Strand captures NLRA show at NCR; VanMil, Olson, Randall, Broden and Berg capture victories

Norman County Raceway in Ada hosted the NLRA Late Models on Thursday night. It was a good field overall with 86 cars on hand on a hot May evening.

I will lead with the NLRA Late Models with 27 cars on hand and 26 taking the green. NLRA shows at NCR usually are at 20 cars or more as the series provides a reliable car count when it comes to town. Which shows how effective the NLRA has been in keeping late model racing viable in this region.

Unfortunately this was a caution-filled marathon that never seemed to end, lasting 40 minutes.  I am surprised they didn’t cut laps, honestly. Every class can have a rough night, I guess...

Canadian Shane Edginton and the long-time veteran Mitch Johnson of Hickson led the NLRA group.  Edginton got a great start and opened 3-4 car lengths on Johnson. Brad Seng of Grand Forks was fighting Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks side-by-side for third with Tucker Pederson of East Grand Forks in fifth.

The first caution waved for Kalvin Kesselberg’s 19 machine stalled on the top of turn four; I didn’t see what happened, but he left on the hook. Just before that caution, Dustin Strand had gotten around Johnson for second.

One thing I was watching as multi-time Wissota Late Model national champion Tyler Peterson of Hickson (TPO), who was a DNF in his heat race and started dead last on the field. He was up to just outside the top 15 by the first caution, from my count (keep in mind I went to Southwest Minnesota State, not exactly known as the Harvard of the Midwest).

On the restart, a multi-car pileup occurred in turns one and two which included Jamie Trautner of Hendrum, Kelsi Pederson of East Grand Forks and Rusty Kollman of Carrington.  All were able to continue with some sheet metal damage.  On the next restart Mike Greseth of Harwood was forced off the track and into the backstretch guardrail. Greseth’s night was over, but it was not his doing.

The three cautions led to a single-file restart as Edginton opened up .8 seconds on Strand. Seng had taken third from Johnson. The caution waved as Trautner was turned in turn two. TPO, by the way, had moved to 11^th with 19 to go.

Joey Pederson of East Grand Forks passed his son Tucker for fifth as Strand surged past Edginton with 17 to go. The best battle was for fifth as Cole Schill of Hawley had climbed to sixth and was challenging Joey Pederson for that spot. Not far behind was Jason Strand of Portland, in his season debut.

Strand’s lead was almost two seconds by the halfway point as Edginton led Seng by 1.3 seconds. Johnson had the calvary behind him with Pederson, Schill and Jason Strand were looking to move up. The caution flew with 10 to go for Travis Robertson’s spin; with the yellow/black being waved his night would come to and end.  The caution might have helped Dustin Strand who was in a ton of lapped traffic.

Dustin Strand opened a big lead as Schill was on the move  into the top four and fighting Edginton for third. Jason Strand had passed Johnson for fifth when another caution flew.

With the bottom lane the preferred line, Dustin Strand was pretty much gone as Edginton had regained second with four to go. The seventh caution – yes this turned into a marathon – for a car off of turn four, setting up a green-white checkered.

No one was touching Strand as he flew away from Seng, who grabbed second on the restart and won by 1.782 seconds. Seng topped Schill for second with Edginton and Jason Strand capping off the top five. TPO, by the way, went from 26^th to seventh to easily be the hard charger of the race.

 Two young drivers, Brody Johnson of Moorhead and Cayden Westcott of Ada led the IMCA Sport Mods to the green. Johnson grabbed the lead but soon had a lot of heat from Chris VanMil of Barnesville, who would prove to be the class of the field. Kyle VanMil of Barnesville soon made it a three-car fight, and Ryan Restad of West Fargo was closing quickly as there was a four-car breakaway.

Westcott had his hands full with Rich Pavlicek of Casselton as he tried to stay in the top five.

VanMil grabbed the lead by about the fifth lap and opened a 1.1 second lead on his nephew, Kyle as Restad moved into third. Rich Pavlicek moved into the top five by the halfway point. Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton spun in turn three to bring out the first caution.

On the restart VanMil got a great start as Restad moved into second. Rich Pavlicek had climbed to fourth but a few laps later would pull off with a problem.

Andy Wagner of Ada, a usual strong runner at NCR, suffered a flat tire which ended his night. VanMil’s lead was about .7 seconds over Restad, and it pretty much stayed that way. Paul Colvin of Horace was having a nice run and climbed into fifth.

VanMil opened some breathing room by the white flag and won by a 1.3 second margin over Restad. Kyle VanMil ran steady all night in third while Brody Johnson ran a good race in fourth. Colvin rounded out the top five.  Only one caution in the sport mods in a race that lasted a little more than six minutes, a good job by that group.

Aaron Olson led the IMCA Stock Cars early but was under a lot of pressure from Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada, the outside polesitter. Brody Carlsrud of Moorhead was third ahead of Ryan Satter of Dent. Rob VanMil was dueling with Dan Aberle of Finley for fifth.

Kesselberg was all over Olson as the lead stood at .10 seconds with eight laps to go. Olson pushed the lead to .34 seconds with four to go as Kesselberg, Carlsrud and Satter ran close in spots 2-4.

Olson needed to be flawless, and he was, as Kesselberg was on his bumper almost the whole race including on the final lap with a tap. Olson held on as his margin of victory was .547 seconds, but the race was much closer than that. Kesselberg settled for second, Carlsrud survived Satter for third and VanMil capped off the top five. There were no cautions in the race that lasted about five minutes, an excellent job by those guys.

Noah Lewis and Ryan Braseth possessed the front row for the INEX Legends, but it was a disastrous start. Braseth lost a wheel down the frontstretch and slowed quickly and it caused chaos behind him with several cars getting tangled up to bring out the red flag.  Scott Richardson’s car ended on top of another car, tipped on its side. Ty Olson of Mandan, already armed with five feature wins in 2026, was involved and pulled into the pit area. Andrew Clark and Alexander Clark were also caught in that wreck. It was a bad break for several drivers, and there wasn’t much Braseth could do once the wheel came off.

Six cars were  eliminated as a result of the wreck, and on the restart Owen Broden grabbed the lead over Brandon Bunnis of Detroit Lakes. Alexander Clark, who went pitside with a tire issue, had came back to fourth  ahead of Lewis. Richardson was able to continue after the first lap melee and work in the pit area and was up to fifth ahead of Carter Restad of West Fargo.

NCR officials shortened the race down to six laps after the caution. Normally I am all for time limits on a race, especially if it is a caution fest, but I don’t know if a class should be penalized because of a red flag delay for a big crash. Red flags are different in that they take time to separate and clean up cars (or require EMT personnel), rather than a car spinning but itself two times in two laps, for example.

Broden, a second-year driver, took the lead from the start and weathered the six-lap shootout to pick up his first career feature victory; his previous best finish was seventh at River Cities earlier this month. Bunnis was second, Clark was third, Lewis was fourth and Richardson made quite a comeback to finish fifth.

Tim Church led the IMCA Hobby Stock feature early but Reid Randall of Park Rapids was on the move towards the front and would take the lead by the third lap. Brad Jones of New Ulm, the Week 1 winner at NCR, moved up to second as Church battled Tim Otterness of Brainerd for third. Todd Gettel of Mahnomen started on the pole but slid back to fifth.

Jones was all over Randall at the front with Otterness close in tow.  Jones looked to the outside and made the pass out of turn four to take the lead with two to go. Randall fought back after contact with Jones and that set up a three-car battle on the final lap.  Jones got crossed up briefly and that was enough for Randall to pull away to a .504 second victory. Jones held off Otterness for second with Church and Brad Orvedal of Fargo finishing in fourth and fifth, respectively. The caution-free feature lasted about four minutes.

The Wissota Midwest Modifieds capped off the evening with 16 cars taking the green, but it was a frustrating race that was shortened to six green flag laps.  The race struggled to get started as cautions plagued the early moments.  I’ll be honest, this had to be a frustrating night for the Midwest modifieds – they ran their heat races first, and ended up running the final feature of the night – and the race struggled to get going and the laps were cut by more than half.

 Jory Berg of Grand Forks led Justin Jones of Bemidji with Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls moving into third. Dusty Peterson of Kindred, back behind the wheel this summer, was running in the top five.

Jones made a valiant effort to pass Berg but Berg prevailed in the shortened-race by .821 seconds. Blacklance settled for third, Dusty Peterson was fourth and Kenna Breidenbach, who started way back in 15^th, climbed to the top five at the checkered to cap off a good race.

NCR cut laps in the Legend and Mid Mod features, and I am thinking that might not sit well with a few folks in those classes who sat through a 40-minute late model feature.