Buffalo River Speedway battled the weather on Sunday night as it hosted the IMCA Hobby Stock Summer Shootout Tour. I had to cover remotely because of parental duty and because of a lengthy rain delay to start the night things concluded around 11 p.m.
The first heat race started at 7:50 p.m. and the heat races moved along nicely, begin done in about 65 minutes.
First, a huge hats off to the BRS officials and to all the drivers who were out there packing the track. It was a lot of laps packing for a lot of cars. Without those efforts there would have been no racing on Sunday at the 1/4-mile
If you want to know a big reason, at least in my opinion, Buffalo River Speedway worked so hard to race was the IMCA Hobby Stock Summer Shootout Tour was in town. The tour had been to Kossuth County Speedway in Iowa on Thursday, Princeton Speedway on Friday, North Central Speedway in Brainerd on Saturday and was wrapping up at Glyndon. The feature paid $1,000 to win and $50 to start, plus there was a point fund of $2,000 to be paid out at the end. There was a driver from Nebraska (Jesse VanLangingham) and a driver from Iowa (Dylan Nelson) on hand plus several cars from the Brainerd area and I think the track wanted to do everything it could to try and get the show in.
Rookie Tucker Tschakert of Dent led the first five laps of the IMCA Sport Mod feature, but veteran Patrick Brejcha of Wahpeton, who looked really fast in his heat, passed Tschakert for the top spot and opened up a big lead.
Kelly Jacobson had moved into the second spot but faced a straightaway deficit as Brejcha set a feverish pace. Scott Jacobson of Fargo, the point leader at BRS, moved into third.
The best battle was for fourth as Torey Fischer of West Fargo and Brandon Ferris of Moorhead had a good duel for that spot.
Bjecha turned the race into a rout, leading by nearly four seconds at one point, on his way to his first win of 2022. Kelly Jacobson was second, Scott Jacobson was third, Tschakert was fourth and Justin Jones of Bemidji, who started in the sixth row, worked up to fifth by the checkered in the caution-free race.
It was only Brejcha’s fourth night out of 2022, and he’s finished in the top six all four times. From 2019-21 he was in the lightning sprints and before that was in the IMCA Modifieds and sport mods. It was good to see him get to victory lane with a strong performance.
The INEX Legends didn’t make it through the first lap of their feature as Scott Richardson’s #79 machine ended up turned around in turns one and two. I didn’t see what happened but Richardson would had to the pits.
Once the race started, Dylan Johnson of Durbin would jump out to the lead with Zander Compson of Valley City into second.
Ashton Spieker of Sabin was on the move and moved into second with Alex Braseth of Ulen and Ryan Braseth of Ulen in tow.
The caution came out with 17 to go and that brought that group to Johnson’s bumper. Immediately it was a four-car breakaway with Johnson, Spieker, Alex Braseth and Ryan Braseth putting on a great battle at the front.
Alex Braseth was making the higher line work and got beside Johnson as Ryan Braseth moved into third. Alex Braseth and Johnson ran side by side for several laps.
Ryan Braseth then provided the pressure on Johnson and made a run on the low line, but the caution would come out with nine to go.
Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes is normally battling at the front at BRS but went to the tail on an earlier caution (I didn’t see what occurred), was fighting back through the field before a mechanical issue ended his night; he left on the hook with nine to go.
On the nine-to-go restart Johnson’s challenger was Ryan Braseth. With five to go Braseth got a great surge on the lower line and took over the top spot. Joshua Wiest of Jamestown was also having a good run as he moved into the top five.
Ryan Braseth would go on for the win by 1.684 seconds over Johnson, who was wrong all race long. Spieker was third, Alex Braseth was fourth and Wiest fifth.
The IMCA Modifieds were led by Tony Mack of Buxton and Jamie Schulz of Harwood. Mack was the leader as Schulz moved into second.
Two laps into it Mack slipped high and that opened the door for Schulz to take the lead. John Nord of Enderlin moved into second as Mack’s #79 struggled through the corners. Jeff Odden of Reiles Acres moved into third and was closing on a hard-fought tussle between Schulz and Nord.
Nord was all over Schulz for a few laps but slid back for a while, but he closed quickly. Just as things were heating up at the front, a caution came out as Mack and Cody Peterson of Glyndon were stopped in turn four. Both were able to continue, Mack was charged with the yellow.
On the ensuing restart Odden took over second briefly but Nord came back quickly to take over second. There was pretty hard contact between Odden and Chris Tuschererer of Burlington to bring out the yellow with four left. Tuscherer was charged with the yellow.
The last four laps were a fight between Schulz and Nord. Nord was the faster car I felt — but he couldn’t find a lane around Schulz as the #21 car picked up his second win of 2022. Nord, who made a valiant effort for the win, settled for second with Tuscherer coming back from the tail to finish third. Odden was fourth. Luke Johnson of Moorhead was solid as well, finishing fifth.
Weston Olson of Warren was the early leader in the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints, but was quickly challenged by Dexter Dvergsten of Greenbush. It was also clear from the get-go Alex Truscinski of Greenbush was going to be a contender.
Truscinski surged into the lead and Dvergsten took over second. Olson, who had missed time with a broken wrist suffered playing baseball, would pull in as smoke was coming off of his #27 machine.
After a restart Alex Truscinski — who entered the night with 10 wins in 18 starts on the year — opened up a 1.7 second advantage on Dvergsten. Alan Truscinski was in third but Colorado driver Chris Crowder was in pursuit of him. Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes was solidly in fifth.
Alex Truscinski picked up his 11th victory of the season by 1.866 seconds over Dvergsten as Alex Truscinski settled for third. Crowder and Taves rounded out the top five.
Jed Trebelhorn of Winthrop, Minn., opened up a 2.7 second lead on the field in the $1,000 to win IMCA Hobby Stock main event. Dylan Nelson of Adel, Iowa moved into second.
Trebelhorn had about a second on Nelson as Vanlaningham moved into third.
Four out of town drivers — Trebelhorn, Nelson, Vanlangingham and Tim Otterness of Brainerd — were in the top four spots at the 10-lap to go restart. Brad Orvedal of Fargo was the top BRS regular at that point, in fifth.
Trebelhorn was the class of the field as he crossed the finish with a 1.832 seconds. He was never threatened during the final green flag stretch. However, he was disqualified in post race tech.
The real battle was for fifth as Orvedal faced some heat from a couple of cars, including Scott Herron of Brainerd.
Nelson would now be the winner with , Vanlangingham second, Otterness third, and Herron edged Orvedal for fourth.
Hunter Goulet of Fargo is having a good stretch in the Short Trackers. Entering the night, in his last three starts, Goulet had three top four finishes, including a win at Buffalo River last week. He was fourth at I-94 Sure Step Speedway on Friday and third at Viking Speedway on Saturday.
He was fast from the get-go on Sunday. Adrian Kubitz was the early leader but Goulet quickly got to the front and made the pass for the lead.
Kubitz and Gordon Hunter of Laporte had a good battle for second as Hunter would take over the spot.
The biggest issue for the Short Trackers was stringing together laps of green flag action. A lot of cautions and some drivers who really struggled keeping their cars straight..
Goulet held about two car lengths on Gordon Hunter with Kody Crabtree solidly in third.
Hunter was right on Goulet’s heels as those two opened a sizable advantage on third. Hunter’s hopes for a win ended with three to go when his #15 car got loose and struck the wall in turn four. Hunter pulled off with damage.
Crabtree attempted to challenge Goulet but got crossed up, giving Goulet some breathing room on his way to his second straight BRS. Crabtree
Notes:
Yes, that was BRS general manager Jason Berg driving Marvin Priem’s #4 IMCA Hobby Stock on Sunday.
Family Ties
There are a lot of family ties at Buffalo River Speedway.
Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton made his debut in the IMCA Sport Mods. He is the son of current IMCA Sport Mod driver Rich Pavlicek. Tschakert, 16, is the son of former Wissota Street Stock national champion Myron Tschakert of Kent. Lightning sprint driver Brody Graham is the son of NOSA sprint driver Jordan Graham of Grand Forks.
Lightning sprint drivers Kate and Matthew Taves are sister and brother. Alan Truscinski is the father of fellow lightning sprint driver Alex Truscinski. Scott Jacobson of Fargo is the father of sport mod driver Kelly Jacobson and hobby stock driver Andrea Jacobson.
Then you have the Braseth brothers and the Compson brothers in the INEX Legends.
Swenson, Peterson Lead Casino Winners
Blake Swenson of Watertown picked up the Wissota Late Model feature Sunday night at Casino Speedway in Watertown. David McDonald of Huron was second, Chad Becker of Watertown was third, Tyler McDonald of Huron fourth and Trevor Anderson of Watertown fifth.
Tyler Peterson of Horace won the Wissota Modified feature over Mike Superman Stearns of Aberdeen. Dale Ames of Huron was third, Brent Dutenhoffer of Watertown was fourth and Tony Konold of Clear Lake was fifth.
Scott Hansen of Watertown topped Scott Harrington of Waubay for the Wissota Midwest Modified win. Mike Nichols of Watertown was third, Derek Rieck of Ortonville fourth and Jake Wranek of Winner was fifth.
Cory Giessinger of Watertown won the Wissota Street Stock feature over Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck. Dykhoff had a good weekend — second on Friday at I-94, a win Saturday on Madison and a runner-up finish Sunday at Casino. Jason Marko of Watertown was third, Andy Rossow of Florence was fourth and Kyle Bertram of Dallas was fifth.
Jeff Asche of Willmar won the Wissota Hornet feature.
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