The IMCA Hobby Stocks took center stage at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo as they were racing for $500 to win on Wednesday night. A good 16-car was on hand as part of an excellent 108-car field. And sometimes the hobby stocks don’t always get the biggest amount of attention so I like to see those drivers get a chance to shine.
The hobby stocks were racing for $500 to win, but it was also $100 to start. There was also a $200 to win dash, which was won by Tim Otterness, and I decided to kick in $100 for a hard charger on behalf of RaceChaser blog. It’s important that every class has an event to run for extra money but also to make the race seem like a big deal, if that makes sense. They will run for the exact same purse tomorrow at Norman County Raceway in Ada.
Let’s face it, Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks had to be the huge pre-race favorite. And in the heat, he went from the back to the front in impressive fashion. He entered the night with nine wins in 12 starts and had yet to finish outside the top five this season, racing at Red River Valley and Norman County Raceway. I’ve heard a B mod is being put together for Eckerdt and that might be a good move for him.
Otterness and Eckerdt shared the front row for the IMCA Hobby Stock main event. Otterness would jump out to the lead from the front row, as the veteran Brad Orvedal of Fargo moved into second as Eckerdt did not get a good start.
Caleb Gardner of Glyndon moved into fourth but had Nate Hanson challenging him. Andrea Jacobson of Fargo, who won Sunday at Buffalo River, moved into sixth.
Otterness opened up a 1.087 second lead over Orvedal with Eckerdt running third. Hanson was about 2.9 seconds back from Eckerdt as the top three had a big advantage.
Tyler Hehn of Horace would spin in turn two, and that would bring out the caution with 10 laps to go. When the race resumed Otterness, who entered the night with four feature wins, got a great start and quickly opened a one-second lead on Orvedal. The red flag would wave for a huge mess in turns one and two. Kelsy Siercks of Princeton, Andrea Jacobson, Blake Anderson of West Fargo, Chad Visser of Ironton and Reid Randall of Park Rapids were among the drivers collected. Visser was charged with the caution.
Anderson would leave on the hook after hard contact; Siercks, Randall and William Herron were all done as well.
Otterness was on a rail and opened up a 2.358 second lead on Eckerdt, who got by Orvedal for second. Scott Herron of Brainerd had moved into the top five. Tim Church of Moorhead, who started fourth, also was running in the top five.
The lead grew to 2.513 seconds for Otterness as the race was down to four to go. There was no touching the 17 car as he picked up his fifth win of 2023. The final margin was 1.595 seconds.
Eckerdt would settle for second with Orvedal finishing third. Hanson was fourth with Church taking fifth. Jacobson was the hard charger, going from 12th to sixth.
Keyna Peterson rolled her 17 machine off of turn two on the final lap; she was OK.
Jason Berg of West Fargo is a busy guy these days. He is the promoter at Buffalo River Speedway which is time consuming in itself, but also still pilots the #100 POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint frequently during the summer months. He had not visited victory lane this season despite entering the night with seven top fives. On Wednesday, he got back to victory lane.
It was not easy as he started fifth on the nine-car field as Mark Williams of Grand Forks and Brady Heilman of Fargo had the front row. Williams ran low but Berg found the high side to his liking and would make the pass to take the top spot late to win by .608 seconds.
Williams ran a strong set. Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes, who is having very good year, went from sixth to third for her 12th top five of the year. She recorded her first career win earlier this season at Buffalo River.
Loki Bjerke went from seventh to fourth while Heilman, who won his heat, finished fifth.
Jeremy Snow of Princeton jumped out to the lead in the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature with Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes moving into the second spot. Those two would put on a show battling for the top spot.
I was keeping an eye on point leader Andy Pake of Felton; he broke an axle and spun in his heat and was a DNF, and had to start in 11th. With six laps to go he had worked up to sixth.
Ty Hanten of West Fargo was running well in third with Laela Eisenschenk of West Fargo settling into fourth. Eisenschenk, however went off of turns three and four with five to go and would end the night on the hook.
Pake had reached the top five by the time that caution waved. And he wasn’t finished.
He would make a charge into second after the final restart, and then had closed on the leader Snow as the white flag waved. Pake would make a big-time move on the final lap and edged Snow for a .317 second margin of victory. Snow was second, Wilke was third. Hanten was fourth and Tyler Rabenberg of Princeton rounded out the top five. It was an outstanding performance by Pake.
There is a fierce four-car battle for the points lead in the sprints. Andy Pake was in first going into the night, ahead of Hanten by three and Wilke and Tyler Rabenberg of Princeton by five. Pake and Wilke are in a very close dogfight for the Red River Sprint Series title as well.
The INEX Legends have put on some great shows recently at RRVS and Buffalo River, a tribute to the good racing of the drivers put also to the increasing parity in the class. One of the rising young talents, Kody Machart of Moorhead jumped out to the lead but point leader Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton quickly moved from ninth to second.
Ryan Braseth of Ulen was flying. He started 11th but quickly moved into the top three, and with 12 laps to go, took over the top spot with Hendrickson on his heels. Sean Johnson of Kindred started 10th and had moved into fourth ahead of his brother Dylan. The caution would wave with 11 to go as a pair of cars spun in turn four.
Preston Martin of Lincoln, who has a win at RRVS this season, moved into contention on the restart and moved into second behind Braseth. Machart would pull in shortly after.
Collin Compson of Valley City had a flat tire in his heat race, and had to go through the B main. He was making a surge through the field and had moved into fifth with seven to go.
Braseth had the edge on Hendrickson as Johnson and Martin were fighting for third. Johnson would take over the spot with five to go. Johnson would set his sights on Hendrickson for second. With three to go, Johnson took over second and was down .343 seconds to Braseth.
Johnson was trying everything to find a way around Braseth as the white flag waved, but the 29 car held on for a .337 second victory, his eighth of 2023. Johnson settled for a strong second with Hendrickson firmly in third. Hendrickson leads Johnson by one point in the season standings. Martin was fourth and Compson capped off a productive race in fifth after starting back in 17th. The Legends did a good job with only one caution.
Rob VanMil of Barnesville, much like Eckerdt in the hobby stocks, has been the dominant car in the IMCA Stock Cars locally. He entered the night with 10 wins in 19 starts and had won his last five starts. And he was on the inside pole.
VanMil and Brady Jawaski were on the front row but the race didn’t make it through the first corner as Jawaski spun. Tyler McDougall suffered a flat on the start.
That moved Brody Carlsrud of Fargo onto the front row. VanMil would jumped out to the lead. Todd Heinrich of Fargo challenged Carlsrud for second as his teammate, Rick Schulz of Horace, moved into fourth.
Heinrich and Schulz were on the move and grabbed spots in the top three with Carlsrud in fourth and Brennan Borg of Harwood in fifth. With 14 to go Kelly Jacobson of Fargo spun to bring out the caution.
The restart saw Schulz and Heinrich on VanMil’s bumper. The stock cars would complete another lap before McDougall spun in turn two.
Heinrich was working the low line trying to close on VanMIl for the lead as Schulz was working up high. One driver who had progressed through the field was point leader Kalvin Kesselberg of ada, who had worked into the top five and passed Borg for fourth.
There was a four-car war for fifth between Borg, Carlsrud, Andew Jochim of Glyndon and Keaten Froemke. Up front, VanMIl was firmly in control, being a 2.241 second lead over Heinrich. Kesselberg, however would see his night end when he slid the #11 machine off of turns three and four. Because the yellow/black had been shown, Kesselberg had to go to the pits. That would shake up the point battle as Kesselberg entered the night with a one-point lead over Jochim.
With three to go Carlsrud and Borg got together in turn three, sending the #52 around. Carlsrud’s night would come to an end.
VanMil had a great late restart and opened up a one-second advantage over Schulz, who was battling Heinrich for second. VanMil picked up his sixth straight win and 11th overall by 1.036 seconds.
Schulz edged Heinrich by .014 seconds in a photo finish for second. Froemke, who started way back in 15th, capped off a great night in fourth. Borg was fifth. Jacobson made a good comeback after an early caution to finish sixth. Jochim, unofficially, now should be the point leader in the stock cars after Kesselberg’s DNF.
The veteran Scott Jacobson jumped out to the lead in the IMCA Sport Mod feature from the inside pole. Ryan Restad of West Fargo, who started fourth, was giving chase.
I was watching point leader Rich Pavlicek of Casselton, who started 11th. By halfway he had worked into fourth.
John Sandvig was having an excellent run and was locked in a duel with Restad for second. Sandvig would take over the second spot, and Restad now faced heat from Pavlicek.
Chris VanMil of Barnesville, who won Sunday at Buffalo River, had also made a charge through the field into fifth after starting 13th.
The caution would wave for a spin with three to go, and that erased a decent lead for Jacobson. It also brought Sandvig and Pavlicek to his bumper for a three-lap sprint.
Pavlicek went way up high and would take over second from Sandvig as Jacobson maintained a hold on the top spot running down low. Jacobson picked up his third win of 2023 over Pavlicek, who added to his point lead over Restad. Sandvig capped off a great night in third with VanMil doing in the same in fourth. Restad rounded out the top five.
Red River Valley Notes
Matthew Taves of Detroit Lakes, who won his first career Lightning Sprint feature recently at Buffalo River (following his older sister Kate), had a tough crash in the heat race on the frontstretch. He was OK but was done for the night. Taves, by the way, is 12 years old; another lightning sprint driver competing on Wednesday, Eugene Vik of Ada, is 77 years old.
A similar contrast in the IMCA RaceSaver sprints; Paul Kautzman, who drives the 3K car, is 79, while Laela Eisenschenk is 15.
Andrew Jochim’s IMCA Stock Car is full of signatures on the back of his trunk lid. Those are signatures from kids that attend his children’s daycare. (Full disclosure, our kids go to the same daycare). Jochim had brought his car there for the children to get a first hand look at.
Dylan Johnson finally got the motor for his 5D8 Legend car a couple of weeks ago. He had driven his brother Sean’s car a few times this season at Buffalo River. Dylan’s car is orange.
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