Dobmeier, Priem, Pavlicek, Goulet Lead Buffalo River Winners

I made the trek to Buffalo River Speedway as the Buffalo Wild Wing NOSA Sprints were on hand. A great field of 87 cars were on hand in front of a good crowd at the quarter-mile oval.

You can tell we are getting into August. The driving gets more aggressive, tempers are shorter and we tend to see a few more banged up race cars than I’d care to see.

The track was hard and very slick in the heats and for several of the features.

There were 23 NOSA sprints in attendance, including the top nine in the point standings.

Brendan Mullen of Grand Forks took the early lead in the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints. But the veteran and all-time NOSA sprints wins leader, Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks, was closing fast. After just a few laps the leaders encountered lapped traffic.

Dobmeier made a power move on the outside in lapped traffic and surged into the lead. He was the leader when there was a spin in turn two.

After another spin, Dobmeier got rolling, building a two-second lead over Wade Nygaard of Grand Forks, who passed Mullen for second. Nick Omdahl of East Grand Forks, the 2019 NOSA Sprint champion, settled into fourth with Jordan Adams of Reynolds in fifth.

Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes and Zach Omdahl of East Grand Forks were turned around in turns three and four brought out the third caution of the race. Both were able to continue.

On the restart, Dobmeier powered to the lead over Nygaard. Also on the move was Jade Hastings of Grand Forks, who passed two cars down the backstretch to take over fourth. The fourth caution waved shortly after as Jackson Moffitt’s 91 broke in turn two.

The double-file restarts put Nygaard and Dobmeier — with 311 combined NOSA wins entering the night — side by side. Each time, Dobmeier got a great start although it looked like Nygaard had some thing for the leader.

After a late restart, Mullen got by his mentor, Nygaard for second, and pushed hard to close the gap on Dobmeier. But the #13JT was the class on this night, picking up his 169th NOSA win. Mullen was second Nygaard third and Hastings, the defending NOSA champion, was fourth. Tim Estenson of Fargo had a nice run, starting 16th but working up to fifth at the checkered flag.

Nick Omdahl ended up not finishing but his cousin, Zach, was Hard Charger, going from 19th to eighth.

There were several cautions — I lost count after five — but no major flips thankfully in the sprints.

A great field of of 16 IMCA Hobby Stocks were on hand, bolstered by several Brainerd-area cars in attendance. North Central Speedway rained out on Saturday.

Sponsored by Brody Carlsrud Racing

One driver hungry for a win was veteran Marv Priem of Moorhead in the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Entering the night he had four top fives in 13 feature finishes — but no wins. Well he broke through on Sunday to get his first win of the year.

Even though Priem started on the outside of the front row, it was my no means easy, thanks to the persistence of Devin Larson of Aitkin, Minn.

Priem set the pace, but Larson was plenty fast. He closed the gap on the lead and worked and worked the lower line. Priem never flinched, holding off the repeated challenges for the feature win — by .259 seconds.

Larson settled for second, Todd Gettel of Mahnomen capped off a good run in third. Veteran Brad Orvedal is Mr. Consistent; he has 17 top fives in 27 starts after finishing fourth. Chad Visser of Ironton was fifth.

Jason Berg of West Fargo set the pace for the first several laps of the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints, but Alex Truscinski of Greenbush was on a mission. He was closing in before a lapped car slowed his progress, allowing Berg to open up some breathing room. But Truscinski was really good on this night, and closed that gap. Berg slipped up in turn four and Truscinski surged on the bottom and took the lead. From there, he checked out on the field, winning by 3.601 seconds over Alan Truscinski.

Berg settled for third. Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes — driving a new car — was fourth. She had a career-best runner-up finish on Saturday at Devils Lake. Travis Sureus of Fargo was fifth.

The first two features were smooth, I can’t say that for the IMCA Sport Mods. What a cluster. Don’t get wrong, it wasn’t everyone, but it was more than enough for me. That’s the kind of race that would send me to the beer garden for the rest of the night.

Wrecks and cautions. Way too many, to the point where the yellow/black came out. It seems like the B mods — Wissota or IMCA — have become this way lately at some RaceChaser-area tracks, and frankly I’m sick of it. It’s not everyone as several drivers are doing a good job, but it’s more than it should be.

Paul Colvin of Horace led early in the IMCA Sport Mods. He was pressured on the outside by Matt Talley of Sabin.

Brandon Ferris of Moorhead, who has a win this season, had a rough night. He was a DNF in his heat, and in the feature, suffered some left-front damage in the first multi-car incident in turns one and two, which also left Torey Fischer of West Fargo with a flat tire. She was able to continue, but Ferris was done.

I expected Jake Hagemann of Fort Ripley, who won the IMCA Sport Mod special at Red River Valley Speedway in July, to contend for the win, but he was also an early exit.

Talley assumed the lead but on the move was Rich Pavlicek of Casselton, who started seventh. He stuck the #17 to a low line and was a bullet. He took over the lead with Talley who soon found pressure from Kelly Jacobson of Fargo, who started ninth but ran a higher line to work into the top three.

Also in contention in the top five was Jacob Jordan of Brainerd.

Colvin and Jacobson got together after a restart (the yellow/black had waved right before), creating another multi-car incident out of turn two. I’m not making a call on that one, but I will say those two probably didn’t get together for beers afterwards as there was some displeasure shown after that incident. Colvin left on the hook and I’m not sure, but I believe Jacobson was charged with the yellow, and since it was yellow/black, was sent pitside.

After that restart, Kelly Jacobson got around Talley, but had a big gap to close as Pavlicek’s lead was considerable. He made up some ground but Pavlicek prevailed by 0.759 seconds. Kelly Jacobson’s strong run ended up in second while Talley was third. Jordan was fourth. Chris VanMil of Barnesville, who had went to the rear early in the race, recovered to finish fifth.

By the way, a cool thing about VanMil — during Meet-and-Greets, he lets kids sign the numbers on his race car, hence the dozens that are on his car.

Pavlicek, who also won Thursday at Norman County Raceway, is up to seven wins on the year. In his last four starts, he has three wins and a runner-up finish as his Skyrocket has picked up serious momentum of late.

There was a controversial finish to the Short Tracker feature, which ran caution free. David Wahl of Fergus Falls led almost the entire race — but saw his several-car length lead erased by Hunter Goulet of Fargo. Goulet, who started seventh, worked into second and closed the gap. Also running well was the #26 of Jenna Hagemann of Fort Ripley, who starred back in ninth; she was up to third.

Wahl slipped off briefly and that gave Goulet an opening on the bottom. He made the pass in turn four as the white flag waved. Wahl, meanwhile, wasn’t done. He fought back and made a run down the backstretch on the final lap. As the two went into turns three and four, Wahl got into the side of Goulet, and the two went down the front stretch side by side. Wahl crossed the line first — but was disqualified for rough driving. I’m not sure I totally agreed as I thought it was good hard racing to the line, but I understand the call. Keep in mind, I am a proponent of the black flag being used for rough driving.

Goulet picked up the win with Hagemann capping off a great run in second. Larry Dickinson of Fergus Falls was third, Chase Golliet of Fargo fourth and Wade Bergerud of Dalton was fifth.

Only four Limited Late Models showed up and Ben Wolden of Fergus Falls continued his dominance in that class with another win, his 13th of the year. Scott Zimmerman of Rothsay was second and Larry Samuelson of Erhard was third.

Weekend Notes

—Tyler Peterson of Hickson has set his sights on the Wissota Modified national title. He’s in a tight battle with Shane Sabraski of Rice. Peterson had a great weekend — he was third on Friday at Brown County Speedway, won Saturday at Greenbush Race Park and also won Sunday at Bemidji Speedway. On Sunday, he finished ahead of Sabraski, who has a 41-point lead in the latest standings.

—Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls won the Wissota Modified feature Saturday at Greenbush while Ryan Johnson of Karlstad won the Wissota Street Stock main event.

—Nate Reynolds of Hoople won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature Saturday at Devils Lake Speedway. Trey Hess won the Wissota Street Stocks, while Jason Berg won the Lightning Sprints.

—Jared Wibstad of Jamestown picked up the biggest win of his career by winning the Rebel Midwest Modified Tour stop Saturday at Sheyenne Speedway. Wibstad started on the front row. Kyle Langland of Enderlin, who has been plagued with bad luck most of the summer, ran a solid second ahead of Reise Stenberg of Argusville. Zach Reinke of Lisbon and Lucas Rodin of Marion rounded out the top five.

Mason Bogart of Milnor (Mini Stocks), Isaiah Throener of Cogswell (Hobby Stocks), Ryan Braseth of Ulen (INEX Legends) and Jonny Carter of Lisbon (Wissota Street Stocks) also found victory lane at Sheyenne.

—Ryan Satter of Dent won three features last week. The first was in the IMCA Stock Cars on Thursday at Norman County Raceway. He then won in the Wissota Street Stocks Friday at Brown County Speedway and won in the streets again on Saturday at Miller Central Speedway.