Late pass helps Gullikson capture DRC Street Stock Tour win at Princeton

The ¼-mile bullring known as Princeton Speedway hosted the Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour on Friday night. It is only the second tour race that has been held this year – and even this one looked pretty bleak earlier in the day based on the forecast.

Earlier shows at I-94 EMR Speedway and Viking Speedway (the first night) were canceled. The only show to have been held on the tour was Night 2 at Viking which Eric Riley won.

I haven’t been to Princeton many times but it’s a racy little bullring with some good banking.  With a shot of rain before that led to the start being delayed by 90 minutes as the track was reworked. I give the folks at Princeton credit for making a lot of effort to get the show in – many tracks would have said heck with it after the late afternoon rain. The track held up pretty well but on nights when rain hits late in the afternoon, it usually leads to a hammer-down night. Racing started at 8:30 p.m. but concluded a little after 11 p.m., nice work by the track and drivers to keep the show moving.

The DRC Street Stock Tour had 18 cars on hand – car count I believe was impacted by the weather – but struggled to compete lap 2, as there were three straight cautions trying to complete that lap.

Tommy Pogones led early over Josh Long of Canby with Cody Kummer running third and defending  Wissota 100 winner Jim Gullikson in fourth. Rose was fighting the Wolverine, Justin Vogel of Brooten, for fifth.

Defending national champion Kolton Brauer of Eyota – who has not raced a lot this season – was spun in turn two and collected Sam Fankhauser. Brauer was charged with the caution and didn’t seem happy about it when he stopped on the frontstretch. On the restart defending tour champion Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck was turned in turns three and four and had to go to the tail while Sam Fankhauser went around on the next restart.

Pogones is the defending track champion at Princeton and was pulling away as Long, Kummer and Gullikson went three-wide for second. Rose and Vogel fought for fifth ahead of Jeff Ekdahl.

Kummer moved into second with Gullikson third with Vogel grabbing fourth, dropping Long to fifth.

Pogones was cruising and built a 2.8 second lead on Kummer who was under a ton of heat from Gullikson. I didn’t see what happened to Vogel but the 10 car would pull off with a problem. There was a lot of contact back in the field and that left Sam Fankhauser turned again; he would call it a night on a frustrating evening.

On the restart Gullikson moved into second with Rose in fourth and Long in fifth. Ekdahl was putting the heat on Long for fifth.  Gullikson was trying to find a way around Pogones but was unable to make the run stick. After a caution for Sacha Torkkeli with four to go, that set up a great four-lap shootout between Gullikson and Pogones.  Pogones made one slip up – he slid high in turn two – and Gullikson capitalized to take the lead on the second-to-last lap.

That was the winning pass as Gullikson prevailed.  Pogones was second, Kummer was third. Long was fourth and Rose was fifth. Parker Anderson of Phillips, Wis., was the hard charger, going from 13^th to sixth. Dykhoff went from 14^th to eighth. One interesting tidbit was there were three Canadians, who race mainly at Thunder City Speedway in Thunder Bay, on hand in the street stocks.

Former national champion Dexton Koch of Becker grabbed the lead in the Wissota Super Stock feature over Dan Nissalke of Winona. Dustin Nelson of Ogilvie was in third but had a lot of company behind him, including Dylan Kromschroeder of Foreston and former Wissota 100 winner Dylan Nelson of Merrifield.

Koch and Nissalke were nearly five seconds ahead of Dustin Nelson as Kromschroeder and Dylan Nelson fought for fourth. Nissalke stayed close to Koch the whole way but never had even momentum to make a run at the pass as he prevailed by .548 seconds.

Jason VandeKamp of Scandia leads the Wissota Midwest Modified points at Princeton and took the lead over Dustin Nelson, who was fighting Ryan Putnam of Princeton with Erik Gruhlke of Zimmerman running fourth. Princeton has been averaging around a dozen cars in the class but only had seven on Friday.

VandeKamp was hauling on the 1/4-mile, building a 3.1 lead as Putnam passed Nelson for second. The battle for third turned into a three-car fight between Nelson, Gruhlke and Tate Kostreba of Elk River.

VandeKamp, a top runner for many years in eastern Minnesota, was out for a Sunday driving and was never challenged, winning by three seconds. Putnam ran well and took second while Nelson edged Gruhlke for third by .086 seconds. Chance Kodet of Becker made a late pass to grab fifth from Kostreba.

Travis Schulte of Becker stormed out front in the Wissota Modified feature as Clayton Wagamon of Ramsey battled Eric Lamm of Milaca for second. Blake Adams of Cameron, Wis., was fourth with the great Dave Cain of Corcoran, in his season debut, in fifth.

Schulte’s lead stood at over a second but Wagamon was closing. Adams moved to third while Cain took over fourth. Wagamon got the lead down to two car lengths by the halfway point. Lamm would pull off with an issue moments later.

Adams was closing on the top two, setting up a three-car battleat the front as lapped traffic became a real factor. Schulte survived that as Wagamon and Adams raced hard for second.  Zach Benson of Princeton was running solidly in fifth.

There was some good, hard racing at the front, and Wagamon made a huge charge on the bottom of turn four but could not make it stick. Schulte would go flag to flag in a caution-free main event to win by .514 seconds.  Wagamon held off Adams for second. Cain had a solid debut night in fourth and Benson finished fifth. It was a very entertaining race, the kind Princeton is known to produce weekly.

I don’t see the Wissota Mod 4s often; the closest track would be Bemidji. There were nine of the 11 cars on hand taking the green in the feature. Connor Bruss of Nelson took the lead early and after a pileup in turn four brought out a yellow, Rowan Tramm of Mora made a charge into second when the racing resumed as Thomas Burgard was third. Burgard tried to make a run under Tramm in turn four but got in a little hot and got together with Tramm. Burgard suffered a flat and headed to the pits. Tramm would pull off a few laps later.

As Bruss resumed out front with Andrew Funt of Hillman taking over second as Tramm slowed and went to the pits. Jacob Husnik of Pine City took over third while Hailey Nohner of Onamia was fourth and Steve Froelich of St. Cloud fifth.

Funt was the fastest car on the track but faced a three-second deficit as Bruss drove a flawless race to pick up the victory by a comfortable margin. Funt was second, Husnik third, Nohner fourth and Froelich fifth.

I must confess I don’t follow the Crown Vic or Micro Sprint class since they don’t race up this way much so I will keep those recaps brief.

The Crown Vics --- the latest attempt by Midwest Tracks at finding an affordable, competitive racing class in the Midwest  --  had 11 cars in attendance and ended up with a great finish. Hunter Morris took control from the green and built a big lead over Wayne Nelson as lapped traffic came into play. Nelson made a late charge for the lead and fell a few feet short.  Zeke Oppegaard was third, Joe Stradlien of Coon Rapids was fourth and Jesse Tunvall of North Branch was fifth.

Marshall Willing of Becker took control early of the Micro Sprint feature and ran away with the win. Several cars dropped out early with some issues, but there was only one caution. It was Willing’s first career win. Bentley Halopka, Jackson Geragi, Tyler Pelofske and Brian Link completed the top five.

 The DRC Street Stock Tour goes to Ogilvie Raceway on Saturday and Granite City Motor Park on Sunday.

I-94 victories to Mass, Saurer, Riley, Swenson, Schow and Rohner

Dave Mass of East Bethel won the NLRA Late Model feature Friday night at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls. Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks was second, Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Manitoba third, Tyler Peterson of Hickson fourth and Cole Schill of Hawley fifth.

Travis Sauer of Elizabeth won the Wissota Modified feature over Dusty Bitzan of Evansville. Brady Gerdes of Villard was third, Brandon Dolman of Evansville fourth and Shane Sabraski of Rice fifth.

Eric Riley of Morris beat Levi Randt of Siren for the Wissota Street Stock feature win. Cole Greseth of Harwood was third, Darek Turner of West Fargo fourth and Joshua Schroeder of Dalton fifth.

Blake Swenson of Watertown won the Gen X Late Model feature with Jeff Nelson of Perham second. Alex Tschakert of Kent was third, Parker Gilbertson of Montevideo fourth and Trevor Walsh of Watertown was fifth.

Matt Schow of McIntosh topped his brother-in-law, Reise Stenberg of Argusville, to win the Wissota Midwest Modified main event. Jake Smith of St. Joseph was third, Jon Carlson of Brandon fourth and Ron Saurer of Dalton fifth.

Jeff Rohner of Willmar won the Wissota Hornet feature over Chase Golliet of Fargo. Christian Kast of Fairmount was third, Lincoln Miller of Fergus Falls fourth and Emma Nelson of Fergus Falls fifth.

Friday night notes

--Tony Smith of Jamestown topped Maria Broksieck of Goodwin for the Wissota Street Stock feature win Friday night at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen. Dusty Mund of Lisbon won the INEX Legends feature.

--Ryan Flaten of Madison won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature Friday night at Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo. Travis Scott of Glenwood won the Wissota Super Stock feature over Karter Reents of Glenwood.

--River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks and Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo both cancelled because of rain on Friday.

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