott Lehman[2]; 7. 7N-William Nusser[19]; 8. 57C-Eric Cross[9]; 9. 57-Shaun Buckley[18]; 10. 945-Scott Squier[17]; 11. 55R-George Ramey[6]; 12. 47-Robert Foster[11]; 13. 59-James Lutkie[15]; 14. 1-Scott Miller[5]; 15. 3M-Eric Munoz[16]; 16. 51-Cody Wright[14]; 17. 2-Seth Wright[20]; 18. 48H-Matt Holle[24]; 19. 2K-Colten Kelley[21]; 20. (DNF) 77J-Jaden Holle[23]; 21. (DNF) 048JR-Darren Johnson[22]; 22. (DNF) 42D-Todd Decker[3]; 23. (DNF) 3-Alex Krogmeier[13]; 24. (DNF) 33D-Dalton Frank[12]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 59-James Lutkie[6]; 2. 3M-Eric Munoz[3]; 3. 945-Scott Squier[7]; 4. 57-Shaun Buckley[16]; 5. 7N-William Nusser[18]; 6. 2-Seth Wright[9]; 7. 2K-Colten Kelley[1]; 8. 048JR-Darren Johnson[5]; 9. 77J-Jaden Holle[11]; 10. 48H-Matt Holle[19]; 11. 33C-Cody Wickham[10]; 12. (DNF) 33R-Levi Dunn[8]; 13. (DNF) 24H-Chris Holle[2]; 14. (DNF) 45A-Aric Kick[4]; 15. (DNF) 42-Kaiden Holle[13]; 16. (DNF) 8-John Blevins[14]; 17. (DNF) 24-Connor Williams[12]; 18. (DNS) 97-Chase Moore; 19. (DNS) 01-Chris Griffin; 20. (DNS) 202-Kenny Ziegler; 21. (DNS) 775-Jayce Reimer; 22. (DNS) 86-Joel Franz
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 55R-George Ramey[4]; 2. 42D-Todd Decker[5]; 3. 47-Robert Foster[2]; 4. 2K-Colten Kelley[3]; 5. 45A-Aric Kick[1]; 6. (DNF) 202-Kenny Ziegler[9]; 7. (DNF) 57-Shaun Buckley[7]; 8. (DNF) 7N-William Nusser[6]; 9. (DNF) 86-Joel Franz[8]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 82-Joey Richmond[2]; 2. 12C-Clint Smith[3]; 3. 57C-Eric Cross[6]; 4. 24H-Chris Holle[1]; 5. 51-Cody Wright[9]; 6. 33R-Levi Dunn[7]; 7. (DNF) 775-Jayce Reimer[5]; 8. (DNF) 48H-Matt Holle[4]; 9. (DNF) 01-Chris Griffin[8]
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 99A-Aaron Esparza[4]; 2. 9-Scott Lehman[7]; 3. 33D-Dalton Frank[1]; 4. 3-Alex Krogmeier[6]; 5. 048JR-Darren Johnson[2]; 6. 945-Scott Squier[8]; 7. 33C-Cody Wickham[9]; 8. 42-Kaiden Holle[3]; 9. 8-John Blevins[5]
Heat 4 (6 Laps): 1. 1-Scott Miller[1]; 2. 47X-Landon Maddox[2]; 3. 2M-Angel Munoz[7]; 4. 3M-Eric Munoz[3]; 5. 59-James Lutkie[4]; 6. 2-Seth Wright[5]; 7. 77J-Jaden Holle[6]; 8. 24-Connor Williams[9]; 9. (DNS) 97-Chase Moore