Rain during – or right before -- a racing program is a freaking nightmare. My original plan was to go to I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls for the Moonshine Tour, but I got to Barnesville and saw it was pitch black to the south (plus the radar looked bleak), so I called an audible and decided to head back to Fargo and cover River Cities Speedway. I plan to cover I-94 next week for the Rebel Midwest Mod Tour and the Race for the Fallen Linemen.
Things were clipping along nicely at River Cities until rain started to fall around 8:15, and this led to a rain delay of more than 90 minutes. I-94 EMR Speedway got started around 8:45 p.m. because of a heavy thunderstorm that passed through around 6 p.m.. Both tracks deserve credit for working their tails off to get the tracks in racing order, many would have said heck with it. In the case of River Cities, several cars were on the track assisting the trucks in repacking the track. My guess is that with the lightning sprint tour in town with 40 cars, including drivers from California, Colorado, Canada and Missouri, River Cities was going to make a big effort to get the show in.
When I write about track conditions at River Cities I am not being critical of the track, it is simply about the circumstances that happened because of the rain.
River Cities went from a dry slick track in the heats to a completely different racetrack for the rest of the program. The track was a major challenge for the street stocks as it was still greasy from the rainfall, even after all the laps of packing. With the wet circumstances, they sort of had the task of working the track in with their race which led to several dicey moments to say the least. It wasn’t anyone’s fault; when you have a rain delay you are going to fight to get the track into racing order.
James Meagher of Grand Forks and Chris Ekren of Grand Forks led the Wissota Street Stocks to the green with Meagher leading the early portion as Greg Jose of Grand Forks was challenging quickly when the caution waved.
It took a while to get things going but Meagher was the leader up front with Jamestown driver Jay Schlotfeldt giving chase in second.
Tucker Pederson of East Grand Forks, second in national points, moved into fourth, but the race had a hard time staying going. Schlotfeldt and Kyle Anderson of Jamestown got hooked together in turn two to bring out with which the fifth caution of the main. Anderson, who started 10th, rejoined the top three of the field while Schlotfeldt was tagged with the caution.
Anderson took over second and set his sights on Meagher. Jose was third ahead of Pederson. Josh Barker of Thompson, who rolled his #99 machine at the Little Dream at Rice Lake earlier this month, had worked into fifth.
Anderson got caught behind a lapped car and that cost him second as Jose took over the spot. Anderson was in third but had caught the top two. Meagher was slowed by a lapped car and hit the brakes, and there was little Jose could do to avoid it and tapped the 7 and brought out the caution. Jose suffered a flat tire as a result while Meagher was given the top spot back. IMO the lapped car was the one that created that incident.
It was a race of survival with the number of cautions and cars dropping out. After another caution – I lost track after six – that set up a green-white-checkered finish. With two to go Anderson and Barker were on Meagher’s tail.
Anderson set up Meagher on the final lap, making a big run off the frontstretch that was perfectly timed as he got a surge on the bottom to take the lead. Meagher checked up and would slide high and lose second and it was Pederson who saw the opening to take over the runner-up spot. Anderson would take the win, his second victory of the 2023 season.
Anderson, in victory lane, apologized for making contact with several cars on the track. But when the track is like that, and cars are sliding all over the place, there’s going to be contact and a lot of incidents. It was just a case where the rainfall made a mess of things. Anderson is a clean racer and I know felt bad, but it was just that kind of race where there was a lot of contact throughout the field.
Nine of the 16 starters would finish. Pederson would take second with Meagher in third; honestly, he probably deserved to win the race, but the countless cautions were his undoing.
Barker started fourth and finished fourth to cap off a good night with Shane Swenson of Devils Lake going from 13th to fifth. Bryce Reimer of Cavalier went from 18th to sixth.
There were two lightning sprint B mains prior to the Wissota Midwest Modified, allowing the track to get worked in further. As the track got worked in it turned into a hammer-down track. Only nine of the 11 midwest mods on hand would take the green.
Jason Halvorson would take the lead early in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Chris Edmonds of Larimore. And he would open a straightaway lead in a few laps. Edmonds had to contend with Jory Berg of Grand Forks for second.
Halvorson was destroying the field but encountered the slower car of Cylan Vargason and made hard contact, which send the #29 car spinning in turn four. The caution was charged to Halvorson, which I was little surprised about. Covering the race remotely I’m not sure if the 111 car had a lot of damage or not, but it was a hard hit. The 29 car would also go pitside.
Edmonds would take over the top spot with Berg and Austin Hunter of Winnipeg now in the top three. Berg went for the lead but it was Hunter who made a big run through the middle and making it three-wide out of turn two; Hunter would take over the lead. Hunter and Berg would pull away from Edmonds.
Joseph LaValley of Bemidji was running solid in fourth but was well behind the top three. Hunter meanwhile opened up a 1.316 lead on Berg with three laps left. Edmonds would slow shortly before the white flag and would pull the 15 car off, moving LaValley into third. Kevin Gagnon would edge Ryne Uhrich of Langdon for fifth. They were the only five cars to finish.
Grant Sexton of Lakeside, Calif., set the pace for the first several laps of the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint main event, but lapped traffic became a factor and would allow Mike Neau of Pleasant Prairie, Wi. to take the top spot. Johnny Boos of Lakewood, Colo., was running in third and looking to move up. Matthew Taves of Detroit Lakes, who won his first career feature at Buffalo River earlier this season, was fourth and Bryce Haugeberg of West Fargo was fifth. The first caution of the race would wave with 16 to go.
Neau would lead over Boos as Taves moved into third and Haugeberg took over fourth. Neau opened a nice lead over Boos but would get into lapped traffic and that erased much of the lead. With six to go Jason Berg’s #100 machine had some flames underneath it to bring out the red flag. He was OK but his night was over.
Alex Truscinski of Greenbush, who won Thursday at Devils Lake Speedway, had made progress through the field and was into fourth ahead of Haugeberg. Neau, meanwhile was in cruise control, opening up a 1.782 lead by the checkered to win night two of the nationals. Boos was second, Taves was third, Truscinski was fourth and Haugeberg was fifth. The nationals move to Greenbush Race Park on Saturday with the finale Sunday at Buffalo River Speedway.
By my counts, Dexter Dvergsten of Greenbush was the hard charger, going from 17th to sixth. He had a top three at Devils Lake on Thursday.
Matthew Jarvis of Thompson was the early leader in the Wissota Late Model feature, which had two cautions before the first lap was even completed. On the restart John Seng of Grand Forks moved into second but went to work on Jarvis. Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks moved into third ahead of Tom Corcoran of East Grand Forks.
Troftgruben and Seng were having an intense battle for second as Jarvis stayed in front. Seng would clear the 14 and was all over Jarvis up front. Brandon Corbett was about to be lapped and Jarvis had to check up for him and was struck from behind from Seng, sending the 42 into the back of Corbett and then around. That deal could have been much worse as it looked like a huge pileup was about to happen but Jarvis would suffer the worst some front end damage but was able to continue. The top two got their spots back as I believe the yellow was charged to Corbett, who went pitside.
Jarvis did not get going on the ensuing restart and would lead to a multi-car tangle on the front stretch. The announcer stated Jarvis broke something in the rear end – which easily could have come from the earlier incident. He did leave on the hook.
I am going to be honest here, there are a few late model drivers at River Cities that would make me awful nervous to race against, no matter what the track condition. They don’t keep their cars straight and you often have no idea what they are going to do when you are next to them. I will not mention names but it’s frustrating to see the cautions and equipment beat up.
Seng led on the restart with Troftgruben giving chase. Troftgruben would get crossed up out of turn four and Strand would take over the top spot as Seng would slide up. From there, he opened a massive lead over Seng to pick up the win. Troftgruben recovered to take third and Corcoran would finish fourth for his second straight top five. Brad Seng of Grand Forks avoided the incidents around him to salvage the final spot in the top five.
Ebert Wins Moonshine Tour at I-94
Dan Ebert of Lake Shore won the Moonshine Mod Tour stop Friday night at I-94 EMR Speedway. Ebert started 10th.
Brady Gerdes of Villard was second, and with point leader Zach Johnson of Lowry not making the start of the feature, received a big boost in the point standings. Ryan Gierke of Villard was third, Brock Gronwold of Fergus Falls was fourth and Seth Brede of Kandiyohi was fifth.
Scott Zimmerman of Rothsay won the Gen X Late Model feature over Dave Mass of East Bethel. Ben Wolden of Fergus Falls went from eighth to third while Larry Samuelson of Erhard was fourth. Derek Quinn of Brandon was fifth.
Matthew Dittman of Lake Lillian won the Short Tracker feature over Kevin Wahl of Fergus Fals. Shawn Beto of Wahpeton was third, Peter Martin of Willmar was fourth and Kole Kampsen of Belgrade was fifth.
National point leader Tyler Peterson of Hickson won the Wissota Late Model feature over Dave Mass. Cole Schill of Hawley was third, Wolden was fourth and Shawn Meyer of Wahpeton was fifth. Rookie Lindsey Hansen had a solid run as well, going from 11th to seventh.
Corey Storck of Morris won the Wissota Midwest Mod feature over Haley Lee of Starbuck. Nate Reinke of Lisbon was third, Matt Schow of McIntosh was fourth and Lucas Rodin of Marion went from 17th to fifth. Taylor Bitzan of Brandon won the makeup feature from June 23 over Ron Saurer of Dalton.
National point leader Braden Brauer of Eyota topped Ryan Satter of Dent for the Wissota Street Stock feature. Cory Dykhoff of Perham was third, Cole Greseth of Harwood was fourth and Kasey Ussatis of Nome went from 12th to fifth.
More RRVS Wins for Pake, Eckerdt, VanMil and Pavlicek
Four drivers having great seasons were back in victory lane at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo on Friday.
That includes IMCA RaceSaver Sprint driver Andy Pake, who picked up his eighth win of the season on Friday. Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes went from eighth to second. Tyler Rabenberg of Princeton was third, Trevor Serbus of Olivia was fourth and Morgan Nyquist of Moorhead was fifth.
Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks has been the dominant force in the IMCA Hobby Stocks and picked up another win over Tyler Hehn of Horace. Caleb Gardner of Glyndon was third, Brad Orvedal of Fargo was fourth and Tim Church of Moorhead was fifth.
Rick Pavlicek of Casselton, who is 10th in the IMCA Northern Sport Mod National Points, picked amother win in the division over his son Jayden, who went from sixth to second. Ryan Restad of West Fargo was third, Scott Jacobson of Fargo went from 12th to fifth and Andy Wagner of Ada was fifth.
Rob VanMil of Barnesville won his seventh feature in a row over Andrew Jochim of Harwood in the IMCA Stock Cars. Brody Carlsrud of Moorhead was third, Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada was fourth and Jordan Zillmer of Cleveland was fifth.
Matt Aukland of Glyndon topped Jesse Skalicky of Fargo in the IMCA Modified main event. Jamie Schulz of Harwood was third, Cody Peterson of Glyndon fourth and Dave Shipley of Argusville was fifth.
Steven Partin of Peebles, Ohio, had a good night, winning the makeup INEX Legend feature and also winning the Legends Tour main event. Sean Johnson of Kindred was second, Ryan Braseth of Ulen third. Keelan Harvick of Harrisburg, N.C. – and yes he is the son of NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick – was fourth while Collin Compson of Valley City was fifth.
Once again Red River Valley Speedway surpassed 100 cars in attendance.
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