Beaulieu, Eggebraaten, Lewis, Schwinn, Puffe, Kiker and McCann victorious at Bemidji

Josh Beaulieu won the Wissota Mod feature. Photo by Lisa Rhen/Lisa Jean Designs

Bemidji Speedway had a busy night on Sunday with 109 cars on hand. With that many cars, and some of the features plagued with cautions, it got to be a longer night at the ¼-mile oval.

June is Women in Sports Month, which celebrates the passage of Title IX. Bemidji, which has a large group of female racers each week that compete, celebrated this by honoring the 14 female drivers in attendance during intermission: Cejay LaValley (Wissota Midwest Modified), Karlie Feda (Mini Stocks), Tania Denny (Mini Stocks), Brooke McCann (Mini Stock), Caylyn Binkley (Wissota Pure Stock), Karen Puschinsky (WPS), Jada Lore (Wissota Hornet), Mateja Dreyer (Wissota Hornet), Mikayla LaBarge (Wissota Hornet), Alexa Sparby (Wissota Super Stock), Ellie Lange (WSS), Brooklyn Vernlund (Wissota Mod 4), Brooke Erickson (WM4) and Faye Lewis (WSS). Track workers, plus promoter Tonja Stranger, were also recognized. It was a cool deal.

As far as the cautions go in the features, this is my take as a fan: Some of it is the nature of ¼-mile racing – there will be more contact on a short track, and that leads to more incidents. Some of it was some less-than-stellar driving by a few folks but I won’t delve further into that.  

The Wissota Midwest Modifieds kicked off the evening with a 17-car feature.

Dean Eggebraaten of Bemidji and Mikey Blevins of Hibbing led the mid mods to green but contact on the front stretch and the result was Alex O’Dell of Chisholm being turned into the guardrail. He would require tow truck assistance to return to the pits, ending his night. A multi-car tangle occurred shortly into the main event in turn one and Cory Peterson of Red Lake was charged with that yellow and suffered a flat.

Eggebraaten, whose best finish of the year was ninth in three previous starts, resumed his lead with the Blevins family from Hibbing – Mikey, Sam and Michael Sr. -- giving chase.  Eggebraaten kept the lead with Mikey and Sam Blevins fighting for second.  Kalin Honer of Laporte spun in turn four for a caution, and that brought out the yellow/black. It’s funny how the cautions drop after that comes out…  

Eggebraaten opened a 1.35 second lead on Sam Blevins with Mikey Blevins in third, Michael Blevins in fourth and Skyler Smith of Bemidji in fifth. Carter Matthews of Clearbrook was chasing Smith for the fifth spot and had made good progress through the field after starting 13th.

With the laps waning Sam Blevins cut the lead in half over the final laps but Eggebraaten was flawless up front to grab the win.  Sam Blevins went from fifth to second, Mikey Blevins was third, Michael Blevins fourth and Skyler Smith was fifth.  Matthews was the hard charger, going from 13th to sixth.

The Mini Stocks had their own issues with cautions. After some contact on the opening lap, Cameron Schwinn went off of turn two; he was able to continue and got his spot back (I didn’t see the car number that got into him). Schwinn led early but slid back and Nick McCann of Brainerd grabbed the lead before the caution waved for Ethan Hunter’s spin in turn two.

Schwinn and Justin Honer of Laporte were chasing McCann with Conrad Schwinn of Little Falls moving to fourth before another caution waved.

Honer had cleared Cameron Schwinn for second but spun in turn two. He kept his car going to avoid a caution but lost several spots. Hayden Engen of Gonvick, Cody Bush of Bemidji and Troy Foster of Bemidji were fighting for fifth. After another caution McCann had both Schwinns giving chase with Engen in fourth and Bush in fifth.

McCann would pick up the win by about 4-5 car lengths over Conrad Schwinn with Cameron Schwinn third, Hayden Engen in fourth and Bush in fifth.

Bemidji is a track that might draw the most Wissota Pure Stocks weekly and had 19 on hand on Sunday with 17 making the call for the feature. Unfortunately, much like the first two features, cautions disrupted the racing with five waving during the main event.

An all-Bitker front row led the Wissota Pure Stocks with Aaron Bitker leading over Alex Berg pursuing in second. Dustin Puffe of Laporte was running third.  Alex Berg of Bemidji spun coming out of turn four two laps into the feature to bring out the caution; Austin Carlson of Cohasset was charged with the yellow. I have a hunch the 57 of Carlson was not a fan of that call.

Puffe is dang tough at Bemidji and got a great restart to grab the lead. Jake Smith had climbed to third behind Aaron Bitker of Bemidji. There was a lot of contact in traffic and that led Berg to sideways briefly down the frontstretch and he would come to a stop. He was charged with the yellow. Puffe led on the restart with Jake Smith of Cohasset, a good runner at Grand Rapids, grabbing second.  There was another multi-car tangle with 11 laps to go to bring out the caution that required a couple of cars to go to the work area.

Puffe led after the restart with Smith about a car behind. The race, which was running close to its time limit, resumed with Puffe leading Smith. Kade Leeper of Guthrie and Chris Dudley of Bemidji were in third and fourth, respectively. With six to go yet another caution came out and that was charged to Terry Hill, who was running in the top five at the time.

Officials decided to go to a single-file restart after that caution – a wise move considering the amount of contact there was in the race.  Puffe got challenged by Smith on the restart but opened up two car lengths on the 86. Leeper was all over Smith for second with Dudley and Austin Carlson, who had made a good run through the field back to fifth, battling for fourth.

Puffe would go unchallenged the rest of the way to win by 3-4 car lengths over Smith. Leeper, Dudley and Carlson rounded out the top five. Karen Puschinsky went from 14th to seventh to cap off a good run.

A good field of Wissota Hornets were on hand and led by Dreyer and Mikayla LaBarge of Hibbing but the field only made it a lap. Russell Kiker Jr. of Brainerd grabbed the lead on a restart but the racing didn’t last long as the 28 of Chad Reller got into the wall and collected three other cars but fortunately the contact wasn’t too severe.

Kiker led Dreyer on the restart with Brady Fosso of Hibbing, who picked up his first career win at Bemidji earlier, was getting a lot of heat from Eric Pfundt of Wahkon and Mikayla LaBarge of Keewatin.

Kiker built a 2.4 second advantage on Fosso when the caution waved for Jada Lore’s spin in turn four. The race would get shortened to a green-white-checkered finish. Kiker was in firm control up front, winning by about three car lengths over Fosso. Pfundt was third, LaBarge was fourth and former national champion Travis Olafson of Wilton was fifth.

Alan Olafson of Blackduck, back after a hard crash on opening weekend at Bemidji, had trouble just as the Wissota Modified feature was about to start, and slowed. He would pull pitside as his rough luck continued.

Two Bemidji drivers, Jeff Reed and Josh Beaulieu, had the front row for the mods. Reed took the early lead with Beaulieu applying heavy pressure. Bryce Borgen of Perley was battling Blake Ferris for fourth with Canadian Tanner Williamson running fifth.

Reed had about a car length on Beaulieu who had Borgen trailing close. Williamson got past Ferris for the fourth spot. The caution would wave for Peyton Emerson’s 51E machine after it slid off turns three and four.

The restart saw Reed open up a two-car length lead on Beaulieu with Borgen and Williamson running side-by-side for third, with Williamson claiming the spot.  Beaulieu meanwhile was all over Reed’s 2R up front and was taking a look on the inside and made the pass on the inside about halfway through.

Borgen and Ferris had a good fight for second with Adam Johnson not far behind that battle.

Beaulieu had more than a half straightaway on Reed, who had a couple of car lengths on Williamson. Beaulieu would pick up the win, his first of the season, in convincing fashion.

There was some shuffling of the top five as two drivers, Reed and Ferris, were DQed postrace (according to myracepass), moving Williamson to second, Borgen to third, Johnson to fourth and the long-time veteran, Rick Jacobson of Bemidji, into fifth.

A good 15-car field of Wissota Mod 4s were on hand with Ashton Schwinn of Little, who is a contender for the Wissota national title and is currently second in the national points, grabbing the early lead and honestly, he was never really challenged, even after a couple of cautions. The race had some controversy back in the field during the race which I won’t get into but up front the racing was clean.

Patrick Specht of Brainerd ran second with Blake Erickson of Bagley running third.  After a caution for a two-car tangle on the frontstretch Ashton Schwinn resumed his lead with Specht, Erickson, Chad Erlandson of Brainerd and Connor Bruss of Nelson, Minn. in the top five. Erickson and Erlandson had the best battle for the third spot.

Ashton Schwinn was not going to be caught on this night as he pulled away from Specht on the final restart and won by a straightaway. Specht was second, Erickson third, Bruss ran a solid fourth and Erlandson was fifth.

The Wissota Super Stocks capped off the night as Nic Lewis of Bemidji grabbed the lead. After a spin in turns three and four, Lewis resumed at the front with Dalton Carlson of Cohasset running in second. Brandon Bahr of Tenstrike was running third but was under pressure from former Wissota 100 champion Dylan Nelson of Merrifield. Cameron Labelle of Laporte was running fifth.

After a caution, Lewis opened four car lengths on Carlson with Bahr in third. LaBelle and Nelson had the best battle on the track for the fourth spot. Nelson would move into third and set his sights on third-place Bahr, and would grab the spot about halfway through.

Lewis’s lead never wavered much as Nelson caught Carlson for second.  Andy LaBarge of Hibbing was giving Labelle a battle for fifth as the laps waned.

Lewis maintained the same lead for much of the race and would take the win as Carlson held off Nelson for second. Bahr fended off Labelle for fourth.

Pavlicek, Reinke lead Buffalo River Winners

Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton has been the car to beat in the IMCA Northern SportMods at Buffalo River Speedway and he captured another win Sunday at the Glyndon track. Kyle VanMil of Barnesville was second, Brandon Ferris of Moorhead third, Ryan Restad of West Fargo fourth and Kelly Jacobson of Fargo.

Zach Reinke of Lisbon won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Onyx Johnson of Lowry. Rich Pavlicek of Casselton was third, Jory Berg of Grand Forks fourth and Corey Storck of Dilworth was fifth.

Ty Olson of Mandan won the INEX Legend feature with Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids taking second. Kody Machart of Moorhead was third, Joshua Wiest of Jamestown fourth and Alex Braseth of Ulen fifth.

Nathan Kohl of Fort Ripley won the IMCA Hobby Stock main event with Jaeden Strandberg of Worthington, the winner Friday at RRVS, taking second. Caleb Gardner of Glyndon was third, Brad Orvedal of Fargo fourth and Andrea Jacobson of Fargo fifth.

Travis Roush of New York Mills won the Short Tracker feature over Chase Golliet of Beardsley. Hunter Goulet of Fargo was third.

Jake Haugeberg of West Fargo topped Matthew Taves of Detroit Lakes for the Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint win. Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes was third and Bryce Haugeberg of West Fargo was fourth.

Rain, go away

It was a rough week for many racetracks with a lot of rain falling. For the heck of it I did some calculating.

Rainouts this week: Viking Speedway, North Central Speedway, Hibbing Raceway, Gondik Law Speedway, Casino Speedway, Brown County Speedway, Fiesta City Speedway, Madison Speedway, KRA Speedway, Sheyenne Speedway, Princeton Speedway, Rice Lake Speedway, Red Cedar Speedway, Arlington Raceway, Granite City Motor Park, Redwood Speedway (started but rained out)

Races held: River Cities Speedway, Jamestown Speedway, Devils Lake Speedway, Bemidji Speedway, Buffalo River Speedway, Grand Rapids Speedway, Proctor KME Speedway

Greenbush and I-94 EMR Speedway had scheduled nights off this week.