Huus wins first career feature at I-94; Riley, Bitzan, Sward, Meyer and Rohner victorious

Jarrett Huus of Fergus Falls won his first career feature on Friday.

I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls held its first racing program since June 20 with 117 cars on hand.

Of all of the tracks I cover for RaceChaser blog, I=94 has had the worst luck with weather. They’ve had four rainouts, and another show, the King of the Dirt, was rained out at intermission. The big loss was the rainout of the World of Outlaw Late Model show on June 26. They got thrown another weather curveball on Friday with some significant rain in the early afternoon.

I think under different circumstances, I-94 might not have raced on Friday after that rain. However, with all the rainouts, and the fact they are off the next two Fridays (the Ottertail County Fair is next weekend), they really needed to get a show in. Plus, it was fan appreciation night, and the fireworks show that was rained out on July 4.

It was a hazy, smoky humid evening at I-94. With those conditions, and the earlier rain, it led to a tacky, hammer-down racetrack, which isn’t ideal for most drivers.  However, I think most folks I talked to understood – with the weather and I-94’s desire to get another race program in.  Owner Don Shaw was out there with the blade prior to race time and it took a lot of laps for the tractors and trucks to get it even raceable so those folks deserve credit for the effort.  There was a really nice crowd on hand with the tailgate area being full.

Onto the racing:  One driver picked up his first career feature win, while another won his first feature in 2018.

 Scott Harrington of Waubay, S.D., and Rick Schroeder of Montevideo led a 23-car Gen X Late Model field in the feature. I was keeping an eye back in the back on Dave Mass and Ben Wolden; both are strong foes (Mass has more than 580 career feature wins, and Wolden is the all-time Gen X Late Model feature wins leader at I-94) but didn’t make the redraw and were starting back in the field.  

Unfortunately there was a pair of multi-car messes in turn two on the opening lap. One included Jeff Nelson of Perham, Larry Samuelson of Erhard, and John Plaster of Evansville, with all three driving away. The harder impact involved Mass and Scott Zimmerman of Rothsay. Mass would leave on the hook.

Schroeder took the early lead over Harrington with Parker Gilbertson of Montevideo, who won his first career feature Thursday at Sheyenne Speedway, soon was pressuring Harrington for the runner-up slot. Tony Croninger of Watertown soon moved into fourth and Trevor Walsh of Watertown was running fifth.

Gilbertson’s 23 car was starting to smoke, and he would pull off, ending his hopes of back-to-back wins.  Walsh and Croninger had some contact out of turn two, sending the 8T spinning with 12 to go. Croninger would go to the tail.

Another caution waved on the ensuing lap, but more significantly Schroeder would slow with a problem and would pull off.

Harrington had the lead on the restart over Huus and Walsh. Huus made a charge on the high side into the top spot. Walsh was third but had his hands full with Blake Boelens of Brandon. Ben Wolden was in fifth but was facing heat from Bodie Croninger.

Andrew Tysdal and Cade Skytland got together in turn two, and Tysdal, who broke a drive shaft while leading on Thursday at Sheyenne, would leave on the hook. Huus would resume the lead on the restart as Harrington and Walsh fought for second. Wolden moved into fourth past Boelens.

Walsh grabbed second and for a moment pressured Huus, but the 27 car would open some breathing room and pull away to a 1.2 second win over Walsh, the first of his career. Huus has been in the class since 2021 and has steadily improved each year, and this was a well-earned victory against a pretty stout field.

Harrington broke on the final lap and slid back, moving Wolden to third, Boelens to fourth and Bodie Croninger to fifth.

Trey Hess of Grand Forks grabbed the klead in the Wissota Street Stock featrure with Eric Riley of Morris grabbing second. Joe Martin of Willmar was fighting Cory Dykhoff of Perham for fourth.

Riley worked the high side and passed Hess for the top spot.  Josh Lawson was running fifth but had Wade Bergerud pressuring him.

Riley had the lead but Hess was starting to pressure him for the top spot for a few laps but Riley would open 2-3 car lengths with seven to go. Dykhoff, meanwhile was working underneath trying to gain ground on Hess. The top four had a huge gap on fifth-place Lawson. The top groove was the place to be for the street stocks as the position battled coole. Riley would pick up his third win of 2025 by .845 seconds over Hess. Dykhoff was third, Martin was fourth and Lawson was fifth for his first top five of the season. The street stocks did a nice job with no cautions.

I am going to saw this about the Wissota Midwest Modifieds at I-94. There are a lot of new faces in the class that have joined the class over the past year or two, which is good for the future of the class. The bad part about that is there is a lot of inexperience, and as a result the cautions pileup like on Friday.  This was a messy race and honestly frustrating to watch.  I would like to see, in a race like that, to go to a single-file start sooner if the cautions are going to add up like they did on Friday.   I lost track after eight cautions. The feature lasted 31 minutes and only 14 of the 26 starters finished.

Trouble struck the inside pole car in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature before they even got to the green as Tyler Bitzan slowed at the start and would stop. He would pull pit-side with apparent front suspension issues. Shortly after, Jon Carlson of Evansville, the No. 4 starter on the field, would also pull off.  That left a front row of Dylan McManigle of Wadena and Tanner Bitzan of Brandon. Lurking back in row two was defending I-94 champion of Nate Reinke of Lisbon, already with three wins at I-94 this season.

Unfortunately a big pileup occurred in turn four over Scott Oeltjen of Osakis ended up turned around in turn four, leading to contact with several cars, including Haley Dykhoff of Starbuck, Ron Saurer of Dalton, McManigle, Andrew DeNoble of Fergus Falls, Tate Kelderman of Wadena and Dalton Kruger of Clara City. Most of the cars had at least a little bit of damage, but Kelderman would leave on the hook. Oeltjen would change a tire.

Tanner Bitzan and Reinke led the field after the pileup with Shane Howell of Buffalo moving into third. Taylor Bitzan moved into fourth ahead of Saurer. After a debris caution with 18 to go, Reinke went to work on Tanner Bitzan with Taylor Bitzan and Ron Saurer fighting for fourth. Young Noah McFarlane was battling Dykhoff for sixth. Brad King and Jake Karch ended up turned around in turn four for the fifth caution of the race. Dykhoff would pull in during the caution.

On the restart, Saurer and Taylor Bitzan made contact down the frontstretch, sending Bitzan spinning. Saurer was charged with the caution.

Howell was the latest to pull in after running in the top five. The seventh caution waved for Blayne Sweet’s spin in turn four. After yet another restart Tanner Bitzan resumed up front as Taylor Bitzan went to work on Reinke for second. McFarlane was fourth and Saurer, who had gone to the tail, had climbed back to fifth.

Tanner Bitzan caught lapped traffic and it actually worked in his favor as he extended his lead to more than a second.  The eighth caution waved again for a spin; I would have called it a race then but they restarted the race one more time, and Tanner Bitzan would prevail over Reinke. Taylor Bitzan was third, Saurer was fourth and McFarlane was fifth. Oeltjen, who went to the tail, came back to finish sixth.

Joe Thomas of Glyndon grabbed the lead of the Wissota Modified feature as fellow front-row starter Josh Thoennes of Nelson broke going down the backstretch and would pull in. Seth Brede of Willmar would move into second with Bryce Borgen of Perley in third. A great battle for fourth between Brendan Blascyk of Hoffman, Ryan Gierke of Villard and Bryce Sward of Nelson, driving Corey Svor’s 6X machine. Sward had started way back in 10^th.

Thomas opened up a 1.9 second lead over Brede, who had a lot of pressure from Borgen.  Gierke would get sideways in turn two and lose a bunch of ground. Sward would pass Borgen for third with Travis Saurer also moving into the top five.

Thomas didn’t run away with the lead but had a comfortable lead of over a second on Brede. The caution would wave for Erv Grossman’s spin in turn four with two to go, erasing a comfortable margin for Thomas.  And the caution would be costly.

On the final restart, which was a one-lap shootout, Sward went for the slider in turn two and made it stick past Thomas out of turn two. Thomas tried to answer in turn four but couldn’t finish it as Sward picked up the win.   Sward was plagued with mechanical trouble early in the year but has gotten hot since then. He has three wins and hasn’t finished outside the top four in seven starts. He is a talented driver who was always a threat to contend when he raced in the late models.

Thomas had to settle for second in what had to be a tough loss after leading the first 19 laps. Saurer was third, Brede was fourth and Borgen fifth.

Tim Johnson spun the 26 machine in turns one and two for the first caution. On the restart Travis Robertson of Moorhead grabbed the lead over Shawn Meyer of Wahpeton. Don Shaw moved into third with Kevin Robertson in fourth. The caution would wave with 21 to go when one of the infield tires ended up on the track.

On the restart, Shaw hit a tire hard into turn one and spun, and his night would end on the hook.  Looking at the replay, he was sideways going into the corner before he hit the tractor tire, and it was possible something may have broke beforehand. No matter, it left a lot of damage to the 39 car (a car Ryan Newman raced).

Travis Robertson led with Meyer in second on the restart. On the move was Danny Vang of Deerwood as he grabbed the third spot.  Ryan Mikkelson of Alexandria, back behind the wheel after a layoff after a rollover in May, had seized fifth with former I-94 champion Cole Schill of Hawley in fifth.

Meyer was right on Travis Robertson’s tail as the 8R got into lapped traffic. Meyer would make the move in turns one and two and grabbed the lead with nine to go.  The lapped traffic was very costly for Robertson. Vang then closed in on Travis Robertson as Meyer opened a commanding 3.1 second lead. Mikkelson was also catching Vang for third.

Meyer pounded the high side, and was dangerously close to the wall on several occasions , but actually extended the lead to more than four seconds on his way to the win. I did some research and it was Meyer’s first feature win since 2018.

Meyer had not been having a good year going into the night. He had one DNF, one DNS and his best A-feature finish was 13^th. It was a badly needed win for the 18x team.

Christian Kast of Fairmount took the lead in the Wissota Hornet feature with Eli Green running second. Jeff Rohner of Willmar was battling Hunter Goulet of Fargo for third with Kevin Wahl of Fergus Falls running in fifth.

Kast soon had a major challenge from Rohner, who was working down low, with Green not fair behind.  Goulet had Wahl and Travis Bruns pressuring him for fourth.

Rohner opened a half straightaway lead on Kast with Green running a solid third. Wahl and Goulet had the best battle for fourth. Rohner would pick up his eighth win of the year by 3.1 seconds over Kast, who had won at KRA Speedway on Thursday. Green, Goulet and Wahl rounded out the top five.

I-94 Notes

--In his last trip to I-94 in May, Mikkelson rolled his 15* late model hard on the final lap.  Friday marked his return to the track, which was good to see. Mikkelson and his wife, Mckenzie, the driver of the 13X Wissota Modified, welcomed their third son, Jasper in May.

--I talked to Mike Anderson of Walcott, driver of the Gen X Late Model. He has a new Rocket Chassis this year; he previous car is the one being driven by rookie Cade Skytland, son of long-time driver Cody Skytland. Anderson has raced in several classes in a career that has spanned more than three decades.

--Trey Hess might be the most traveled driver in the Wissota Street Stocks this summer. Kast is making a case for that award in the Wissota Hornets. By my count he has raced at 11 different tracks this season, ranging from Hibbing to Bemidji to Casino. He has two wins and 14 top fives in 25 starts.

--Veteran Jason Thoennes of Garfield had some bad luck in his Wissota Modified heat race. There was contact going down the backstretch with a couple of cars and he got struck hard on the right side by Brent Pulskamp, who had been hit by another car. Thoennes was a DNS in the feature unfortunately.

 Nowak wins DRC Street Stock Tour at Red Cedar

Jeff Nowak of Angelton, Texas won the Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour stop at Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, Wis., on Friday night. Nick Traynor of Barron, Wis., was second, Justin Vogel of Brooten was third, Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck was fourth and Hunter VanGuilder of Canton, Wis., was fifth.

Dykhoff leads the tour with four wins on the year, while Nowak, Jim Gullikson of Nowthen and Tommy Pogones of Princeton each have victories.

Greseth, Schow, Hastings and Strand lead RCS winners

Cole Greseth of Harwood picked up his 13^th win of the season in the Wissota Street Stocks. Greg Jose of Grand Forks was second, Seth Klostreich of Grand Forks was third, Weston Ramsrud of Bagley was fourth and John Halvorson of Warren was fifth.

Matt Schow of McIntosh won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature with Austin Hunter of Winnipeg taking second. Frank Veert of Winnipeg was third, Ryan Schow of McIntosh was fourth and MaKenna Romuld of Grand Forks was fifth. Ryan Schow won Thursday night at Victory Lane Speedway in Winnipeg.

Jade Hastings of Grand Forks topped Jack Croaker of East Grand Forks for the NOSA Sprint win. Andy Pake of Felton went from 16^th to third with Colton Young of Devils Lake taking fourth and Nick Omdahl of East Grand Forks taking fifth.

Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks edged Tyler Peterson of Hickson for the Wissota Late Model win. Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., was third, Brad Seng of Grand Forks was fourth and John Seng of Grand Forks was fifth.

Monty Ferriera of Lincoln, Neb., won the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature over Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes. Marcus Rothenbacher of Ulen was third, Ty Hanten of West Fargo was fourth and Dylan Waxdahl of Hartford was fifth.