First, I want to commend all of those involved – workers at I-94, Wissota officials, volunteers, whoever – for getting the Wissota 100 in. I admit after the rain on Thursday and seeing how muddy the grounds were on Facebook photos, I thought getting this show in was a long shot. It took a lot of hours from a lot of people to get that show in and all involved deserve credit for getting the racing in. I think the drivers and fans who attended, at least based on the facebook posts I’ve read, truly appreciated the effort in spite of some poor weather.
More on the Wissota 100 later.
Since Sheyenne Speedway’s finale will not be rescheduled – more sanctioning body bureaucracy I don’t want to get into here – so the track champions in the RaceChaser area are official. Here is a list of the eight RaceChaser-area tracks and their season champions.
Buffalo River Race Park IMCA Hobby Stock: #30A Adam Goff, Minot IMCA Modified: #40 Rob VanMil, Barnesville IMCA Sport Mod: #40 Chris VanMil, Barnesville INEX Legends: #72 Tye Wilke, Detroit Lakes NLSA Lightning Sprints: #100 Jason Berg, West Fargo Sport Compact: #77H Daniel Harstad, Fergus Falls
I-94 Speedway Limited Late Model: #50 Ben Wolden, Fergus Falls Short Tracker: #77H Daniel Harstad, Fergus Falls Wissota Late Model: #42S Don Shaw, Ham Lake Wissota Midwest Modified: #2G Brock Gronwold, Fergus Falls Wissota Modified: 2X Brady Gerdes, Villard Wissota Street Stock: #67 Ryan Satter, Dent
Jamestown Speedway IMCA Modified: #2A Casey Arneson, Fargo Bomber: #7C Billy Carow, Jamestown INEX Legends: #19 Donavin Wiest, Wishek Wissota Midwest Modified: #87S Reise Stenberg, Argusville Wissota Street Stock: #46 Jonny Carter, Lisbon
Norman County Raceway IMCA Sport Mod: #3X Andy Wagner, Ada IMCA Modified: #3S Jesse Skalicky, Fargo IMCA Stock Car: #40 Rob VanMIl, Barnesville IMCA Hobby Stock: #3XL Brad Orvedal, Fargo INEX Legends: #72 Tye Wilke, Detroit Lakes Wissota Midwest Modified: #87S Reise Stenberg, Argusville, N.D.
Red River Valley Speedway IMCA Modified: #6D Dylan Goplen, Fargo IMCA Sport Mod: #8J Luke Johnson, Moorhead IMCA Hobby Stock: #56 Mathew Olson, Morton, Minn. IMCA Stock Car: #40 Rob VanMil, Barnesville INEX Legends: #58 Sean Johnson, Kindred River Cities Speedway Wissota Street Stock: #35 John Halvorson, Warren, Minn. Wissota Midwest Modified: #17S Lance Schill, Langdon, N.D. Wissota Late Model: #4 Shane Edginton, Winnipeg NOSA Sprint: #0 Nick Omdahl, East Grand Forks
Sheyenne Speedway Hobby Stock: #2 Bo Gregor, Lisbon IMCA Modified: #91 Jarrett Carter, Lisbon Mini Stock: #97 Matt Bogart, Milnor Wissota Midwest Modified: #71 Nate Reinke, Lisbon Wissota Street Stock: #46 Jonny Carter, Lisbon INEX Legends: #B1 Brody Carlsrud, Moorhead
Viking Speedway Wissota Modified: #2X Brady Gerdes, Villard Wissota Midwest Modified: #2G, Brock Gronwold, Fergus Falls Wissota Street Stock: #70 Andrew Bangsund, Alexandria Wissota Super Stock: #21 Trevor Saurer, Dalton Limited Late Model: #77 Ryan Mikkelson, Alexandria
Some notes on the points: --Shane Edginton finished in the top five all 15 nights at River Cities to win the track title. He was the only driver to do that.
—Jesse Skalicky of Fargo won the first IMCA Mod track title of his career at NCR.
--Morton Minn., driver Mathew Olson won eight of the 11 hobby stock features at Red River Valley Speedway on his way to the track title in that division.
--One driver won three titles – Rob VanMil of Barnesville. He won the IMCA Stock Car title at both RRVS and Norman County and also won the IMCA Mod title at BRRP.
--Several drivers won two titles – Brady Gerdes of Villard (Wissota Mods at I-94 and Viking), Brock Gronwold of Fergus Falls (Wissota Midwest Mods at I-94 and Viking), Daniel Harstad of Fergus Falls (Hornets at BRRP and I-94), Jonny Carter of Lisbon (Wissota Streets at Sheyenne and Jamestown), Reise Stenberg of Argusville (Wissota Midwest Mods at NCR and Jamestown), Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes (INEX Legends at NCR and BRRP) and Shane Edginton of Winnipeg (River Cities and Red River Co-op Speedway).
--Brad Seng of Grand Forks is the 2019 NLRA Late Model champion, narrowly beating Shane Edginton by eight points for the title.
--Tyler Peterson of Hickson is the 2019 Wissota Modified track champion at Casino Speedway in Watertown.
--Torey Fischer of West Fargo finished second in the IMCA Sport Mod points at Buffalo River Race Park in Glyndon. She also finished fifth at Norman County to have two top five finishes this season. She is just in her second year in the class.
--Jason Hoffman of Villard is the 2019 Wissota Midwest Modified track champion at KRA Speedway in Willmar.
Thoughts on the Wissota 100 I won’t comment on the racing on the track since unfortunately I didn’t make it to even one night this year. Work commitments, plus Thursday’s cancellation, prevented me from doing so. I will make some observations based on the results.
There were a couple of long nights of racing – Friday’s show got done a little before 4 a.m. and Saturday’s show lasted nine hours – as a result of Thursday’s cancellation.
Congrats to the winners on Saturday – Chad Becker of Aberdeen (late model), Landon Atkinson of Little Falls (modified), Keith Thell of Foley (Mod 4), Curt Myers of Cameron, Wis. (super stocks), Tony Leiker of Gillette, Wyo. (Midwest modified) and Justin Vogel of Brooten (street stock). Vogel was the only repeat winner from 2018.
I don’t think any of the winners are surprises. Like I said you could pick 10-15 drivers per class as legit contenders to win the big show.
Wissota held its Race of Champions events after the 100 main events. Three drivers won both the main feature in their class and the ROC for really good nights financially – Leiker, Becker and Thell. Shane Sabraski of Rice won two of them – the mods and super stocks – while Jonny Carter of Lisbon won the Wissota Street Stock Race of Champions.
on a personal note, Leiker outlasted the late John Seitz for a late model challenge series win are Madison In 2004. It is one of the top 3 challenge series races I have ever seen.
Atkinson is turning into a rising star in the modifieds. This year alone, he won the Fallen Lineman race at Viking, the USMTS race at I-94 and now, the Wissota 100. And he’s 22. Not to mention, he was second in the late model feature.
Vogel repeated ahead of Ryan Satter of Dent in the street stocks. Vogel is locked in a tight battle for the national points with Carter; Carter leads by 22. Some big races coming up to decide that one.
Dan Ebert of Lake Shore (15th to fourth) and Mike Greseth of Harwood (14th to fifth) made nice runs through the field in the modified feature.
Some of my pre-weekend pics did OK and others didn’t fare as well -- but I went 0-for-6. Johnny Broking finished sixth in the modifieds; Edginton fifth in the late models; Cole Searing was sixth in the Midwest modifieds and Kevin Burdick was fourth in the supers. Kyle Dykhoff in the streets and Adam Prieve in the mod 4s didn’t finish. Oh well, it’s fun to venture guesses.
It's Jamestown Stampede week, and there are several other specials...more on that later this week.
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