FOUNTAIN CITY — Several drivers got their chance to settle to challenge Rodney Sanders but nobody could take the lead from him on Friday night at Mississippi Thunder Speedway.
Sanders won the 39-lap USRA Modified main event at the track’s fourth annual Karl Fenske Memorial, taking home a winner’s purse of more than $4,000.
The Happy, Texas-native started on pole in his No. 20 car and led from start to finish. Sanders credited his starting spot for helping him capitalize for his first feature win since February.
“Track position helps,” Sanders said. “It felt like we’ve been fast the last couple of months, we just haven’t been able to capitalize with a good draw. Tonight we had one and luckily was able to finish the deal off. Hopefully we can keep this momentum up during the summer.”
“Anytime we’re in the area we like to come over and support Bob (Timm) and them. It was good paying race tonight, so that makes it a lot better for sure.”
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Sanders drove away initially but saw the likes of Lucas Schott and Brandon Davis start to chase him down on the high side. Once Sanders made his way to the top lane, lap traffic became his only challenge.
“When they water it like that, it seems like it starts at the bottom and kind of transitions it’s way up,” Sanders said. “There was momentum up top and I just felt like I was slowing on the bottom. I slowly crept up to the top and the more I ran up there the more it felt packed in.”
Davis — a Modified winner two weeks ago during the Dairyland Showdown — fended off challenged by Parker Hale and Alex Williamson for second, giving himself a chance to catch Sanders on the final lap. Sanders held off Davis’ No. 50 car at the finish by just .402 seconds.
“I felt like I was going pretty hard at the beginning,” Sanders said. “I did feel my tires getting a little hot and start to go away a little. I just felt that as long as I didn’t mess up they were going to have a hard time getting by me. I felt like there was someone there (at the end) I just didn’t know for sure.”
Williamson picked up nine spots on his way to a third-place finish. Hale took fourth while Schott, driving in a new Longhorn chassis for the first time, rounded out the top five.
Cory Crapser won a $200 bonus as the hard charger of the race, moving up 15 spots over the course of the feature. Crapser started last in the field after wrecking out during his heat race, but him and his crew managed to put the No. 07 car back together and finish 11th.
Last year’s track champion Keith Foss will be playing catchup in the standings after a mechanical failure ended his race before the halfway point. After starting fifth, Foss finished 24th.
CHISHOLM WINS B-MOD BATTLE
Joe Chisholm wins shootout in B-Mods at Mississippi Thunder Speedway on May 19.
Joe Chisholm took the lead from pole sitter Harley Dais after just five laps of the USRA B-Mod 20-lap feature, but it would not be a stress-free path to victory lane.
Chisholm and Dylan Goettl were battling for the lead with five laps to go when a wreck began in front of them on the backstretch. The two managed to avoid damage, but the pack was bunched up again with a caution.
The two traded the lead on the restart with Taylor Ausrud joining the fray. When the caution flew again with two laps to go, Chisholm was at the point.
The No. 25 car would win the three-lap shootout to the finish with Goettl taking second. Ausrud had a mechanical error on the final lap and wound up 18th.
The debut of the USRA Stock Cars did not disappoint with consistent side-by-side pack racing. Danny Cole, Kyle Faulk and Levi Schott battled three-wide for the lead in the early going.
Faulk survived a late restart to win with Brayden Gjere finishing second and Travis Shipman taking third.
An early caution in the 20-lap USRA Late Model feature was the opening Lance Hofer needed to make a move from the third row to second, but it wasn’t enough to catch the leader of Olson.
Olson — who would go on to finish third in the B-mod featured — avoided late charges from Hofer and Brad Waits to take home the win. Waits took second while Hofer bounced off the wall on the final lap and took home third.
Steve Holthaus took the lead from the outside of the front row in the USRA Hobby Stock 18-lap feature before losing the lead and spinning out on lap five to bring out one of five cautions.
Five cautions in total were thrown and Chris Hovden didn’t have to worry about any of them, winning by several seconds over second-place Scott Spidle and third-place Devin Holthaus.
The track is off next week before hosting the Dirt King Late Models Tour on June 2. All local divisions except the USRA Late Models will also run that evening.
