Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon hosted 74 cars on Sunday, which was the finale of the second annual POWRI Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint Shootout. A 28-car lightning sprint field was on hand.
The track was fast but challenging with some major holes in turns one and two, and at times you saw cars hit those and get some air.
Entering the night, Alex Truscinski of Greenbush held a 3-point lead over his dad Alan in the shootout tour points going into the night.
Grant Sexton of Lakeside, Calif., jumped out to the lead of the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint main event, which saw 23 cars take the green (one car had issues during the pace laps).
Alex Truscinski of Greenbush moved into second, the caution would come out as Kelsi Pederson’s #93 slowed with a big puff of smoke.
Colorado driver Chris Crowder moved into second and was chasing Sexton. But Sexton would continue to pull away, in large part because he was moving smoothly through lapped traffic. The lead grew to more than four seconds as Sexton was turning the race into a rout.
The caution would come out for a two-car incident in turns three and four and that erased Sexton’s more than four-second lead with 14 to go.
The ensuing restart saw Crowder challenge briefly before Sexton opened some breathing room. The caution would come out again as Dylan Langevin’s machine went off of turns three and four.
Sexton and Crowder remained out front; Bryce Haugeberg of Fargo was challenging Alex Truscinski for third. The car who was making a big charge through the field was Weston Olson of Warren, who started 17th but was up to fifth.
Haugeberg would go off of turn two to bring out the caution, wiping out a potential top five finish.
Sexton was clearly the class of the field, winning by 2.113 seconds. Crowder was second. Alex Truscinski wrapped up the tour title with a third-place finish. Josh Flood and Stephane St. Laurent rounded out the top five.
Tony Mack of Buxton the first two laps of the IMCA Modified feature, looking for his first career win.
Tyler Hall of Fertile moved into second after the first restart, and was closing quickly on Mack. Mack would get crossed up and collect Jamie Schulz of Harwood; Mack would go to the tail, which gave Hall the lead with 11 to go.
Hall, looking for win #2 of 2022, now had seventh starter Jesse Skalicky of Fargo on his heels with Schulz into third. Chad Porter of Madison Lake, a first-time visitor at Buffalo River, moved into fourth after starting 10th.
Hall had about a second lead on Skalicky with Schulz about two car lengths behind in third. Luke Johnson of Moorhead also was running well and moved into fourth past Porter.
Hall had added to the lead a bit each lap, and ended up winning by 1.208 seconds over Skalicky. Schulz was a solid third while Johnson capped off a good night in fourth. Porter was fifth. Schulz entered the night tied for the point lead with Cody Peterson of Glyndon but unofficially should enter next week’s track championship with the lead.
It was a good night for Brainerd-area cars in the IMCA Hobby Stocks.
Scott Herron of Brainerd took over the early IMCA Hobby Stock lead from Fargo’s Andrea Jacobson, who was facing a challenge from Nate Hanson of Brainerd and Tim Church of Moorhead. Behind them was three-wide racing.
Hanson and Chris Seidel of Brainerd moved past Jacobson. Seidel and Hanson had a fierce duel for second shaping up when the caution came out.
Herron opened up another lead on the restart as Seidel was able to clear Hanson for second. Seidel began to eat into Herron’s lead as well and with three to go was on his bumper. Seidel stayed close but Herron would prevail by .289 seconds over Seidel. Hanson was third, Chad Visser of Ironton fourth and Jacobson capped off a good night in fifth.
The big item of note in the IMCA Sport Mods is the point battle between Kelly Jacobson of Fargo and his dad Scott, who were separated by six points going into the night. Kelly had the point lead going into the feature.
Dave Siercks of Princeton jumped into the early lead of the feature race and sixth-starter Torey Fischer of West Fargo had quickly moved into the second spot.
Mac McGrew of Hawley got crossed up and struck a tire, and that collected Kelly Jacobson and Brady Moore of Ulen in turn one. Kelly and Moore both conitnued with some damage, McGrew’s night was over.
Jones got by Fischer on the restart and set his sights on Siercks. Fischer was solidly in third while Kelly Jacobson chased his dad, Scott, who started ninth, for fourth.
Jones got a big surge on the bottom of turn four and pulled beside Siercks and then took over the top spot with nine to go. Jones opened up some breathing room while Siercks’s #71 machine was smoking. Eventually the 71 slowed and Siercks would pull in.
Fischer, looking for her first sport mod win, took over second on the final restart. Scott Jacobson got a good restart and got by Fischer, who now had to contend with Kelly Jacobson and Patrick Brejcha of Wahpeton for third.
Scott Jacobson drove hard to try and make a run at Jones and was close, but Jones had a few car lengths on his way to the win. Scott Jacobson gained some ground on his son – two points – as Kelly finished in fourth. Fischer capped off a good night finishing third. Brejcha, a former winner at Buffalo River this season, was fifth.
Jason Kast of Fairmont had a 15-point lead over Adrian Kubitz in the Short Trackers heading into Sunday. It was Hunter Goulet of Fargo who jumped out to the early lead over Kast.
But it was clear who the fastest car was on this night, and that was Bemidji’s Waylon Current. The #9 car quickly moved into second and then went past Goulet for the lead – and then checked out on the field.
Goulet had a nice lead over Kast for second as things got spread out. Current opened up a nearly half-lap lead on his way to his second victory of 2022. Goulet, who had a good run at Viking on Saturday and earned runner-up honors, finished second for a second straight night. Kast was third and added to his point lead over Kubitz, who finished fifth. Kody Crabtree of Fargo was fourth.
A note on Goulet: in his last seven starts overall, he has three wins, and has not finished worst than fourth. A car to watch as we get to some of the bigger shows later in the year.
BRS Notes
--It was good to see Weston Olson of Warren get the B feature win in the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints. Olson had missed time this season with a broken wrist suffered playing baseball. He is one of several teenagers who’ve shown promise in the class.
--The lightning sprints, for the week, averaged 27.5 cars for the four nights, which is pretty good consistency. The fewest was 26 cars with the most being 28 cars three times.
--The INEX Legends had the night off at Buffalo River, but there was an announcement on Facebook regarding Tye Wilke, who leads the points at both Red River Valley Speedway and Buffalo River. The Wilkes have sold their legend car (he will finish the season in the car and run some year-end specials), and will focus on the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car he currently pilots – and eyeing some bigger things perhaps. Tye told me a few weeks ago they do have a 410 Sprint Chassis sitting around that could be put together.
Wilke’s career reminds me some of Tim Estenson from a few years ago, where you’ve had a lot of success – and the natural progression is to move up to a different class. Estenson is racing a 410 sprint now; Wilke has raced the 305 sprint the past two seasons.
Spieker Wraps Up Minn-Kota Tour Title at Sheyenne
Teenager Ashton Spieker of Sabin won the INEX Legends feature and wrapped up the Minn-Kota Legends Tour title Sunday night at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon.
Spieker won his third feature of 2022. Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids was second in the feature, followed by Alex Kukowski of Edgeley, Collin Compson of Valley City and Glenn Mitchell of Picton, NSW.
Point leader Jayden Michaelsohn of Aberdeen won the Hobby Stock feature over Kelby Anderson of Fort Ransom. Hayden Aberle of LaMoure was third, Isaiah Throener of Cogswell fourth and Ryan Mund of Milnor fifth.
Veteran Kevin Robertson of Enderlin won the Wissota Late Model feature over Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks. Cole Schill of Horace picked up his fourth top three finish in as many nights by taking third. Chase Gelling of Aberdeen was fourth and Ben Mickelson of Jamestown was fifth.
Hunter Carter of West Fargo picked up his second win of 2022 in the Wissota Street Stocks over Cole Greseth of Harwood. Kyle Anderson of Jamestown, the winner at Jamestown on Saturday, was third, while Jodie Michaelsohn of Aberdeen was fourth and last week’s winner Todd Carter of Lisbon was fifth. By the way, there were three cars with the #19 in the streets out of the 12 entrants.
Brennon Weight of LaMoure won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Alex Langland of Enderlin. Nate Reinke of Lisbon was third, Lucas Rodin of Marion was fourth and Jarod Klein of Jamestown fifth.
Matt Bogart of Milnor won the Mini Stock feature over Tempest Trone of Litchville. Layton Thompson of Lisbon was second, Mason Bogart of Milnor was third and Dale Mittleider of Hankinson was fifth.
Broking Wraps Up RV Tour Title
Huron driver Dale Ames won the Advantage RV Modified Tour finale Sunday night at Casino Speedway.
Grand Rapids, Minn., driver Johnny Broking finished fifth and wrapped up his second straight Advantage RV Mod Tour title.
Don Eischens of Richmond, Minn., was second in the feature with Tyler Peterson of Horace taking third. Mike Stearns of Hecla was fourth.
Scott Hansen of Garden City won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Derek Rieck of Ortonville. Mike Nichols of Watertown was third, Tommy Nichols of Watertown fourth and Jake Wranek of Winner was fifth.
Andy Rossow of Florence won a great three-car duel with Justin Vogel of Brooten and Maria Broksieck of Goodwin in the Wissota Street Stocks.
Matt Goth of Huron and Jason Marko of Watertown rounded out the top five.
Tony Croninger of Watertown topped Scott Harrington of Waubay for the Viessman Late Model win. Doug Walsh of Watertown was third.
Chad Becker of Aberdeen outdueled Chuck Swenson of Watertown for the Wissota Late Model win. Curt Kranz of Watertown was third, Josh Skorczewski of Aberdeen fourth and Trevor Walsh of Watertown fifth.
Adam VanDerostyne of Canby topped Braydan Belalka of Arlington for the Wissota Hornet win.
Notes
Congrats to Ryan Gierke of Villard who won the Wissota Modified feature Sunday at Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids.
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