NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — Thursday’s opener at the 23rd annual Masters was the 16th event of the season for the Summit USMTS National Championship and points leader Dustin Sorensen rumbled to his fourth victory of the season at Cedar Lake Speedway.
Jake O’Neil, however, has garnered the most wins this season with his fifth triumph happening just five nights ago in the finale of the Belleville Dirt Nationals and he sat on the pole for the start of the 35-lap main event at the 65-year-old three-eighths-mile high-banked clay oval.
But it was fellow front row starter Kyle Brown who got the jump on O’Neil our of the gate and took control of the race with Dan Ebert following into second place one lap later. They remained that way until the race’s first caution on lap four.
With the green flag back out, O’Neil narrowly held his spot as Jake Timm and Cayden Carter challenged him for the spot. That battle lasted only one lap as Rodney Sanders, who was fighting for seventh, suffered a flat left rear tire and forced a second appearance of the yellow flag.
Back to racing, a fun four-car fight between Brown, Ebert, Sorensen and rim-riding Jake Timm all in the hunt for the top spot. Timm’s tip-toeing around the top ended on lap eight when he smacked the yellow guardrail in turn two and left the race as the yellow waved again.
The next restart saw Sorensen find some traction on the low side of the track and he slipped past Brown for the lead with 20 laps in the books. A few moment slater, O’Neil stormed around the outside of Brown into second.
Following another caution with 10 laps to go, O’Neil found himself three-wide with Zack VanderBeek and Ebert as they exited the fourth turn racing back to the green flag. The result was another caution with O’Neil and VanderBeek both restarting at the tail of the field.
Back-to-back cautions for Darron Fuqua and debris on the racing surface with nine laps to go kept the field bunched tightly and kept lapped traffic out of the picture for most of the race.
One more caution with six laps to go extinguished any hopes that Sanders, O’Neil or Shane DeVolder were holding on to as the trio collided in the fourth turn.
It seemed to only place to avoid trouble was to be in front of it, and that’s just what Sorensen did for the final 15 laps of the race to nab his tenth USMTS triumph — doubling the career win total of his father, Mike Sorensen.
While Sorensen pocketed $3,000 for his effort, Ebert came home with the runner-up paycheck behind the 21-year-old points leader with Terry Phillips, Dereck Ramirez and Carter completing the top five.
The finish:
Dustin Sorensen, Dan Ebert, Terry Phillips, Dereck Ramirez, Cayden Carter, Kyle Brown, Tanner Mullens, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Tyler Davis, Brandon Givens, Jacob Bleess, Jason Hughes, Zack VanderBeek, Dylan Thornton, Austin Siebert, Lance Mari, Rodney Sanders, Jake O’Neil, Shane DeVolder, Lucas Schott, Darron Fuqua, Tyler Wolff, John Doelle, Adam Ayotte, Jake Timm, Curt Myers, Dustin Strand.
Keyword: Sorensen Conquers Cedar Lake