Buffalo River Speedway in Glyndon opened the 2023 season with 81 cars on hand. It was a pretty pleasant evening weather-wise.
It turned out to be a good night for the Pederson family of East Grand Forks, as Tucker Pederson won the Wissota Street Stock feature while his sister Kelsi won the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint feature.
The most-action packed feature of the night was the INEX Legends which featured some tremendous racing at the front.
Dylan Johnson of Durbin took the lead of the INEX Legends feature with Alex Braseth of Ulen pressuring him in second. Those two put on a heck of a show for the top spot. Johnson would get sideways for just a second with Alex Braseth moving into first. Shaun Erickson of Glyndon was battling Evan Hendrickson for third.
Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton, another one of the young drivers who has made big strides, moved into third and started to work on Johnson for second. Kody Machart of Moorhead, who started 15th, moved into fourth and Collin Compson of Valley City moved into fifth.
There was a tense battle for second as Johnson, Machart and Hendrickson were in a tense fight. Compson soon joined that group.
Ryan Braseth of Ulen, no stranger to victory lane, worked into contention as well and moved into the top five.
Alex Braseth looked like he was on his way to a fairly comfortable win, but spun his #20 machine in turn two. He was able to continue without a caution being waved but lost several positions.
Machart made his move for the lead with Braseth in tow. The final laps were frantic as lapped traffic became an issue.
Ryan Braseth tried to make a run on the high side in turns three and four but came up short as Machart would pick up a well-earned win, the first feature win of his career. He is only 15 years old, by the way. Ryan Braseth settled for second while Johnson took third. Compson and Hendrickson rounded out the top five. Veteran Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids went from 16th to sixth.
If the Legends feature was the best of the night, the IMCA Sport Mod feature was a very close second. Two seasoned veterans, Dave Siercks of Princeton and Scott Jacobson of Fargo went at it for the top spot with Kelly Jacobson of Fargo, the defending track champion at Buffalo River, moving into third.
Scott Jacobson would emerge from the battle with Siercks in the lead, but his son, Kelly, was very quick. He would get by Siercks and turned his attention to chasing down his father for the lead.
Chris VanMIl of Barnesville was making a higher lane work and was closing on Siercks for third.
The father-son battle up front was a classic as Scott Jacobson held on. Kelly gave his father a few love taps to let him know he was there; on the final lap in turn one, Scott Jacobson hit a rut and got crossed up for a second; Kelly Jacobson took advantage and pulled beside and made the pass coming out of turn two. Kelly Jacobson would hold on for a hard-fought win. He broke a suspension piece late in the race, and actually left victory lane on the hook!
Scott Jacobson settled for second with Siercks winning a hard-fought battle with VanMIl for third. Rich Pavlicek of Casselton, who had trouble in his heat, made a good run through the field to take fifth after starting 10th.
In the IMCA Hobby Stock feature, Todd Gettel of Mahnomen looped the 73 machine in turns ones and two to bring out the caution; fortunately there was evasive action by everyone and there wasn’t a pileup. Nathan Kohl of Fort Ripley took the early lead with Chad Visser of Ironton, who has run well at Buffalo River in recent years, moving into second.
Tyler Hehn of Horace was running well in third, with Marvin Priem of Glyndon settling into fourth and Brad Orvedal of Fargo into fifth. Orvedal started ninth.
Visser was all over Kohl but bided his time; he made the pass with three laps to go with a pass down the backstretch. Visser would go on to the win with Kohl taking a solid second.
Hehn crossed the line third but was disqualified in post-race tech. Priem would take third, Orvedal fourth and Caleb Gardner of Glyndon fifth. Andrea Jacobson of Fargo moved up from 10th to sixth at the checkered.
It was a father-son battle in the Short Trackers as Jason Kast of Fairmount, the defending Buffalo River track champion, applied pressure to his son, Christian. Jason Kast would take the lead.
Adrian Kubitz of Fargo, Hunter Goulet of Fargo and Christian Kast went three-wide for second before Goulet emerged and then set his sights on Jason Kast.
Goulet has been fast at Buffalo River and worked by Jason Kast for the lead. Jason Kast spun the 3K machine on the backstretch shortly after to bring out the caution; he would go to the rear but recovered to finish sixth.
Goulet was chased by Kubitz, a driver looking for his first career win, but didn’t flinch and picked up the win. Kubitz was second while Christian Kast capped off a good run in third. After starting ninth, Troy Lesmann of Fargo moved into fourth at the checkered with Lee Williams of Fargo taking fifth.
Tucker Pederson of East Grand Forks battled Darek Turner of Fargo for the top spot in the Wissota Street Stock feature in the early laps before emerging as the leader.
Kasey Ussatis of Nome, who has two wins already this weekend, was on the move in third. He was able to move to challenge Turner for the second spot before taking second. . Tyler Klugman of Wheaton also was running well and moved into the top four.
There was a three-car battle for fifth between Greseth, Dan Harstad of Fergus Falls and Seth Klostreich of East Grand Forks.
Pederson had opened up some breathing room, but Ussatis was slowly erasing the deficit and with five to go, had caught Pederson with four laps left. It turned into quite a deal up front as Ussatis found speed on the low line. He would get beside Pederson on a few occasions and was right there, but Pederson would fend off the challenges to get the win by .255 seconds. Ussatis settled for second; he finished the weekend with two wins and a runner-up finish.
Klugman capped off a solid run in third. Turner was fourth and Cole Greseth was fifth.
The INEX Young Lions feature was won by Cody Jawaski, who emerged after a good three-car battle with Kyle VanMil and Emmitt Curtis. That race featured the younger drivers in the INEX Legends, giving them a chance to get some laps in with a smaller field. It’s a good idea.
Kelsi Pederson of East Grand Forks stormed out to the lead in the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint feature with Alex Truscinski of Greenbush and Alan Truscinski of Greenbush battling for second. Garrison Miller of Fargo was running fourth.
A caution would wave to bring Alan Truscinski to bumper of Pederson. Kelsi Pederson, however was bad fast – she opened a four-second lead at one point. Lapped traffic, for a few laps, proved to be her biggest obstacle as things got tense. She would clear the group but her lead had shrunk to 1.2 seconds.
Miller’s night came to a tough end as he flipped his #5 machine on the frontstretch. He was OK but the car was damaged enough to end his night with four laps left.
Alan Truscinski threw everyone he could handle at Kelsi Pederson, but the 93 car was flawless down the stretch. She picked up the win to cap off a good night for the Pederson family. Alan Truscinski was second.
A driver who put together a good run was Dylan Langevin of Thief River Falls, who finished in third. Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes also ran a solid race, taking fourth. The hard charger was Loki Bjerke who went from 15th to fifth on a great charge through the field.
Buffalo River Notes
--New faces in the INEX Legends include Levi Lease of Harwood, Gracin Spieker of Sabin, Kyle VanMil of Barnesville. Lease moved from the IMCA Hobby Stocks; Spieker, 12, is the younger brother of fellow Legend driver Ashton Spieker; and VanMil is the son of IMCA Stock Car driver Rob VanMil.
--Mike Hart of Erhard, since I’ve been blogging, has raced a late model, a limited late model, a street stock, a Mod 4 and a Short Tracker, and on Sunday had his Legend car on hand.
--The Wissota Street Stocks are on the weekly card this year at Buffalo River. Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon is moving to Thursday nights this year. There were 11 on hand on Sunday, some good quality, and I will be curious to see how the car counts are this year. The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour, presented by Shocker Hitch, is at Buffalo River on June 4.
Casino Speedway
Joseph Thomas of Fargo won the Wissota Modified feature Sunday night at Casino Speedway in Watertown. Dale Ames of Huron was second, Tyler Peterson of Horace third, Tony Konold of Clear Lake was fourth and Duke Erickson of Sioux Falls was fifth.
Huron driver Adam Brotherton won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Tommy Nichols of Watertown. Scott Hansen of Garden City was third, Mike Nichols, who won Friday at I-94 EMR Speedway, was fourth and Todd Stark of Watertown was fifth.
Broc Stout of Winner won the Wissota Street Stock feature over Al Schmidt of Watertown. Jason Marko of Watertown was third. Maria Broksieck of Goodwin, who started 13th, was fourth ahead of Cory Giessinger of Watertown.
Curt Kranz of Watertown won the Wissota Late Model feature over Jayson Good of Watertown. Chad Becker of Aberdeen was third, Chuck Swenson of Watertown was fourth and Justin Karlen was fifth.
Carter Matthews of Clearbrook, Minn., won the Wissota Hornet feature. Doug Walsh of Watertown won the Gen X Late Model feature over Scott Harrington of Waubay.
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