9/25/2019
Bleess seizes piece of history with Featherlite Fall Jamboree victory
SPRING VALLEY, Minn. --Jacob Bleess drove the race of his life Saturday night in the finale of the 21st Annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree at the Deer Creek Speedway.
Bleess took the lead at the waving of the green flag and went on to pace all 50 laps in securing his career-first USMTS win on the world's biggest stage for dirt modified racing.
"I'm speechless right now. It feels good," said the 22-year-old from nearby Chatfield, Minn. "We won here in the B-Mod like five years ago and it feels good to be back."
The main event kicked off with 32 of the planet's best racers lining up three wide and 11 rows deep. Bleess rolled off from the outside of the front row with fellow Chatfield resident Lucas Schott on the pole and track champion Brandon Davis the man in the middle.
Bleess may have been the leader, but he was never able to rest during the contest.
Schott and Davis threatened throughout the race and pulled alongside several times-occasionally three wide with room to spare.
The leaders reached the back of the field by lap 12 and had to deal with heavy lapped traffic.
Meanwhile, Ryan Gustin-who used a past champion's provisional to earn the 31st starting spot-had passed half the field by the ninth lap.
When the race's first caution waved with 26 laps in the books, Bleess was still clinging to the lead with Schott, Davis, defending Jamboree champ Rodney Sanders and Friday's runner-up, Jake O'Neil, filling the rest of the top five.
With half of the race complete, deep-in-the-field starters Dereck Ramirez (17th), Terry Phillips (14th), and Zack VanderBeek (18th) had also cracked the top 10.
Another yellow came out six laps later, but Bleess wasn't rattled by either pause in the race.
In fact, he said, it allowed him to get back into clean air where his No. 21 VanderBuilt chassis was better.
"I just stayed consistent and tried to keep the tires under it," Bleess said. "The yellows kind of helped me. I wasn't able to go through lapped traffic good.
"Pull a tear-off... Cool down... Clean track... Just hit my marks."
Davis has four USMTS triumphs at 'The Creek' but none during Featherlite Fall Jamboree week. This year, he won the Labor Day race and came into Thursday's show riding a seven-race win streak here.
Sanders, who had a championship to be aware of as well, came up to make it a three-way battle for the lead over the final 15 laps but eventually Bleess and Davis pulled ahead to make it a two-way race.
Over the final three laps, Davis pulled even with Bleess on at least six occasions. In the final turn on the final lap, the opportunity was there for Davis to slide up and execute a "checkers or wreckers" pass of Bleess, but left enough room for Bleess to scream past on the outside and beat him to the finish line by a whisker (eight one-hundredths of a second to be exact).
Bleess' first USMTS win was also his first win anywhere this season. His take-home pay came to a cool $12,700 with $2,500 in bonus money from Tralo Companies plus a slew of contingency awards including a new driveshaft from Fast Shafts and the Swift Springs "Four Corners" Award.
Davis had to settle for the $5,000 runner-up paycheck and Sanders came across the line third to score $4,000. VanderBeek was fourth and netted $3,300 while Schott held on for fifth which added $2,700 to the newlywed's bank account.
Phillips, Ramirez, Jason Hughes, O'Neil and Joe Duvall completed the top 10. Hughes, who started 23rd, was awarded the FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award.
Using his patented high-side acrobatics, Gustin climbed as high as 10th in the 50-lap feature and wound up in the 14th spot.
Prior to Saturday's main event, the annual $2,000-to-win Non-Qualifiers Race was a thriller itself with R.C. Whitwell scoring his second NQ contest of the weekend.
R.C. Whitwell won the annual Non-Qualifiers Race.
Make plans now to attend the 22nd Annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 17-19, 2020, at the Deer Creek Speedway.
With his better finish, Sanders claimed the points title over Ramirez in the USMTS Hunt for the Casey's Cup powered by Summit after an incredible grind of 19 nights of racing that began Aug. 1 and ended Saturday night.
Summit Southern Nationals next: While Saturday's show was the final points race in the USMTS Hunt for the Casey's Cup, the 2019 USMTS National Champion will be determined at the 2nd Annual Summit Southern Nationals at the Kennedale Speedway Park in Kennedale, Texas.
Set for on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, the race will also feature USRA Factory Stocks and USRA Limited Mods on the card.
Junghans Memorial Nov. 16: The USMTS season concludes on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15-16 with the year's only non-points races at the 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan.
The 3rd Annual Chisholm Trail Showdown will take place on Friday and pay $3,000 to win.
The 4th Annual Grant Junghans Memorial happens on Saturday-one day before Grant's birthday-and will once again pay $10,002 to win and $1,202 to start.
To learn more about the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS), visit USMTS.com online or call (515) 832-7944. You can also like us on Facebook at facebook.com/USMTS, follow on Twitter at twitter.com/USMTS, check us out on Instagram at instagram.com/USMTS and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/USMTSTV. Keep up to speed by joining our email list at USMTS.com/Subscribe.
Article Credit: Jeff Nunn