I made a trek back to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks for Friday’s show. The late models had the night off as the NLRA Late Models were running at I-94 Sure Step Speedway.
The Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints were in town as part of the 64-car field.
I visited with Mark Dobmeier, the sprint car standout from Grand Forks. He was seriously injured in a WOO crash on July 3 last year at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin, which required extensive surgery to his upper back.
Dobmeier has been cleared to take laps in the two-seater — he got to take Torey Martin, who has cerebal palsy, on his first ride ever in a sprint car — but has not been cleared for competition yet. He told me he’s among for a midsummer return to his #13 Buffalo Wild Wings machine. He showed me an X-ray picture of the screws and plates in his back from the surgery and that tells you exactly how serious this back injury was. It was good to see him in the two seater, anyway.
Jack Croaker of East Grand Forks led early in the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints. But on the move was during RCS sprint champion Austin Pierce of Grand Forks, interviewed above. Pierce shot into the lead. Croaker dropped to second and was soon facing pressure from defending NOSA champion Jade Hastings of Grand Forks.
Pierce opened a sizable advantage, but as he closed on lapped traffic, Hastings was cutting the lead. In fact, Hastings poked the 8H underneath Pierce in turn three and looked to make a move when the caution came out.
On the single-file restart, Pierce got an excellent start and opened a decent lead. Hastings had to now contend with Wade Nygaard of Grand Forks, who pulled a slider to take over second. Those two battling allowed Pierce to cruise to the win. Hastings edged Nygaard for second with Croaker, who ran in the top five all night, finishing a solid fourth. Nick Omdahl of East Grand Forks was fifth.
Veteran Dan McNamee of Arvilla took the lead from the outside pole and led almost the whole street stock feature — until the final few laps. McNamee stuck his #29 to the bottom of the dirt oval and was fast.
A wild battle for second saw Zach Lee of Horace fending off challenges from Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls, Ryne Uhrich of Langdon and Seth Klostreich of Grand Forks.
Blacklance, interviewed above, was steady and patient, and took over second, and ate away at McNamee’s lead. With about two to go he made the move, using a higher line, to take over the top spot, on his way to the win. McNamee’s great night ended in second, while Zach Lee finished third. Uhrich and Alex Minks of Larimore rounded out the top five.
It spelled trouble for the Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint field after Dexter Dvergsten of Greenbush drew the pole. He survived some cautions to record a solid win. Alan Truscinski of Greenbush was second, Alex Truscinski of Greenbush third, Kelsi Pederson of East Grand Forks fourth and Cody Swenson of Middle River fifth. A total of 14 lightning sprints were on hand, a good solid field.
Lance Schill of Langdon just destroyed the Wissota Midwest Modified field. He started on the inside pole and checked out for his first RCS midwest mod win.
There was some great battles for second, however, as Jamie Dietzler of Larimore, Jory Berg of Grand Forks, defending track champ Matt Schow of Erskine and Nathan Raasakka of Grand Forks put on quite a show.
Berg led but Schow got by on a restart and Dietzler joined the battle. Berg, who has yet to finish outside the top five this season, slid back for a few laps before passing Dietzler for second.
Schill won in commanding fashion with Berg topping Dietzler, who had a good run from sixth, for second. Schow settled for a solid fourth with Raasakka taking fifth.
Three drivers didn’t even make the call for the green, including Logan Bauer of Erskine, whose 77B car got tore up pretty good after a car spun in front of him in the heat.
RCS Notes
—Garrison Miller of Fargo is in his second year in the lightning sprints. He is also a junior on the Fargo Shanley track and field team. Prior to coming to RCS, he competed in a track meet at Red River High School. Miller made up some good ground in the feature, finishing eighth after starting 12th.
—Berg’s midwest modified is the former car owned by Jason Strand, who has moved to the late models this summer. It only had six nights on it. Berg has run well to start the season.
—The US/Canada travel ban will continue to impact River Cities Speedway, and also Greenbush Race Park. It’s long past the point that the travel ban needs to go.
Wilke, Aukland, Engen, VanMil Lead Red River Valley Speedway Winners
A great field of 25 INEX Legends were on hand with Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes picking up his second win in a row at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo. Ryan Braseth of Ulen was second, Alex Kukowski of Edgeley was third, Sean Johnson of Kindred fourth and Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids fifth.
Tanner Engen of Detroit Lakes charged through the field from his ninth starting spot to win the IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Skyla Miller of Harwood led early and earned her best career finish, taking second. Dylan Krueger was third, last week’s winner Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks fourth and Todd Gettel of Mahnomen fifth. Miller also won her heat race.
Matt Aukland of Glyndon earned the IMCA Modified win. He had a big lead erased by a late caution but survived the final restart for the victory over defending RRVS champion Austin Arneson of Fargo, who was making his season debut. Billy Vogel of Fargo had a nice run from eighth to third while Allen Kent of West Fargo was a solid fifth. Jordan Sours of Lisbon continues to run well at RRVS, taking fifth.
Rich Pavlicek of Casselton started out 10th but worked his way to the front to win the IMCA Sport Mod feature. Doug Gardner of Glyndon was second, Week 1 winner Scott Jacobson of Fargo was third and Brandon Ferris of Moorhead was fourth. Chris VanMil of Barnesville, last week’s winner, was fifth.
Rob VanMil of Barnesville won the IMCA Stock Car feature over last week’s feature winner, Brennan Borg of Harwood. Week 1 winner Travis Robertson of Moorhead was third, Rick Schulz of Horace fourth and Todd Heinrich of Fargo was fifth.
Marcus Rothenbacher of Ulen won his first career IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature over last week’s winner, Wilke.
A great field of 93 cars was on hand at RRVS.
Youngquist, Chyba, Gerdes, Anderson, Mass Win at I-94
Kevin Youngquist of Barney won the Short Tracker feature Friday night at I-94 Sure Step Speedway in Fergus Falls. Travis Roush of New York Mills took second. Curtis Huseth of Underwood was third, Devin Goulet of Fargo fourth and Zach Kortneys of Fergus Falls fifth.
Austin Chyba of Browerville won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Justin Froemming of Elbow Lake. Brendan Blascyk of Kensington was third, Jeff Nelson of Perham fourth and Brennan Gave of Princeton fifth.
Brady Gerdes of Villard topped Dusty Bitzan of Brandon for the Wissota Modified feature. Travis Saurer of Elizabeth was third, Ryan Gierke of Villard fourth and Brandon Dolman of Alexandria fifth.
Parker Anderson of Phillips, Wis., won the Wissota Street Stock feature over Ryan Satter of Dent. Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck was third, Kasey Ussatis of Nome fourth and Daniel Aberle of Finley, N.D., fifth.
Dave Mass of East Bethel won the NLRA Late Model feature over Bryce Sward of Nelson. Mike Greseth of Harwood was third after starting ninth while Shane Edginton of Winnipeg was fourth. Ryan Mikkelson of Alexandria was fifth. A nice field of 31 late models was on hand.
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