Pogones nabs DRC Street Stock Tour victory at Granite City

I have not had much luck weather-wise covering the Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour, which is a presenting sponsor of the blog. I covered the opening night at Viking; I was at the King of the Dirt at I-94 before it rained out. I was planning on some remote coverage of KRA, Fiesta City and Madison – all rained out.

So it worked out for me to cover Viking on Saturday, and then stay in St. Cloud to cover the DRC Street Stock Tour at Granite City Motor Park while also getting a chance to swing to the cities to visit my mom.

The last time I was at Granite City was a few years ago for a September special event. It rained all day, and they worked and worked the track – blading off a lot of the slimy mud – and racing at midnight. The only thing I remember about that night was Ashley Boyum won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature.  Sunday was Tour night at Granite City with the DRC Street Stock Tour and FastLane Super Stock Series in town.

The Wissota Street Stock feature was one of the most entertaining features I have seen all year. There was a lot of hard racing for position throughout, although early it was dominated by Kolton Brauer of Eyota.

Brauer, already with 17 wins this season, jumped to the lead of the feature from the outside pole. Jeff Ekdahl of North Branch was fighting with Tommy Pogones of Princeton and the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten for third. Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck was in pursuit in fifth while Saturday’s winner at Ogilvie, Jim Gullikson of Nowthen was closing.

There was a great fight for second between Ekdahl, Pogones, Vogel, and Gullikson; by the halfway point Pogones had grabbed second.

The happiest guy to see all the battling for second was Brauer, who opened a 1.7 second lead. Dykhoff, Pogones and Gullikson were fighting for second. Vogel had settled in fifth.

Brauer was in some lapped traffic, and Pogones had opened two car lengths on Dykhoff.

Brauer avoided a near disaster when a lapped car spun by the tires; Brauer narrowly avoided T-boning Layla Chaplin’s 86 machine in turns three and four. The caution erased a 1.3 second lead and brought Pogones and Dykhoff to Brauer’s bumper with eight to go. And the caution was a game-changer up front.

Things went three wide for the lead on the restart between Brauer, Dykhoff and Pogones.  Pogones was driving the wheels off the 04 machine and was able to get by Brauer. Vogel and Gullikson both moved past Brauer, whose undoing was that caution as he faded after the restart. Dykhoff was in fifth and Ekdahl in sixth.

Pogones was flying around the high side 3/8-mile oval and stretched his lead to 1.6 seconds to pick up the win; he joins Dykhoff (four wins) and Gullikson as tour winners this season.

Vogel ran a strong second with Gullikson in third. Dykhoff topped Brauer for fourth.  Gullikson was the hard charger, moving up six spots by the checkered.

The Myers family – two-time Wissota Super Stock national champion Curt Myers and his son Alex of Cameron, Wis., – led the FastLane Wissota Super Stocks to the green. Alex would take the early lead, but Curt worked the higher lane to take the top spot on the third lap.

Former Wissota Mod 4 national champion Tommy Bawden of Clear Lake was third, Doug Koski of Chisholm grabbed fourth and Chad Johnson of Colfax, Wis., was running fifth.

You always must watch defending Wissota Super national champion Dexton Koch of Becker and five-time super stock national champion Shane Sabraski of Rice when watching this class in central Minnesota. Sabraski started 11th but moved to seventh and was charging.

Curt Myers pulled away to a 1.4 second lead as Bawden worked the high lane to duel with Alex Myers.  Those two had a healthy advantage on fourth-place Koski.

The first caution came out for when Austin Niemeyer’s 33 went around in turn two.  Curt Myers reassumed control on the restart.  Sabraski moved into fifth and was pressuring Koski as Bawden was trying everything up high to get around Alex Myers in the battle for second.

You had a lot of good cars mired in a big battle behind sixth-place Dexton Koch that included DJ Keeler of Superior and Tommy Richards of Mondovi, Wis..

Alex Myers and Bawden put on a great side-by-side show for second that lasted several laps before Bawden finally secured the spot.  Curt Myers opened a more than two-second lead on Bawden; Sabraski got past Alex Myers for third.

On the restart Sabraski got by Bawden for second as Curt Myers pulled away.  Keeler was chasing Koski and Alex Myers in a fight for fourth.

Curt Myers was the class of the field – winning by 1.4 seconds over Sabraski, who happened to win three features Saturday at Ogilvie. Bawden ran a strong third, Koski was fourth and Alex Myers held off Keeler for fifth.

Ellie Lange of Staples and Dennis Czech of Gilman – who lost ,a tire during the warmup laps, got it changed and started 20th on the field, shared hard charger honors, each moving 10 spots through the field.

Cole Elton of Pease led the Wissota Midwest Modified feature as Landyn Randt of Siren moved past Paul Ripley of Duluth into second. Jake Hagemann of Little Falls moved into third as Ripley had Ryan Putnam of Princeton chasing him.

The Wissota Midwest Modifieds were mainly running up by the wall in three and four but going down low in one and two. Randt was within striking distance of Elton up front. Hagemann stuck his #33 to the bottom and never left that line. Luke Erlandson of Brainerd, Ripley and Putnam were having a good fight for the fourth spot.

There was some space between the top three as Putnam nabbed fourth and Erlandson moved into fifth. Elton’s lead hovered around .8 seconds, but Randt was starting to close the gap and with six to go pulled beside the 24. It turned into a great duel between Ellton and Randt as the two made contact. Hagemann, meanwhile, was starting to catch the top two.

Randt pushed hard but ran out of time as Elton prevailed. Hagemann did a solid job all night in taking third with Putnam and Erlandson rounding out the top five.

There were only seven Wissota Mods on hand, but there was not a slouch in the bunch. After a pair of restarts Zach Benson of Princeton grabbed the lead over Joe Thomas of Glyndon. Blake Adams of Cameron, Wis., moved into second and soon closed on Benson up front. Thomas was third with Shane Sabraski running fourth ahead of Seth Brede.

It was not a good feature for the Ice Man, Don Eischens, normally tough as nails in central Minnesota tracks. He got spun on the first lap and then spun again on the restart. He would pull pitside shortly after, a rare off night for the 9E.

Benson bobbled briefly in turn four and that was all Adams needed to take over the lead. From there, he would pull away. Brandon Mehrwerth’s #7 machine stalled in turn four with two to go to bring out the caution.

Adams pulled away on the restart as Sabraski, Thomas and Benson went three-wide for second. Sabraski would edge ahead. Adams won by nearly 1.8 seconds with Sabraski, Thomas, Benson and Brede rounding out the top five.

If you aren’t familiar with Blake Adams, you will be soon. Only 16, won the Wissota 100 in the Midwest modified class last year. His dad is Buzzy Adams, a multi-time Wissota national champion, and one of his grandfathers is Tim McMann of Duluth, one of the top late model drivers for many years in the Twin Ports.

I will confess I don’t know much about the Crown Vic class at Granite City. It’s a new class owner James Trantina is running this year that preaches affordability and a relative ease to put together a car. The cars feature Crown Vic bodies, engines and tires, and there was a season-best 10 on hand.

Dan Harstad, now racing out of Ogilvie, jumped in front of the Crown Vic feature and was never seriously threatened.

There was a good fight for second between John Scott of Glenwood, Mike Layne of Darwin and Calvin Saldana of Sauk Rapids. Harstad had a big lead, but Saldana moved into second past Layne, who eventually pulled in with a mechanical problem.

Harstad breezed to a comfortable win with Saldana and Scott rounding out the top three.  The Crown Vics have had three different winners in three weeks.

Thanks to James Trantina and the Granite City Motor Park staff for accommodating RaceChaser blog.

Granite City/Sunday Notes

--I spoke with Tony Miller, driver of the #80 Wissota Street Stock from Browns Valley, Minn. Miller races at Casino Speedway in Watertown and also has made trips to I-94 EMR Speedway. There actually is a racetrack in Browns Valley – used only for enduros – and Miller runs those events. There is one this upcoming Friday as part of Sam Brown Days in the community, located right on the western Minnesota and South Dakota border.

--Street Stock Tour regular Andrew Hanson of Iron River, Wis., was not in attendance after rolling his #20 machine hard at Ogilvie on Saturday. Hanson is a good runner and hopefully will be able to rejoin the tour when it resumes in July in Wisconsin.

--Harstad is a former I-94 Short Tracker champion; he also raced in the streets and mid mods in Fergus, where he used to live. He now races out of Ogilvie, and is the flag man at Ogilvie Raceway and Princeton Speedway.

--There aren’t a lot of females in the Wissota Street Stock class in my area – Maria Broksieck and Ashley Wampler are two good runners from South Dakota – but there were a pair of young females from Wisconsin on hand on Sunday. That includes Jenna Herman of Rice Lake, only 20 years old, and rookie Chaplin, age 13 from Cameron, Wis. Champlin nearly made the redraw if not for a late caution in her heat.

--Trantina blew his engine in his Wissota Super Stock heat and was done for the night.

--Trent Keller of Zimmerman ended up on his side during a Wissota Street Stock heat after striking a tractor tire in turn four. He was OK but done for the night.

--Granite City was the only dirt track in the state of Minnesota that raced on Sunday. Proctor KME, Bemidji, Buffalo River and Redwood all canceled because of the heat and weather that went through their areas earlier in the weekend.  Casino Speedway in Watertown also canceled because of the heat.