Restad, Johnson, Engen, Hanten, Schulz and Sours win at Fix It Forward

Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo welcomed 99 cars for its Red River Valley Fair race on a warm summer evening. It has been a few years since there was racing during the fair. I think it’s hard to gauge the crowd when people are coming in and out the whole night. I hope RRVF keeps racing during the fair because I think it’s a good idea, frankly and a good way to get some non-racing fans to maybe check a night out at the track.

Kyle VanMil of Barnesville led the early moments of the IMCA Sport Mod feature with Carter Restad of West Fargo in second and Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton in third. Rich Pavlicek was putting pressure on his son for the third spot. Bailey Rasmussen of Harwood was running fifth ahead of Reile Sailer of Fargo.

VanMil’s lead stood at about one second over Restad as Rich Pavlicek grabbed third with 15 to go.  VanMil, however would break and pull off suddenly on the fifth lap. The first caution flew for Ryan Seward’s 23 which spun in turn two.

That moved Carter Restad to the top spot with the Pavliceks now on his tale. It also moved Ryan Restad of West Fargo, the all-time leader in sport mod wins at Fix It Forward, into the top five.

It became the Pavliceks vs. the Restads in the top four on the restart  – Carter Restad and his dad, Ryan, and  Jayden Pavlicek and his dad, Rich. Kelly Jacobson of Fargo made a move on the restart into fourth past Jayden Pavlicek. Landon Maatz of Walcott had climbed to sixth.

Carter Restad’s lead stood at one second over Rich Pavlicek when the caution few with nine laps to go for Paul Colvin’s spin in turn four. On the restart Rich Pavlicek took a look under Carter Restad but couldn’t make the pass as Restad opened a few car length advantage. Zane Johnson and Nicholas Jacobson spun in turn two to bring out the caution with seven laps left.

Rich Pavlicek made his move for the lead on the ensuring restart and took over the top spot, sliding Carter Restad to second. Carter Restad, though was not going away, but Ryan Restad would grab the spot and look to close on Rich Pavlicek but was running out of laps.

Maatz, who had run as high as sixth, hit the wall to bring out the caution just as the white flag was in the air, and his night ended on the hook.

 It set up a green-white-checkered finish, and Ryan Restad capitalized. He made his move around Pavlicek in turns one and two and completed the pass, and soon Carter Restad moved around Pavlicek for second.  From there, Ryan Restad pulled away to a 1.18 second win; it had to be pretty cool for the Restad family to finish 1-2. The Pavliceks finished 3-4 – Rich in third and Jayden in fourth. Kelly Jacobson rounded out the top five. There was definitely a lot happening in that race.

Colton Miller took the lead of the INEX Legend feature with Alexander Clark with defending F Sean Johnson in third, Shawn Dement in fourth and Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes – who started 12^th – up to fifth in about two laps. The caution waved n lap two.

Johnson, who won in thrilling fashion at River Cities on Thursday, took a peek under Miller but couldn’t make the pass. Soon, Wilke was challenging for second and grabbed the spot on lap six. Clark was running a solid fourth and Carter Restad was in fifth.

Miller had about .712 seconds on Wilke when a big wreck happened in turn two involving four cars. Steve Johnson’s 93 ended up on its side; Mason Lemar of Casselton, Ben Lundquist of Fridley and Tanner Riewer of Detroit Lakes were also involved. Everyone was OK but all the drivers aside from Riewer required a tow truck.

After the cleanup from the red flag Wilke challenged Miller for the lead with Clark and Restad close.  Johnson had his hands full with Ryan Braseth for fifth but would pull away. Debris brought out the next caution with nine to go. Wilke was all over Miller and after some perisistence made the move  for the lead with six to go. Johnson meanwhile was charging again on the outside. Ty Olson, meanwhile was charging through the field and up to fourth. Johnson and Wilke were putting on a heck of a show for the lead when the caution came out for Miller, who spun in turns one and two. Olson was tagged with the yellow.

Johnson had actually edged ahead on the last completed lap and was in the lead for a green-white-checkered finish. Wilke, who had won all three Legends features at Fix It Forward going into the night, didn’t have enough as Johnson held on for a .371 second win for his second victory in as many nights. It isn’t often Wilke is beat locally in the Legends, but Johnson, who is the defending track champion, is always a formidable foe in feature races.

Miller finished third while Restad was fourth and Clark, who is a vastly improving driver, was fifth. Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids went from 10^th to sixth while Dylan Johnson of Durbin went from 13^th to seventh as those two drivers moved up from their starting sots.

Having Tanner Engen of Detroit Lakes on the front row of the IMCA Hobby Stock feature is a tough draw for the rest of the field, and he built a 2.3 second advantage over Todd Gettel of Mahnomen before the caution waved on lap three.

Reid Randall of Park Rapids, who started sixth, moved up to third and was pressuring Gettel as Minot driver  Ethan Beckedahl moved into the top five. Brad Orvedal of Fargo was close to the top five after starting eighth when the second caution came out.

For having  only XX cars start the feature, this race was plagued by cautions through the first six laps. Engen didn’t run away with it by any means as his lead stood at .7 seconds with three laps left. Randall was working on Gettle while Tim Church of Moorhead had settled into fourth with Daniel Beckman of Mahnomen in the hunt.

Engen had pushed the lead to almost a full second by the checkered to pick up his first victory of 2026. Gettel ran second, Randall third, Beckman, who had a solid run, was fourth and Church rounded out the top five.

A solid 13-car IMCA RaceSaver sprint feature was on hand with Ty Hanten of West Fargo leading Jerzee Rosinski of Grand Forks in the early laps. Tye Wilke quickly climbed up to third ahead of Matthew Taves of Detroit lakes with Brandon Rekow  of Ellendale.

Hanten was flying, opening a 2.2 second lead on Rosinski by the seventh lap. Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton had climbed into the top five with a pass of Rekow.

This turned into the Ty Hanten show on this night as his lead was up to 3.8 seconds with five laps to go. Rosinski was running solid in second with Taves getting around Wilke for third. Soon, Hendrickson passed Wilke to grab fourth.

Hanten was never touched in this race, but Taves was making a heck of an effort to close the gap. He had taken second from Rosinski but faced too big of a deficit, and badly needed a caution which he didn’t get.  Hanten won by three seconds with Taves, who has made tremendous strides in the IMCA sprints and will get a win soon I predict, setting for second. Rosinski was third, Hendrickson went from eighth to fourth while Wilke was fifth. The race lasted less than five minutes.

There were only eight IMCA Stock Cars on hand – I am guessing a few drivers who are hitting the Dakota Classic Mod Tour within the next week were getting ready for that –

Rick Schulz of Horace led over Kelly Jacobson of Fargo as Daniel Aberle of Finley was fighting Rob VanMil for third. Brody Carlsrud of Moorhead was running fifth. Schulz had about .9 seconds on

There was contact between Aberle and Jacobson on the frontstretch which led to a flat tire for Aberle, ending his night. Jacobson was racing with a flat left front tire, and I honestly don’t know how he was holding off VanMil.  Schulz, meanwhile, was smoking the field, leading by 2.5 seconds with five laps to go.

VanMil and Jacobson were fighting very hard for second, racing side-by-side with some fenders rubbing in what was the best battle on the track.  Schulz didn’t have any worries, winning by 2.7 seconds in a dominant performance.  Jacobson nipped VanMil by .161 seconds for the runner-up spot after some outstanding racing for that position.  Carlsrud ran a solid fourth and Mandan driver Chris Welk Jr. took fifth in another caution-free race that lasted five minutes.

Kyler Nielsen held the early lead over Tom Andring of Detroit Lakes with Nick Curtis of Rothsay running third. Curtis was soon overtaken by Jordan Sours of Lisbon. Andring, in his first year of racing since 2016, would go around in turn two to bring out the first caution.

Sours capitalized on the restart to pass Nielsen for the lead when the caution came out again for first-time visitor Dustin Hines, who spun.  On the restart Erv Grossman of Fargo went around to bring out the yellow – leading to the black/yellow coming out, which meant whoever caused yellows from then on would be sent to the pits.

Sours had point leader John Nord of Enderlin all over him on the restart as Nielsen ran third with former track champion Dave Shipley making a move around him. Brennan Borg of Harwood was making some noise and grabbed fifth when Hines went around for a second night; he was done for the night. Nielsen, an IMCA Mod rookie, would head to the pits ending a potential top five finish.

This race struggled to say going with five cautions, to the point where it was shortened by six laps because of the desire to get the fireworks and drone show in by a good time.

Sours had about a half-second advantage over Nord, who was well ahead of third-place Shipley. Jacoby Traut had been running well and climbed to fourth ahead of Borg. Turtle Lake driver Isaac Sondrol.

There wasn’t much change up front in the final laps as Sours picked up a .304 second win over Nord. Shipley was third, Traut fourth and Borg fifth in the race which was shortened to 14 laps. Traut went from 15^th to fourth to earn hard charger honors while Sondrol went from 14^th to sixth.

Fix It Forward Notes

--Another product of the local go-karts is 16-year-old Bailey Rasmussen of Harwood. She raced four shows in the IMCA Sport Mods in 2025 and is in her second season in the class this season. She won her heat on Friday; and she came about a half straightaway away from getting her first career feature win earlier this year at Buffalo River Speedway. Another promising talent in a class that has plenty of it, but had issues in the feature and was a DNF after racing in the top five early.

--Red River Valley Racing Hall of Famer Tom Cummings has done something cool. In addition to piloting his No. 69 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car. According to a  Facebook post from Josh Johnson, Cummings has spent a lot of time putting together another IMCA RaceSaver Sprint to give individuals interested in hopping behind the wheel of a sprint car a chance to drive the car in a race.  The driver of the car on Friday night happened to be a well-known name in racing at West Fargo – Greg Johnson. Johnson last piloted a late model in 2010 and is the father of sprint car driver Josh Johnson.

--I just did a story where drivers talked about the numbers in the A-mod class, and of course 25 showed up on Friday. The field was boosted by three Brainerd-area cars and a few cars from the Bismarck-Mandan region.

--Fix It Forward is now off until July 24.

I-94 Winners: Randt Brothers, Borgen, Saurer and Walsh

It was a good night for the Randt brothers from Siren, Wis., on Friday at I-94 EMR Speedway. Landyn Randt captured the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Nate Reinke of Lisbon with Jory Berg of Grand Forks third, Noah McFarlane of Brandon fourth and Ron Saurer of Dalton fifth.

Levi Randt earned Wissota Street Stock feature winner honors over Eric Riley of Morris. Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck was third, Kammron Rose of Wheeler, Wis., was fourth and Greg Jose of Grand Forks was fifth.

Bryce Borgen of Perley won the Wissota Modified main event. Bryce Sward of Nelson was second, Joseph Thomas of Glyndon third, Brady Gerdes of Villard fourth and Josh Thoennes of Nelson fifth.

Travis Saurer of Elizabeth won the Wissota Late Model main event over Cole Searing of Huron. Laela Eisenschenk of Fargo was third, Travis Robertson of Fargo fourth and Danny Vang of Deerwood fifth.

Trevor Walsh of Watertown won the Gen X Late Model feature with Parker Gilbertson of Montevideo coming across second. Ben Wolden of Fergus Falls was third, Alex Tschakert of Kent fourth and Rick Schroeder of Montevideo, who started 17^th, was fifth.

Brennon Weight of LaMoure won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature Friday night at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen with Todd Stark of Watertown taking second.