Bitzan dominates Northern Lights event at Viking Speedway

The USRA Northern Lights Modified series is making a trek through central Minnesota and on Saturday night was at Viking Speedway in Alexandria. The series allowed the local Wissota cars to run their rules against their USRA foes.

Dusty Bitzan of Evansville wiped out any drama in the $2,000 to win feature, dominating the 25-lap main event. He has been fast all year and was the fastest qualifier during time trials on Saturday. Joe Chisholm won at I-94 EMR Speedway on Friday.

As far as the feature goes, it was pretty ho-hum;  the high line was the place to be and there wasn’t a ton of battles for position, other than a late restart where a few cars moved up.

Bitzan of Evansville led the Northern Lights Modified feature early, building a 1.4 second lead over Joe Thomas of Glyndon. Justin Froemming of Garfield was running third with 6-time USMTS national champion Rodney Sanders of Happy, Texas fighting multi-time Viking track champion Brady Gerdes of Villard for fourth.

The first caution waved for Austin Chyba who slid off of turn two. On the restart Froemming moved into second as Thomas had Gerdes and Travis Saurer of Elizabeth on his trail, sliding Sanders back to sixth.

It became clear the top lane was the place to be as 10 laps into the race, all the leaders were running a higher line.  Bitzan was blowing the field away, building a four-second advantage on Froemming, who had 2.1 seconds on third-place Thomas as the top five cars got spread out.

Bitzan’s biggest headache was lapped traffic, and Froemming cut into the lead as a result. With seven to go, Chyba’s tough night came to an end with a puff of smoke in turns one and two; he left on the hook.

Bitzan moved right to the high lane on the restart as Gerdes battled Thomas for third. Gerdes was one of the few drivers trying to make a low lane work. Meanwhile Bryce Sward of Nelson, driving Corey Svor’s 6x, had moved around Saurer for fifth.

As the laps waned the only real battle on the track was for sixth with Saurer, Sanders and last week’s winner Jason Thoennes; otherwise, the top cars got pretty spread out.  It wasn’t a great race as far as passing and fighting for position, unfortunately, and Bitzan eliminated any drama up front with a dominating win by 3.4 seconds. Froemming ran strong all night in second, Gerdes was third, Thomas fourth and Sward fifth in good runs for all four.

The race was dominated by the locals, as five of the top six were Viking regulars and the other driver, Joe Thomas, has raced there in the past. Viking can be a very tough place for an out-of-towner to come in and compete, and we saw that on Saturday. Sanders was the top traveler, finishing seventh. Harley Dais of Winona was the hard charger, going from 20^th to 12^th.

Tyler Bitzan of Brandon and last week’s winner Buzz Muzik of Brandon fought for the early lead in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature with Muzik moving out front. Taylor Bitzan of Brandon was running third with teenager Noah McFarlane of Brandon battling defending track champion Travis Engebretson of Cyrus for fourth.

Taylor Bitzan was running second as Engebretson pressured Tyler Bitzan for second.  Corey Storck of Dilworth was on the move, climbing into the top five. With eight to go Taylor Bitzan peeked under Muzik for the lead as the top two opened a

Shawn Olson of Alexandria and Scott Oeltjen of Villard were fighting for sixth in a good battle.

With seven to go Taylor Bitzan made his move into the top slot and quickly began pulling away. Muzik had another Bitzan brother on his heels – Tyler – as the caution waved with four laps left for Brendan Scott who slid off the backstretch. Scott would pull pitside.

 On the restart Engebretson climbed into third as Tyler Bitzan had a lot of heat from Olson, who would move into fourth with two to go.

Taylor Bitzan, once he got around Muzik with about seven laps left, was in control of the race, capturing the win by about 1.3 seconds. Muzik finished in the top two for a second straight week with Engebretson third.

Olson got a much-needed good run after a pair of DNFs to open the season, going from 11^th to fourth with Tyler Bitzan rounding out the top five.  It was a good clean race with only one caution, nice job by the mid mods.

Eric Riley of Morris and Greg Platzer of Robbinsdale led the Wissota Street Stocks to the green Riley built a solid lead on Lap 1. J.J. Nieuwbeerta of Alexandria moved into second while Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck, the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten and Mark Blom of Glenwood ran three-wide for third.

Dykhoff, who led the DRC Street Stock Tour race before breaking a ball joint last week, was charging. He grabbed second with 12 laps to go as Nieuwbeerta was fighting with Blom and Vogel for third. Brad Lorentz of Eagle Bend was closing on that battle as well.

With 10 to go Blom moved into third with Vogel right behind. Riley’s lead stood at about 1.5 seconds, and Dykhoff would cut the lead to under a second with two to go.  Vogel, meanwhile was trying everything to get a higher lane to clean off as he looked to get around Blom for third; those two were more than five seconds behind second-place Dykhoff. Defending Viking champion Joe Martin of Willmar was closing on Lorentz in sixth.

Dykhoff was within 2-3 car lengths at the white flag but Riley was flawless in winning for the second straight week; the margin was .742 seconds. The hard-fought battle for third when to Vogel with Blom and Niieuwbeerta rounding out the top five. Martin went from 11^th to sixth.

There was an unusually small Wissota Hornet field on hand with only seven in the field for the feature.  Jeff Rohner on the pole is usually a troubling sign for foes, and it opened up a 3-second lead over Matthew Dittman of Lake Lillian by lap 3. Chase Golliet of Fargo was fighting Dittman for second as Carter Kunz ran fourth and Andy Booke ran fifth.

This was pretty much a Sunday drive for Rohner who dominated from the green flag. By the halfway point the lead stood at four seconds over Dittman, who had cleared Golliet for second. Eli Green of Osakis raced hard with Kunz for fourth.

Rohner’s massive lead vanished when Dittman’s 22 stalled on the backstretch. With four to go there were only four cars left – Rohner, Golliet, Green and Kunz.  Rohner took off on the restart as Green stayed close to Golliet for second. Rohner cruised to his sixth win in even starts on the season by a four-second margin. Golliet held off Green for third and Kunz rounded out the field.

Travis Scott of Glenwood, plagued with bad luck to start the 2026 campaign, grabbed the lead in the Wissota Super Stock feature with multi-time Viking track champion Trevor Saurer of Dalton running third. Karter Reents of Glenwood was third.

Saurer was working to the outside of Scott and made up a lot of ground in turns three and four. The two raced side by side for several laps. Ryan Satter of Dent was running fourth ahead of Carson Miller of Carlos.

Saurer and Scott had a great fight for the lead, racing hard and clean side by side for a few laps. Reents was about three car lengths back. Saurer was trying to get a higher lane to clean off and for a while seemed to be doing so but didn’t have enough to make the pass. Meanwhile, Reents was closing on Saurer for second, setting up a three-car battle at the front.

Satter was alone in fourth with William Lund of Brandon climbing to fifth.  Saurer threw everything at Scott, and on the last lap, got the middle groove to stick and made a pass on the outside coming out of turn four in picking up a thrilling win by a narrow .122 second margin. It was a heartbreaker for Scott who led until the final feet, but I think he will take a runner-up finish after a rough Memorial Day weekend crash at Viking. Reents finished solidly in third with Satter and Lund rounding out the top five in a caution-free race that lasted a little more than six minutes.

After pushing curfew during specials the first two nights, the final checkered flag flew at 9:47 p.m. on a pretty smooth night at Viking, which is off next week.

Viking Speedway notes

—Viking had two rollovers last week; unfortunately there was another this week as Tony Arneson got into the wall in turn four and rolled his No. 28 machine hard at the end of the second Wissota Midwest Modified race. He was ok, the car was a mangled mess and required two tow trucks to get to the pits.

--Bailey Rosch of Alexandria rolled his No. 28 Wissota Super Stock last week at Viking; with his car being repaired he hopped behind the wheel of Ross Reed’s 3M machine. He started and finished 10^th but it will help him stay alive in the track points race.

--McFarlane is one of the youngest drivers at Viking and turns 14 this week. He finished ninth in the Wissota Midwest Modified main event.

--Speaking of the Wissota Midwest Modifieds, after three nights, the top five cars in points – Engebretson, Taylor Bitzan, Muzik, Tyler Bitzan and Jon Carlson of Brandon – are separated by just nine points (unofficially).

Saturday notes

--Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature Saturday night at Greenbush Race Park. Justin Olson of Thief River Falls was second, Memphis Klassen of Winkler, Man., was third, Brody Kraft of Devils Lake was fourth and Cylen Vargason of Edinburg was fifth. Adam Sobolik of Grand Forks won the Western Non-Winged Renegades feature over Cory Palm Saturday night at Greenbush Race Park. Myles Tomlinson of Turtle Lake was third.

Dexter Dvergsten of Greenbush won the lightning sprint feature while Ward Imrie of Headingley, Man., topped Aaron Holtan of Newfolden for the Wissota Modified win.

Jeremy Gust of Strathcona won the Wissota Street Stock feature over Jerome Berger of Roseau with John Halvorson of Warren taking third.

--Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks won the NLRA Late Model feature Saturday night at Devils Lake Speedway. Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., was second, Jason Strand of Portland third, Cole Schill of Hawley fourth and Tucker Pederson of East Grand Forks was fifth.

Jory Berg of Grand Forks topped Austin Hunter of Winnipeg for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature win. Ryne Uhrich of Langdon was third, Kenna Breidenbach of Grand Forks was fourth and Mavrik Strand of Portland was fifth.

Greg Jose of Grand Forks won the Wissota Street Stock feature over Drew Peterson of Langdon.

--Jamestown Speedway and Madison Speedway both were rained out on Saturday. Jamestown hosts the Don Gumke Racers Memorial next week.