The Moonshine Mod Tour made a stop at Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon for a Wednesday night show. A solid 18-car field was on hand.
Tyler Peterson of Hickson has two wins on the tour so far, winning at Sheyenne and Casino Speedways. Travis Saurer of Dalton won the stop at Brown County Speedway while Joe Thomas won at Miller. All three were in attendance on Wednesday.
Car counts were good in the other classes, including 23 INEX Legends, 11 Wissota Street Stocks, 11 IMCA Sport Mods and seven IMCA Hobby Stocks. For a mid-week show, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have a bit lower car counts in some of the classes, or the night could turn into a marathon. The heats clipped along nicely with no real issues and were done in a little over an hour, which considering they got a little shot of rain a little after 6 p.m., was pretty good.
Buffalo River has had some longer shows this season, but this show was done in less than three hours with the final checkered flag waving at 9:59 p.m. nice work by the track officials and the drivers to keep things moving on a week-night event.
Two drivers with a lot of laps at Buffalo River in its Wissota days – Travis Saurer of Elizabeth and Blake Jegtvig of Hawley – led the Wissota Modified field to the green as they chased the $1,200 top prize. The race would restart after a Jordan Duray spin in turns one and two.
Jegtvig took the lead over Moonshine point leader Brady Gerdes of Villard. Saurer was third ahead of Tyler Peterson of Hickson. Superman Mike Stearns of Aberdeen was running a solid fifth.
Jegtvig, whose last feature win was Aug. 16, 2019 according to myracepass, led by a car length while Gerdes worked diligently on the lower line as lapped traffic approached. Saurer and Peterson kept dueling for third. The MIllenial Farmer, Zach Johnson of Lowry, had worked into fifth.
With 16 to go Jegtvig and Gerdes resumed their battle while Saurer, Peterson and Johnson were fighting for third on a very slick racetrack.
Jegtvig ran a higher lane and he stuck his #2 machine there the entire race, and he didn’t make any mistakes. In fact he had a couple of car lengths on Gerdes with three to go.
Jegtvig picked up his first feature win since Aug. 16, 2019 (according to myracepass) by .921 seconds over Gerdes, who padded his tour point lead. Saurer fought off Peterson for third with Johnson rounding out the top five. Matt Aukland of Glyndon was the Hard Charger, going from 17th to ninth.
Cole Greseth of Harwood jumped out to the lead in the Wissota Street Stock feature over Ryan Satter of Dent. Josh Barker had his hands full with Braden Brauer and Tucker Pederson, the top two drivers in national points, all over his bumper.
It was interesting Greseth ran a higher line in turns three and four while Satter stayed down low, but would run lower in turns one and two. As those two stayed in front, Brauer was closing quickly on both with 11 to go.
Brauer had caught Greseth for the lead. With seven to go, Greseth spun the 19 machine to bring out the first caution of the race, and costing him his shot at the win. The restart saw Satter and Pederson on Brauer’s bumper, with Trey Hess of Grand Forks and Kasey Ussatis of Nome in the top five as well.
On the restart Pederson got beside Brauer briefly as Ussatis moved into third. Brauer had the preferred line up high; Pederson could get beside him in turns one and two but Brauer would get a big surge off of turn two to build a couple car length lead.
Brauer picked up his 13th win of the year by 1.012 seconds over Pederson. Ussatis went from ninth to third with Satter and Hess rounding out the top five. Four of the top five finishers were in the top seven in national points: Brauer (first in standings), Pederson (second), Hess (fifth) and Ussatis (seventh).
Austin Veralrud was the early leader over Skyla Miller of Harwood in the IMCA Sport Mod feature’s early moments. 68-year-old Dave Siercks of Princeton moved past Miller for second. Rich Pavlicek of Casselton was third but soon moved into second with Scott Jacobson of Fargo moving into third as Siercks slid back.
Rich Pavlicek was on a rail on the low line and charged past Veralrud for the lead with 12 to go. Veralrud had a couple of car lengths on Jacobson for second. Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton, coming off of his first career win on Sunday at Buffalo River, had worked into fifth.
Jacobson soon worked past Veralrud into second with six to go, but Pavlicek had a more than four-second lead by then. Brandon Ferris was also having a solid run in sixth.
Pavlicek was flawless over the final 10-12 laps as he rolled to a 4.328 second win over Jacobson, who went from seventh to second. Veralrud had a good run in third with Siercks fourth and Jayden Pavlicek in fifth. Ferris went from 10th to sixth.
After a long, rough race on Sunday filled with cautions, the sport mods went 20 laps caution free and did a great job with pretty good racing through the field. If you point out the bad nights, you also have to point out the good and Wednesday was good.
Andrea Jacobson of Fargo and Caleb Gardner of Glyndon, armed with a new car, led the IMCA Hobby Stock field to green. Jacobson took the lead on lap one over Gardner with Brad Orvedal of Fargo and Nicholas Dillenburg of Pillager close behind.
Gardner put heavy pressure on Jacobson, who was running the low line, was Orvedal was glued to Gardner’s bumper. In fact, the top six were pretty even, but all were running the low line.
Gardner was patient in the 20 lapper, and looked for an opening but Jacobson held firm, and had to with the pressure on. Tyler Hehn of Horace and Todd Gettel of Mahnomen were battling for fifth.
Gardner and Orvedal got together briefly in turn one, and that cost both of them ground as Jacobson would open nearly a one-second lead. Dillenburg capitalized on that contact to move into second.
Jacobson picked up her second career win and second of the season at Buffalo River by .919 seconds over Dillenburg. Orvedal recovered for third with Gettel in fourth and Hehn in fifth. Gardner probably deserved a better outcome, considering how fast he was, but spun on the final lap to finish in seventh. The IMCA Hobby Stocks went caution free.
Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids led the first two laps of the INEX Legends feature but Alex Braseth of Ulen was applying pressure. The top two were soon joined by Collin Compson of Valley City, who won Sunday at Buffalo River. Compson would quickly take second.
Zander Compson of Valley City and Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton had moved into the top five as well when the caution waved for a Talon Seckerson spin in turn two.
Ryan Braseth of Ulen worked into the top five in the restart and was soon side-by-side with Zander Compson for third. He’d take over third with 14 to go.
Richardson had Collin Compson all over him, but Braseth had found a little higher lane was putting pressure on the top two.
Ryan Braseth went back to the higher lane on the restart with 10 to go. Meanwhile, Alex Braseth had fought back into fourth with Kody Machart of Moorhead also in the top five when another caution waved.
Things went three-wide for the lead between Richardson, Ryan Braseth and Collin Compson. But there was contact between Ryan Braseth and Richardson in turn two; Braseth would slid up the track and lose several valuable spots.
On the next lap, Collin Compson got into Richardson a little, enough to send the #79 around to bring out the caution. Richardson would get his spot back while Compson had to go pitside as the yellow/black had waved.
It seemed like the top 7-8 cars were so even in the INEX Legends and there was a lot of shuffling and battling for position.
Zander Compson was now the challenger to Richardson for the top spot with the Braseth brothers in tow. Zander Compson would take over the top spot with five to go. Hendrickson, one of the cars bunched up front, moved into second.
Zander Compson had some breathing room on Hendrickson, while Richardson had Ryan Braseth all over him for third with the white flag waving. Zander Compson would pick up his first career win, by .799 seconds, over Hendrickson. Richardson held off Ryan Braseth for third with Alex Braseth rounding out the top five.
Buffalo River/Wednesday Notes
--Joseph Thomas is the national point leader while Mike Stearns of Aberdeen is eighth in the Wissota Mod national points, both competed on Wednesday.
--Siercks is the point leader in the IMCA Sport Mods at Buffalo River, and is also 11th in the national points.
--Collin Compson has six wins in 25 starts and has a remarkable 22 top five finishes in what has become his breakout season in the INEX Legends. He entered the night leading the points at Buffalo River.
--Since July 7 and entering Wednesday, Tyler Peterson had raced in eight feature races between his late model and modified. He won six, and finished second the other two times. One of the wins was the $6,363 to win Dacotah Rumble late model in Aberdeen on Saturday. He had won the NLRA show the night before. He has 17 wins between the two cars this season.
--Peterson, Stearns and Jegtvig were former Wissota Mod national champions in the field. Peterson is the two-time defending champion.
Comentários