Sheyenne feature wins to Johnson, Reinke, Gentzkow, Ussatis, Compson and Goulet

The weather FINALLY cooperated with Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon after two straight rainouts as the ¼-mile oval in Lisbon got its second night of the season recorded.

Sheyenne had rained out three of the previous four nights it had scheduled, so I was happy for the Hendricksons, the new promoters, to get a night of racing in. Sheyenne is off until July 10 so I think it was huge to get another show in the books before then.

Car counts were at 54, down a bit in the street stocks and hobby stocks. Keep in mind, Sheyenne ran a limited schedule last summer and was IMCA-sanctioned in a few of the classes and didn’t run street stocks last season. It will take time, and stability in sanctioned classes (keeping the same classes over a span of years) and promoting helps car counts.

The heat races moved along nicely and were done in about 40 minutes. The final checkered waved at 9:45 p.m., so not bad at all in terms of time.

My assessment was there a lot of good racing towards the front in the features; this led to some contact in fights for position and some spins and cautions. I don’t think any of the incidents were dirty or cheap, just aa product of ¼-mile racing. Trust me, if I thought someone wrecked someone intentionally or took them out, I'd call them out in this blog like I have in the past.

A good field of 15 INEX Legends were on hand, and when Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes is on the front row, that usually spells trouble for the field. But he was starting along side another good car, Dusty Mund of Lisbon.

Mund would get past Wilke to take the early lead. Regan Reinke of Lisbon, son of Wissota Midwest Modified driver Zach Reinke, was charging on the outside and took over second The 72 car of Trenton Simon of Joplin, Mo., was also fighting with Wilke.

Reinke was running a lane higher than Mund and making it second. Wilke was back on the charge as well. Mund, with a lot of traffic on his heels, spun out of turn four to bring out the first caution.

Simon made a charge under Reinke but got a bit sideways, and Wilke gave him a tap to send Simon into a spin. Simon would pull pit side with Wilke being charged with the caution. That was a result of good, hard racing on a short track and not a malicious deal. Wilke was far from done, however.

Reinke led defending Red River Valley Speedway track champion Sean Johnson on the restart with 15 to go.   AJ Faber spun on the frontstretch with 12 to go to bring out the third caution.

Jeremy Meyer of Gwinner, Bo Gregor of Lisbon and Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids were in the top five on the restart. Johnson went to work underneath Reinke in the fight for the lead as Gregor climbed to third and was catching the top two.

Richardson’s 79 came to a halt in the infield in turn three to bring out the caution as he was still fairly close to the racing surface. Richardson, a nice, mild-mannered guy from my dealings with him, was not happy with somebody, I didn’t see who he pointed at.

Reinke had Johnson chasing him as Gregor, Wilke and opening night winner Ty Olson of Mandan fought for third.  Wilke would take the spot with six to go.

Johnson was patient on the low lane as Reinke ran more in the middle and the two ran side-by-side for 3-4 laps before Johnson edged ahead with three to go. Wilke, running up high, worked around Reinke for second and was pressuring Johnson for the lead as the white flag waved.

Wilke looked to make a charge out of turn four but got into the marbles a bit and lost a little ground as Johnson would prevail by .328 seconds.  Wilke settled for second with Gregor nipping Reinke for third by .043 seconds. Olson rounded out the top five. Mund, who had gone to the tail earlier in  the feature, worked back to sixth.

I will say, if Reinke runs like he did on Thursday, he will get a victory this season. Keep in mind he is only 13 years old.

The Ford of Kyle Langland of Enderlin grabbed the lead in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Zach Reinke. Zander Compson of Valley City moved into third. Kyle Anderson of Jamestown, who started eighth, moved to fourth with Nate Reinke of Lisbon, who started ninth, climbing to fifth.

After Jackson Thornton’s spin brought out the yellow, Langland continued to lead up front as Anderson moved into third to chase Zach Reinke. Nate Reinke grabbed fourth with Jaren Wibstad of Jamestown taking over fifth.

Wallner hit the wall with 15 to go to bring out the caution. He left on the hook.

Langland continued to lead with Anderson taking over second. Wibstead went up to a higher lane and found the speed, and got by Anderson and soon moved beside Langland up front. Wibstad would grab the lead at the halfway point.  Anderson was third with the Reinke brothers in fourth and fifth, respectively.  With nine laps remaining Brennan Urbach of Lisbon slid off of turn two; he would call it a night after that.

On the restart, Langland fought back on the bottom and regained the lead from Wibstad, who was still working the higher lane. Anderson was solidly in third, about a car length ahead of Nate Reinke.

Wibstad would use the momentum up high to regain the lead allhough Langland wasn’t going away. Wibstad was tighter on the low lane and went down to protect it. There was contact in turns three and four between Wibstad and Langland, sending the 36 around. The caution was charged to Langland. It was a tough deal, I thought it was some good racing.

On the restart with two to go, Nate Reinke made a charge on the higher lane and would grab the lead from Wibstad and would go on to the feature win by .589 seconds. Wibstad, who won at Jamestown last week, was second with Anderson third. Compson came back to fourth with Zach Reinke fifth. It certainly was an entertaining main event.

Dillon Thorpe of Ellendale and Dalton Aabrekke of Lisbon led the hobby stocks to the green.

Billy Carow of Jamestown, who won the opening night at Sheyenne, suffered a flat tire on the first lap. He got his tire changed and started at the rear of the six-car field.

On the restart Thorpe worked the outside to take the lead from Aabrekke. Cade Gentzkow of LaMoure, who started on the outside pole but slipped on the start, had charged back to second.

Aabrekke, Carow and Brent Wilkinson of Jamestown had a nice fight for third.  Dylan Krueger’s 54 stalled on the frontstretch for the second caution. Thorpe resumed the lead up front with Gentzkow chasing. Carow and Aabrekke ran side-by-side for third.

Gentzkow was working down low and got the run he needed out of turn two to take the lead, and a few laps later Carow grabbed the second spot.

Gentzkow opened up a one-second advantage by the checkered to pick up the win with Carow taking second. Thorpe was third, Wilkinson was fourth.

The Wissota Street Stocks had seven cars on hand. Before I go further on that, the street class is in a bit of a transition at Sheyenne. Veterans and strong runners like Todd Carter (IMCA Stock Car), Jonny Carter (IMCA Stock Car) and Kyle Anderson (Wissota Midwest Modified) have all switched classes in the past two years.

But there were some good cars on hand, including the leader Kasey Ussatis of Nome. Cole Greseth of Harwood is having a great year and moved into second, and Trey Hess of Grand Forks, who finished second at Thunder City in Thunder Bay last night, moved into third.

Ussatis ran low but Greseth went up to a higher lane and made it work and would take the lead. Greseth would take the lead with 13 to go.  Mike Mund of Milnor was running fourth with the rookie, 12-year-old Blaine Barnes of Grand Forks running in fifth.

Greseth pushed the lead to 1.9 seconds with six to go and looked to be on his way to another feature win, but his water pump belt broke, leading the engine to overheat with three to go and he pulled off. Ussatis would take over the lead. The best battle was for fifth between Barnes and Ryan Mund.

Ussatis had a big advantage on Hess and would open to a 2.47 advantage by the checkered for the win. Hess was second, Mike Mund third, Ryan Mund was fourth and Barnes was fifth.

Nine Gen X Late Models were on hand, enough for a good show on a ¼-mile track.  Rookie Cade Skytland of Horace, son of long-time local racer Cody Skytland, was the early leader but slid off of turn two on the second lap to bring out the first caution.

Collin Compson of Valley City would take over the lead with the most famous person from Barney, Kevin Youngquist and Alex Tschakert fought for second. Jarrett Huus of Fergus Falls moved into fourth and soon went to work on Tschakert for third. Mike Anderson of Walcott was fifth.

Youngquist was reeling in Compson as the top two had a big advantage on third-place Tschakert.  Youngquist would get underneath Compson and make contact in turn two, sending both cars around. The caution was called on Youngquist.

Compson now had Huus and Tschakert on his tail on the restart. Huus went up to the higher lane and would take over the lead form Compson. Jeff Nelson of Perham, the winner on opening night at Sheyenne, moved to fourth with Youngquist climbing back to fifth.

The battle up front was far from done as Compson found speed down low and would regain the lead from Huus. Youngquist, meanwhile moved by Nelson for fourth. The caution waved with seven to go to tighten up the field, wiping out a 1.3 second lead for Compson.

Compson survived the restarts to pick up his first Gen X Late Model win. Huus was second, Tschakert was third, Youngquist would edge Nelson for fourth.

Seven mini stocks were on hand. Bryce Mueller and Goulet fought for the lead with Mund running third.  Mason Bogart made contact with Braiden Mund to bring out the caution, and the 97 would go to the tail.

Goulet and Mueller had a great battle up front for the lead as Mund was third. Bogart had moved back to fourth.

Goulet would edge ahead of Mueller for the lead and begin to pull away. Bogart was closing on Mueller. Pokey Lukes of Lisbon and Dale Mittleider squared off in a good duel for the fourth spot.

Goulet took firm control to pick up the win by 1.8 seconds as Bogart got by Mueller for second by the checkered. Mittleider topped Lukes for fourth.

Pavliceks, Bunnis and Saurer win at Norman County

Rich Pavlicek of Casselton tppped Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature win Thursday at Norman County Raceway. Reise Steinberg of Argusville was third, Taylor Jacobson of Roseau was fourth and Justin Olson of Thief River Falls was fifth.

It was a good night for the Pavlicek family as Jayden Pavlicek topped Ryan Restad of West Fargo for the IMCA Sport Mod win. Chris VanMil of Barnesville was third and Andy Wagner of Ada was fourth.

Brandon Bunnis of Detroit Lakes won the INEX Legends feature over Tyler Riewer of Vergas. Caden Bunnis of Detroit Lakes was third, Ben Lundquist of Fridley was fourth and Joseph Lewis of Hawley was fifth.

Travis Saurer of Dalton won the Wissota Modified feature over Bryce Sward of Nelson. Brock Gronwold of Fergus Falls was third, Tyler Peterson of Hickson fourth and Joe Thomas of Glyndon was fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car and Hobby Stock features were rained out and will be made up at a later date.