I-94 EMR Speedway held its annual King of the Dirt event on Saturday with a big field of 165 cars on hand. Fans got there $20 worth and then some with a ton of laps of racing. There were a lot of big-time cars on hand in every class.
I don’t think there were any huge surprises as far as Kings that were crowned. The track held up well despite temps in the upper 80s and a lot of sun. The I-94 EMR Speedway folks were part of nearly 12 hours of racing over the past two days and deserve credit for their work. They will get a well-deserved break next week as the track will be idle on June 10.
This was a busy night of racing, with 21 heat races, three B mains and seven feature events.
It was night 4 of the Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour and Braden Brauer of Eyota took the early lead in the feature over Kyle Howland with Kyle Anderson of Jamestown in fifth. There was a pile of cars battling for fourth on back.
The first caution waved with 22 to go when a few cars spun in turns one and two. I didn’t see what triggered that.
Brauer entered the night with six wins in 14 starts, with victories at four different tracks, and has been fast wherever he has unloaded.
Rice Lake, Wis., driver Hunter VanGuilder was working the high line and moved into third while Jeff Ekdahl moving into fourth. Nick Traynor of Barron, Wis., who has two tour wins already, was on the charge. He went up to the high line and surged past Howland and Ekdahl into second. VanGuilder was slowed by a scrape to the wall. VanGuilder would pull in moments later.
Friday’s runner-up, Kyle Genett, was also making the #16 car work on the high line into third.
Traynor’s #40 machine was awesome on the high line and he surged past Brauer for the top spot. Brauer wasn’t done and fought back on the low line but Traynor would assume the lead.
Howland’s hopes for a top five ended with contact with the wall in turns three and four, bringing out the second caution with 12 laps left.
Eric Riley of Morris started 14th but had worked to sixth at that caution. The Wolverine Justin Vogel, never to be counted out, was running in eighth.
Riley moved into fourth as Genett and Brauer had a side-by-side duel for second. Traynor’s lead grew to 1.0 seconds over Genett with eight left.
Riley, Ekdahl and Anderson had a good battle for fourth going when the caution waved with eight left for Kaden Woodie’s spin in turns one and two.
Traynor’s #40 machine was flawless on the higher line for the first 14 laps, and each time Brauer took a peek down low, the momentum would carry him back in front. Brauer and Genett resumed their battle as the laps waned.
Traynor, however would scrape the wall in turns three and four and slide back to third, and the battle for the lead came down to Brauer and Genett. Brauer’s 34 machine was stuck to the line on the tires as the top two put on a heck of a show was the white flag waved.
Brauer made one last charge on the bottom and it set up a fantastic finish. Genett’s momentum carried him to a win by .297 seconds in a nailbiter at the line. Traynor held on for third while Ekdahl and Riley capped off good runs in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jonny Carter of Lisbon – who has a new Stealth Chassis this year – quietly worked through traffic and earned Hard Charger awards by going from 18th to sixth. I checked with Carter beforehand, and they are searching for speed in the new car, but Saturday was a clear sign of progress.
Mike Nichols of Watertown, who won at Casino Speedway on Sunday, and Haley Lee of Starbuck led the 24-car Wissota Midwest Modified field to the green.
Nichols took the lead over Lee, who picked up a feature win at Viking Speedway over Memorial Day weekend, was applying some pressure on the lower lane. Zach Johnson of Lowry had a Wissota Midwest Modified out this weekend, and he settled into third. Cole Boston of Lindstrom, who had a top five finish on Friday, was fourth ahead of former national champion Lucas Rodin of Marion.
Nichols opened up a one-second lead over Lee. Rodin and Boston had a great battle for fourth and were a few car lengths behind Johnson. Rodin caught Johnson and soon applied pressure for that spot. Corey Storck of Morris was also batting for a spot in the top five.
Nichols lead began to shrink as he encountered lapped traffic but Lee couldn’t get closer. The caution would wave with five to go with Ron Saurer’s 42 machine slowing on the backstretch. The 70-year-old, in his 50th year of racing, would pull into the pits but would return at the rear of the field.
Nichols charged out to a three-car length lead over Lee, as Rodin attacked Johnson for third. Another driver making some noise near the top five was Taylor Bitzan of Brandon; he worked into fifth after starting 10th with the caution waving again for a solo spin in turn two.
Rodin put the 19 on the bottom of Johnson and took over third and set his sight on Lee for second as Nichols pulled away again. Johnson, Storck and Bitzan had a great race for fourth place.
Nichols had opened the lead to more than 1.6 seconds as the #67 car was flawless all night long. Lee capped off a great night in second; in the past two weekends she has one win and two runner-up finishes, it’s great to see her shake the bad luck that has plagued her the past couple of years.
Rodin finished third for his second top five of the weekend with Johnson taking fourth and Storck outlasting Boston for fifth.
After a caution-filled mess of a feature on Friday, the 29-car field had just two cautions on Saturday in a much cleaner race. Nice job by those drivers.
Ryan Mikkelson of Alexandria took the lead from the green in the Wissota/NLRA Late Model feature. Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks was in second, but veteran Brad Seng of Grand Forks would move into second and start to close on Mikkelson.
Troftgruben was facing a challenge from Jeff Massingill of Keewatin and the 6M would take over the spot.
Seng would take over the lead with 23. Cole Schill of Horace was working the low line on Troftgruben. Soon Massingill caught Mikkelson as Schill and Troftgruben went at it in fourth. Schill had switched to a higher line and found some speed into fourth. Dave Mass of East Bethel and Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks were also looking to move into the top five.
The caution would wave with 16 to go for Casey Stremick’s spin in turn one; the 11 machine had clipped a traffic tire, I didn’t see if he had help.
Seng stormed out to a big lead on the start; Schill got to the inside of MIkkelson for third, and soon passed Massingill for second as the #44 car was working well.
Another car making some noise was Josh Zimpel of Braham. He went up the high side and soon moved into fourth.
Seng took firm control after the caution, opening up a three-second lead on Massingill, who had cleared Schill for second. Mass had worked into fifth and was working hard on Zimpel; Mass, who might have been the fastest car on the track as the laps shrunk, then set his sights on Schill for third.
The only thing that would serve as a deterrent for Seng was lapped traffic, and Massingill did close the gap to under two seconds. Massingill had closed to within a second, but ran out of laps as Seng would take the win by 1.035 seconds.
Mass would cap off a good run in third. Schill finished a solid fourth with Zimpel, who started 10th, would take fifth.
Two-time NLRA champion Mike Greseth of Harwood entered the night leading the points over Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., by 18. Greseth went from 16th to seventh while Edginton went from 20th to 11th. Sam Zender of Fergus Falls finished 10th after starting fifth.
Trevor Nelson of Warner, S.D. took the early lead of the Wissota Super Stock feature, which included only nine cars. Multi-time national champion Shane Sabraski was soon battling for the lead.
William Lund of Brandon quickly moved into third with Matt Miller of Alexandria moving into fourth in his Mopar-powered #13. Miller, however, would pull in with an issue a few laps left.
The top three had some distance from each other as Jordan Henkemeyer would move into fourth. Nelson would go on to win by 1.112 seconds over Sabraski; Nelson beat Sabraski at the Wissota 100 in Sept. 2022. Lund was third, with Henkemeyer in fourth and Carson Miller of Carlos, who picked up his first career win at Viking last Sunday, taking fifth.
Justin Froemming of Garfield took the lead early in the Wissota Modified feature over Dusty Bitzan of Brandon. Former Wissota national champion and Wissota 100 winner Dave Cain of Corcoran moved into third.
The Ice Man Don Eischens would bring out the caution after he was turned in turn four; didn’t see the cause but he would leave on the hook.
On the restart Froemming powered to the lead over Cain with Bitzan, Gerdes and Travis Saurer of Elizabeth battling for third. Joseph Thomas of Fargo was also closing on that group.
Another car who was quietly moving up was Tyler Kaeter of St. Cloud, who had started 12th but had moved into the top six. The caution would wave for Cole Anderson’s spin on the backstretch with 20 to go. That caution erased a three-second lead for Froemming.
Cain began to work on Froemming up front with Bitzan in third and Thomas in fourth. Gerdes was trying valiantly to make the lower line work in the top five.
There was a multi-car melee on the front stretch with 17 left. Again, I didn’t see what triggered it, but involved were Danny Bayer of Elrosa, Kaeter, Brendan Blascyk of Hoffman and Brock Gronwold of Fergus Falls. Gronwold would leave on the hook, while Kaeter and Blascyk would pull in. Kaeter and Gronwold appeared to have endured the worst.
Gerdes would move into fourth behind Saurer as Bitzan slid back to fifth. Friday’s winner Ryan Gierke was also moving into the top five. Gerdes and Saurer had the best battle for third.
Froemming stuck his #33 to the high line from the get-go, and it was a wise move. He would open a 3.174 second lead on Cain with 12 laps left.
Gerdes and Saurer put on a heck of a show for third, and those are two guys who know that 3/8-mile track as well as anyone. You had some big-time cars battling back in the top 10, including Sabraski, two-time national champion Tyler Peterson of Hickson and Dan Ebert of Lake Shore.
The battle for fourth was heating up between Saurer, Thomas and Gierke as the top three pulled away. Thomas would soon prove to be the fastest of those three and as took over the fourth spot with five laps left.
Froemming’s SSR machine was flawless up near the wall, and he was never seriously threatened as he picked up the win by 2.249 seconds over Cain. Gerdes capped off a very good run in third with Thomas and Gierke rounding out the top five.
I talked with Froemming before the show on Saturday. HE was looking forward to the challenge of competing against a stacked field, and he answered it with a dominating win. It was his second win of the year, but one he’s coveted at I-94 for a while. He had a big win at the Silver 100 at Proctor last summer.
Shawn Beto of Wahpeton, the defending Short Tracker champion and the defending King of the Dirt winner, jumped out to the early lead. Peter Martin and Matthew Dittman of Lake Lillian would battle for second.
Kole Kampsen of Brooten, who has two wins at Viking Speedway already, was in fourth ahead of Brady Molter of Rothsay.
Martin and Dittman had the best battle on the track for second as a caution waved with five to go.
Things went three-wide for the lead briefly, but Beto held on. Molter was running well on the high side and would pass Dittman and Martin for second. Molter was living dangerously on the high side but got it to work.
Beto wouldn’t make any mistakes as his lead grew to nearly a second over Molter by the checkered. Molter, who started seventh, capped off a great run into second with Martin, Dittman and Kampsen rounding out the top five.
The Gen X Late Models wrapped up the evening. Brad Staples of Herman, who won Friday’s feature, jumped out to the lead over Larry Fitzsimmons. Dave Mass, driving Scott Rachels’ #66 machine, moved into third.
Mass was working the low line and moved into second as Fitzsimmons kept pace. Soon Mass was pressuring Staples for the lead. Staples had a big push in turn two and it was costly as Mass would take over the lead. Derek Quinn of Brandon, who is having a very good year at I-94 with a win and a third-place finish, was also moving up into fourth.
There was a big parking-lot type pileup in turns three and four with seven cars involved; I didn’t see the trigger but the good news was there didn’t seem to be major damage.
Mass took off on the final restart and wasn’t challenged. Fitzsimmons would finished second with Tony Croninger of Watertown making a nice late run into third. Jarrett Huus of Fergus Falls, the Gen X point leader, made a late push to fourth with Staples rounding out the top five.
I-94 Notes
--I ran into 2022 Wissota Street Stock national champion Kyle Dykhoff on Saturday. He was planning on taking the year off, but told me he has picked up a car, and there’s a decent chance he will be out with it at some point later this season. Racing is a hard habit to break!
--Riley had a really good run in the Wissota Street Stock feature on Friday, moving up to third with five laps left, before a rocker arm broke. I talked with him and he was looking to put a whole night together, and Saturday was certainly a positive result for the #51.
--I talked with Ryan Satter, the defending I-94 and Viking track champion in the street stocks. Saturday was only his fourth night out of the year and they are still trying to get the #67 machine back in form. That is the same car that he rolled at Viking in Sept. 2022 and the Satter team rebuilt it after that but right now it’s a search to get that 67 dialed in. He would qualify for the A main from the B but would pull in shortly after. I would expect they will get that car figured out soon but it’s frustrating right now.
--I talked with modified rookie Brendan Blascyk of Hoffman. Blascyk had a top 10 on Friday at I-94, finishing seventh. He is running an SSR Chassis. He won Wissota Midwest Modified titles at Viking and I-94 last year. He is a talented driver who will learn in the class and once he does will contend.
--Race fans in eastern Minnesota are probably familiar with the Boston racing team out of Lindstrom, Minn. Both siblings were on hand at I-94 this weekend. Cole Boston, 17, drives the 33C Wissota Midwest Modified while his sister Rachel, 16 is a rookie in the Wissota Street Stock class. I saw Rachel race a hornet car previously. Cole had a nice run on Friday finishing fifth.
Kevin Wahl of Fergus Falls had a new Short Tracker car -- #8 – in the pit area on Saturday. He won his heat.
Zach Kort of Fergus Falls has moved into the Wissota Midwest Modified division this year after previously racing in the Short Trackers.
The B main for the Wissota Mods would have been a good A main at a lot of tracks – Jason Thoennes, Zach Johnson, Mike Stearns, Matt Aukland, Nate Heinrich, and Danny Bayer being among them. Some good young talent in the race too with Avery Anderson, Austin Chyba and Cole Anderson.
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