Fiesta City opening wins to Dykhoff, Gilbertson, Sabraski, Flaten, Best and VanDerostyne

Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo opened its 2026 season on a cool May evening with 89 cars signed in.

I mentioned in a recent Facebook post, I will be covering tracks mainly within a 150-mile radius of Fargo; however, I do want to hit the tracks in my home area some, too, which would include Fiesta City and Madison, two tracks I went to as a kid. I grew up 15 minutes from Fiesta City and my parents ran the track there for three years in the early 1990s.Thanks to presenting sponsor Dirt Race Central I was able to cover Friday remotely.

As I’ve said in the past, I am not going to judge length of shows, track conditions or car counts too much in the month of May. Some drivers aren’t ready, and we haven’t had an overly warm spring for tracks to get a lot of work in on their surfaces. As far as the show goes, there are always hiccups for the first few nights.  I will focus on the racing on the track during the first few weeks of the season unless it is something that really bugs me.

I am thinking as far as opening night goes, it was a pretty good 2026 debut for Fiesta City. Three of the features went without a caution and there were no major wrecks or pileups.

Two good friends – the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten and Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck – battled for the lead in the early moments of the Wissota Street Stock main event. Dykhoff would grab the advantage. Alex Grinager moved into third spot.

Mike Jans of Clarkfield, the all-time Wissota Street Stock feature wins leader at  Fiesta City, was looking to move up into the top five but would lose a right-front wheel on the fourth lap and came to a halt at the top of turn two; he would require a tow.

Two more cautions waved shortly after. Grinager was fighting with Cody Hatch of Olivia for the third spot with several cars, including Tommy Pogones of Princeton, challenging for a spot.

Dykhoff pulled away Vogel, but Pogones was on the move. He moved into third and then passed Vogel for second.  Eric Riley of Morris was also closing in on a spot in the top five. After a caution with nine to go Pogones seized second. Vogel slid high in turns three an four and lost several spots and fell out of the top five.

Dykhoff resumed control after a fifth caution with four to go. Hatch was fighting Pogones for second with Riley close in fourth. Grinager settled into fifth.

Dykhoff was never challenged and won by a 3.8 second margin; he will be a threat to win wherever he unloads this summer.  Pogones, who started 10^th, capped off a good run in second with Riley getting by Hatch late for third. Grinager rounded out the top five.  Vogel posted a solid finish after sliding back in sixth.

A nice 20-car Wissota Midwest Modified field was on hand with Ryan Flaten of Madison taking the early lead. A caution waved on Lap 2 as Jamie Thorstad of Morris spun in turns one and two.

On the restart. Flaten opened a nice lead as Canadian Memphis Klassen fought with Darren Engesser of Gary, S.D., for second. Klassen would take the spot as Bjorklund climbed past Taylor Willms of Willmar for fourth.

Flaten’s lead grew to 1.5 seconds as he started to lap cars. Klassen had settled into third and Bjorklund had comfortable spot in fourth.  The caution waved when Maddox Klassen’ss 47 came to a stop in the bottom of turn two; his night would be over and as he went pitside. I didn’t see the incident.

On the restart Engesser made a run at second but slid high in turn four and lost some ground. Flaten reassumed control up front with a dominant performance to pick up the opening night win. Memphis Klassen capped off a good night in second with Engesser holding off veteran Jason Vetjruba for third. Bjorklund was a solid fifth.

Seven of the nine Wissota Super Stocks in attendance took the feature green with defending Fiesta City track champion Travis Sccott of Glenwood grabbing the initial lead.

Multi-time Wissota Super Stock national champion Shane Sabraski of Rice moved into second and was catching Scott for the lead.  Former Wissota 100 champion Dylan Nelson of Merrifield was third, Jason Hobbs was fourth and Schultz was fifth.

Sabraski was working a higher lane than Scott and would grab the lead with 10 to go. Nelson had a big advantage over Hobbs for third with Schulz, a rookie in the supers, back in fifth.

Nelson made up a lot of ground on Scott for second and took a look on the lower line a few times as Sabraski pulled away to a half straightaway advantage.

Sabraski, who surpassed 1,000 career feature wins last summer, rolled to a convincing win. Scott held off Nelson for third; those two had more than a straightway on fourth-place Hobbs. Schultz was fifth in a caution-free main event.

Jack Koranda of Bluffton led the opening lap of the Wissota Late Model feature with Dexton Koch of Becker in second. The commissioner, Matt Gilbertson of Watson, soon moved past Koch for second and was closing fast on Koranda.  Three laps into the feature Gilbertsonk who was bad fast on the bottom, grabbed the lead on lap 3.  Devin Fouquette, the defending Fiesta City champion, was running in fourth with Shane Sabraski in fifth.

Gilbertson checked out up front as Fouquette cleard Koch for third.  Sabraski then was working on Koch for fourth.

It was smooth sailing for Gilbertson, who crushed the field by 6.4 seconds. Koranda finished a solid second with Fouquette in third, Koch in fourth and Cade Nelson of Hermantown in fifth.

Eight pure stocks were on hand with Jason Best jumping out to a big lead.  Carter Rice moved into second, but the real battle was for third. Mason Fester of Grove City was applying a lot of pressure to Justin Erp of Montevideo for third with Tad Peterson of Dawson in tow.

Best had a half straightaway lead but Rice erased that lead and was right there with two to go and made a serious charge at the lead over the final two laps but Best held on for a half-car length win.

Fester would make the pest of Erp for third to earn a top three finish. Erp and Brady Hagen of Montevideo rounded out the top five. It was a nice, clean caution-free race.

A strong 21-car Wissota Hornet feature capped off the night. You don’t usually see a field of hornets that big at a regular-season event, so I admit I was a bit nervous how it would play out.

Brady Fosso had the initial lead by Adam VanDerostyne of Canby soon took over the top spot. William Lange of Staples moved into second. The caution waved for Owen Louwagie’s spin in turn three brought out the first yellow two laps into the main event.

VanDerostyne stayed out front on the restart as Lange and Foss fought for second. Stabler ran in fourth.

After another caution Lange mounted a charge for the top spot and got around VanDerostyne for second. Fosso was challenging for second as Bradley Rossow and Stabler ran side-by-side.  Lange’s hopes for a win ended when he slowed with five laps to go which brought out the third caution of the race. Lange’s misfortune moved Rossow into the top three on the restart.

It turned into a really good three-car fight for the top spot with VanDerostyne getting a lot of heat from Fosso and Rossow.  It literally went down to the final inches as VanDerostyne edged Rossow by the narrowest margins in what was the best finish of the night. Fosso was third.  Stabler was fourth and Zander Zuehlsdorf of Fergus Falls took fifth. Lange came back from the caution to finish sixth.

Fiesta City notes

--Speaking of the Dykhoff family, Kyle’s wife Haley, long-time driver of the 50H Wissota Midwest Modified, will be taking the 2026 season off. She is expecting the couple’s second child.

--Koch, a former national champion in the Wissota Super Stocks, has made the jump to the late models. I did a RaceChaser story on Koch last summer and he told me he intends to run for Wissota Late Model Rookie of the Year in 2026. He ran two nights in the class last year – Wissota Rookie rules state to run for ROY you cannot have raced five nights in that class previously, making Koch eligible for 2026. I will go out on a limb and predict he wins Rookie of the Year.

--Landon Albertson of Cottonwood has moved into the Wissota Street Stock class this season after racing in the pure stocks in recent years. Albertson won track championships at Fiesta City and Madison last year in the pure stocks. Albertson had a solid night in the feature, going from 16^th to ninth. Landon’s dad, Ben, raced in the street stocks for several years.

--Nick Shumansky of Perham has moved from the Wissota Street Stock class to the Wissota Midwest Modified division.  Expect to see him regularly at I-94 EMR Speedway and tracks closer to that area.

--Cade Nelson of Hermantown was a very tough foe in the USRA Late Models in recent years – winning three USRA Late Model national titles. This year he has joined his father, the Hermantown Hammer Darrell Nelson, in the Wissota Late Models. Darrell is one of the greatest drivers ever to come out of the Twin Ports.

--Brendan Scott of Osakis has moved from the Wissota Street Stock class to the Wissota Midwest Modified.

Friday night notes

--Regan Reinke of Lisbon won the INEX Legend feature at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen over Sean Johnson of Kindred. The INEX Legends will run weekly at Brown County this summer.

Cole Greseth of Harwood captured the victory in the Wissota Street Stock division. He is the defending national runner up in the class.