Pederson snags NLRA Late Model victory at Norman County Raceway

The NLRA Late Models made their second trip to Norman County Raceway in Ada on Thursday night, with another good 27-car field signed in. There was a solid 81 cars on hand in the five classes with the IMCA Stock Cars having the night off.

The heats and Wissota Late Model B main were done by 8:06 p.m. One difference from the first show was the NLRA Late Models ran a B main and only took the top two, and with two provisionals, had a 24-car feature. The first NLRA show at NCR saw the feature start 27 cars, and well it ended up being a 40-minute caution fest.

The feature started out shaky with a pileup in turns one and two.  Travis Robertson of Moorhead was tagged with the yellow.

Joey Pederson of East Grand Forks led Nick Corbett of East Grand Forks once the race resumed.  Cole Schill of Hawley was third and challenging Corbett, but the caution flew when Mike Greseth’s 17 was turned around. Greseth would pull pitside.

Schill was working on Corbett for second as Pederson maintained the lead. Jason Strand of Portland was fourth but was engaged with Dustin Strand for a battle for that spot. The third caution flew for Jamie Trautner’s stalled 25 car off of turn two.

Things heated up at the front as Schill grabbed second. Dustin Strand, Corbett and Jason Strand went three wide for third. Dustin Strand, the winner of the first NLRA show at NCR, was up to third.

Pederson was cooking at the front with a 1.7 second advantage on Schill with 15 to go. Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks was looking to battle Corbett for fifth. By the halfway point Pederson’s lead stood at two seconds.

Pederson hit some lapped traffic, and Schill was closing quickly. The lead was down to .340 seconds with nine to go, and Schill made the move with eight to go to take the lead. The two would swap the lead in lapped traffic with Dustin Strand closing. Grand Forks veteran Brad Seng had climbed to fifth ahead of Troftgruben when the caution flew with six to go.  The caution flew with six to go – which might have been a relief for the leaders with all the lapped traffic.

The race was ultimately decided on the final restart as Pederson took complete control. He quickly pushed the lead over Schill to 1.5 seconds and pulled away from there.

A single-file restart with six to go saw Pederson get a great restart, pushing the lead to 1.5 seconds with four to go, and it was pretty much over at that point. Pederson’s lead was up to 2.2 seconds by the white flag, and the steady veteran picked up a 2.7 win over Schill. Dustin Strand was third, Jason Strand a solid fourth and Seng took fift after starting 15^th. Troftgruben went from 11^th to sixth.

Joey Pederson’s win was his first since 2023, and he dedicated the victory in a postrace interview to his late wife, Julie. The Pedersons are one of the truly nice families you will meet in racing. Tucker Pederson finished ninth, while Kelsi Pederson went from 17^th to 10^th.

Andrew Clark took the lead in the INEX Legend features with Ryan Braseth of Ulen closing quickly after starting xxth.  Braseth would take the lead with 12 to go as Joseph Lewis of Hawley ran third and Owen Broden of Fertile fourth, Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes moved into fifth after starting 10th.

In turned into a three-car for second between Lewis, Wilke and Broden as Clark slid back to fifth. Lewis got loose fo a second and lost a couple of spots, leaving Broden and Wilke to duel for second. Carter Restad of West Fargo had moved up to fifth, but got up in the marbles in turn three and spun.

Braseth led Broden and Wilke when the race resumed, and Wilke made a great move on the outside of turn four to take the lead with six to go. Braseth fought back and they were dead even at the line. That great battle paused when Lewis spun in turn four. Going back to the last completed lap, Wilke led by 0.018 seconds and would be the leader. Lewis would get a tire changed and rejoin the field.

Wilke led as Braseth tried to work a higher lane as it turned into a familiar sight at the front with those two fighting for the lead.  Howie Briss of Glyndon was running well in fourth ahead of Brandon Bunnis of Detroit Lakes, who had Restad on his heels.

Wilke would add another win to his total by .329 seconds over Braseth; right now, they have battled many times before at the front, and well again. Broden ran a solid third ahead of Briss, who moved up one spot from his starting position.  Restad made a nice recovery into finish fifth.

One class that is thriving this year at NCR is the Wissota Midwest Modifieds with 21 in the pits on Thursday, I suspect a few were trying the track prior to next Thursday's Bitker B Mod brawl.

Corey Storck of Dilworth led Aiden Olson early in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature while Reise Stenberg was challenging for second. Jory Berg of Grand Forks was fourth and Kenna Breidenbach of Grand Forks was fifth.

Ben Lundquist’s spin brought out the first caution. After things resumed Stenberg grabbed second over Breidenbach.  Olson would spin and several cars had to take evasive action but avoided a major wreck.

Ryan Schow would go around in turns three and four to bring out the third caution. Storck led Breidenbach, who was fighting hard with Stenberg. Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls was close behind with Berg in fifth.

Storck’s lead was 1.5 seconds over Stenberg by the halfway point as Stenberg continued to chase Breidenbach. Stenberg would edge ahead with seven to go.

Breidenbach and Stenberg put on a heck of a show for second for a few laps before grabbing the spot but faced a 1.5 second deficit with five to go.  Stenberg pushed hard to cut into the lead and made up some ground but didn’t have enough as Storck prevailed by 1.3 seconds for his first feature victory of 2026. Stenberg ran a strong second ahead of Breidenbach, who was a solid third. Blacklance and Berg rounded out a stout top five finishers.

Brennan Schmidt of Bemidji went from 12^th to sixth to cap off a good night.

Hunter Goulet of Fargo, who won his first IMCA Hobby Stock feature Sunday at Buffalo River Speedway, led Thursday’s main event.  New Ulm driver Brad Jones was running second with Reid Randall of Park Rapids.

Goulet got crossed up briefly, causing Jones to hit the brakes, and Randall took advantage to take the lead with seven to go. Tim Church was running third ahead of Daniel Beckman of Mahnomen.

Jones edged ahead with six to go but the fought was not over as the two ran side-by-side for several laps. Beckman was chasing Church for third with Brad Orvedal of Fargo running fifth.

The race went down to the wire in what was a fantastic race with Jones nipping Randall at the line by .055 seconds. Randall, who had won the previous two features at NCR, settled for second. Beckman topped Church for third with Orvedal completing the top five. No cautions in the IMCA Hobby Stock main event, nice job by that crew.

For Jones, it’s about a 265-mile drive from New Ulm to race at NCR.

The IMCA Sport Mods put a wrap on the evening but had a rough go out of it early with three early cautions. Paul Colvin of Horace had the lead. The third caution involved a bunch of cars in turns one and two, ending the night for Landon Maatz of Walcott and Carter Restad.

Jayden Pavlicek surged past Colvin into the lead as Ada’s Andy Wagner grabbed third. There was contact between Reile Sailer and Brody Johnson of Moorhead on lap four for the fourth caution, Sailer would head pitside.  This would move Ryan Restad of West Fargo into the top five.

Pavlicek led on the restart as Wagner took second and Restad took third. Brody Johnson was running fifth behind Colvin. Pavlicek stuck his 17 to the bottom while Wagner was working a higher lane.  The most fierce battle was for fourth as Colvin, Johnson, Kyle VanMil of Barnesville and Rich Pavlicek were shuffling positions.

The lead stayed at about .7 seconds for several laps before Wagner began to cut the gap. The lead was down to .197 seconds with two to go and made his move on the outside of turn three and had a .108 second lead with the white flag in the air. That was the winning move as Wagner would win by .604 seconds. Jayden Pavlicek settled for second with Restad third and Rich Pavlicek fourth. Chris VanMil had gone to the tail early for a caution but made a nice recovery to snag fifth.

NCR Notes

--Next Thursday, during the Norman County Fair, will be a Bitker B Mod Brawl at NCR, which will feature the Wissota Midwest Modifieds vs. the IMCA Sport Mods. Each class will qualify, run heats separately – and then will run the feature together. One row of qualifiers will be IMCA, the other Wissota.  It pays $650 to win – double what a normal B mod race pays at most tracks – and $100 to start.  There will be money available for longest tow, clean sweep, heat winners and B main winners. I think it’ll be a fun event.

--Three-time Wissota Late Model national champion Tyler Peterson was leading his heat on Thursday – but threw a rod in his engine, ending his night.  I confirmed with TPO that the team was swapping motors already on Thursday with plans of being ready for Friday’s NLRA show at I-94 EMR Speedway. If you want to know at least one reason why TPO has won three straight national championships, having a pit crew work like that is certainly a piece of the puzzle.

--Late model rookie Dylan Langevin also was a DNF in his heat and did not start the B main.

Thursday note

--Zander Compson of Valley City won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature Thursday night at Tri-County Speedway in Wishek.