Greseth, Klassen win at River Cities as Pierce flies to 4th straight WOO Late Model win

World of Outlaw Late Models continued their swing through the area at the River Cities Speedway on Friday and once again, it was another dominant performance by Bobby Pierce.

The Wissota Midwest Modifieds and Wissota Street Stocks were the suppose classes with 29 and 23 cars, respectively.  With I-94 EMR Speedway racing earlier in the week and Jamestown Speedway being off tomorrow,  I figured a few more cars would arrive in those divisions.

As I’ve said previously since WOO its own video and article recaps, I will focus on the local classes since that’s what I cover.

The Wissota Midwest Modifieds had 23 cars take the green (one car broke in the pace lap) but turned into a race of attrition with a good amount of bent up sheet metal. Memphis Klassen of Winkler, Man., and Brandon Bahr of Tenstrike were on the front row with Thursday night’s B Mod Brawl winner, Reise Stenberg of Argusville, in pursuit.

Bahr and Klassen ran side by side for a few laps for the lead, but the second caution flew for an incident in turn two involving Landon Gross of Hines and Alex Johnson of Karlstad; Gross would head to the pits with a flat left rear tire.

Klassen led over Bahr with Stenberg looking to move up. Brennan Schmidt of Bemidji was fourth and Frank Veert of Winnipeg was running fifth with Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls pressuring him. Austin Hunter of Winnipeg, a former RCS track champion, had climbed up to sixth.

Stenberg cleared Bahr for second and went after Klassen up front. Blacklance got around Schmidt for fourth with Hunter close behind those two.  Luke Johnson of Miller, S.D. was also running well and  was battling Schmidt for fourth.

Landyn Randt, who finished third at NCR on Thursday, was involved in some contact and slowed on the backstretch for the caution. His beat up 11R headed to the pits.

Klassen had a good restart with six to go and opened 4 car lengths  on Stenberg. Bahr had his hands full with Schmidt, Blacklance, Johnson and Hunter all over him.  That was an outstanding race between those four with a lot of shuffling as Klassen and Steinberg had pulled away.

But that battle came to a halt with Bahr cutting a left rear tire and started to spin, and Jory Berg worked to avoid but made some contact. Bahr, who had run well all night, headed to the pits.

The restart with two to go was physical; Johnson clipped a tractor tire in turn two and checked up, leading to a chain reaction that involved Kenna Breidenbach, Berg and Alex Johnson.  Luke Johnson got the worst of it with some front end damage, and another car that had ran in the top five had called it a night. Berg and Breidenbach also had damage and had to go to the pits.

On the final restart, Stenberg looked to make another last-lap charge like he did on Thursday at NCR, and got close but Klassen held on for a .213 second victory.  Stenberg’s excellent week ended up in second, while Schmidt ran tough and took third. Blacklance was a solid fourth and finishing fifth was Hunter, who got a badly needed good finish after two rough nights.

For Klassen, it was his first victory ever in the United States. He also won Thursday at Victory Lane Speedway in Winnipeg. Alex Johnson went from 21st to seventh.

Terry Nelson of Grand Forks avoided the mishaps in the field and went from 24^th to ninth to earn hard charger honors. Only 10 of the 23 starters as attrition took its toll.

Cole Greseth of Harwood and John Halvorson of Warren led the 23-car Wissota Street Stock field to green and Greseth, with 13 wins already this year, stormed out in front.  Jeremy Gust of Strathcona moved into third while Halvorson battled Doug VanMill of Bagley for fourth when the caution came out for Blaine Barnes of Grand Forks and Chris Ritter in turn two. I have not seen Barnes have much luck of late, and his night would come to an end.

Greseth stormed out to a big advantage over Gust as most of the street stocks hugged the bottom. VanMill would move up to third while Darek Turner of Fargo climbed ot fourth; unfortunately, Turner would spin in turn two to bring out the section caution, and that sent him from fourth to the tail.

One car I was keeping an eye on was Levi Randt of Siren, who like Greseth will be in the hunt for the Wissota Street Stock national title this summer. He moved into fifth on the restart as VanMill stayed close to Greseth. Kyle Betram of Dallas, S.D, was making some noise and passed Gust for the third spot.  The caution flew with 13 to go.

Bertram moved into second by the halfway point and Randt was up to third.  After another caution, Greg Jose of Grand Forks was moving up into the hunt, taking third from Randt.  The cautions seemed to multiply as Gust was turned around on the restart with seven laps to goi; he had help and got his spot back.

One car who was moving through the field was Trey Hess of Grand Forks, driving Rodney Hulst’s 49 car for his first night out this season. He had avoided the trouble and moved into the top five, with Adam Dehne of Medina in tow.

Randt moved into second, but Greseth just pulled away late, winning by 1.8 seconds.  Randt went from 14^th to second while Jose went from ninth to third. Hess went from 16^th to fourth while Dehne was fifth. The hard charger o the race was Jayden Bogh of Huron, who went from 21^st to seventh.  Only 12 of the 23 starters finished in another caution-filled main event.

Ethan Dotson led early ion the World of Outlaws Late Model feature but it wasn’t long before Bobby Pierce, the series point leader and owner of two wins this week already, was chasing him. Nick Hoffman was running third ahead of Tyler Erb with Sam Mars, the outside pole car, in fifth.

Pierce worked on Dotson as they closed quickly on lapped traffic. Erb cleared Hoffamn for third. Things got very dicey for the leaders and Dotson nearly got spun, but the caution flew for Ryan Gustin who slowed.

At that point I felt only one car would have a shot at Pierce – and that was Erb, who started eighth but was up to third. Pierce though built a two-second lead on Erb as Dennis Erb Jr. moved to fourth but would continue to duel with Hoffman for the position.

As Pierce encountered lapped traffic, Erb was able to cut the lead to 1.3 seconds, but Dotson was closing on him for second.

Pierce was cruising until lapped taffic got heavy in the final laps. Tyler Erb cut the lead to down to .534 seconds by the finish but didn’t have nearly enough as Pierce won his fourth straight WOO feature; he lapped up to 12^th place as the race went caution-free for the final 28 laps.

Tyler Erb, Dotson, Hoffman and Dennis Erb Jr. completed the top five.

One of the top late model drivers in the nation, Jonathan Davenport, was making his first-ever trip to RCS.  He did a hell of a job in the feature, going from sixth to 12^th, pretty impressive for never having been there before.  RCS is a different animal because of its shape and banking.  The 40-lap race lasted about 13 minutes.

RCS notes

--Two Wissota cars made the WOO show – Cole Schill of Hawley and Joey Pederson of East Grand Forks.  Schill qualified by finishing fourth in his heat while Pederson finished third in the last chance qualifier. Keep in mind, they are running 300-400 horsepower less than the WOO, open-motored cars.

--Cylen Vargason’s tough luck continued in the Wissota Midwest Modifieds. He had engine issues on Thursday at Norman County Raceway after qualifying and was a DNS in the heat; and during the pace laps on Friday his car stall, and he required a tow.

--Hess finished third in the Wissota Street Stock national points in 2025 with 17 wins but sold his car in the offseason. He said it’s possible we may see him in the 49 car again this season.

Skalicky, VanMil win Bison Battle at NCR

Jesse Skalicky of Fargo won the IMCA Modified feature Friday night at the Bison Battle at Norman County Raceway.  Lindsey Hansen of Fargo was second, Tyler Hall of Fertile third, Darren Pfau of West Fargo fourth and Shawn Wiest of Fargo was fifth.

Rob VanMil of Barnesville captured the IMCA Stock Car win over Jonny Carter of Lisbon. Dan Aberle of Finley was third, Daniel Eckblad of St. peter fourth and Ryan Satter of Dent fifth.

Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes won the INEX Legends feature for the second straight night with Regan Reinke of Lisbon second. Ryan Braseth of Ulen was third, Tanner Riewer of Detroit Lakes fourth and Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids was fifth.

Norman County Raceway will host the WOO Late Models on Tuesday.

Friday notes

Travis Scott of Glenwood won the Wissota Super Stock feature Friday at Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo with Ryan Flaten of Madison winning another Wissota Midwest Modified feature. Justin Vogel of Brooten was second to Keith Tourville in the Wissota Street Stock feature.

--Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo had the night off as did I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, which raced on Wednesday.