Dobmeier dominates NOSA show at Buffalo River Speedway

The NOSA Sprints were at Buffalo River Speedway on a hazy Sunday night at the quarter-mile. A nice crowd was on hand and after the relentless heat of July it was a fairly comfortable night at the racetrack.

One thing I’ve come to learn covering NOSA over the years --  there will be some kind of track farming before their heat and feature races which will add time to the shows. Sprint car shows, with the push starting, tend to take more time anyway.  Sprint car fans don’t mind those things a bit, but those race fans who aren’t into sprint cars that I’ve talked to aren’t fans of those delays at all. A matter of personal preference I suppose...

Buffalo River wisely ran only four classes on Sunday; if they had run 6 or 7 it will have been an 11 p.m. night potentially. I think it’s a wise move that if you run a sprint special, to keep the number of classes down so folks can get out of there by a decent time. I’ll be honest I won’t cover an event with 6-7 classes and a sprint special, too damn late (my patience declines as the season goes on).

The NOSA field  had 19 cars, but five were IMCA RaceSaver Sprint cars  doing double duty. As of Aug. 7, Weston Olson of Warren led the NOSA Sprints points by one over Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks.  Alex Truscinski of Greenbush was third, , just one point ahead of Jack Croaker.

Truscinski and Dobmeier manned the front row and Dobmeier stormed out to a massive lead. Andy Pake of Felton, who won Friday at River Cities, was seeking to keep pace.  Lapped traffic quickly became a factor for the top two. Truscinski settled into third with Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes fourth and

Zach Wilde of Thief River Falls spun in turn four to bring out the first yellow. The second yellow came out on the next restart as Bryce Haugeberg spun off of turns one and two.

Dobmeier resumed the lead with Pake in pursuit. Truscinski was third, Kate Taves fourth and Hanten, one of the drivers doing double-duty, was in fifth. The red flag would come out as Tom Egeland flipped after contact with Travis Strandell in turns one and two. Both drivers were OK.

I’ll be honest I was a little worried at that point we were headed for one of those 40-minute plus features but thankfully things settled down.

Dobmeier and Pake pulled away from the field again with Truscinski in third. Hanten had moved into fourth and Olson had climbed into the top five.

Dobmeier moved smoothly through the lapped traffic and the lead grew to half a straightaway.  Olson had climbed to fourth.

Pake closed to within less than a second thanks to Dobmeier being slowed by lapped traffic. But the 13JT resumned control late and won by nearly a second.  Pake was second, more than 5.3 seconds ahead of third-place Truscinski, who ran a solid race all night. Olson was fourth and Hanten, running an IMCA sprint, did a heck of a job in fifth.  By my count, Blake Egeland of Climax was the hard charger and did a nice job going from 17^th to seventh.

The track held up OK but I felt there weren’t a ton of drivers who were riding the high line around the track.  It wasn’t a lot of side-by-side racing but a few drivers were able to make up some ground. After the red flag the race finally settled in and ran the final 18 laps under green.

Matthew Taves of Detroit Lakes led the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature and opened a big lead on Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton, stretching it to 1.2 seconds by the halfway point. Jerzee Rosinski of Grand Forks, who won Friday at Fix It Forward Speedway, climbed to third with Brandon Rekow of Ellendale in fourth and Ty Hanten of West Fargo was in fifth.

Taves was working through lapped traffic, and that allowed the lead to shrink to .8 seconds. But Hendrickson himself was slowed by laped cars and Taves began to pull away.

Taves stretched the lead to 3.6 seconds in a dominating performance to get his first BRS IMCA Sprint win. He lapped up to fifth place in a thrashing of the field. Henderickson was second, Rosinski was third, Rekow was fourth and Hanten fifth.  The caution-free main event lasted 4 minutes and 39 seconds, nice job by those drivers.

Beaux Miller of Bismarck led early in the INEX Legends feature but was soon overtaken by Alex Clark of Moorhead, who was aiming for his first career win. Scott Richardson of Pelica Rapids moved into second with Miller dropping to third. Ryan Braseth of Ulen grabbed fourth ahead of Howie Briss of Glyndon, who won his first career feature Friday at Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo.

Richardson was all over Clark in the fight for the lead for a few laps but Clark was able to open breathing room. Richardson had a lot of pressure from Braseth and Colton Miller of Bismarck, who had been moving through the field. Clark’s night ended in heartbreak as he slowed with eight to go and would go pitside.  Braseth took over the lead and checked out as Miller and Richardson continued to battle for second. The first caution of the race waved just before the white flag for Easton Olson, who spun in turns three and four.

That erased a 2.1 second lead for Braseth, bringing Miller to the 29’s bumper.  Miller looked to challenge Braseth but had nothing for the 29 as the Ulen veteran grabbed another feature win, his sixth of 2026. Miller, who started eighth, completed a good night in second with Richardson third. Ty Olson of Mandan was fourth and Beaux Miller of Bismarck was fifth.

Chase Peterson stormed out to a big lead in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature as Chris Seidel, Hunter Goulet of Fargo and Reid Randall of Park Rapids were locked in a tight struggle for second. Seidel get turned around heading into turn three, and that brought out the caution. Goulet was charged with the yellow.

Peterson remained in the lead and it was Randall now in second as Seidel did not get a good start.   Todd Gettel of Mahnomen was third but had some pressure from Caleb Gardner of Glyndon.

Peterson’s lead shrank dramatically as he encountered a lapped car, bringing Randall to his bumper. But Peterson recovered to build the lead back to almost a half-second. Gardner had passed Gettel for third and soon Goulet would take over third.

Randall closed the gap on Peterson and was working a higher line than Peterson as the lead was down to less than a car length, and he made a big-time charge coming out of turn four but fell a few feet short as Peterson held on by .069 seconds. Randall settled for second after a strong run. Gardner was third, Goulet fourth and Gettel fifth. Ashley Taves of Glyndon, daughter of the Turkey man James Taves, ran sixth to improve one position from her starting spot.

BRS notes

--Daniel Beckman of Mahnomen had some mechanical issues in his IMCA Hobby Stock heat race and was a DNS start in the feature.

--Josh Johnson of Harwood and Jason Berg of West Fargo  were involved in an incident in their IMCA Sprint race. I didn’t see it at all – I was doing an interview – but both left on the hook. Both were able to take the green in the feature but pulled off after a few laps. Johnson had another car on hand for the 410 sprints; Berg was able to take the green for the NOSA feature.

--I forgot to mention this when this happened several days ago, but Jack Croaker of Grand Fiorks was involved in a crash with another car on July 31. The front wing got damaged and was done for; she Croaker made some fan’s night at River Cities when he climbed the fence and threw the wing over. Croaker doesn’t have the best luck but that was a cool move. The interesting thing that happened that night – because there was an open red flag for a medical situation for a fan in the pit bleachers, Croaker was able to get his car repaired and get back on the track.

Casino wins to Greseth, Stearns, Zabel, Walsh, Olsen and Kast

Cole Greseth of Harwood won the Wissota Street Stock feature Sunday night at Casino Speedway in Watertown. Maria Broksieck of Goodwin was second, Jason Marko of Watertown third, Joe Arndt of Ortonville fourth and Zach Flickinger of Madison was fifth.

Mike Stearns of Aberdeen won the Wissota Modified feature with Dylan Zabel of Selby second. Garrett Gross of Aberdeen is third, Arne Anderson of Watertown was fourth and Andy Brooker of Tulare was fifth.

Dawson Zabel of Selby won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature with Scott Hansen of Garden City finishing second. Luke Johnson of Miller was third, Todd Stark of Watertown fourth and Jake Wranek of Sioux Falls fifth.

Trevor Walsh of Watertown won the Gen X Late Model feature over Blake Swenson of Watertown. Charlie Olsen of Hendricks was third, Curt Kranz of Watertown fourth and Bodie Croninger of Watertown was third.

Charlie Olsen of Hendricks won the Wissota Late Model feature with Chad Becker of Aberdden crossing in second. Stearns was third, Thomas Weisgram of Aberdeen fourth and Jayson Good of Watertown was fifth.

Christian Kast of Fairmount capped off the night by winning the Wissota Hornet feature. Zander Zuehlsdorff of Fergus Falls was second, Adam VanDerostyne of Canby was third, Brett Moffenbier of Watertown fourth and Cameryn Taylor of Hankinson was fifth.

Sunday notes

--Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon was off this week and resumes on Aug. 16, which is the first of three nights to conclude the season.

--I have updated the list of first time feature winners this season. If I am missing anybody let me know.

Gage Pulkrabek, NOSA Sprint, River Cities Speedway (May 15)

Dale Mittleider, Short Tracker, Sheyenne Speedway (June 7)

Kody Crabtree, Wissota Hornet, Buffalo River Speedway (May 31)

Joseph Lewis, INEX Legends, Norman County Raceway (July 9)

Carter Restad, IMCA Sport Modified, Fix It Forward Speedway (July 24)

Noah Lewis, INEX Legends, Norman County Raceway (July 30)

Brooke Erickson, Wissota Mod 4, Bemidji Speedway (Aug. 2)

Howie Briss, INEX Legend, Fix It Forward (Aug. 7)

Karter Kunz, Wissota Hornet, Viking Speedway (Aug. 8)