SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Dereck Ramirez watched the monkey on his back grow old, but the 32-year-old from Woodward, Okla., finally laid it to rest Thursday on opening night of the 21st annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree.

Ramirez started on the outside of the front row and followed polesitter Joel Alberts for the first six laps of Thursday’s main event before powering to the front.

Besides Alberts, Ramirez was also challenged by Adam Hensel, Zack VanderBeek and Rodney Sanders during the first half of the 40-lapper but eventually he checked out with Sanders to settle it among themselves.

It seemed fitting since the pair are ranked first and second in both the Casey’s General Stores USMTS National Championship points battle and USMTS Hunt for the Casey’s Cup powered by Summit which wraps up with the conclusion of Saturday’s race.

Lapped traffic came into play during the final dozen laps, but despite his best efforts Sanders had to settle for the runner-up paycheck while Ramirez broke through for his third win of the season and eighth of his USMTS career.

In doing so, Ramirez also buried the hatchet with the Deer Creek Speedway.

“This is one of them places where in racing this is where you shine-Eldora for the late models; Deer Creek for the modifieds-and it’s so great to actually do it,” an emotional Ramirez said in victory lane. “I’ve struggled and struggled here, and I finally got something figured out. I think we got something to work with.”

Thursday’s event was the 108th United States Modified Touring Series race at the high-banked three-eighths-mile clay oval near Spring Valley, Minn. For Ramirez, it was his 80th attempt but first trip to the winner’s circle here.

“It was good,” he said of his Cornett-powered No. 4r Hughes Chassis. “I’m so happy to run good here. You’ve got probably the greatest fans in dirt track racing for us, and I just never ran good here. I never showed my true talent to these people and I’m glad it shined tonight.

“I usually don’t drink, but I think tonight’s the night I probably get drunk.”

While Ramirez avoided a 13th second-place finish this season and instead picked up his eighth career USMTS win, Sanders held off 2019 track champion Brandon Davis who clawed his way from 12th on the grid to finish third.

It ended a streak of seven straight wins at the track for Davis, including the Labor Day Weekend event which gave him his eighth career USMTS victory.

The finish:

Dereck Ramirez, Rodney Sanders, Brandon Davis, Hunter Marriott, Zack VanderBeek, Dustin Sorensen, Rochester, Jake Timm, Joel Alberts, Jake O’Neil, Brad Waits, Travis Saurer, Terry Phillips, Lucas Schott, Jason Hughes, Cory Crapser, Josh Angst, Jacob Bleess, Joe Horgdal, Brady Gerdes, Jason Cummins, Adam Kates, Austin Siebert, Ryan Gustin, Adam Hensel, Kyle Brown, Ethan Dotson, Charlie Steinberg, Rick Beebe, Joe Duvall, Tony Schill.

YORK HAVEN, Pa. — James McFadden kicked off a huge weekend of sprint car racing in Central Pennsylvania with an impressive victory in Thursday night’s Select Collision Kevin Gobrecht Classic at BAPS Motor Speedway.

Driving the Kasey Kahne Racing No. 9, McFadden started outside the front row for the 30-lap feature and held off sixth-starting Brock Zearfoss for the victory.

Cory Eliason finished third with Ryan Smith and J.J. Grasso, who started 17^th, rounding out the top five.

Steve Ownings raced from sixth on the grid to win the 25-lap 358 sprint car feature.

The finish:

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9-James McFadden, [2]; 2. 70-Brock Zearfoss, [6]; 3. 26-Cory Eliason, [4]; 4. 72-Ryan Smith, [5]; 5. 37-J.J. Grasso, [17]; 6. 44-Trey Starks, [11]; 7. 91R-Kyle Reinhardt, [10]; 8. 99M-Kyle Moody, [15]; 9. 8-Billy Dietrich, [14]; 10. 21-Brian Montieth, [23]; 11. W20-Greg Wilson, [16]; 12. 73B-Brett Michalski, [21]; 13. 4-Dwight Leppo, [24]; 14. 75-Chase Dietz, [13]; 15. 9L-Ryan Linder, [19]; 16. 11P-Greg Plank, [20]; 17. (DNF) 39M-Anthony Macri, [7]; 18. (DNF) 71-Giovanni Scelzi, [3]; 19. (DNF) 48-Danny Dietrich, [1]; 20. (DNF) 99G-George Riden III, [18]; 21. (DNF) 91-Anthony Fiore, [9]; 22. (DNF) 97-Brie Hershey, [22]; 23. (DNF) 33-Jared Esh, [12]; (DNS) 24-Lucas Wolfe

WHEATLAND, Mo. – The ninth annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial opened with a bang in Thursday’s Mesilla Valley Transportation preliminary for the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League.

Zach Daum glided to the race lead on lap 17 and held on for his sixth-career POWRi WAR victory, beating Mitchell Moore to the checkered flag.

Opening with the unique addition of group qualifying, the four flights to open the night saw Garrett Aitken (14.735), Thomas Meseraull (14.521), Chris Windom (14.551) and Riley Kreisel (14.900) top the charts.

In heat race action, the four-car inversion offered several thrilling starts as drivers sliced and diced for position with points on the line. In the end, Aitken, Landon Simon, Windom and Kreisel took heat wins.

A trio of qualifiers spiced it up further with a six-car inversion in play, creating some on-the-edge charges as Meseraull won qualifier one from fifth, Windom won qualifier two from sixth and Daum won qualifier three from fifth.

Setting the stage for the 25-lap preliminary feature, one final twist was thrown into the mix as the top eight in combined points were inverted, slotting Windom and Kreisel on the fourth row with three daunting duos in front of them.

At the drop of the green flag in feature action, Moore took advantage of his pole position and guided his No. 51 entry to the point, while the war for position ensued behind him.

Holding a steady command early on, Moore paced himself while the battle for second brewed between Daum, Schudy and a storming Windom from eighth. Seeing the crossed flags at halfway, Moore’s lead began to shrink as Daum and Windom mounted a run at the No. 51.

Pulling within striking distance, Daum made several peeks to the inside before cashing in off turn two on the 16th circuit, gassing it off exit as he snuck underneath Moore and powering by him down the backstretch.

While Daum focused on his lead, the attention turned to Windom, who after taking second away from Moore ended up biking his No. 5G in turn two, but miraculously saved it and only lost one spot.

Catching the first and only stoppage of the race on lap 24, the field was reset after a top-10 running Terry Richards went wildly flipping in turn three. He was okay, but certainly heated afterwards.

Coming to a green-white-checkered restart, Daum stayed committed to the bottom, while Windom tried to go side-by-side for Moore in pursuit for second.

In the end, neither Moore and Windom could catch Daum, as the Pocahontas, Ill. native drove the No. 5D from fifth-to-first and earned his sixth-career POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League victory.

Coming on night one of the Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial, Daum’s win mathematically guarantees him a spot in Saturday’s pole shuffle at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Chasing Daum to the finish line and earning a runner-up bid was Moore, who had no more than 12 hours ago put the finishing touches on a freshly-built No. 51 machine.

Rounding out the podium with Daum and Moore was Windom, who capped his stellar night with an eighth-to-third run in the NOS Energy Drink No. 5G.

Kory Schudy crossed fourth and Joe B. Miller was fifth, followed by Aitken, Simon, Korey Weyant, Ty Hulsey and Chris Phillips.

After Thursday’s opening preliminary, Windom (250) leads the points situation ahead of Daum (248), Miller (218), Moore (214) and Aitken (213).

The finish:

1. 5D-Zach Daum (5); 2. 51-Mitchell Moore (1); 3. 5G-Chris Windom (8); 4. 28-Kory Schudy (2); 5. 31B-Joe B. Miller (12); 6. 32-Garrett Aitken (4); 7. 24-Landon Simon (3); 8. 99-Korey Weyant (17); 9. 24H-Ty Hulsey (11); 10. 6P-Chris Phillips (10); 11. 1-Paul White (9); 12. 30B-Quinton Benson (14); 13. 5$-Danny Smith (19); 14. 00-Thomas Meseraull (6); 15. 2X-Zach Clark (15); 16. 20-Steve Thomas (20); 17. 73-Samuel Wagner (18); 18. 90-Riley Kreisel (7); 19. 18-Terry Richards (13); 20. 42-Warren Johnson (16).

Lap Leader(s): Moore 1-16; Daum 17-25.

Hard Charger(s): Miller (+7)

WHEATLAND, Mo. – Lap 17 proved decisive for Blake Hahn Thursday night as the ninth annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial opened its three-night run at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Hahn grabbed command after a back-and-forth battle with Josh Baughman on the 17th circuit and went on to win the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series feature, worth $3,000.

A total of 70 ASCS sprint cars checked into the pits, earning points toward Saturday’s program, which concludes with a $10,000-to-win ASCS feature.

Hahn traded the lead with Baughman seven times over the first 17 laps before taking over for good. He wound up nearly a second in front of runner-up Dylan Westbrook with Paul Nienhiser third.

“This is a win that I wanted really bad,” Hahn said. “It isn’t Saturday night, but this is still something big. Any time you can show up to a race and race against 69 other cars and we won this thing, it’s pretty impressive.

“We were really good in the heat race and really good in the qualifier, too.”

Hahn started on the pole and led the first four laps before Baughman worked the inside line to pass for the lead coming out of turn four to complete lap five.

Hahn returned the favor on the next circuit, but going around on the outside to regain the lead. Before the lap was completed, however, the race was red-flagged as Jeff Swindell took a wild flip in turns three and four. Swindell walked away from the incident and Baughman remained the race leader for the restart.

It didn’t take long for Hahn to get the jump as the green waved, and he went on to open a 2.5-second lead by lap 10.

“We had a really good car on top,” Hahn said. “I was a little angry that I was in second and I drove it into one on the top pretty hard and it stuck pretty well.”

As the leaders caught lapped traffic, Baughman closed in and went back in front on lap 16.

Again, Hahn responded. He needed less than a lap to reclaim the lead and was in front by half a second when action again was halted on lap 18, as Jay Russell flipped his car coming out of turn four. Russell crawled out under his own power to cheers from the fans.

Hahn was solid from there, driving away for his eighth-career ASCS National Tour win.

“I really thought I needed to go to the top and then Josh was working the bottom really well down here,” Hahn said of the battle with Baughman. “After I started getting to the bottom, I felt pretty good down there, too.”

Westbrook emerged from a four-car battle to claim second, with Paul Nienhiser third, Derek Hagar fourth and Baughman fading late to finish fifth.

Three-time reigning ASCS champion Sam Haftertepe spun on lap 18 after a restart to bring out the race’s final caution. He wound up 18th.

The finish:

A Feature (25 laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn [1]; 2. 47X-Dylan Westbrook [8]; 3. 9X-Paul Nienhiser [2]; 4. 9JR-Derek Hagar [7]; 5. 17-Josh Baughman [3]; 6. 11-Roger Crockett [6]; 7. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [10]; 8. 22-Sean McClelland [12]; 9. 21K-Kameron Key [14]; 10. 17W-Harli White [11]; 11. 9$-Kyle Clark [9]; 12. 2X-Tucker Doughty [5]; 13. 21P-Robbie Price [4]; 14. 14-Jordon Mallett [13]; 15. 81-Jack Dover [21]; 16. 21-Miles Paulus [25]; 17. 91T-Tyler Thomas [22]; 18. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [15]; 19. 76-Jay Russell [16]; 20. M1-Mark Smith [19]; 21. 21C-Carson Short [18]; 22. 94-Jeff Swindell [20]; 23. 84-Brandon Hanks [17]; 24. 28-Scott Bogucki [23]; 25. 95-Matt Covington [24].

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — A sea of his fans dressed in black-and-green racing apparel adorned with the locally famous “111” graphics on them filled victory lane Thursday night at Stateline Speedway.

Track champion Max Blair had just swept the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature at the track.

Blair turned the quickest lap of 27 cars during qualifying, won his heat and led every lap of the feature for his second series victory, beating Darrell Lanigan and Dave Hess to the checkered flag.

“This isn’t just the cherry on top, this is the whole sundae,” Blair said of the win and how it sits alongside his 40 other Feature victories behind the wheel of a Late Model this season.

Blair jumped out to the lead right away and ran into lapped traffic inside of the first 15 laps. He swiftly weaved in-and-out of the slower cars, using both lanes, even threading the needle in between two cars at one point. All in an effort to escape the pressure coming from the stiff competition behind him.

“My [crew] guys were telling me that we were getting away [from the field] and I kind of started riding,” Blair said. “But then I got to those lapped cars, and boy, I couldn’t get around a couple of them for a long time. I looked back up at my guys and they were telling me Lanigan was catching me, and I was getting nervous, let’s put it that way.”

The race’s only caution flag flew with 28 circuits remaining for David Scott, who blew a right-rear tire and came to a stop in turn one. This erased Blair’s comfortable lead in lapped traffic and restacked the field, placing the hard-charging Lanigan right on the No. 111’s rear bumper.

A great restart by Blair gave him the advantage he needed to keep the field at bay. But lapped traffic reared its challenging head again with just 12 laps left.

After running much of the race in the preferred low groove, Blair shot up high in his first attempt to get around the second wave of slower cars but was met with heavy resistance as Lanigan closed the gap. Less than a car length separated the two as they dove into turn one with 11 laps remaining.

“The lapped cars helped me get caught up there, but once Max cleared them, I knew he was going to be hard to pass,” Lanigan said.

Blair kept at it and was able to find his way around the slower cars in the next few laps, opening up a comfortable 1.7-second gap again by the completion of lap 50.

“With a couple [laps] to go, I looked back up at my dad and he told me I was okay,” Blair said. “I figured there must still have been a lapped car in between us, so I just put it in cruise control and got to the end.”

Hess ran a solid race through 50 laps, keeping his No. 44h on the podium for every lap except three in his battle for position with Lanigan and Shane Clanton.

“Lapped traffic slowed Max up and let us all catch up to where I thought we might have a shot,” Hess said. “But I was a little used-up at the end. I was able to hold everybody else off and hold onto that third, so it worked out well.”

Blair’s only previous World of Outlaws win came at the McKean County Raceway back on June 20, 2017.

The finish:

Feature (50 Laps) 1. 111-Max Blair [1][$10,000]; 2. 29-Darrell Lanigan [6][$5,000]; 3. 44h-Dave Hess [2][$3,000]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard [10][$2,500]; 5. 1x-Chub Frank [5][$2,000]; 6. 97-Cade Dillard [8][$1,700]; 7. 25-Shane Clanton [3][$1,400]; 8. 9k-Mike Knight [9][$1,300]; 9. 99B-Boom Briggs [7][$1,200]; 10. 72-Jason Covert [12][$1,100]; 11. 7-Ricky Weiss [16][$1,050]; 12. 18-Chase Junghans [15][$1,000]; 13. 94-Bryce Davis [14][$950]; 14. 2v-Chad Valone [21][$900]; 15. 18m-Mike Wonderling [20][$850]; 16. 22B-Darrell Bossard [11][$800]; 17. 40-Dutch Davies [17][$770]; 18. 28-Dennis Erb [13][$750]; 19. B22-Bump Hedman [18][$730]; 20. O-Ryan Scott [22][$700]; 21. B1-Brent Larson [23][$700]; 22. 1j-Jake Finnerty [19][$700]; 23. 4s-David Scott [4][$700]; 24. 77-Tyler Dietz [24][$700] Hard Charger: 2v-Chad Valone[+7]

Spain's desire to call up Barcelona teenager Ansu Fati for next month's Under-17 World Cup has not gone down well with the Catalan club, sources have told ESPN FC.

Ansu, 16, has been one of the stars of Barca's season so far. He became their youngest ever goalscorer in La Liga last month against Osasuna and the youngest ever player to debut in the Champions League for the club against Borussia Dortmund this week.

However, the Spanish champions could be without Ansu for up to five weeks if, as expected, he is included in Spain's squad for the upcoming World Cup, which starts on Oct. 26 and runs until Nov. 17.

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Sources at the club have told ESPN FC they feel it will be detrimental to take Ansu out of the first-team dynamic and they fear losing him for so long would halt the progression he's made this season.

Barca coach Ernesto Valverde wants the player, who began preseason with Victor Valdes' U19 team, to train with the first team for the whole season, although there could still be times when he plays for the B team in the Spanish third division.

Ansu was born in Guinea-Bissau but moved to Seville when he was six. He has never represented any country at youth level and, until now, no one at the Royal Spanish Football Federation [RFEF] had moved to ensure his international future would be linked to Spain.

Steps have now been taken to nationalise him, though, following his brilliant start to the campaign. A RFEF spokesman confirmed to ESPN FC earlier this week that they are pursuing the necessary paperwork for him to obtain a Spanish passport.

Spain U17 coach David Gordo also revealed that he hopes to have Ansu available for the World Cup, and that the forward was keen to represent La Roja. The 16-year-old is also eligible for Portugal and Guinea-Bissau.

Spain's first game at the tournament is against Argentina on Oct. 28, but there will also be travelling and training time before then. If Spain progress in the competition, Ansu would be away from Barcelona until towards the end of November.

Sources at Barcelona say that "removing him from the first team for that amount of time could be prejudicial," pointing out that Ansu could miss as many as seven Barcelona first-team games if Spain progress.

Ansu made his debut for Barca against Real Betis off the bench in August and scored against Osasuna as a substitute the following week. He made his first start against Valencia last weekend, scoring and assisting, before playing an hour in Tuesday's goalless draw at Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said Chelsea attacker Christian Pulisic is a "super exciting player" ahead of the meeting between the two sides on Sunday.

Klopp signed Pulisic for Borussia Dortmund at the age of 15 in February 2015 but left the club at the end of that season.

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Pulisic went on to become a star for the Bundesliga side and a regular for the United States before joining Chelsea for €64 million -- and Klopp is excited to watch the 21-year-old's development.

"He will be a proper player," Klopp told a news conference ahead of the clash with Chelsea. "He's a talent, dynamic, good with both feet. Super exciting player, good signing."

Despite amassing 97 points last season, Liverpool only recorded one away victory against a top six side.

They suffered their only defeat of the campaign at champions Manchester City, while they drew away to Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United with their sole victory coming at Wembley against Tottenham.

"The longer it happens, the more likely it is that things will change," Klopp added. "We've had unlucky moments for sure.

"It's all about quality of the performance. It's not written in the stars that we aren't allowed to win against. Chelsea."

Klopp also said goalkeeper Alisson is making "big progress" in his bid to recover from injury but is not ready to return to action yet, while Naby Keita is back in full training.

LAS VEGAS -- MLS executives met with several supporter groups on Thursday to discuss the league's ban on displaying political signage at matches, and in particular the Iron Front flag.

The meeting concluded with MLS agreeing to evaluate the treatment of the Iron Front Flag for the rest of the 2019 season, "while conducting a broader evaluation of the Fan Code of Conduct."

A conference call involving MLS, the Independent Supporters Council (ISC), an umbrella organization representing supporter groups from around the league, as well as leaders from three different supporter groups -- the Timbers Army, Emerald City Supporters and Gorilla FC -- is scheduled for next Tuesday. That call will likely determine what will be done about the Iron Front flag for 2019.

As for matches this weekend, the fan representatives asked MLS if they could "press pause" on enforcement, but MLS confirmed that for now, the policy banning the Iron Front flag remains in place.

"During today's meeting, the League proposed a collaborative process for reviewing its Fan Code of Conduct in a way that is inclusive of a cross-section of industry experts and national advocacy groups along with the leaders of its supporter groups," MLS said in a prepared statement.

"The goal is to have that process completed prior to the start of the 2020 season."

Earlier today, executives from Major League Soccer met with leaders of the Independent Supporters Council and supporter groups for the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders FC to discuss the MLS Fan Code of Conduct. MLS provided the following statement after today's meeting. pic.twitter.com/jmxkRigVig

— Dan Courtemanche (@courtemancheMLS) September 20, 2019

The meeting, which lasted over three-and-a-half hours, included nine leaders of various supporter groups. The Timbers Army, the main supporter group of the Portland Timbers was represented by Sheba Rawson, president of the 107ist, the organizational arm of the Timbers Army, as well as Fernando Machicado and Scott van Swearingen. The Emerald City Supporters, a Seattle Sounders supporter group, was represented by co-presidents Tom Biro and Shawn Wheeler while Cameron Collins was there on behalf of Gorilla FC. The ISC was represented by president Bailey Brown and vice-president Drew Picard. Speaking on behalf of MLS was deputy commissioner Mark Abbott and the league's general counsel Anastasia Danias.

Rawson said the meeting was productive, but was also disappointed that there was no resolution on the Iron Front flag.

"The first hour and a half was very productive, with a lot of good discussion about the path the code of conduct took in coming to fruition," Rawson said via text message.

"We are disappointed the league elected to come to this meeting unprepared to make a decision on the Iron Front ban given that it's been a central part of this issue. We are, however, encouraged by the dialogue and progress made, and we look forward to continued discussions with the league next week."

Abbott declined to comment beyond MLS's statement.

The dispute arose at the beginning of the season, when MLS implemented a revised Fan Code of Conduct that included a ban on political signage. While the Code of Conduct doesn't mention the Iron Front flag specifically, fans from around the league were told prior to the season that it is prohibited.

The Iron Front symbol dates back to an anti-Nazi paramilitary organization from the 1930s, and has been flown by the Timbers Army at Providence Park since at least 2017. But the symbol is used by antifa, and because MLS deems antifa to be a political organization, the display of the Iron Front symbol on flags or banners is prohibited in the league's venues. The supporters groups, however, contend that the flag is a symbol of inclusion.

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The issue over waving the Iron Front flag has come to a head in recent weeks, however. The Timbers Army, the Emerald City Supporters and Gorilla FC staged a silent protest for the first 33 minutes of the match between the Timbers and the Sounders back on Aug. 23. At that point in the game, the supporters from both teams began cheering and displaying flags with the Iron Front symbol.

In a statement released prior to the match, the three groups called for MLS to rescind its ban on flying the Iron Front flag, as well as remove the word "political" from its Fan Code of Conduct, calling the use of the word "inherently arbitrary." The groups also asked MLS to work with international experts on human rights to craft language in the fan code of conduct that "reflects and supports radical inclusion and anti-discrimination."

More recently, three Timbers Army members were banned for three matches for displaying an Iron Front in a match involving the Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake on Aug. 31. Last weekend the ECS staged a walkout during the game between the Sounders and the New York Red Bulls when one of its capos -- a member who leads the crowd in chants -- was ejected for waving an Iron Front flag. In Minnesota, one fan was ejected for waving the flag according to a Minnesota United statement, though one of the supporter groups, the Red Loons, countered in a statement to ESPN that security ejected "about a dozen" of its supporters, and around the same number left with them in protest.

Tuesday's meeting represents another chance for the two sides to come to an agreement.

"The league heard our position and understood it," said Biro. "I do feel like there was a genuine attempt to move the needle on some things, but we came in with some specific asks that track back to what we put out in a statement.

"It seemed like they were willing to consider them, which is great. But the fact they were unwilling to move on this one topic, which was the crux of why we were here in the first place, it just was surprising. We're supposed to meet next week. I'm hopeful we can come to some sort of decision."