The Moonshine Mod Tour was at Viking Speedway in Alexandria on Saturday with a full field of 24 cars on hand. Viking had 81 cars on hand overall on what was a very good night of racing.
The track was in nice shape, I felt, with a couple of grooves to race.
A pair of 10x cars – Corky Thomas of Glyndon and Dusty Bitzan of Brandon – led the 24-car Wissota Mod feature to the win.
Bitzan took the lead with Danny Bayer of Elrosa working on Thomas for second. Zach Johnson of Lowry moved into fourth ahead of Josh Thoennes of Nelson. Dan Ebert of Lake Shore, who won at I-94 on Friday, moed into third.
I was keeping an eye on Brady Gerdes of Villard who stuck his 2X to the bottom. He started 10th but was climbing to the top five.
Ebert would slide high in turns three and four and lose several spots. Bitan had a massive lead on Bayer, who was well ahead of third-place Corky Thomas, who had Johnson pressuring him for third. Gerdes would move past Josh Thoennes for the fifth spot.
Bitzan’s lead was 4.779 seconds with 14 to go as Johnson and Gerdes both moved past Thomas. Those two are locked in a fierce fight for the Moonshine points lead; they were also closing the gap on second-place Bayer.
Bayer got crossed up for a second, and it cost him second as Johnson took over. Gerdes, who was driving the wheels off of the 2X, was fighting Johnson for second.
Bitzan was navigating lapped traffic but was ahead by 5.490 seconds over Gerdes, who badly wanted to see a yellow flag.
Justin Froemming was making some headway through the field and moved into the top five as Bayer was fading as the laps waned. Thomas was still running a solid fourth.
Gerdes cut nearly a second off of Bitzan’s lead but it wasn’t nearly enough as the 10X dominated for the feature win. He is the eighth different winner on the tour this summer, joining Tyler Peterson and Joseph Thomas with two wins each, and Johnson, Joseph Thomas, Dustin Strand, Travis Saurer, Ebert and Blake Jegtvig with one each.
Gerdes settled for second as Johnson was third and Corky Thomas fourth. Froemming rounded out the top five after starting 12th. Gerdes was the hard charger, going from 10th to second.
Buzz Muzik of Alexandria led the first lap of the Wissota Midwest Modified feature but he had Tanner Bitzan of Brandon – who started sixth -- giving him fits on the bottom. 70-year-old Ron Saurer of Dalton, second in the points at Viking, settled into third. The first caution came out with 13 to go when Johnny Lindgren of Willmar went off of turns one and two.
Bitzan actually had edged ahead on the last completed lap and would lead on the restart over Muzik and Saurer. Scott Oeltjen of Villard and Taylor Bitzan of Brandon were also in the top five. Muzik and Saurer would make contact in turn four, and that would allow Taylor Bitzan to move into second. Muzik dropped to fourth and now had Tayten Blascyk of Hoffman, who picked up his first win of his career at Viking earlier this summer, pursuing him.
With 10 to go, point leader Shawn Olson slowed on the backstretch and would come into the pit area. I didn’t see what was done – it looked like a flat perhaps – but he came back out there but would eventually pull in.
Tanner Bitzan resumed the lead while Saurer got by Tanner Bitzan. Justin Froemming of Garfield, driving Travis Engebretson’s 1X machine, had moved into the top five.
On the restart Saurer threw a major challenge at Tanner Bitzan for the lead but Tanner would survive and start to pull away. Froemming was working to challenge Taylor Bitzan for third as Saurer had a few car lengths on third place.
Tanner Bitzan was on cruise control up front to pick up his second win of the weekend – he won the makeup feature at I-94 on Friday. He has three wins this season, the first three of his career. Bitzan’s margin of victory over Ron Saurer was 2.472 seconds. The points were shaken up in the Midwest mods as Saurer is now the point leader (unofficially) by 13 points over Olson and Taylor Bitzan.
Taylor Bitzan was third, Froemming was fourth and Blascyk was fifth.
Multi-time defending Viking track champion Ryan Satter took the lead in the Wissota Street Stocks but a caution would wave one lap into the feature as Derek Wettstein would stall on pit lane; I’m not what the deal was as he returned to the track shortly after.
I was watching Nitro Jimmy Williams of De Graff, the point leader, and national point leader Braden Brauer of Eyota and the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten, to see how they fared through traffic. Satter opened some breathing room on the restart as Williams and Davey Krutchen of Glenwood, along with Cory Dykhoff of Perham, were racing three-wide for second. Brauer and Vogel were in that group as well.
Brauer moved into third behind Williams as Vogel captured the fourth spot. Vogel stuck the 10 machine to the bottom track as he was trying to find a way around Williams. Dykhoff was running a solid fifth.
Vogel, who went from 17th to first at Fiesta City, made a slider for second and quickly caught his good friend Satter, who had some his multi-car length lead vanish Vogel would take the lead coming out of turn four with five to go. Brauer would get by Williams for third and had closed on Satter. He would take over second with three to go. Vogel led by .739 seconds with three to go, but the caution would wave for Russ Carlson’s spin in turn four, which was the last thing the Wolverine wanted to see. Carlson would need the wrecker and his night was over.
That set up a three-lap shootout up front. Vogel checked up for a second in turn two and Satter took a look for the lead. Brauer and Satter would battle for second as Vogel opened up three car lengths, on his way to his 15th win of 2023. I’ve wrote this before and will repeat it – the August and late season specials are when the Wolverine rises to the occasion. He won at KRA on Thursday, Fiesta City on Friday and now at Viking on Saturday. He isn’t done making noise in the national points race.
Brauer settled for second and Satter ran well all night and took third. Satter hasn’t focused on points racing this season, and in recent weeks has raced his IMCA Stock Car at tracks around here. Dykhoff, who is a rare visitor to Viking, finished a solid fourth with Williams adding to his point lead with a top-five finish.
Matthew Dittman jumped out front in the Short Tracker feature with Kevin Wahl of Fergus Falls into second. Jeff Rohner of Willmar was running third ahead of point leader Kole Kampsen of Belgrade.
Nic Hiles of MIltona, who has three wins at Viking this year, suffered a right-front flat tire early and had to pull in.
Rohner passed Wahl for second with seven to go with Kampsen now challenging for third. In fact those three were racing very hard for the second spot, going three-wide coming out of turn two on a pair of occasions.
Dittman was cruising out front to a 2.590 second lead; Rohner would slow with a puff of smoke with four to go and have to pull in, moving Kampsen into second and Wahl into third. Tyson Roush of New York Mills was running a solid fourth with Tristan Raths of Donnelly was fifth.
Dittman was never challenged and won by three seconds over Kampsen, who added to his point lead with the runner-up finish. Wahl ran a solid third with Roush finishing fourth and Raths taking fifth.
Some cars quickly got to the front of the Wissota Super Stock feature as Karter Reents of Glenwood quickly moved to fourth to the front, and point leader Trevor Saurer of Dalton moved from eighth to second on the opening lap. Trent Brutger of Watkins moved from sixth to third. The caution would wave when Jim Critser went off the back stretch. Only 11 of the 14 cars on hand started the main event, as Jeff Crouse, Carson Miller and Maxwell Dondelinger each had mechanical issues in the heat.
On the restart Matt Miller of Glenwood, second to Saurer in the points, was in fourth. Travis Vanderby was also running in the top five. Brutger would take over second as Saurer slid high in turns one and two.
Miller stuck his Mopar to the bottom and moved into second and was closing on Reents, who was running well up high. Brutger was third while Saurer, who had slid back to fourth, coming back into the hunt.
Miller found something on the bottom and was a rocket down there, taking the lead with nine to go. Saurer had gotten by Brutger for third. Miller would open a big lead of 2.777 secondsw as Saurer and Reents fought for second. Saurer would take over the spot with four to go, but by then was well back of Miller. Brutger and Vanderby were having a good fight for the fourth spot.
Miller capped off a great run from seventh to the front with a 2.898 second victory over Saurer. Reents was a solid third with Vanderby and Brutger rounding out the top five.
Viking Notes
--Viking has had a lot of drivers earn their first career feature wins this season. That includes Roger Berkness, J.J. Nieuwbeerta and Brad Lorentz in the Wissota Street Stocks; Tayten Blascyk, Tanner Bitzan and Jon Carlson in the Wissota Midwest Modifieds; Nic Hiles and Blayne Sweet in the Short Trackers
--It was good to see several cars who were in crashes Friday at I-94 back in action on Saturday – that included Jason Thoennes, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the feature, and Tyler Kaeter, who had an encounter with the wall in his heat race (with some assistance from the other car, from what I saw). Nate Heinrich of Bellingham and Lee Grosz of Watertown were also in same wreck as Thoennes and were back in action at Madison. One driver who had a lot of damage who was not able to get back into action was Brendan Blascyk.
--Travis Saurer had some bad luck in his Wissota Mod heat. HE was running in second – and in an important redraw spot – when his hood came loose and flipped up so he couldn’t see and came to a stop on the backstretch. The hood was removed but he had to go the tail, and would finish sixth, meaning he would have a long road ahead in the feature.
--Another driver that was nice to see back behind the wheel is Mckenzie (Gerdes) Mikkelson in her 13X Wissota Modified that she brought out recently. Her husband, Ryan, pilots a Wissota Late Model and runs the Structural Buildings Challenge Series and bigger-paying events in the region; he won the late model special at Viking in July. The two welcomed their second son in the spring, so it is a very busy time for that family. Mckenzie is the younger sister of fellow mod driver Brady Gerdes.
--The Wissota Super Stocks numbers are down at a lot of tracks – Bemidji, Viking, Madison, Fiesta City, Grand Rapids – so an encouraging sign was 14 were in attendance on Saturday at Viking.
Pederson Wins Cliff Reeves Memorial
Tucker Pederson of East Grand Forks won the Cliff Reeves Memorial Wissota Street Stock feature Saturday night at Devils Lake Speedway. Kasey Ussatis of Nome was second, Kyle Anderson of Jamestown was third, Jonny Carter of Lisbon fourth and Trey Hess of Grand Forks was fifth.
تعليقات