Olafson, Bruss, Schmidt, Simpson lead Bemidji Speedway winners

Alan Olafson of Blackduck won the Wissota Modified feature. (Photo by Lisa Rhen/Llisa Jean Designs)

It was a very busy, and long night at Bemidji Speedway with 108 cars signed in on Sunday. It was also Meet the Drivers night with an extended intermission for fans to get cards and pictures from the drivers.  Bemidji canceled last week after severe storms did a lot of damage to that area, so this was their first show since June 15.

It was a very long night, not to my liking as a fan; frankly no one in racing (fans, drives, promoters) likes marathon programs. Meet the Drivers nights are always quite a bit longer, I get that, but that was not the only culprit. The heat races took a lot of time and there were far too many cautions in several of the features.  Some of the driving just made me scratch my head. When there was actual racing, it was pretty good, but the cautions disrupted a lot of that in several features. And let’s face it, quarter-mile track racing tends to have more cautions – there simply isn’t a lot of room on the smaller tracks and there is more beating and banging.  That is good in some ways for competitive racing but can also lead to the cautions to pile up.

Two veterans hungry for a feature win, Alan Olafson of Blackduck and Jeff Reed of Bemidji, led the way of the Wissota Modified main event with Olafson taking the early lead.  Canadian Tanner Williamson, who started seventh, had worked up to fifth.

After a couple of cautions, Olafson pulled out to a 4-car length lead over Reed with defending Bemidji champion Lance Schilling in third and Canadian Tanner Williamson in fourth. Devyn Weleski of Bemidji was in fifth.

Reed was closing on Olafson up front with Schilling about a car length behind in third. The most recent winner, Josh Beaulieu of Bemidji, started 12th but had climbed to sixth.

Weleski’s top five run ended with a flat tire but the race continued. Reed stayed close to Olafson but couldn’t make it stick. Olafson, plagued with some rotten luck to start the year held off Reed and Schilling for the win. Williamson and Beaulieu made contact on the final lap in turn four that sent the 88 spinning. The final scoring indicated Williamson was credited with fourth place ahead of Adam Johnson of Perham, while Beaulieu was credited with ninth.

Canadian Rick Simpson and Dalton Carlson of Cohasset manned the front row for the 13-car Wissota Super Stock main event.  Simpson took the lead over Carlson with Alexa Sparby of Bemidji – who won her first super stock heat race earlier in the evening - - was running third. Doug Koski of Chisholm was fourth. Justin Barsness of Grand Rapids passed Faye Lewis for fifth.

Simpson and Carlson had a big advantage on Sparby as Barsness pressured Koski for fourth. Simpson built a 1.3 second lead with seven laps to go. Sparby had about a half-second on Koski for third.  Simpson’s lead was pretty steady for much of the race. Nic Lewis would spin coming out of turn four to bring out the first caution with five to go.

On the restart Garrett Masurka and Matt Sparby made hard contact on the front stretch and both ended up into the frontstretch barrier. Both were done. Faye Lewis was charged with that yellow.  Simpson led on the ensuring restart with Koski moving into third and Cameron Labelle climbing to fifth.

Simpson had about a car length on Carlson as Koski was fighting Barsness for third.  Simpson would prevail by .511 seconds over Carlson. Barsness made a late pass of Koski for third with Labelle rounding out the top five.

Austin Carlson of Cohasset and Alex Berg of Bemidji were on the front row for the 18-car Wissota Pure Stock feature.  It was plagued with cautions and mishaps, unfortunately, which led to a very (and too) long race, more than 25 minutes in fact.

Berg grabbed the lead as Carlson and Dustin Puffe of Bemidji fought for second. The caution waved for debris on the second lap. You always have to watch Dustin Puffe at Bemidji; he won Saturday at Greenbush and was starting third.

Puffe got by Carlson and went to work on Berg up front. Binkley ran third and Caspers was in fourth.  Puffe and Berg went side-by-side for the lead as Carlson was rightr behind the two cars in what turned into a heck of a race.

Alex Berg ran in the middle groove while Puffe chased on the low line. Those three had a pretty substantial gap on fourth-place Greg Caspers.  Aaron Bitker moved into the fifth spot.

Carlson’s good run was derailed by a flat right front tire at the halfway point, he got the tire changed and went to the tail. Caylyn Binkley started 16th but was up to ninth on the ensuing restart.

Chris Dudley’s 70 went around in turn four and got tagged by another car to bring out the caution, the fourth of the race. Caspers was charged with the caution and sent to the tail. That caution also brought out the yellow/black and led to a single-file restart.  Kade Leeper had climbed into the top five.

Dudley and Leeper got together in turn two, sending the 70 car off of the track and Leeper spinning for caution #6. Leeper and Dudley both required the wrecker, and Caspers also pulled in with damage. The time limit was reached, leading to a green, white checkered finish. Alex Berg of Bemidji survived the cautions the numerous challenges of Puffe to capture the win, the first of his career.  Puffe settled for second. Mason Smith of Bemidji started 13th but worked his way to third with Josh Bitker fourth and Brandon Puschinsky in fifth. Caylyn Binkley went from 16th to sixth.

Bret Schmidt of Bemidji and Gary James Nelson of Blackduck led the Wissota Midwest Modified feature to green; and as was the theme of the night, caution would wave before a lap was completed.  On the restart Schmidt took the lead  Kalin Honer spun in turn two and Mikey Blevins of Hibbing had nowhere to go and tagged him, leaving him with a flat.

Hunter Weeks of Laporte moved into third with Carter Matthews of Clearbrook ahead of the most recent WMM feature winner Dean Eggebraaten of Bemidji in fourth.

Another caution for a Skyler Smith spin bunched the field up, and also brought out the yellow/black. The time limit was becoming into play as a result.

Schmidt and Nelson had some good racing up front going but the fifth caution waved for a multi-car incident in turn two. Dane Durbin was charged with the yellow, and that also led to a single-file restart.

Nelson worked a bit lower on Schmidt but couldn’t get beside the 32.

Eggebraaten moved into fourth past Carter Matthews of Clearbrook. Nelson meanwhile was looking for any kind of opening up front. The sixth caution came out for another spin, leading to the time limit being reached.  The green, white checkered finish saw Schmidt hold off Nelson by .353 seconds with Weeks capping off a good run in third.  Eggebraaten and Matthews rounded out the top five.

Brady Fosso of Hibbing is in contention for the Wissota Hornet national title and he took the lead of the feature over Chad Reller of Waskish.  Travis Olafson was running third, Ryker Larson of Grand Rapids fourth and Russell Kiker of Brainerd was fifth.

Fosso opened a 1.4 second lead over Reller, who had Olafson all over him. Kiker moved past Larson for fourth. McKenna Folstad of Hibbing was running in sixth.

Fosso was in firm control up front and captured a 1.2 second win over Reller. Olafson was third, Kiker was fourth and Larson held off Folstad for fifth.  There was only one caution in the Wissota Hornet feature, and that was for a car losing a wheel, but that group did a nice job.

Connor Bruss of Nelson moved out front of the Wissota Mod 4 main event with Oelrich in second and Blake Erickson of Bagley in third. National point contender Ashton Schwinn moved into fourth and was charging to the front next to Chad Erlandson of Brainerd.

Schwinn was making a move into the top three but caught the guard rail down the frontstretch hard and spun to bring out the caution. Schwinn left on the hook with damage but was OK. On the restart Bruss stayed out front as Erlandson moved into second. Conrad Schwinn was third with Dawson Oelrich of Bemidji and Christopher Roller of Laporte

Bruss got into lapped traffic and that allowed Erlandson to inch closer.  The caution waved for Jack Post’s spin in turn four.

There were a couple of more cautions after that, but Bruss survived that to win by .227 seconds over Erlandson. Conrad Schwinn was third, Roller was fourth and Thomas Burgard of Big Lake, who ran solid all night, taking fifth.

The Mini Stocks had 14 cars going 10 laps – and the caution came out on lap one for a multi-car incident in turns three and four.

Cameron Schwinn of Little Falls led Conrad Schwinn of Little Falls up front as Nick McCann of Brainerd was running third. McCann was pressuring Conrad Schwinn for second as Cody Bush of Bemidji was also closing on the top four. Hayden Engen of Gonvick was also moving through the field after starting in the back.

A second caution waved for a spin out of turn four, and after that the race was pretty uneventful. Cameron Schwinn would prevail over his father Conrad with McCann third, Busch fourth and Troy Foster would claim fifth after Engen was DQed postrace.

Johnson picks up first career win at Buffalo River; Jones, Taves, Randall among winners

Brody Johnson of Moorhead won his first career IMCA Sport Mod feature Sunday night at Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon. T.J. Wyman of Princeton was second, Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton was third, Justin Jones of Bemidji fourth and Kelly Jacobson of Fargo was fifth.

Justin Jones of Bemidji won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Jory Berg of Grand Forks. Todd Stark of Watertown was third, Rich Pavlicek of Casselton was fourth and Phil Christlieb of Fargo was fifth.

Reid Randall of Park Rapids won the IMCA Hobby Stock feature over Nathan Kohl of Fort Ripley. Andrea Jacobson of Fargo was third, Caleb Gardner of Glydnon fourth and Tim Otterness of Brainerd was fifth.

Matthew Taves of Detroit Lakes won the Lightning Sprint feature over Jake Haugeberg of West Fargo. Hayden Koehmstedt of West Fargo was third and Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes was fourth.

Kolton Brauer of Eyota beat Trey Hess of Grand Forks for the Wissota Street Stock win. Greg Jose of Grand Forks was third, Cole Greseth of Harwood fourth and Cory Dykhoff of Perham fifth.

Joshua Wiest of Jamestown won the INEX Legends feature over Ty Olson of Mandan. Tye Wilke was third, Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids fourth and Alexander Clark of Moorhead fifth.

Brett Allen of Gaylord won the IMCA RaceSaver sprint feature over Wilke. Marcus Rothenbacher of Ulen was third, Ty Hanten of West Fargo fourth and Josh Johnson of Harwood was fifth.

Dayton Kent of West Fargo beat Bryce Mueller for the Short Tracker win. Hunter Goulet of Fargo was third, Tyson Roush of New York Mills fourth and Kody Crabtree of Fargo was fifth.