Dykhoff, Taylor Bitzan, Gilbertson, Mass, Dusty Bitzan and Miller win at I-94

I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls wrapped up its 2026 regular season with another strong field of cars.

I-94 has consistently been over 100 cars all year, and piled in 125 for their season championship night, setting up for a longer night.  I think part of the reason for the car counts is some cars wanting to get laps on the track before the Wissota 100 in September.

I-94 had 20 Wissota Late Models on hand, just one less than the 21 signed in at River Cities Speedway for the NLRA show.  34 Midwest Modifieds led the way.

Eric Riley of Morris and Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck manned a stacked front row of the Wissota Street Stock feature. Levi Randt was starting fourth and Cole Greseth of Harwood was starting sixth

Dykhoff took the lead with Randt moving into second. The bottom line was pretty slick.Riley was third ahead of Greseth as Braedyn Fleck of Cold Spring was in fifth.

Greseth was challenging Riley for third as Dykhoff had about 2-3 car lengths on Randt.  Grand Forks driver Greg Jose was sixth, not far behind Fleck.  The caution flew with seven to go when Sigerud spun in turn two.

The restart saw Riley challenging Dykhoff for the top spot as the bottom line started to come in as Randt fell back to third.  Fleck had passed Greseth for third.

Riley put a slider on Dykhoff but Dykhoff got the crossover. Two laps later Randt put a slider on Dykhoff but again Dykhoff would regain the top spot. And from there, he was never challenged over the final 4-5 laps.

Dykhoff meanwhile was pulling away from Randt, stretching the lead to 1.3 seconds, and was never threatened over the final few laps to take the win.  Randt settled for second, Riley was third, Fleck fourth and Greseth fifth. The hard charger of the race was Kammron Rose of Wheeler, Wis., who went from 16^th to seventh. Dykhoff is the 2026 I-94 track champion.

I always get nervous when I see 22 Gen X Late Models on hand It’s not that there aren’t good drivers in the class – there are several – but there are also some (and not the majority) that are complete hazards out there and belong in the crowd blogging with me. I don’t like being critical but you know a few of those folks will be involved in cautions in the feature.

Parker Gilbertson stormed out front of the Gen X Late Model feature with Trevor Walsh of Watertown climbing to second. Jarrett Huus of Fergus Falls was third while Jeff Nelson of Perham was fourth and Blake Swenson of Watertown fifth.

Walsh was within two car lengths of Gilbertson but the car making a big-time charge was the 21X of Travis Saurer who was up to fourth.  The caution flew for the 4C car if Brent Clemenson of Ashby, who hit one of the dreaded tractor tires in turn two.

The restart was messy with several cars spinning on the frontstretch, including Alex Tschakert, Ryan Lubbers and Jerry Hauge. All continued. Walsh did not get a good restart and fell back to fourth, and Saurer meanwhile was working the bottom and climbed to second. But again, there was a 4-5 car melee in turns one and two.

Once the race settled down, it was a good battle between Gilbertson and Saurer. Saurer went back to work on Gilbertson at the front with Walsh in third and Huus fourth.  With 11 to go Saurer made the pass to take over the top spot as he was really dialed in on the bottom.

Gilbertson didn’t go away and stayed within a car length of Saurer and started to apply pressure on him, they made a little contact in turns three and four as they raced hard for the lead, and Gilbertson would regain the top spot with six to go.

Gilbertson pulled away as Walsh took a peek at Saurer. Another car running well was Cade Skytland of Kindred who had combed to fourth, and Blake Swenson had taken fifth.

Gilbertson wasn’t touched late as Saurer took second. Walsh was third, Skytland fourth and Rich Schroeder of Montevideo was fifth.  After the checkered there was a hard crash in turn two involving Walsh and Schroeder (I didn’t see it), leaving both cars with significant damage.

Unfortunately, after the checkered there was a hard crash in turn two that left both Walsh and Rick Schroeder of Montevideo with a lot of damage. I didn’t see what happened but it was a bad deal

Nate Reinke and Taylor Bitzan led a strong 24-car Wissota Midwest Modified field to the green. Reinke jumped out front but Bitzan stayed close. Jamie Norman of Underwood moved up to third with Aaron Michel of Jamestown fourth. Dusty Peterson of Kindred was making moves into the top five.

Reinke’s lead stood at about a half second with 12 to go as Landyn Randt of Siren fought his way to fifth, but shortly would surrender the spot to Kyle Anderson of Jamestown, the 2026 Sheyenne Speedway track champion.

At about the halfway point Bitzan passed Reinke on a lower lane to take the top spot.

Then came a hard crash in turn one involving Scott Oeltjen of Villard, Tate Kelderman of Wadena and Chad Gronner of Underwood. All three cars left on the hook and had plenty of damage.

After that wreck was cleaned up Bitzan led Reinke and Norman with Anderson and Michel also in the top five.   Reinke was second with Kyle Anderson jumping to third with Norman and Randt dueling ofr the fourth spot.

The second caution of the race came out for Zach Kort’s 21R machine which spun in turn two. Randt was on the charge on the restart as he moved around Reinke Anderson was fourth and Reise Stenberg of Argusville had moved into the fifth spot.

Bitzan found a really good line on the bottom and stuck his 24TB there. Randt was driving the wheels off of the 11 R and got huge run off of turn two on the backstretch and had a shot on the final corners, but Bitzan fended him off to win by just .170 seconds. Randt,

Nate Reinke is the 2026 track champion; he also won the I-94 title in 2024.  He missed the last half of the 2025 season with a broken foot.

Dave Mass of East Bethel started third in the Wissota Late Model feature but wasn’t there long, moving into the lead and bbegan blowing the field away.

Jack Koranda of Bluffton and Travis Saurer were fighting for second as Cole Schill of Hawley was fourth. Danny Vang of Deerwood was fighting Ben Wolden of Fergus Falls for fifth.

Mass had a commanding four-second lead over Saurer vanish with seven to go as rookie Landon Mensen spun in turn three.

Mass hugged the bottom and Saurer, who has made 1,000s of loaps riding the high side of I-94, was up by the wall. Koranda was also riding the bottom in the third spot.

Despite the best efforts from Saurer, who was running inches from the wall at times, Mass would pull away over the final 5-6 laps and would win by 1.7 seconds. Saurer earned his second runner-up finish of the night with Koranda third, Schill fourth and Vang fifth. Saurer is the 2026 I-94 Wissota Late Model track champion.

Brady Gerdes of Villard surged ahead in the Wissota Modified feature with Bryce Borgen of Perley second.  Dusty Bitzan of Evansville was third with Saurer in fourth and Brendan Blascyk of Hoffman in fifth.

Gerdes built a 1.4 second lead as Bitzan moved into second.  Bitzan meanwhile was eating into Gerdes’s lead. Saurer, in a fight with Gerdes for the points title, was up to third.

Gerdes and Bitzan raced side-by-side for the top spot and took the lead with 12 to go. Blascyk had climbed to fourth.

Bitzan’s 10x just stuck to the bottom and the lead was growing, up to 1.7 seconds with seven to go. Joe Thomas of Glyndon, who won the Bob Gierke Memorial last week, was making his presence known as he passed Borgen for fifth.

Bitzan was running away from Gerdes who had all sorts of heat from Saurer, with Blascyk was closing on both. But Bitzan had no issues at all with a thrashing of the field, winning by 4.5 seconds. Saurer wrapped up the point title with his third runner-up finish of the night while Gerdes was third. Blascyk ran solid all night and took fourth and Thomas completed the top five.  The 20-lap, caution free main event lasted less than seven minutes, excellent job by the mod drivers.

There was a rollver early in the Wissota Hornet feature as Ryan Roeder’s 11R went over in turn three. He was OK.

There was another wreck on the restart that saw Emma Nelson’s 11 machine get turned into the wall after other cars made contact. Nelson, who won her first career feature a few weeks ago at I-94, was done. Ally Preston’s 18K also had damage but was tagged with the caution and went to the back.

Lincoln Miller was the leader with Aaron Miller all over him. Lucas Hinrichs was in third as Jeff Hinrichs was fourth and Cameryn Taylor of Hankinson in fifth.

It felt like an enduro of sorts as the infield was full of cars who pulled off. Lincoln Miller had about a car length on Aaron Miller as the top five remained the same. Lincoln Miller would win by .221 seconds as Lucas Hinrichs was third, Jeff Hinrichs fourth and Taylor was fifth.

Only six of the 16 starters finished as attrition took its toll.

Tom Corcoran of East Grand Forks is in his 57th season of racing a late model, and has feature wins in six different decades – I don’t know any driver who has done that locally. On Friday night, the 72-year-old led every lap of the NLRA Late Model feature to pick up the feature win, his first victory since 2020. Corcoran held off Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks for the win.

Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., was third, Kelsi Pederson of East Grand Forks fourth and Brad Seng of Grand Forks was fifth.

Garet Williamson of Columbia, Mo, won his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car feature of his career, holding off David Gravel for the win. Michael Kofoid was third, Spencer Bayston was fourth and Logan Schuchart of Hanover, Pa., was fifth. Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks was the top local finisher, taking ninth after starting 17^th.

Friday night notes

--Fix It Forward Speedway was off on Friday; they will host the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars on Saturday with the INEX Legends as the support class.

--Mike Stearns of Aberdeen won the Wissota Modified feature Friday night at Brown County Speedway.