MASON CITY, Iowa — The best racing surface and best battles of the weekend highlighted the finale of the 10th annual USMTS North Iowa Nationals presented by Christie Door Store on Saturday while the spotlight was on Dereck Ramirez as he scored his first victory of the season with the Summit USMTS National Championship.
The Pritchard Family Auto Stores Mason City Motor Speedway provided three or four nearly equal lanes for the best of the best in dirt modified racing to give the fans at North Iowa’s Action Track a thrilling prelude to the 25th Anniversary USMTS Silver Jubilee here, August 16-19.
Tanner Mullens picked up the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award, but Ramirez was just fine when the final chip left in the bag was the No. 4.
“I’m totally fine with that,” Ramirez said after learning he’s start the 50-lap main event from the outside of the second row. “I think about 75 percent of my wins have come from the fourth spot, so I have no problem with that.”
He did have a problem with Mullens early on in the feature race, however, as Mullens scooted out to a big lead out of the gate using the middle groove around the smooth and speedy third-mile clay oval.
After the first caution of the race occurred on lap 14, Ramirez shot to the high side and overpowered Carlos Ahumada Jr. for second place. Mullens got the same treatment just four laps later.
The yellow flag waved two more times — the first on lap 33 when fourth-running Kyle Brown suffered a flat tire and again on lap 37 when Gary Christian and Dylan Thornton came together in turn four and ended their top-ten efforts.
Mullens and Ahumada both made a charge at Ramirez on each restart, but the 2021 USMTS National Champion just got faster and faster on long runs and beat Mullens to the finish line by about four car-lengths.
“I tried to give her away there with three or four to go,” Ramirez revealed as confetti covered his racing suit in victory lane. “I was getting free going into (turn) one there and I knew I needed to move up and come back down the racetrack. I got in there a little hot and pushed and I thought ‘Well I’m just going to give it to whoever is behind me.’
That was not the case. Ramirez led the final 33 laps with flawless navigation around the high side and tip-toeing through lapped traffic which was thick at times.
The 26th USMTS win of his career was worth $10,000 to the 36-year-old from Woodward, Oklahoma. It was his first since last October at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, where the series will visit in two weeks.
“It’s been a trying year,” he said. “This deal is tough now, everybody’s so close together and it’s just hard to make anything work. My two guys, Steve and Marco, they work their tails off. They never give up on me and I can’t thank them enough for what they do.”
Behind Ramirez, Mullens crossed beneath the checkered flags in second place with eighth-starting Jason Hughes filling the final step on the podium.
The finish:
Dereck Ramirez, Tanner Mullens, Jason Hughes, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Jake Timm, Jim Chisholm, Tim Ward, Zack VanderBeek, Rodney Sanders, Will Krup, Jeremy Nelson, Terry Phillips, Steve Lavasseur, Dan Ebert, Cayden Carter, Gary Christian, Jake O’Neil, Brandon Givens, Kelly Shryock, Tyler Wolff, Al Hejna, Taton Hansen, Dylan Thornton, Kyle Brown, Lance Mari.
Keyword: Ramirez Banks $10,000 At Mason City