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Mullens hits home run in USMTS Ed Gressel Memorial opener

By USMTS (Park City, KS) -- Tanner Mullens of Wichita got the better of polesitter Will Krup on the opening lap as the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt kicked off the opening night main event of the inaugural Ed Gressel Memorial at the 81 Speedway.

A caution on the fourth lap slowed the pace early on, but from there it was green flag racing with Mullens distancing himself from Krup, who gave way to Jeremy Nelson for the second spot on lap 10.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tyler Rinken

A flat tire for Nelson with four laps to go gave Mullens plenty of padding to cruise to his first USMTS win at his home track, but a flat tire on the VanderBuilt Race Car of Cayden Carter—last year’s Grant Junghans USMTS Rookie of the Year—with just two laps to go set a new tone for the final two-lap sprint to the end.

Mullens, 30, who was the top USMTS rookie in 2020, had no problems with the restart as he sailed to a margin of victory of more than two seconds over Jake Timm, who snagged the runner-up spot from Krup at the finish line after Krup also blew a tire just before he crossed beneath the checkered flags.

The win was worth $3,000 to Mullens—a three-time Hutchinson Nationals winner and 2017 NCRA champion. It was his first at 81 Speedway but the eighth of his career, tying him with Brandon Davis, Ryan Ruter, Tommy Weder Jr. and another former driver for Gressel Racing, Ricky Thornton Jr., on the all-time USMTS wins list. It was the 26th USMTS feature hosted by the 81 Speedway with Mullens becoming the 15th different winner.

After turning down $500 earlier after finishing second in the Kansasland Dash 4 Cash, it appeared Mullens made the right decision.

“The luck we’ve been having I didn’t want to put ourselves any further behind,” Mullens said in victory lane. “Obviously got to keep your right rear under you and when I got to lapped traffic I just kind of left a gap there in case somebody got beside me, but I just didn't want to push it and get tangled up in there.

After going two-for-two last weekend in the Sooner State with a win at the Red Dirt Raceway during the American Racer USRA Modified Series event, and then a dominating triumph in the USRA Modified season opener at the Longdale Speedway on Saturday, Mullens is in a Gressel-like groove for the next two nights.

“He kind of gave me my first taste to running USMTS and I’ll forever be grateful for that,” Mullens said of Ed Gressel who passed away last May and was a fixture at the 81 Speedway. “He was a really good guy and we’re all going to miss him.”

Behind Mullens, Timm and Krup it was Tom Berry Jr. and Zack VanderBeek completing the first five to the finish line. Sixth through tenth went to Jake O'Neil, six-time 81 Speedway winner Rodney Sanders, Terry Phillips, Jim Chisholm and Jason Hughes.

Both Krup and Mullens turned down $500 to start sixth in the main event after finishing first and second in the Kansasland Dash 4 Cash, so Friday’s value climbs to $1,250 ($750 plus $500 carried over). The same rules and procedures apply on Saturday where the Kansasland Dash 4 Cash is worth $1,000, but if Friday’s money is unclaimed then Saturday’s prize increases to a $2,250 dangling carrot.

The inaugural Ed Gressel Memorial continues Friday with a top prize of $5,000 up for grabs with JLR Property Management 316 A-Mods and AutoTech Service Super Stocks making up the undercard. Saturday’s finale will see no less than $10,000 going to the winner with the Heyglassman.com Stock Cars joining the show with the Summit USMTS Modifieds.

Joe Wright—a former crew member for Gressel Racing—put up $800 for long-distance travelers with $200 each to the farthest from each direction. The winners were Dan Ebert of Lake Shore, Minn. (776 miles north), Billy Jack Brutchin of Gladewater, Texas (487 miles south), Chase Holland, Success, Miss. (862 miles east) and Kelsie Foley of Tucson, Ariz. (1,017 miles west). Foley won the overall MVT Long Tow Award and an extra $100 for gas money.

Mel Hambelton Ford Open House: Mel Hambelton Ford in Wichita, Kan., invites all race fans, drivers, crew members and their families to the 3rd Annual USMTS Open House on Friday, April 21, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet your favorite drivers while you enjoy food, fun, contests and more. Click here to learn more.

Live Music: A perfect blend of country and rock from the nation's heartland since 2012, the Midwest's most prominent Heartland Rock band, Tequila Ridge will be playing live music following the races on Friday night.

Cornhole Tournament: 81 Speedway will host a Cornhole Tournament and silent auction for door panels on Saturday. Winners will receive cornhole boards as prizes. Click here to register. Space is limited. The cost is $50 per team and the tournament starts at 10 a.m. for more information call (316) 304-1454 or email 81speedwayevents@gmail.com.

• VP Racing Fuels-Heartland is adding incentives to driver's competing in Saturday's main event. If the driver who starts 2nd wins, hey will get an extra $200 in honor of the Gressel Racing No. 2G driven by Brandon Givens. If the driver who starts 19th wins, he will get an extra $1,900 in honor of the No. 19R driven by Ryan Gustin. If the driver who starts 25th wins, he will get an extra $2,500 in honor of the No. 25 driven for Ed Gressel by Scott Green.

• The Ed Gressel Memorial features a special one-of-a-kind victory lane banner. The 10x20 sign will be autographed by USMTS drivers, and then after Saturday's finale one lucky person will take the banner home. Proceeds will go to the choice of Ed's widow, Cinde Gressel. Bidding starts Thursday.

• Adam Gressel will offer a $1,000 cash award for Saturday's FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award winner, which makes the award worth a total of $1,100 for the most prolific passer in the feature race. Thursday's FK Rod Ends Hard Charger Award went to Chisholm who started 16th and finished 9th.

• Even more 'Reaper Madness' ensues as Chris Sutton with the RPM Speedway in Hays, Kan., has a crisp $100 bill for the 19th-place finisher in honor of the Gressel Racing No. 19R driven by Gustin, who garnered two Summit USMTS National Championships while driving for Gressel Racing.

For complete event information, check out the FAST FACTS or visit 81speedway.com.

For its Silver Anniversary season, the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt currently features 45 nights of racing at 15 of America's premier dirt track racing venues in nine states. The winners of those events are set to earn more than $300,000 with nearly $2 million in purses and prize money earmarked for the 2023 campaign.

Watch every USMTS event online live and on-demand from anywhere on any device with RacinDirt. Download the app at Roku, Amazon Fire, iOS, Apple TV or on Google 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.

RESULTS

Summit Racing Equipment A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[2]; 2. 49-Jake Timm[4]; 3. K9-Will Krup[1]; 4. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[6]; 5. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[5]; 6. 0-Jake O'Neil[11]; 7. 20-Rodney Sanders[10]; 8. 75-Terry Phillips[8]; 9. 24C-Jim Chisholm[16]; 10. 12-Jason Hughes[15]; 11. 4W-Tyler Wolff[13]; 12. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[12]; 13. 21-Jacob Bleess[19]; 14. 87-Darron Fuqua[18]; 15. 58X-Gary Christian[21]; 16. 38T-Dylan Thornton[29]; 17. 60-Dan Ebert[25]; 18. 127-Paden Phillips[17]; 19. 45-Chase Holland[23]; 20. 10B-Brandon Givens[22]; 21. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[26]; 22. 10C-Cayden Carter[14]; 23. 91-Joe Duvall[9]; 24. 4-Jeremy Nelson[3]; 25. 65-Tyler Davis[28]; 26. 55-Chris Kratzer[20]; 27. 15WK-Kale Westover[27]; 28. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[24]; 29. 21K-Kyle Brown[7]

Real Racing Wheels B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 4W-Tyler Wolff[2]; 2. 12-Jason Hughes[1]; 3. 127-Paden Phillips[3]; 4. 21-Jacob Bleess[4]; 5. 58X-Gary Christian[7]; 6. 45-Chase Holland[9]; 7. 712-Trevor Hughes[5]; 8. 60-Dan Ebert[8]; 9. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[11]; 10. 44K-Kelsie Foley[16]; 11. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[12]; 12. 65-Tyler Davis[10]; 13. 44T-Tanner Black[18]; 14. 96X-Taton Hansen[20]; 15. 22B-Rick Beebe[14]; 16. 1M-Cody Gearhart[19]; 17. 30-Dalton Kirk[15]; 18. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[17]; 19. 16-Austin Siebert[6]; 20. 747-Colton Eck[13]; 21. 25C-Cody Thompson[21]

Real Racing Wheels B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 10C-Cayden Carter[2]; 2. 24C-Jim Chisholm[17]; 3. 87-Darron Fuqua[3]; 4. 55-Chris Kratzer[5]; 5. 10B-Brandon Givens[1]; 6. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[15]; 7. G3-Brendon Gemmill[4]; 8. 38T-Dylan Thornton[6]; 9. 15WK-Kale Westover[7]; 10. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[9]; 11. 22N-Kevin Newell[18]; 12. 96-Logan Johnson[13]; 13. 8-Dillon McCowan[10]; 14. 11N-Gene Nicholas[14]; 15. 7D-Davis Givens[11]; 16. 40-Jessy Willard[19]; 17. 25-Scott Green[12]; 18. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[20]; 19. 99T-TJ Tolan[8]; 20. 7-Al Hejna[16]

Simpson Performance Products Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Jake Timm[5]; 2. 10B-Brandon Givens[1]; 3. 4W-Tyler Wolff[4]; 4. G3-Brendon Gemmill[2]; 5. 15WK-Kale Westover[3]; 6. 38T-Dylan Thornton[10]; 7. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[11]; 8. 96-Logan Johnson[9]; 9. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin[7]; 10. 1M-Cody Gearhart[8]; 11. 24C-Jim Chisholm[6]

Fast Shafts Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 75-Terry Phillips[2]; 2. 20-Rodney Sanders[4]; 3. 10C-Cayden Carter[3]; 4. 12-Jason Hughes[5]; 5. 712-Trevor Hughes[7]; 6. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[1]; 7. 65-Tyler Davis[9]; 8. 8-Dillon McCowan[6]; 9. 30-Dalton Kirk[11]; 10. 44T-Tanner Black[10]; 11. 25C-Cody Thompson[8]

Edelbrock Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 91-Joe Duvall[1]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[3]; 3. K9-Will Krup[5]; 4. 55-Chris Kratzer[2]; 5. 58X-Gary Christian[4]; 6. 87-Darron Fuqua[6]; 7. 7D-Davis Givens[7]; 8. 11N-Gene Nicholas[8]; 9. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr[9]; 10. 22N-Kevin Newell[10]; 11. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[11]

Wieland Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 21K-Kyle Brown[2]; 2. 0-Jake O'Neil[4]; 3. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[5]; 4. 16-Austin Siebert[1]; 5. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 6. 21-Jacob Bleess[6]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[7]; 8. 25-Scott Green[10]; 9. 44K-Kelsie Foley[9]; 10. 40-Jessy Willard[8]

VP Race Fuels Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Jeremy Nelson[3]; 2. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[5]; 3. 02-Tanner Mullens[6]; 4. 127-Paden Phillips[4]; 5. 45-Chase Holland[2]; 6. 99T-TJ Tolan[8]; 7. 22B-Rick Beebe[1]; 8. 747-Colton Eck[10]; 9. 7-Al Hejna[9]; 10. 96X-Taton Hansen[7]

Qualifying 1: 1. 24C-Jim Chisholm, 00:18.255[2]; 2. 49-Jake Timm, 00:18.398[7]; 3. 4W-Tyler Wolff, 00:18.613[5]; 4. 15WK-Kale Westover, 00:18.717[1]; 5. G3-Brendon Gemmill, 00:18.757[3]; 6. 10B-Brandon Givens, 00:18.792[11]; 7. 78-Billy Jack Brutchin, 00:19.345[8]; 8. 1M-Cody Gearhart, 00:19.483[9]; 9. 96-Logan Johnson, 00:19.620[6]; 10. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:19.620[4]; 11. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero, 00:19.620[10]

Qualifying 2: 1. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:18.486[6]; 2. 12-Jason Hughes, 00:18.618[3]; 3. 20-Rodney Sanders, 00:18.660[11]; 4. 10C-Cayden Carter, 00:18.665[1]; 5. 75-Terry Phillips, 00:18.783[7]; 6. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr, 00:18.832[4]; 7. 712-Trevor Hughes, 00:18.864[5]; 8. 25C-Cody Thompson, 00:18.877[8]; 9. 65-Tyler Davis, 00:18.902[9]; 10. 44T-Tanner Black, 00:19.085[10]; 11. 30-Dalton Kirk, 00:19.959[2]

Qualifying 3: 1. 87-Darron Fuqua, 00:18.714[4]; 2. K9-Will Krup, 00:18.819[6]; 3. 58X-Gary Christian, 00:18.822[11]; 4. 4R-Dereck Ramirez, 00:18.870[9]; 5. 55-Chris Kratzer, 00:19.152[3]; 6. 91-Joe Duvall, 00:19.207[7]; 7. 7D-Davis Givens, 00:19.235[2]; 8. 11N-Gene Nicholas, 00:19.414[1]; 9. 96JR-Jon Herring Jr, 00:19.490[5]; 10. 22N-Kevin Newell, 00:19.880[8]; 11. 99L-Steve Lavasseur, 00:20.000[10]

Qualifying 4: 1. 21-Jacob Bleess, 00:18.555[5]; 2. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek, 00:18.700[10]; 3. 0-Jake O'Neil, 00:18.747[2]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert, 00:18.918[1]; 5. 21K-Kyle Brown, 00:19.165[9]; 6. 16-Austin Siebert, 00:19.352[6]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt, 00:19.370[8]; 8. 40-Jessy Willard, 00:19.487[3]; 9. 44K-Kelsie Foley, 00:19.517[4]; 10. 25-Scott Green, 00:19.544[7]

Qualifying 5: 1. 02-Tanner Mullens, 00:18.723[9]; 2. 11X-Tom Berry Jr, 00:18.757[2]; 3. 127-Paden Phillips, 00:18.760[10]; 4. 4-Jeremy Nelson, 00:18.847[6]; 5. 45-Chase Holland, 00:19.032[3]; 6. 22B-Rick Beebe, 00:19.233[4]; 7. 96X-Taton Hansen, 00:19.269[1]; 8. 99T-TJ Tolan, 00:19.450[7]; 9. 7-Al Hejna, 00:19.638[5]; 10. 747-Colton Eck, 00:19.731[8]

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IMCA RACESAVER SPRINT CAR

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 10-Jordan Knight[1]; 2. 2J-Zach Blurton[3]; 3. 911-Ty Williams[2]; 4. 51-Jeremy Campbell[5]; 5. 17X-Jake Martens[6]; 6. 81-Jon Freeman[8]; 7. 31M-Eric Matthews[10]; 8. 21X-Taylor Velasquez[7]; 9. 17S-Chad Salem[12]; 10. 23K-Mike Kleymann[13]; 11. (DNF) 88J-Jeremy Huish[4]; 12. (DNF) 11K-Tyler Knight[11]; 13. (DNF) 97-Brian Herbert[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 51-Jeremy Campbell[1]; 2. 17X-Jake Martens[3]; 3. 21X-Taylor Velasquez[2]; 4. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 5. 97-Brian Herbert[4]; 6. 11K-Tyler Knight[6]; 7. (DNF) 23K-Mike Kleymann[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 911-Ty Williams[3]; 2. 10-Jordan Knight[1]; 3. 88J-Jeremy Huish[6]; 4. 81-Jon Freeman[2]; 5. 31M-Eric Matthews[4]; 6. 17S-Chad Salem[5]

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