Ramirez Makes It a Three-Peat in Lucas Oil Speedway’s USMTS Show-Me Shootout


By Lyndal Scranton

WHEATLAND, Mo. (Aug. 6) — Dereck Ramirez did it again Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway, winning his third straight USMTS Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout presented by Foley Equipment.

Ramirez, the reigning Summit USMTS National Champion, won for the second straight night, following up his win at Humboldt Speedway on Friday.

He led all 42 laps to take home $10,000.

“I did all I could. I manhandled that thing. This is not my kind of race track,” Ramirez said after his ride on the high side throughout was enough to win again at Lucas Oil Speedway. His three USMTS wins are the most by any series driver at the track.

Ramirez held off Darron Fuqua by 1.153 seconds for the victory with points leader Dustin Sorensen rallying from eighth to third. Ramirez had to hold off fifth-starting Jake O'Neil for much of the last half of the 42-lap feature.

Ramirez grabbed the lead at the start and set the pace, opening a 1.5-second lead over fellow front-row starter Fuqua before a lap-five caution bunched the field for a restart.

Ramirez led Fuqua by one second with O’Neil third as the trio broke away by nearly a straightaway margin over fourth-place Tyler Davis by lap 14. But lapped traffic soon came into play and Fuqua pulled right behind Ramirez over the next several laps with those two darting in and out of slower cars.

O’Neil took advantage and got past Fuqua on lap 20 and then set out a path to try and catch the leader. He was within four-tenths of a second on lap 22 when the race’s second caution calmed the battle—at least temporarily.

With clear track ahead as the race returned to green, the three front-runners again pulled away from the rest of the field as the laps dwindled.

With five circuits remaining, Ramirez and O’Neil again caught lapped traffic.

Lance Mari’s car slowed to a stop and brought out another caution to set up a five-lap dash to the finish.

“He timed it right,” Ramirez said of O'Neil. “I was going for a slider with some of those lapped cars and he rolled the bottom. As I was sliding, he was coming back forward and it’s hard to keep up when they’re doing that.

“I’m just glad that yellow came out because I think he was underneath me right there going into (turn) one. I don’t know if he’d have beat me coming out of the corner, but that spooks you enough to drive into the corner the next time too hard and end up in the wall over there, and that’s not good.”

Fuqua got around O’Neil on the restart and Ramirez capitalized, opening up a five-car-length lead. Fuqua closed the margin with three laps to go, but Ramirez went on to prevail by about 10 car lengths.

“We’re close. I feel like we’re in good company now,” Fuqua said.

O’Neil faded to sixth with Sorensen third, Davis coming home fourth and Tanner Mullens fifth.

Four-time Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt national champ Rodney Sanders scored a seventh-place paycheck, two-time event winner Terry Phillips was eighth, Zack VanderBeek netted ninth and Cayden Carter took the checkered flag in the tenth position.

VanderBeek, who started 16th on the 30-car grid, earned his third straight FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award of the weekend.

Two months from now, the “Diamond of Dirt Tracks” will host the biggest event in the track’s history when more than 400 competitors are expected to compete in the 9th Annual Summit USRA Nationals, Oct. 3-8, at the Lucas Oil Speedway.

A dozen dates to decide it: Postponed earlier this summer, three gigantic get-togethers are on the calendar next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11-13, for the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt with just 12 events left on the 2022 campaign.

On Thursday, the 3rd Annual Wehrs Machine Bullring Bash at the Dallas County Speedway in Urbana, Mo., takes place where a last-lap pass decided the first two installments in 2019 and 2020.

Friday sees the biggest winner’s paycheck of the year on the line at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., for the 6th Annual Grant Junghans Memorial Where the winner will walk away with no less than $20,002.

The inaugural Bushwhacker at the I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo., on Saturday wraps up the titanic tripleheader as the USMTS makes its maiden voyage to the renovated legendary clay oval for the final race in August.

If you can’t be there in person, witness all the action from anywhere on any device on RacinDirt.TV. Watch live events and access exclusive content on your desktop, laptop and your smartphone. Get the app via Roku, Amazon Fire, iOS, Apple TVGoogle 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.

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OFFICIAL RESULTS
United States Modified Touring Series
Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt
13th Annual Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout presented by Foley Equipment
Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.
Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022

Showing finishing position, starting position in parentheses, car number, driver and hometown. Heat race lineups are determined via group qualifying. The top 12 in heat race passing points advance to the Summit Racing Equipment “A” Main.

SIMPSON PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS HEAT RACE #1 (8 laps):
1. (3) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa
2. (1) 20JR Todd Shute, Norwalk, Iowa
3. (6) 10C Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa, Iowa
4. (5) 16 Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo.
5. (4) 3B Nic Bidinger, Perry, Kan.
6. (8) G17 Fito Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M.
7. (7) 96 Cody Brill, Harrisonville, Mo.
8. (10) 37D Dakota Dale, Valley Center, Kan.
9. (9) 15 Wyatt Gaggero, Wichita, Kan.
10. (2) 00S Chris Spalding, Montgomery City, Mo.

FAST SHAFTS HEAT RACE #2 (8 laps):
1. (4) 87 Darron Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan.
2. (2) 44S Shane DeVolder, Pacifica, Calif.
3. (5) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla.
4. (1) 91 Joe Duvall, Claremore, Okla.
5. (3) 38C Jason Pursley, Hermitage, Mo.
6. (6) 68D Kerry Davis, Parkville, Mo.
7. (8) 127 Paden Phillips, Chanute, Kan.
8. (7) 712 Trevor Hughes, Salina, Okla.
9. (9) 55 Chris Kratzer, Wichita, Kan.
10. (10) 27 Jason Floyd, Cochran, Ga.

EDELBROCK HEAT RACE #3 (8 laps):
1. (2) 0 Jake O'Neil, Tucson, Ariz.
2. (3) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan.
3. (4) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn.
4. (7) 8V Jeremy Vaughn, Pocola, Okla.
5. (1) 64 Casey Fowler, Grand Saline, Texas
6. (8) 49 Andy Bryant, Fort Scott, Kan.
7. (5) 11N Gene Nicholas, Lowell, Ark.
8. (10) 00 Scott Bryant, Baring, Mo.
9. (9) 47 Josh Harney, Prairie Grove, Ark.
10. (6) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn.

MSD PERFORMANCE HEAT RACE #4 (8 laps):
1. (4) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo.
2. (3) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas
3. (2) J17 Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M.
4. (1) 2G Brandon Givens, Wichita, Kan.
5. (6) 7XD Dillon McCowan, Urbana, Mo.
6. (5) 22H Dustin Hodges, Centralia, Mo.
7. (9) 8 Steven Bowers Jr., Topeka, Kan.
8. (7) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson, N.D.
9. (8) D25 David Tanner, Wichita Falls, Texas

VP RACING FUELS HEAT RACE #5 (8 laps):
1. (3) 19 Dustin Sorensen, Rochester, Minn.
2. (4) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla.
3. (1) 38T Dylan Thornton, Santa Maria, Calif.
4. (5) 21M Ryan Middaugh, Fulton, Mo.
5. (2) 56 Colton Horner, Houston, Texas
6. (7) 21W Tracy Wolf, Buffalo, Mo.
7. (8) 03 Chase Jones, El Dorado Springs, Mo.
8. (6) 30 Dalton Kirk, Edgerton, Kan.
9. (9) 8C Chris Clark, Jackson, Wyo.

WRISCO HEAT RACE #6 (8 laps):
1. (2) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan.
2. (1) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa
3. (3) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark.
4. (5) 45 Chase Holland, Saucier, Miss.
5. (6) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas
6. (4) 7X Chris Dawson, Lubbock, Texas
7. (7) 16S Eric Turner, Hermitage, Mo.
8. (8) 19SB Lance Mari, El Centro, Calif.
9. (9) 68 Dean Wille, Warrensburg, Mo.

REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #1 (12 laps, top 4 advance):
1. (2) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark.
2. (1) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa
3. (4) 45 Chase Holland, Saucier, Miss.
4. (9) 8 Steven Bowers Jr., Topeka, Kan.
5. (6) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas
6. (5) 3B Nic Bidinger, Perry, Kan.
7. (3) 38T Dylan Thornton, Santa Maria, Calif.
8. (7) G17 Fito Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M.
9. (12) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson, N.D.
10. (10) 96 Cody Brill, Harrisonville, Mo.
11. (15) 00S Chris Spalding, Montgomery City, Mo.
12. (8) 21W Tracy Wolf, Buffalo, Mo.
13. (11) 37D Dakota Dale, Valley Center, Kan.
14. (13) 15 Wyatt Gaggero, Wichita, Kan.
15. (14) D25 David Tanner, Wichita Falls, Texas

REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #2 (12 laps, top 4 advance):
1. (1) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn.
2. (5) 38C Jason Pursley, Hermitage, Mo.
3. (3) 16 Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo.
4. (4) 91 Joe Duvall, Claremore, Okla.
5. (2) J17 Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M.
6. (6) 56 Colton Horner, Houston, Texas
7. (7) 49 Andy Bryant, Fort Scott, Kan.
8. (9) 127 Paden Phillips, Chanute, Kan.
9. (13) 55 Chris Kratzer, Wichita, Kan.
10. (10) 11N Gene Nicholas, Lowell, Ark.
11. (12) 30 Dalton Kirk, Edgerton, Kan.
12. (15) 27 Jason Floyd, Cochran, Ga.
13. (11) 00 Scott Bryant, Baring, Mo.
14. (8) 68D Kerry Davis, Parkville, Mo.
15. (14) 8C Chris Clark, Jackson, Wyo.

REAL RACING WHEELS “B” MAIN #3 (12 laps, top 4 advance):
1. (1) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla.
2. (15) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn.
3. (4) 2G Brandon Givens, Wichita, Kan.
4. (5) 7XD Dillon McCowan, Urbana, Mo.
5. (10) 16S Eric Turner, Hermitage, Mo.
6. (12) 19SB Lance Mari, El Centro, Calif.
7. (8) 22H Dustin Hodges, Centralia, Mo.
8. (3) 21M Ryan Middaugh, Fulton, Mo.
9. (7) 7X Chris Dawson, Lubbock, Texas
10. (11) 712 Trevor Hughes, Salina, Okla.
11. (2) 8V Jeremy Vaughn, Pocola, Okla.
12. (14) 68 Dean Wille, Warrensburg, Mo.
13. (6) 64 Casey Fowler, Grand Saline, Texas
14. (9) 03 Chase Jones, El Dorado Springs, Mo.
15. (13) 47 Josh Harney, Prairie Grove, Ark.

SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT “A” MAIN (50 laps):
1. (2) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla.
2. (1) 87 Darron Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan.
3. (8) 19 Dustin Sorensen, Rochester, Minn.
4. (4) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan.
5. (6) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan.
6. (5) 0 Jake O'Neil, Tucson, Ariz.
7. (9) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas
8. (7) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo.
9. (16) 33Z Zack VanderBeek, New Sharon, Iowa
10. (12) 10C Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa, Iowa
11. (15) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla.
12. (10) 44S Shane DeVolder, Pacifica, Calif.
13. (3) 21K Kyle Brown, Madrid, Iowa
14. (18) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn.
15. (30) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas
16. (14) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn.
17. (20) 16 Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo.
18. (19) 45 Chase Holland, Saucier, Miss.
19. (24) 7XD Dillon McCowan, Urbana, Mo.
20. (26) 38T Dylan Thornton, Santa Maria, Calif.
21. (21) 2G Brandon Givens, Wichita, Kan.
22. (29) 56 Colton Horner, Houston, Texas
23. (17) 38C Jason Pursley, Hermitage, Mo.
24. (28) 96 Cody Brill, Harrisonville, Mo.
25. (25) 19SB Lance Mari, El Centro, Calif.
26. (23) 91 Joe Duvall, Claremore, Okla.
27. (13) 4W Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark.
28. (11) 20JR Todd Shute, Norwalk, Iowa
29. (22) 8 Steven Bowers Jr., Topeka, Kan.
30. (27) 22H Dustin Hodges, Centralia, Mo.

Lap Leader: Ramirez 1-42.
Total Laps Led: Ramirez 42.
Margin of Victory: 1.153 seconds.
Time of Race: 20 minutes, 33.049 seconds (2 cautions).
Provisional Starters: Mari, Thornton, Hodges (track), Brill (track), Horner.
Emergency Provisionals: Ahumada.
FK Rod Ends Hard Charger: VanderBeek (started 16th, finished 9th).
Entries: 57.
Next Race: Thursday, Aug. 11, Dallas County Speedway, Urbana, Mo.
Summit USMTS National Championship Points: TBD.
Grant Junghans USMTS Rookie of the Year Points: TBD.
Miller Welders USMTS Manufacturers Championship Points: TBD.
Compstar/JE Pistons USMTS Engine Builder of the Year Points: ​TBD.

Contingency Awards:
American Racer – Mullens.
Beyea Custom Headers – T. Davis.
BigDeal Car Care – Ramirez, Sorensen.
Bryke Racing – Ahumada.
BSB Manufacturing – Givens.
Champ Pans – Mullens.
Deatherage Opticians – Bleess.
Edelbrock – O’Neil.
Fast Shafts – Fuqua.
FK Rod Ends – VanderBeek.
Hooker Harness – DeVolder.
Integra Racing Shocks & Springs – McCowan.
Keyser Manufacturing – Carter.
KS Engineering – J. Hughes.
KSE Racing Products – VanderBeek.
Mel Hambelton Ford Racing – Fuqua.
Midwest Wrap Co. – Horner.
MSD Performance – T. Phillips.
Penske Racing Shocks – Brown.
PEM Racing Gears & Drivetrain – Wille.
QA1 – O’Neil.
RacerWebsite.com – Vaughn.
Simpson Performance Products – Brown.
Summit Racing Equipment – T. Hughes, Kirk, P. Phillips, Pursley.
Super Clean – Ramirez.
Swift Springs – Bidinger, Ramirez, Pursley.
Sybesma Graphics – Fuqua.
Tire Demon – Hodges.
VP Racing Fuels – Ramirez.
Wehrs Machine & Racing Products – Dale.
Wilwood Disc Brakes – Clark.

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USMTS OFFICIAL SPONSORS: American Racer Racing Tires, Beyea Headers, Chevrolet Performance, Compstar, Fast Shafts, FK Rod Ends, Intercomp, K1 RaceGear by Ryan Bowers Motorsports, KS Engineering, KSE Racing Products, Malvern Bank, Mesilla Valley Transportation, MSD Performance, Nitroquest Media, PEM Racing Gears & Drivetrain, RacinDirt, Summit Racing Equipment, Super Clean, VP Racing Fuels, Wrisco Industries.

USMTS PARTICIPATING SPONSORS: ARMI Contractors, Boubin Tire & Automotive, Brodix Cylinder Heads, DAY Motorsports, Hacienda Mechanical, Mel Hambelton Racing, Midwest Wrap Co., Miller Welders, PBM Performance Products, Rancho Milagro Racing, RHRSwag.com, S&S Fishing & Rental, Salty's BBQ & Catering, YouDirt.com.

USMTS CONTINGENCY SPONSORS: AFCO Racing Products, Allstar Performance, BigDeal Car Care, Bryke Racing, BSB Manufacturing, Champ Pans, Deatherage Opticians, Edelbrock, Hooker Harness, Integra Racing Shocks and Springs, JE Pistons, Keyser Manufacturing, Penske Racing Shocks, Performance Bodies & Parts, QA1, RacerWebsite.com, Real Racing Wheels, Simpson Performance Products, Swift Springs, Sybesma Graphics, Tire Demon, Wehrs Machine & Racing Products, Wilwood Racing.

USMTS RACETRACKS: 81 Speedway, Arrowhead Speedway, Belleville High Banks, Casino Speedway, Cedar Lake Speedway, Chateau Speedway, Dallas County Speedway, Deer Creek Speedway, Fayette County Speedway, Humboldt Speedway, I-70 Speedway, Lakeside Speedway, Lucas Oil Speedway, Mason City Motor Speedway, Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Ogilvie Raceway, Red Dirt Raceway, Rocket Raceway Park, Tri-State Speedway, Winneshiek Raceway.

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Contact Info:
Jeff Nun
Chief Communications Officer
United States Modified Touring Series, Inc. (USMTS)
1715 W 2nd St, PO Box 905
Webster City, IA 50595
United States Modified Touring Series, Inc. | 1715 West 2nd Street, Webster City, IA 50595

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