10/14/2023
Rodney Sanders
Sanders earns 5th USMTS championship with Arrowhead victory
Rodney Sanders not only scored his 16th win of the season on Friday night, but with the triumph at Oklahoma’s Arrowhead Speedway, he also officially clinched the 2023 United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) title with his Wichita Tank Racing / Paulson Rock Products / Stussy Construction No. 20 Texas Locomotive Solutions / Kenny’s Tile / ARMI Contractors / MB Customs Race Car / Hatfield Racing Engine Modified.
Sanders’ unprecedented fifth-series title is worth $100,000. To get the feature win he had to keep Minnesota hard charger, Jake Timm at bay late in the race.
“I know Jake’s been really good lately and I felt like I was pretty good around the top once we got rolling but there’s a lot of grip down there,” Sanders said. “I saw his nose down there and I felt like to win the race I had to at least go block a lap or two. I just didn’t want to overshoot it. It’s kind of hard running the top and then slow down on the bottom.
“I felt like I had a really good car early, but I didn’t know about the lapped cars. I didn't know where I needed to be. I moved around early and I felt pretty good on the bottom too, and we got the win. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to have the USMTS title locked up with a few race nights still to go. A big thank you to everyone who helped us reach our goals this season.”
Rodney Sanders just needed to be conservative over the last few events of the Summit United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) season to score his fifth series title. However, during the inaugural ARMI Contractors All-American at Colcord, Oklahoma’s Arrowhead Speedway, Sanders put the championship out of reach for his competitors by winning on the second night of the three-day program.
The racing action at the state-of-the-art 1/3-mile clay oval kicked off on Thursday when Sanders was one of 55 USMTS competitors on the property. He drove his No. 20 Modified to a runner-up finish in his heat race and transferred to the 35-lap, $3,000-to-win feature event via a win in his B-Main. Sanders picked up an impressive nine positions in the 35-lapper to record a sixth-place result.
The following evening, Sanders was simply dominant. He set the overall quick time in qualifying among 58 USMTS Modifieds with a 14.509-second lap. He then finished third in his heat and rolled off third in the 40-lap, $5,000-to-win A-Main. He took the lead on the first circuit and led every lap, surviving multiple restarts to score his fifth USMTS win of the season by 0.464 seconds over Jake Timm. Jeremy Nelson rounded out the podium, while Tanner Mullens finished fourth and Dereck Ramirez came home fifth.
The win was Sanders’ 16th feature win overall in 2023. With the victory, the 34-year-old driver from Happy, Texas, who now calls Minnesota home, only needs to sign in during the season's final weekend to officially claim the USMTS championship and a $100,000 payday.
Sanders was also strong in Saturday’s $20,023-to-win finale at Arrowhead, an event that brought 55 USMTS Modified drivers to the track. Sanders finished second in his heat race and began the 50-lap feature from the 10th spot. He advanced four positions during the race to register his second sixth-place finish of the weekend and score a top-10 result across all three days of competition.
Full results are at www.usmts.com.
The team now heads southwest this weekend to Royal Jones’ Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park for the 23rd annual Rancho Milagro USRA Fall Nationals. Preliminary programs are set for Friday and Saturday with a $20,000-to-win / $1,600-to-start finale on Sunday.
Full event details are available at www.VadoSpeedwayPark.com.
Article Credit: Tyler Rinken image