Dudley, Schwinn, Carlson, Jacobson, McCann, Kiker, Koski and Erickson win Night 1 of Bemidji Stampede
- tombergie01
- Sep 20
- 7 min read
Night 1 of the Bemidji Stampede featured 113 cars on hand. The night weathered a two-hour rain delay, moisture that was unwelcome after the last rainy few days. The Stampede annual is Bemidji’s biggest event of the year but the forecast all week, at least for Saturday, was not great. I am hoping for a nicer day for the folks at Bemidji on Sunday for Day 2.
As you know I am not a huge fan of covering invitationals, especially those with 7, 8 or 9 classes. However, I like to write about racing, and had the itch on Saturday, which led me to write about the Bemidji Speedway Stampede.
My original plan was to cover Casino Speedway’s Autumn Classic on Saturday, but after the few days of rain, things were just too wet, despite the attempts of track officials. It was the ninth rainout for Casino this year, I feel for the folks down there. So, I called an audible and covered Bemidji via presenting sponsor Dirt Race Central. Chris Kolstad, the long-time announcer at North Central Speedway in Brainerd and at Princeton Speedway, filled in very capably behind the mic Saturday at Bemidji.
Chris Dudley of Bemidji took the lead over Weston Ramsrud of Bagley in the Wissota Street Stock feature was Trent Keller of Zimmerman and Scotty Messner of Bemidji fought for third. Ramsrud was right on Dudley’s bumper while Messner was all over Keller. Messner would take the spot. Five laps into the feature Keller would stall in turns three and four and the caution would wave; he would go to the rear of the nine-car field.
On the restart Messner grabbed second and went to work on Dudley with Ramsrud in third and Canadian Andrew Pillo in fourth. Tyson Waller of Nolalu, Ont., had grabbed fifth. Messner was applying a lot of heat to Dudley with some contact in the fight for the lead, and despite a lot of effort, was unable to make the pass as Dudley prevailed by .922 seconds. Messner was second, Ramsrud third, Pillo fourth and Waller fifth.
Conrad Schwinn of Little Falls led early in the Wissota Mod 4 feature but his son Ashton was making a charge for the lead from his fifth starting spot. Ashton Schwinn would take the lead with 10 laps to go and checked out on the field after that.
Kevin Bahr of Bemidji was fighting Blake Erickson of Shevlin for third with Dawson Oelrich of Bemdji, who won his first career feature earlier this summer, running fourth.
Ashton Schwinn’s lead grew to 5.1 seconds over this father with the best battle being for third between Bahr and Erickson. The caution would wave with four to go when Christopher Roller stalled off of turn two, which erased a five-second lead for Ashton Schwinn, who entered the night third in the Wissota national points.
Ashton Schwinn’s hopes for a win ended with a flat tire with two laps left, and his father would take over the lead, on his way to the win by 1.616 seconds over Blake Erickson, who had cleared Bahr for second. Oelrich was fourth and Brooke Erickson of Bagley capped off a nice run with a fifth-place finish.
Kade Leeper and Austin Carlson led the Wissota Pure Stocks to green with Carlson taking the lead. After a caution, Leeper suffered a flat tire after some contact, and there was a two-car incident in turn four as Karen Puschinsky lost a wheel.
Dustin Puffe of Bemidji, the national point leader, did not start the feature after trouble in his heat. He entered the night with 16 wins. On the restart Dusty Caspers was chasing Carlson with Billy Binkley running third; Binkley however broke on the restart and caused a chain reaction with a couple of cars spinning; Binkley’s night would end.
Carlson, who entered the night fourth in the Wissota national points, led after the third caution as Caspers and Brandon Puschinsky fought for second. Mason Smith and Josh Berg were both looking to move up as well. Carlson opened a 1.3 second lead before the fourth caution of the race waved for a spin in turn two with nine to go.
That led to a single-file restart with Caspers and Mason Smith chasing. Josh Berg would grab third with Puschinsky with Shane Busina pursuing. Berg went to work on Caspers as Carlson’s lead grew to 1.8 seconds with two laps left.
Carlson cruised to the win with Caspers in second and Berg taking third. Smith was fourth; he and Berg both moved up seven spots from their starting positions.
After a chaotic first lap where it looked like there was going to be about three pileups, Tucker Jacobson of Pelican Rapids edge ahead of Cejay LaValley of Bemidji for the lead, the caution would fly for Michael Blevins Sr.’s 10 machine. When the race resumed. Jacobson led with LeValley chasing with Grand Rapids driver Darrin Lawler in third. Sam Blevins was in fourth and Hunter Weeks in fifth. Kalin Honer was pressuring Weeks for fifth.
LeValley was persistent in chasing Jacobson for the lead and Lawler was closing on both LeValley would edge ahead with seven to go. Seconds after that a big pileup occurred in turn two which involved Landon Gross, Ethan Elhardt of Bovey and Honer. Honer left on the hook while Gross and Elhardt were hooked together which took a while to untangle. All three were done for the night.
On a totally unrelated note, Gross recently married fellow driver Alexa Sparby, who drives the x81 super stock.
LeValley’s luck turned south with a flat tire, sending her to the work area on the caution but also costing her the lead. Gary James Nelson of Red Lake, a consistent contender at Bemidji also went pitside during that caution for some work. Both cars returned at the tail.
When the racing got back underway, Lawler took a look at Jacobson for the lead as Sam Blevins and Hunter Weeks dueled for third. Brayden Rewertz of Hibbing was in the fifth spot.
Lawler took one more shot at the lead but Jacobson would prevail for his first career feature win. Lawler settled for second while Sam Blevins took third, edging Weeks. Rewertz, who started back in 15th, had a good run into fifth. LeValley made a decent comeback to eighth after the flat.
The Mini Stocks were plagued with cautions and frankly a race that took way too long for the amount of cars competing.
Ashton Schwinn led the Mini Stocks over Nick McCann of Brainerd. Troy Foster was fighting Hayden Engen hard for third with Conrad Schwinn in fifth. Engen, however suffered a flat tire and slowed to bring out the first caution.
Three more cautions ensued with some questionable driving, and honestly mini stocks are not built to play bumper cars. Contact usually leads to flat tires.
McCann stayed within striking distance of Ashton Schwinn as Foster, Conrad Schwinn and Hayden Engen fought for third. Engen got into Conrad Schwinn and spun the 6 car; with the yellow black out Engen’s night was over.
Ashton Schwinn’s night would end as he apparently lost a muffler earlier in the race, and rules indicate you cannot race without one. McCann would prevail, with the remaining top five consisting of Conrad Schwinn, Cory Nelson of Leonard, Jason Hunter of Bemidji and Justin Honer of Laporte. Foster was DQed post race.
Jerry Larson of Grand Rapids took the lead of the Wissota Hornet feature over Jayme Gordon with Russell Kiker pursuing. Chad Reller of Waskish and Mark Gangl of Bovey were fighting for fourth. Kiker got spun by Gordon in turn two to bring out the yellow; I’m not sure if Gordon suffered a flat before or after the contact but what go
Kiker made a charge for the lead around Larson while there was contact between Reller and Larson for second; Reller would go to the tail. Kiker pulled away on the start as Nick Ruzich moved into third. After another caution Kiker had Ruzich and Larson chasing. After two cautions Kiker pulled away to a 1.1 second win over Ruzich with Larson in third, Adam Kessler of Hines and Trenton Beel of Hibbing rounded out the top five.
The veteran Doug Koski of Chisholm opened a 2.7 lead on Justin Barsness with Cameron Labelle in third and Dalton Carlson in fourth. Matt Sparby of Bemidji moved into fifth.
Koski was in firm control as Labelle and Barsness were fighting very hard for second. Labelle would take over second with seven to go but Koski had a 2.7 advantage by then. Dalton Carlson soon took third from Barsness, but that battle was not over.
Labelle was cutting into Koski’s lead and erased more than half of it, but would run out of time as Koski prevailed by 1.1 seconds. Carlson would edge Barsness by .115 seconds for third with Matt Sparby rounding out the top five. For Koski it was his second victory of 2025. After the early caution there was some good racing for position in the supers.
Doyle Erickson of Bagley was the early leader Wissota Mod feature with Jonathan Feda running second and Rick Jacobson of Bemidji third. Davey Mills was running fourth and Brock Gronwold of Fergus Falls was fighting with Bemidji driver Josh Beaulieu for fifth.
Jacobson took over second and Mills would take over third as Feda lost several spots. Beaulieu would get by Gronwold for fourth.
Doyle Erickson had a nice advantage over Jacobson while Beaulieu was on the move into third. Erickson’s lead was erased when Devyn Weleski’s 13 machine slowed with a flat tire, and that brought Jacobson and Beaulieu right behind the 99 car.
Beaulieu took over second on the restart and closed on Erickson as Gronwold and Jacobson fought for third. Erickson would take the win with Beaulieu settling for second. Gronwold was third, Jacobson fourth and Mills fifth.
Notes
Rainouts have plagued so many tracks this year, as mentioned Casino Speedway had nine this summer. Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie had 12 nights cancelled including their big Punky Manor Challenge at the end of the year. Granite City postponed the first night of the Piston Cup from Friday to Saturday and had six rainouts this summer.
Rain also messed with the schedule at the Jamestown Stock Car Stampede. Friday’s qualifying night was postponed to Saturday. Saturday’s program was scheduled to include heats and consolation races with the features being set for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
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