I made it back to Buffalo River Speedway on Sunday night for Fan Appreciation Night. There was a great crowd on hand and a good 91-car field signed in.
There was an extended intermission with meet the drivers night on the track, which is always popular at Buffalo River. Racing started at 5 p.m. as a result with the final checkered being waved a little after 10. It was a very dry-slick track that was dominated mainly by the bottom groove for most features.
The IMCA Modifieds took center stage with the Auto Repair 30, which would pay $1,200 to the winner of the 30-lap main event.
The bottom line was clearly the place to be for the IMCA Modified main event. Jesse Skalicky of Fargo beat Kollin Hibdon to the line on the first lap, and that proved vital on a track where passing was at a premium.
Skalicky had a half a straightaway on Hibdon, who slowed with a flat tire and pulled in about 10 lap into the feature. After Hibdon’s departure, Dave Shipley of Argusville had moved into second.
John Nord of Enderlin, who had a convincing win Saturday at Jamestown, had moved past Rob VanMil of Barnesville for third. VanMil was driving Matt Aukland’s #12 machine.
Skalicky, with two wins at Buffalo River already this year, was maneuvering through lapped traffic as were several cars, including Shipley, Nord, VanMil and Luke Johnson of Moorhead, who was running well but has been plagued by bad luck.
Shipley was eating into Skalicky’s lead. Skalicky’s hopes for a $1,200 feature win ended with a flat tire as the #3S pulled off. It was just plain bad luck for the 3S -- who suffered a cut tire in his time trial, dash and feature...I'm not sure how to explain that one. There were several right rear flats involving the mods on the night.
Shipley had been steady and consistent all race long, especially in lapped traffic, and picked up the $1,200 win. Nord ran a strong second to pick up $800 with Johnson capping off a great run in third, earning a nice $600 payday. VanMil was fourth and Cody Peterson of Glyndon rounding out the top five.
Nick Curtis of Rothsay picked up the Johnson’s Auto Repair secret eighth place bonus. That envelope was opened and counted by Curtis in his post-race interview with announcer Corey Litton — and was worth $500. That was a real nice bonus.
Chris VanMil of Barnesville set the pace in the IMCA Sport Mod feature before a caution came out with 17 to go. On the restart, Scott Jacobson of Fargo muscled past VanMil for the top spot.
Kelly Jacobson of Fargo worked into third, and a few laps later, closed the gap on VanMil for second. A duel for fourth was taking place between Torey Fischer of West Fargo and Dave Siercks of Princeton, who has a win at BRS earlier this season.
Jacobson applied some pressure to VanMil but Scott Jacobson opened up a big lead.
The caution would come out with four to go, and shortly after the red flag came out for a medical emergency in the pit area. During that time, Fischer went to the pits to change a tire, and Siercks — I didn’t see what happened — went pitside with an issue.
The final restart with four to go got a little messy as Kelly Jacobson got into VanMil, and that opened the door for Vince Jegtvig to move into the second spot. VanMil was able to get back past Kelly Jacobson for third.
Scott Jacobson would run away with the win, his third of the season at Buffalo River and second in a row. He had a big gap over Jegtvig, who held off VanMil for the runner-up slot. Kelly Jacobson was fourth and Patrick Brejcha of Wahpeton was fifth. Fischer came back to finish sixth.
Shawn Wiest of Fargo took the early lead over Kody Machart in the INEX Legends feature. Josh Wiest soon moved into the second spot and then passed Shawn Wiest for the top spot with 17 to go.
Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes put his car 72 up on the high line trying to get around a big group of traffic but wasn’t find a lot of traction.
Alex Braseth of Ulen, who won Friday at Red River Valley Speedway, and Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids moved into third and fourth as they each got by Machart. Dylan Johnson also worked into the top five.
Halfway through Alex Braseth got by Shawn Wiest for second, and was closing on Josh Wiest. Wiest had his hands full with lapped cars as Alex Braseth closed right to the bumper.
With five to go, Braseth got into Wiest in turn three, sending the #28 car around; however, at the same time, Mike Hart of Erhard spun his #24 car, and that was ruled to bring out the caution. So Wiest and Braseth returned to the first and second spots, respectively.
With five to go, a pair of incidents on the front stretch brought out the caution. Braseth resumed his duel with Wiest, and was soon joined by Wilke. Wiest made one slip up, and got loose out of turn four, and that opened the door for Alex Braseth to take the lead. Wilke would move into second.
Wilke was all over Alex Braseth, much like he was at Red River Valley on Friday, but Braseth would hold on for the win by just .264 seconds. Wilke settled for second with Wiest finishing a solid third. Richardson was fourth and Ryan Braseth of Ulen was fifth. It was a very entertaining Legends race.
Alan Truscinski of Greenbush set the pace from the outset of the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints and would dominate the entire 20-lap event to pick up the win.
Garrison Miller of Fargo moved into second with Alex Truscinski of Greenbush settling behind him.
Jason Berg of West Fargo moved into the top five.
Alan Truscinski, who saw a feature win slip through his hands with a broken chain last week, was not going to be denied this week. He won by 4.635 seconds over his son Alex. Miller was a solid third with Jake Haugeberg of Fargo taking fourth and Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes taking fifth after starting seventh.
Scott Herron quickly took over the top spot in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature from Todd Gettel of Mahnomen. A caution came out with 15 to go to bunch of the field. Then a caution came out, and frankly, the race turned into a marathon mess. Cars were sideways and stringing together green laps proved very difficult.
Andrea Jacobson of Fargo moved into second but Gettel and Chad Visser of Ironton would move past into those spots. The veteran Brad Orvedal had worked into fifth.
Herron had built a 2.7 second lead on Gettel when the caution came out for a spin with 10 to go. On the restart Visser moved into second as Orvedal took over third and soon was aiming for the second spot.
Herron maintained the lead but it wasn’t as big was previously, this time about a second, over Visser, as the caution waved with three to go. Visser made some attempts at Herron but the Brainerd driver would prevail by .428 seconds. Orvedal was third, Gettel was fourth and Caleb Gardner was fifth.
A shoutout to Levi Lease of Harwood, who is a rookie in the IMCA Hobby Stocks. He has showed improvement each week and ran competitively with the pack on Sunday.
Hunter Goulet set the pace for the early moments of the Short Tracker feature and built a commanding lead. But Brady Molter would make things interesting as he narrowed the gap.
Also working through the field was John Heacox in the #87 machine, who had started way back in 10th but worked to third.
Late in the race Molter was making up ground on the bottom as Goulet’s car tightened up a bit, but the #3E would survive to pick up the victory his second of the season at Buffalo River. Molter settled for second, Heacox was third, Kevin Wahl of Fergus Falls fourth and Kody Crabtree was fifth.
Dykhoff Wins Steffes Tour at Casino
Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck picked up his 15th feature win of the season at Casino Speedway in Watertown, S.D. on Sunday as part of the Steffes Street Stock Tour.
Dykhoff topped national point leader Braden Brauer of Rochester for the win. It was Dykhoff's first tour win of 2022. Ty Agen of Chippewa Falls was second, Jeff Nowak of Wausau, Wis., third and Andy Rossow of Florence was fifth.
Scott Hansen of Garden City won the Rebel Midwest Modified Tour main event over Mike Nichols of Watertown. Jason Grimes of Jamestown was third, Dan Wheeler of Savage, Minn., fourth and Corey Storck of Morris fifth. Only 13 of the 26 starters finished that event.
Peterson Wins 4th Straight Advantage RV Mod Tour Event
Tyler Peterson went 4-for-4 on the Advantage RV Mod Tour on the weekend, picking up the win Sunday night at Bemidji Speedway. By my count his weekend was worth more than $7,500.
Zach Johnson of Lowry was second, Johnny Broking of Grand Rapids third, Josh Beaulieu of Bemidji fourth and Joseph Thomas of Glyndon was fifth.
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