Schott guns down USMTS foes at ‘The Creek’
Saturday’s 21st Annual LR Waste Services Southern Minnesota Spring Challenge marked the 127th time the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt circled the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn.
Nine-time USMTS national champ Kelly Shryock won the first-ever contest here in 2002, and now Lucas Schott has become the latest to savor the thrill of victory at the high-banked 3/8-mile clay oval.
Much like Brand Davis did one night earlier at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Schott was a threat from the first green flag. He turned the quickest lap of the night during his heat race, and then led all 40 laps of the main event to secure his fourth win at ‘The Creek’ and 13th of his USMTS career.
Much like he did on Wednesday at the Karl Chevrolet Hamilton County Speedway, Jim Chisholm made a daring move on the final lap to steal the win from the race-long leader. It worked on Gary Christian three nights ago but Schott could not be overcome on Saturday.
After erasing a nearly three-second advantage during the last half of the caution-free feature, Chisholm tried several different lines but couldn’t rattle Schott’s cage. One final attempt after taking the white flag saw tire smoke and sparks fly between the two but it was Schott who found the checkered flag first.
“It feels pretty good,” Schott said in Victory Fuel Victory Lane. “We’ve been off and on this year and I just had the luck of the draw tonight.”
Schott’s good fortune, as he claims, resulted in a $5,000 paycheck at the end of the night for the 27-year-old from Chatfield, Minn., who ran the high side for most of the race before moving to the low side as Chisholm approached.
“Our car felt pretty good early and I could feel the pace slowing down and the lapped cars were starting to pull away from me on the bottom so there was something down there.
“It’s super hard to run the top for that long and then slow your pace down that hard. I was just too free on the bottom and I was too tight. I just couldn’t quite figure it out, but I knew Jim was there and I wasn’t going to lead all 39 and let him try to steal it again on the last one. So, I just did all I could to protect the bottom and we got the win. But that’s just racing. I’m glad the contact wasn’t hard enough, but there’s probably a shock bench or something.“
Chisholm settled for runner-up earnings while Davis rounded out the Featherlite Top-3 podium finishers. Notably, all three have won all four USMTS features this week.
It just so happens that all three are former two-time USRA national champions—Schott and Davis in USRA Modifieds and Chisholm in USRA B-Mods. His younger brother, Joe Chisholm, is also a two-time USRA B-Mod national champ and came home seventh in Saturday’s nightcap.
Like Davis, Terry Phillips came up short of notching his fifth USMTS win at Deer Creek as he finished fourth in front of the two most prolific USMTS racers in the track’s history. Rodney Sanders and Jason Hughes wound up fifth and six, respectively, and both are tied atop the list of winners here with 14 apiece.
Gabe Hodges finished eighth behind the younger Chisholm, Jake Timm back-pedaled from fifth on the grid to ninth at the finish line, and Kyle Brown slipped from third to tenth when all was said and done.
Mason City’s Mod Mania Sunday: The Memorial Day Weekend finale happens Sunday at the Pritchard Family Auto Stores Mason City Motor Speedway in Mason City, Iowa, for the 9th Annual USMTS Mod Mania which carries a $3,000 top prize for the main event winner.
Topping the list of former USMTS winners at the North Iowa Fairgrounds Action Track is Tanner Mullens, who nabbed his fourth career feature in last year’s $25,000-to-win USMTS 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee.
Dereck Ramirez has three wins here while Ryan Gustin has two—both happening on Aug. 13, 2017, for a makeup feature and regular program.
Terry Phillips and Jim Chisholm each have a pair of victories while Rodney Sanders, Cade Dillard, Lucas Schott, Dustin Sorensen, Jake Timm and Gary Christian have one apiece.
Ryan Ruter, Mike Steensma, Kelly Shryock and Jason Hughes all got wins here when the former big half-mile was called I-35 Speedway. None of them have won a USMTS race in Mason City since it was reconfigured to a fast and ferocious 1/3-mile high-banked oval.
USRA Stock Cars, USRA B-Mods, USRA Hobby Stocks and Outlaw Mini-Mods are also racing. The pit gate swings open at 3:30 p.m., grandstands at 4 and hot laps kick off at 6 with racing to follow.