Sprint cars invade Buffalo River Speedway

Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon hosted the Midwest Sprint Touring Series which concluded a three-day swing in the area. Jack Dover of Springfield, Neb., was the class of the 410 field from the green flag.

The IMCA RaceSaver sprints also had 20 cars on hand along with 10 Lightning Sprints and seven IMCA Stock Cars.

Dover roared out front of the MSTS feature with Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks chasing him. Christopher Thram of Sanborn was third, and Jade Hastings of Grand F orks in fourth.

Dover grew his lead to 2.1 seconds, moving smoothly through lapped traffic without issue. Hastings, meanwhile, had climbed to third, and Andy Pake of Felton, who flipped his 64 machine at River Cities, had climbed to fourth ahead of Thram.

Pake moved around Hastings for third and was closing on Dobmeier when the caution flew for Jack Croaker, who had stalled off turn one. Croaker, who had a fourth place finish at River Cities on Friday, would get pushed to the pits and returned after a tire change.

It was apparent on the next restart that Dover wasn’t going to be touched on this night as within two laps, he had built a 1.2 second lead., The caution would come out again as Josh Johnson, who was doing duty on this night, got a bit too high in turns one and two and spun. Another caution came out for Austin Hartmann who had slid off of turn three.

Dobmeier went for it all on the restart and looked to make a pass but couldn’t do so. Pake made the pass for second and moments later, Dobmeier would spin with four to go in turn two, but held his foot to the floor and kept going through the infield but it cost him more than a dozen positions. The caution flew for the Jacob Peterson who slid off of turns three and four.

Pake peeked under Dover with two to go but Dover’s momentum on the high side quickly rebuilt the lead, and he would prevailed by 1.04 seconds over Pake, who went from 10^th to second. Thram edged Hastings for third with Weston Olson of Warren, who quietly had worked into the top five, claming the fifth spot. Brendan Mullen of Grand Forks  had a good race, going from 18^th to sixth.

There were three different winners in the three day swing – Mark Dobmeier won Thursday at Norman County, Austin Hartmann of Plymouth, Wis., won at River Cities and Dover Saturday.

In the lightning sprint feature, Luke Hendrickson of Mekinock, who won at River Cities on Friday, built a 1.1 second lead on Emmitt Isane of Badger with Dexter Dvergsten of Greenbush – the standard bearer in the class for many years regionally – in third.

Hendrickson would go on to pick up his second win in as many nights. He is a product of the go-karts, like many young drivers in this region. The 16-year-old now has three wins in 2026. Isane was second after starting in that spot while Dvergsten was third. Evan Yanish of Cavalier made a nice run from ninth to fourth with Zander Anderson of Lake Bronson taking fifth.

Cole Vanderheiden of Papillion, Neb., stormed out to the lead as the Taves siblings from Detroit Lakes, Kate and Matthew, fought for second.  Monty Ferriera of Lincoln, Neb.. was in fourth as Bryce Haugeberg, driving a Top Notch Motorsports car, passed his teammate, Brandon Rekow for fifth.

The IMCA sprints ran the bottom mainly and there was not a lot of passing for position. Soon lapped cars became a factor and Kate Taves was closing on Vanderheiden, and she was bringing her brother with her. Rekow had regained fifth. With four to go Kate Taves was within a car length.

Ferriera meanwhile was closing on Matthew Taves and Rekow wasn’t far behind.

Vanderheiden would lead every lap and prevail by .502 seconds over Kate Taves, who drove a good race from start to finish. Matthew Taves held off Ferriera for third with Rekow completing the top five.  The caution-free race lasted about seven minutes, nice job by those folks, unfortunately it was pretty much a one-laner on the bottom.

Seven IMCA Stock Cars were on hand with Will Dittmer of Casselton and Dan Aberle of Finley leading the field. It quickly turned into a fight between Rob VanMil and Aberle who ran side by side. Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada was third, Dittmer had slid back to fourth and soon was overtaken by Brody Carlsrud of Fargo.

At least for the first half of the race, the track was bottom heavy again. Aberle stuck to VanMil’s bumper as Kelly Jacobson climbed to fifth.

It was interesting that VanMil switched his line and went up higher, and was pulling away. Kesselberg went up there and soon faced a fight with Carlsrud for third.  Sometimes you need to go where the others aren’t.

VanMil rolled  o a 1.5 second win over Aberle. Even though the stock cars don’t race weekly at BRS, VanMil has made thousands of laps in the place, dating back to his days in the Wissota Mod 4s. Carlsrud would edge Kesselberg for third with Jacobson rounding out the top five. Again, a caution free main event.

Michel, Banish, Hoerner, Bargmann and Tooley victors at Jamestown

Aaron Michel of Jamestown won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature Saturday night at Jamestown Speedway. Brennon Weight of LaMoure was second, Jarod Klein of Jamestown third, Jason Grimes of Jamestown fourth and Zander Compson of Valley City fifth.

Bob Banish Jr. won the Wissota Street Stock feature. Jodie Michaelsohn of Aberdeen was second, Cole Greseth of Harwood third, Billie Christ of Jamestown fourth and Dustin Erickson of Jamestown fifth.

Kelly Hoerner of Bismarck won the Bomber feature. Travis Edinger of Jamestown was second, Brody Michaelsohn of Wishek was third, Billy Carow of Jamestown fourth and Clay Gentzkow of Berlin fifth.

Andrew Bargmann of Bismarck won the INEX Legends feature with Austin Wiest of Bismarck second. Donavin Wiest of Wishek was third, Ryan Erdahl of Jamestown fourth and Kaden Dockter of Linton was fifth.

Travis Tooley of Dickinson won the IMCA Modified main event. Marcus Tomlinson of Turtle Lake was second, Jeremy Keller of Bismarck third, Shawn Strand of Mandan fourth and Lindsey Hansen of Fargo fifth.

Saturday notes

--Greg Jose of Grand Forks won the Wissota Street Stock feature Saturday night at Devils Lake Speedway. Jory Berg of Grand Forks topped teammate MaKenna Breidenbach for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature win. Dusty Peterson of Kindred was third.

Nick Shirek of Thompson topped Myles Tomlinson of Turtle Lake for the Western Renegade Non-Winged Sprint feature victory.

--Aaron Holtan of Newfolden won the Wissota Modified feature at Greenbush Race Park. Jordan Duray of Halma was second. Cylen Vargason of Edinburg finished second in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature to national point leader Blake Adams.

--Viking Speedway in Alexandria had a scheduled night off.