Schow, Otterness, Pavlicek, Carlsrud, Wilke and Olson Winners at Norman County Raceway

Matt Schow won the Wissota MIdwest Modified special at NCR (Photo by Tom Berg)

It was a night of specials at Norman County Raceway in Ada on Thursday night. There were specials in the Wissota Midwest Modified and IMCA Hobby Stock classes along with the Sanders Sport Mod Challenge and the Sanders Stock Car Challenge. Plus, free pork chops were being served in the pits afterwards which is popular with many folks at NCR.

There was a nice turnout of 75 cars signed in, and while the night ran a little long, there was some good racing.

The Schow brothers – Ryan and Matt – led the Wissota Midwst Modifieds to green. Matt Schow would grab the lead and was pulling away when the caution flew for Evan Gust’s spin on the second lap.

Taylor Jacobson of Roseau, the point leader entering the night, moved into the third spot. Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls, just three points behind Jacobson coming into the night, was fourth and rookie Mavrik Strand of Portland was in fifth.

The race resumed as Matt Schow opened a 1.7 second lead on his brother. Jacobson and Blacklance were locked in a big duel for third with Corey Storck of Dilworth and Onyx Johnson of Lowry soon joining that battle.

Jacobson made contact with another car and that led to the 46J suffering a flat tire with 11 to go. That erased a 2.5 second lead for Matt Schow who was pulling away from the field. The restart saw the battle for third heat up as Storck moved into third with Blacklance and Johnson fighting for third.

The Midwest modifieds stuck mainly to the high line, and Matt Schow’s 2S was flawless on that line.

Blacklance was the next top five car to have trouble as he pulled off with six to go, ending his hopes for a top five.  Strand, who had been running in the top five earlier, pasted the wall pretty hard on the frontstretch and would have to pull pitside.

Matt Schow rolled to a dominant 3.3 second win over his brother Ryan, who held off Storck for second. Johnson was fourth and Rich Pavlicek of Casselton, driving Bob Sagen’s 99, finished a solid fifth. Pavlicek and Ryan Schow gained in the points race as the top two drivers in the standings, Jacobson and Blacklance, both had DNFs.

Tim Otterness of Brainerd was the fastest IMCA Hobby Stock in the heat and dash, and that continued in the feature. He grabbed the lead over first-time visitor Brad Jones of New Ulm. Daniel Beekman was running in third but spun out of turn four and would bring out the yellow.

Reid Randall of Park Rapids, who started third, pulled in with mechanical trouble. It didn’t look like he would even make the field but came out, but it was clear the 95 was well off the pace.

The restart saw Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks move into second past Jones with Todd Gettel of Mahnomen running fourth and Brad Orvedal of Fargo in fifth.

Beckman’s night got even worse, as he ended up on his roof in turn four. It was not a hard roll and he was OK but was done for the night. On the restart things went  three-wide for the lead as Jones went to the outside to pass Otterness for the lead with eight laps to go.

Otterness wasn’t done, and fought back to regain the top spot with six to go.  He would slowly build the lead to more than a second, and won by 1.2 seconds over Jones. Eckerdt was third, Gettel was fourth and Orvedal was fifth.

Chris VanMil of Barnesville was alongside his nephew, Kyle, for the IMCA Sport Mod feature. Chris VanMil would grab the lead with Rich Pavlicek grabbing the second spot. Kyle VanMil was third, Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton moved into fourth and Reile Sailer of Fargo was fifth.

Rich Pavlicek made the pass for the lead on Lap 3, and held a half-second lead on Chris VanMil by the halfway point. Kyle VanMil was about 1.8 seconds behind those two in third. The caution waved with seven to go as Cayden Westcott spun in turn four.

On the restart Kyle VanMil moved into second, and things were crazy from fifth on pack as Scott Jacobson of Fargo, Andy Wagner of Ada, Carter Restad of West Fargo were among a group fighting for position.

I didn’t catch what happened but there was an incident on the frontstretch that ended the night for both Kyle VanMil and Chris VanMil, both of whom were running in the top three. It was a tough break for both.

The restart saw Jayden Pavlicek right behind his father, Rich and Sailer up into third.  Wagner made a move past Sailer for third with Jacobson running fifth ahead of Carter Restad, who was challenging for the spot.

Rich Pavlicek was in control over the final laps and rolled to a 1.7 second win. Wagner finished second after a late pass of Jayden Pavlicek with Sailer in fourth and Jacobson in fifth.  Wagner was the hard charger, going from 10^th to second.

Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada jumped ahead of Rick Schulz of Horace in the IMCA Stock Car feature.  Rob VanMil of Barnesville was third, Brody Carlsrud of moorhead fourth

Schulz worked the outside lane and would get past Kesselberg for the lead, while Carlsrud moved past VanMil for third and set his aim at the top two. Aaron Olson of Mekinock had moved into fifth.

Kesselberg was all over Schulzfor the lead with Carlsrud about 3-4 car lengths back. The caution would wave as Daniel Aberle spun in turn four with eight to go.

Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes had the inside pole for the seven-car IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature and that spells big trouble for the field when that is the case.  He took control from the outset of the seven-car field and ran away with the feature win.

Schulz did not get a good restart, and Carlsrud powered on the bottom to grab the lead. Olson and VanMil were racing very hard for fourth with Todd Heinrich of Fargo in fifth.

Carlsrud was pulling away as the real fight was for second between Schulz, Kesselberg and Olson. Carlsrud’s lead stood at just under a second with four to go.  Schulz slid high on the backstretch and that opened the door for Kesselberg to grab second, but Carlsrud had pulled away by then to more than a 1.3 second lead, on his way to the win. Carlsrud also won the Sanders Stock Car Challenge last Friday at Red River Valley Speedway in what has been a great week for the 22-year-old. He now has three feature wins this summer.

Kesselberg finished second with Schulz third, VanMil fourth and Olson fifth.

Wilke had a commanding lead for much of the race, and weathered a late green-white checkered restart to win by 1.3 seconds over Ty Hanten, who finished second after starting fourth.

Brandon Rekow of Ellendale held off Jerzee Rosinski of Grand Forks for third. Dylan Waxdahl  of Hartford, S.D., made the long trek and finished fifth.

Wilke has been the dominant car in the INEX Legends locally in recent years, and he started back in 11^th in the feature.  It was good to see Ryan Braseth of Ulen back behind the wheel of the 29. Braseth had been out recovering from a back injury, and his brother, Alex had been filling in.

Mason Lemar of Casselton took the lead in the INEX Legend feature over Howie Briss. Carter Restad of West Fargo moved into third with Wilke making it to fourth in just two laps. The second caution waved when Owen Broden of Fargo spun for a second time.

Wilke did not mess around on the restart, taking the lead with 11 to go. Restad moved into second. Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids was working his way through traffic and climbed to third but had some pressure from Ty Olson of Mandan, who would take the spot.

Restad stayed within 3-4 car lengths of Wilke but was slowly cutting the gap up front. Olson was well behind the top two. Braseth had moved up to fourth after starting in the back row with Briss running in fifth.

Wilke began to pull away as the laps waned but the caution waved just as the white flag was in hand, erasing a 1.2 second lead.  On the restart Olson cleared Restad for second and was within a car length of Wilke as the white flag waved.  Olson made some kind of charge on the last lap and got a huge run down the frontstretch to stun Wilke by .063 seconds for a thrilling win. The late caution was the difference in the race, and Olson pretty much admitted as much in his postrace interview.  Wilke settled for second. Restad, Braseth and Tyler Riewer of Detroit Lakes rounded out the top five.

NCR Notes

It was good to see some Bemidji-area Wissota Midwest Modifieds in town as Brennan Schmidt, Cejay LaValley and Michael Jacobson all were in attendance.   They are regulars at Bemidji Speedway, which is a ¼-mile track in contrast to the 3/8-mile paper clip-type track at NCR.

Otterness is a strong runner wherever he unloads, but Thursday was only his fifth race of the summer, according to myracepass.com. It was his first feature victory of 2025.

Sheyenne wins to Johnson, Ost, Bogart, Hess, Carow and Walsh

Sean Johnson of Kindred started last on the INEX Legend field but worked to the front to pick up the feature win Thursday night at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon. Bo Gregor of Lisbon was second, Regan Reinke of Lisbon third, Kody Machart of Moorhead fourth and Dusty Mund of Lisbon fifth.

Ryan Ost of Adrian picked up his first feature win of 2025, topping Zach Reinke of Lisbon for the Wissota Midwest Modified main event win. Kyle Langland of Enderlin was third, Kyle Anderson of Jamestown was fourth and Jaren Wibstad of Jamestown was fifth.

Mason Bogart of Milnor topped Travis Olafson of Wilton, Minn., for the Short Tracker win. Hunter Goulet of Fargo was fourth, Pokey Lukess of Lisbon fifth and Dale Mittleider of Milnor was fifth.

Trey Hess of Grand Forks topped Cole Greseth of Harwood for the Wissota Street Stock win. Kasey Ussatis of Nome was third, Jayden Michaelsohn of Aberdeen fourth and Hunter Carter of Mapleton fifth.

Billy Carow of Jamestown topped Ryker Vetter of Wishek for the Hobby Stock feature victory. Matthew Stoppleworth of Ypsilanti was third, Dalton Aabrekke of Lisbon fourth and Neil Nelson of Aberdeen.

Trevor Walsh of Watertown won the Gen X Late Models for a second straight week over Jarrett Huus of Fergus Falls. John Winge of Harrisburg was third, Jeff Nelson of Perham fourth and Collin Compson of Valley City was fifth.