Fiesta City wins to Onyx and Zach Johnson, Long, Scott, Schulz and VanDerostyne
- tombergie01
- Aug 8
- 7 min read
Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo was back in action with 81 cars in the pit area. It was a very humid night in Monte – the dew point as of 8:30 the dewpoint was a tropical 77 degrees – and with thunderstorms in the forecast for after 10 p.m., the challenge was keeping the show along. Unfortunately, the rain arrived earlier than forecast – around 9:30 p.m. – more great work by these always accurate weather apps.
All of my local tracks up this way rained out and with the help of presenting sponsor Dirt Race Central, I decided to cover Fiesta City, the track I grew up 15 minutes from.
Fiesta City had been running seven classes weekly but dropped the Wissota Modifieds earlier this summer because of low car counts. The low A mod counts are not just a Wissota problem. Murray County Speedway in Slayton dropped the IMCA Modifieds after the 2024 season, and Chateau Raceway near Lansing, down by Austin, Minn., dropped the USRA Modifieds after 2024 – both because of low car counts.
The Wissota Midwest Modified feature had some good racing, and unfortunately some senseless driving back in the field that led to some cautions which really shortened the race.
Justin Bjorklund grabbed the lead of the Wissota Midwest Modified feature with Onyx Johnson of Lowry of battling Darren Engesser of Gary, S.D., for second. The caution would wave for Sophie Anderson’s 82 in turn two, and a few laps later, a multi-car incident in turn two brought out the second caution. Ethan Waltz and Dominick Dieken were involved and Jaden Gannott was charged with the yellow.
Shane DeJong and the long-time veteran Scott Tofte of Madison had worked to the top five
Onyx Johnson was all over Bjorklund for the lead as Engesser, DeJong and Tofte fought for third.
Johnson was sticking the 73 to the low lane and with nine laps to go took the top spot. DeJong had moved into third with Tofte in fourth and Ben Beekman of Hawick was in fifth. The caution waved for Doug Neitzel and Tom Neitzel spinning in turn two. Another caution would wave on the next lap, and that cut the race from nine laps remaining to three. Johnson.
Johnson had control over the final three laps as DeJong got by Bjorklund for second. Jett Lindgren of Willmar made a move late and climbed past Tofte into fourth as the white flag waved. Johnson picked up his second Fiesta City win of the year with DeJong second, Bjorklund third, Lindgren fourth and Tofte fifth.
Derek Zieske of Renville and Josh Long of Canby were on the front row when the Wissota Street Stock went green. I was keeping an eye back in the lineup on some good cars – Mike Jans of Clarkfield, the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten, national point leader Kolton Brauer of Eyota and Zach Flickinger of Madison, who has two wins at Madison in the last few weeks.
Long grabbed the lead with Cody Hatch of Olivia passing Zieske for second. Dustin Schultz of Montevideo would pass Zieske for third and Vogel was charging into fourth. Montevideo driver Coltyn Schuler had moved to fifth. The caution waved with 13 to go as some rain started to fall, which led to a rain delay that would last about 35 minutes.
Watching the radar, it looked like the front was going through, which meant the rain came quick – but was moving fast as well. It took the work of some tractors and several race cars to pack in the moisture, but they did it and racing resumed a little after 10 p.m. That led to a very fast racetrack.
Long led with Schultz and Vogel both moving past Hatch. There was a huge pack of cars fighting for sixth place, and that included Jans, Brauer, Flickinger and Zieske.
Schultz was on Long’s bumper with Vogel in tow as the top three had broken well ahead of the field. Long, who won his first career feature earlier this summer at Madison, was holding steady but the pressure was building up front. With four to go the yellow came out as Hatch, who is second in the points at Fiesta City, went off of turns three and four. I didn’t see what happened, only the end result, but Jans was charged with the yellow.
Schultz looked under Long but the 71 stayed smooth. Schuler was running fourth and Brockman was fighting with Brauer for fifth. Schultz threw about everything he had at Long but Long prevailed by .382 seconds for his second win of 2025. Schultz capped off a good run in second, Vogel was third, Schuler fourth and Brauer was fifth.
Vogel, by the way, raced at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon on Thursday and took third as part of the Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour, was rained out in Jamestown on Friday, planned to race in Grand Forks instead but was cancelled there – and ended up in Fiesta City on Friday. He will be in Jamestown on Saturday night. As I’ve said before, about mid-July, the Wolverine starts to heat up and by the time specials season rolls around, is a big-time contender for wins.
Karter Reents of Glenwood, who won at Viking Speedway last week, moved ahead in the Wissota Super Stock feature with fellow Glenwood driver Travis Scott settling in second. Brayden Hedtke of Atwater was third, Justin Tammen of Clara City fourth and Shawn Fernkes of Danube in fifth.
Scott stayed close to Reents by running a low line as Tammen got by Hedtke for third. It was an outstanding battle for the top spot between Reents and Scott who ran side by side for several laps. Scott had moved ahead with two laps to go and pulled away on the final lap to a .517 win, his second of the year at FCS.
Tammen ran third, Fernkes was fourth and Hedtke fifth in a caution-free, 12 lap main event.
One of the contenders in the Wissota Late Models, Charlie Olsen, would have trouble before the race and not make the call. The front row was all Canby – veteran Corey Nelson and Damian Eilers. Nelson, a multi-time track champion at Fiesta City, led the first lap but the Millenial Farmer was all over him after that. Matt Gilbertson of Watson moved into third with Jordan Tollakson of Montevideo.
Johnson pushed the lead to 1.2 seconds over Gilbertson with 14 to go as the Tollakson brothers, Jordan and Jon, ran in third and fourth. The caution waved when the 711 of Eilers stalled in turn two with a right rear flat.
Jordan Tollakson grabbed second on the restart with Jon Tollakson working on Gilbertson for third as Johnson’s lead grew to .802 seconds with nine to go, and that margin continued to grow and was at 2.4 seconds with three to go. The top five got pretty spread out by the end as Johnson cruised to the win, joining his son, Onyx in victory lane. Jordan Tollakson was second, Gilbertson third, Jon Tollakson fourth and Nelson fifth.
Colsten Schultz of Grove City led the Pure Stock feature from the outset with Brady Hagen of Montevideo in second.
Carter Rice of Renville made a good charge early into third and was soon challenging Hagen for second. Justin Erp of Montevideo was fourth.
Schulz had a nice advantage on second, as Rice and Hagen fought hard for second. Erp was fourth but had a ton of cars running behind him, including Alex Thorson of Clinton.
Things were getting awful physical back in the field with a lot of contact, and it led to Matt Wartman hitting Thorson, and the 20A going for a wild rollover down the frontstretch. Up until that point it had been a caution-free race but that would bring out the red flag. As far as rollovers go, that was a hard one for a Pure Stock but he was OK. The car was not good. Wartman also suffered damage and was done. Rice had a mechanical issue on the red and had to go to the pit area, ending a potential top three run.
It took a while to clean that wreck up and get the track back in working order, which I am sure Fiesta City officials didn't want to have happen with rain on the way.
Schultz was never threatened for the lead, but the restart saw a crazy three-wide fight for third on the white flag lap between Erp, Jason Best of Clarkfield and Hagen, and there was contact in turn four, and it knocked Erp from potentially second to fifth at the checkered. Schultz won, with Best grabbing second ahead of Landon Albertson of Cottonwood, who made a late move into the field. Hagen was fourth and Erp was fifth. I know if I was Justin Erp I would not have been a happy camper with the way that last lap transpired.
Travis Bruns of Alexandria moved to the front of the Wissota Hornet field with Jerik Stabler of Mitchell running in second and Adam VanDerostyne of Canby running in third. Bradley Rossow of Florence, S.D., was fourth.
VanDerostyne was making a charge for the lead and with six to go would inch ahead of Bruns. Stabler was running third, Rossow remained in fourth, well ahead of Downs in fifth.
VanDerostyne’s lead was about 3 car lengths when the white flag waved and he would go on to a .653 win over Bruns. Stabler was third, Rossow fourth and Downs was fifth. The hornets did a nice job with no cautions.
Fiesta City Speedway/Thursday notes
--Clarence Washburn, 82, from Hector brought out his late model for his first official night of the season (his first was rained out on July 18). His racing career goes back to 1970 and it was good to see the #3 back out there. He and his family are truly good people I’ve known for many years and they LOVE racing. If you want to know why an 82-year-old still races, he simply loves racing and being at the track.
--One new driver to the Wissota Late Models is Dalton Magers of Redwood Falls. He is a long-time IMCA Modified driver and is in his first year in the late models. Magers still races an IMCA Modified at Redwood Speedway. Magers had a good run in the feature, going from 11th to sixth.
--It is the second night in a row I’ve seen a father and son reach victory lane on the same night. On Thursday it was Zach and Regan Reinke at Sheyenne Speedway, and on Friday it was Zach and Onyx Johnson.
--Ryan Gierke of Villard won the Wissota Modified feature Friday night at Princeton Speedway.
--Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, Jamestown Speedway, I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls and River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks all canceled because of weather. The DRC Street Stock Tour will conclude on Saturday at Jamestown.
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