Sanders takes King of America checkered

HUMBOLDT — Reigning USMTS National Champion Rodney Sanders arrived at the Humboldt Speedway on Thursday still winless in 2014. He left on Saturday night with a $10,000 paycheck and as the reigning King of America.
The 26 main event starters performed the four-wide parade lap with fireworks exploding in the background, but it was the fireworks with seven laps to go that will keep fans talking until the fifth running of the event in 2015.
The 24-year-old from Happy, Texas, started the 100-lap main event from the pole position and led the first lap but outside front row starter Jordan Grabouski of Beatrice, Neb., roared past Sanders entering the first turn and swiped the lead away the next time around.
For the next 92 laps, three cautions slowed the action and several drivers got near the lead duo, but the race to sit in the king’s throne and wear the King of America IV crown was between “Grabo” and “The Rocket.”
With the racing surface beginning to show signs of taking rubber, passing grew increasingly difficult. Lapped traffic played havoc with Grabouski again on lap 84 and allowed Sanders to slip underneath the leader but Grabouski had the muscle to hold off Sanders’ charge and hang on to the top spot.
With Sanders shadowing Grabouski’s every move but unable to find a way around, the leaders approached a swarm of lapped traffic with seven laps to go. Drag racing down the back-stretch, Grabouski pulled to the outside to pass Chris Brown and Sanders dove to the inside to make it a three-wide race to reach turn 3.
The trio entered the corner side by side but Sanders and Brown bumped which sent Brown’s ride veering into the side of Grabouski’s. When the dust settled, Grabouski was parked with his tail against the wall and Brown sat idle in the middle of the turn.
Under caution, Grabouski expressed his displeasure with Sanders and then exited the racetrack seven laps short of the finish line.
With Sanders setting the pace for the restart, Davis and Hilsabeck shared the row behind with hopes of getting their shot at the crown. But Sanders was too quick and made no mistakes over the last seven laps as he cruised to his first victory of the season.
“Somebody checked up and we got caught up behind those guys there at the end,” Sanders recalled. “He (Grabouski) went high and I went low. I got into Chris Brown there and I guess it caused him to get into the 75 car. I didn’t mean for it to happen; I was just racing for the rubber. He went high, I went low and we just kind of met in the middle.”
Grabouski’s recollection of the lap-93 incident mirrored Sander’s, but their post-race moods were expectedly polar opposites.
“We raced a clean race all night — all weekend for that matter — and then to end it this way really sucks,” Grabouski said. “We’ve been so close to winning one of these USMTS deals a couple times now, and the $10,000 check would sure go a long way with our race team, so obviously we’re not too happy right now.
“The fastest car didn’t win tonight.”
Second place went to Davis, who pocketed $6,000 for his efforts and, perhaps, quieted some of the minority voices who say he can only win close to home.
“We really didn’t have much of a chance there at the end,” Davis said. “We ran some older tires from earlier this week and they took a while to come in. If I had known there were only seven laps left I might have pushed it a little harder, I’ve still got a lot of tire left. We’re happy with our result though.”
Daniel Hilsabeck cashed his biggest USMTS check with a $4,000 third-place finish while 2012 King of America winner Stormy Scott finished fourth with a last-lap pass of Zack VanderBeek.
Scott’s teammate, Bryan Rowland, raced to a sixth-place finish, Jason Hughes was seventh, Jason Krohn came home in eighth, Cade Dillard wound up ninth and Jeremy Payne was tenth after racing his way through the “C” and “B” Mains to get into the “A” Main.

IN USRA B-Mod action, Jacob Bleess of Chatfield, Minn., finally got his Iron Man Challenge checkers at the Humboldt Speedway, and earned the $1,000 win in dominating fashion.
It was sweet relief for the youngster who finished in the top-five but went winless in each of three events during last year’s King of America III.
Logan Martin brought home the runner-up finish, followed by Mike Higley, polesitter Corky Thomas and Kris Jackson completing the top five Saturday night.