I had a sick little one at home to take care of, so I couldn’t attend Sheyenne Speedway’s Dakota Dream event in-person. But I caught it live on Dirt Race Central, so I’ll write a report off of that.
Most of the racing was on the bottom lane, and the track had some holes in the turns, including a pretty significant one in turn one that challenged drivers.
Man, there were a lot of cautions. Seems to be a trend this weekend — Viking had its share during its doubleheader, and watching Madison tonight, there seems to be a car leaving on the hook every two minutes.
Bo Gregor of Lisbon, the three-time Hobby Stock track champion at Sheyenne, redrew the pole for the feature and led every lap. But it was by no means an easy win.
Plenty of cautions, including one where Hayden Aberle’s 10 machine bounced like a basketball briefly.
Dylan Steele of Jamestown was on his heels the entire race. He did a little bump-and-go and actually passed Gregor out of turn four, but a caution nullified that.
Jayden Michaelsohn of Aberdeen looked like he had something for Gregor on the outside on a restart, but he couldn’t make a pass stick. Steele continued to work the bottom, but Gregor stuck his #2 as low as it could go and stayed there to pick up the win. It was his fourth win of the year.
Michaelsohn edged Steele for second with veteran Joe Jacobson of Jamestown taking fifth. Nick Nord of Enderlin edged his older brother, Zack, for fifth. A total of 11 of the 18 starters finished.
Only 15 of the 24 INEX Legends starters finished in a caution-fest that was shortened. Veteran Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids survived numerous challenges to pick up his first win of the year.
AJ Davenport of Bismarck was the first to challenge. But he spun coming down the front stretch and had to go to the tail.
Next was Sean Johnson of Kindred, who looked to be quicker than Richardson. However there was contact coming off of turn four, sending Richardson spinning. Johnson was charged with the caution.
Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes, always a threat in the legends, applied some pressure as well, but Ryan Braseth of Ulen was also making his presence known. Braseth took over second and was charging fast as Richardson held on.
On the last lap, Braseth passed Richardson down the front chute for the apparent win. However, a car had spun in turns three and four and restarted slowly in front of the field and the yellow was called so no one would pile into that car. Because laps were cut, and all but one car took the white flag, the race was called, Richardson was the winner.
Braseth settled for second with with Wilke taking third. Davenport recovered from the spin to take fourth with Taylor Sargent of Gwinner taking fifth. Ashton Spieker of Sabin was the unofficial hard charger, going from 21st to sixth.
I was disappointed in the Wissota Street Stock feature, frankly. For the caliber of cars there (five drivers in the top 20 in Wissota national points), it was not a particularly good race. There was a huge pileup in turn two that wiped out some good cars at the start, including Todd Carter and Kasey Ussatis.
Billie Christ, Cole Greseth and Braydon Kunze also were in that crash but continued.
National point leader Parker Anderson of Phillips, Wis., was one of several DNFs on the night. He started on the front and was in the top three but pulled off. When you have 31 feature wins on the season, you can afford a few DNFs.
Lisbon driver and defending national champion Jonny Carter got by Kyle Anderson of Jamestown and led the rest of the way to pick up his 13th win of 2021. Jonny had quite a weekend, and should make some moves up the national points standings as a result. He won at Devils Lake on Saturday and Sunday as well, going 3-for-3 on the weekend. Carter seems to be heating up just in time for invitational season.
Anderson finished second to Carter for a second straight night. Old Man Jerry Lamb was third at his hometown track. Ryan Pommerer of Oriska started 14th but avoided the cautions and finished in fourth. Jaden Christ of Jamestown was fifth.
Hunter Domagala, a top runner out at Dacotah Speedway in Mandan, finished sixth after starting 16th.
National point leader Lucas Rodin had the outside pole for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature. He was coming off of a feature win Sunday at Devils Lake. He jumped out to the lead on the field.
Laien Schwehr of Sanborn moved past Brennan Urbach of Lisbon for second. Almost moving into the top five were Jeffrey Schwind Jr. of Jamestown and Lindsey Hansen of Fargo.
A few drivers tried to make the high line go — Cody Lee and Nate Reinke among them — but there wasn’t much up there.
ON a restart Rodin tried the higher line and that opened the door for Schwehr to make a run on the bottom. He took the lead briefly; Rodin, however fought back on the low line and regained the lead and never relinquished it.
Schwehr finished second, which I believe was a career-best finish. He did a nice job all night. Schwind went from 10th to third while Hansen finished a solid fourth. Urbach rounded out the top five.
Tempest Trone of Litchville was the class of the field. He weathered challenges from Hunter Goulet of Fargo and Cole Bogart of Minor for the feature win. Bogart was second, Goulet was third, Matt Bogart of Milnor was fourth and Devin Goulet of Fargo was fifth.
Weston Clauson rolled his #2K machine hard off of turn two. He was OK but the car was mangled.
Shawn Beto bought his uncle, Kevin Youngquist’s #00 machine, but ended up with a DNF. He was fast, and I expect him to contend with that car next year. Beto’s brother, Caleb, hopped into a Mini Stock recently as well.
Monday Notes
--Tyler Peterson of Hickson got a boost in his Wissota Modified national title hopes with a feature win at Madison Speedway Monday night. He finished ahead of the driver he's chasing for the national title -- Shane Sabraski of Rice. Peterson won at Brown County on Saturday, was second at Casino on Sunday and won on Monday in Madison to cap off a great weekend.
The Wolverine, Justin Vogel, won the Wissota Street Stock feature over Mike Jans of Clarkfield.
Derek Quinn of Brandon picked up the Viessman Late Model win over Sam Zender of Fergus Falls.
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