Strand Dominates NLRA Opener at NCR; Restad, Wilke, Schow, Randall and Kesselberg Post Victories
- tombergie01
- May 29
- 7 min read
Norman County Raceway in Ada opened the 2025 season with 22 NLRA Late Models on hand. There was a solid 69-car field signed in (there were a couple of cars registered that did not attend).
As far as opening nights go, I would think a lot of tracks would like an opener like NCR had: decent weather (temps in the 70s, a bit overcast), a good, smooth racetrack, and racing that got done in in two hours and 51 minutes. After a long week with some long shows, I much welcomed the efficient program! A credit to the drivers and officials both for a good opening night.
I will start with the NLRA late models since they are making their only appearance at NCR this season. When I was projecting who I thought would contend, I thought of three drivers right away – Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks, Mike Greseth of Harwood and Tyler Peterson (TPO) of Hickson, N.D. Strand, on this night, was the dominant car.
Strand, a five-time and defending NLRA champion, took the early lead over Jeremy Keller of Bismarck in the NLRA Late Model feature. Greseth, a three-time NLRA champion, settled into third.
It took five laps for Strand to build a two-second advantage on Keller. Greseth was third while Rusty Kollman of Carrington was fourth and Laela Eisenschenk of Fargo in fifth.
I was watching TPO, who started 10th, and he climbed to sixth.
Greseth had a likely top five run end with a mechanical problem about eight laps into the main event. TPO was surging and moved into third ahead of Schill with 12 to go.
Strand’s lead hovered between 3.5 and 4.0 seconds. But that was erased with 12 to go when a caution waved for Ryan Kereluk’s stalled 29 machine off of turn two.
That made things interesting – it brought TPO to the second row next to Keller on the restart. Strand jumped to a good start, TPO cleared Keller for second. Schill was fourth, and Canadian Shane Edginton had climbed to fifth after starting 13th.
Schill pressured Keller for third; Keller would pull off with a problem it what ended a promising night.
TPO searched for a line to gain some speed on Strand, but the 71S, who is so tough at NCR, would push the lead up to nearly two seconds. Peterson would cut a big chunk out of the lead, down to .606, but came up short as Strand grabbed the win, his 37th NLRA victory, second all-time to Brad Seng. TPO finished second after starting 10th, which is a good night.
Schill was third to cap off a good run from seventh. Edginton moved up nine spots to fourth at the finish with Kollman running a solid fifth. Laela Eisenschenk finished sixth and ran in the top seven all night.
Ryan Restad of West Fargo brought out a new car for Thursday’s IMCA Sport Mod racing at NCR. He started on the pole next to the Turkey Man, James Taves of Glyndon.
Taves would take the early lead and open up a half-straightaway on Restad. Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton grabbed third with Chris VanMil of Barnesville, Kyle VanMil of Barnesville and Brody Johnson of Moorhead among the cars fighting for fourth.
Restad cut the gap quickly and put all kinds of pressure on Taves, and would make the pass out of turns one and two. The caution would wave when Cayden Westcott spun, which would be the only yellow of the main event.
Pavlicek got by Taves for second on the restart but couldn’t catch Restad up front. Chris VanMil had grabbed fourth ahead of his nephew, Kyle.
Restad prevailed by .810 seconds over Pavlicek with Taves running third. Chris VanMil was fourth and Kyle VanMil was fifth.
It isn’t often an INEX Legend feature is a runaway. But Tye Wilke simply destroyed the field on Thursday at NCR.
Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids, who was coming off of a runner-up finish at Sheyenne Speedway on Monday, grabbed the lead from the pole. Wilke, who started fifth, wasted no time moving into second and was challenging Richardson for the top spot. He would make the pass just three laps into it, and from there, checked out on the field.
Richardson was strong in second, as was Alex Braseth in third. Brandon Bunnis of Detroit Lakes, Noah Lewis of Hawley Tony Brockhouse of Glyndon (driving the 22K) and Mason Lemar of Casselton eventually were in a group fighting for position.
By the checkered Wilke had a six-second lead in the caution-free main event to pick up the win. Earlier this season, he picked up an IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win at historic Huset’s Speedway.
Richardson picked up his fifth top five of the season in second, with Braseth, Bunnis and Brockhouse completing the top five.
Corey Storck of Morris and Taylor Jacobson of Roseau led the Wissota Midwest Modified field to the green. Storck took the lead with Matt Schow of McIntosh quickly moving into second. Jacobson was third with Stenberg in fourth and Jamie Dietzler of Larimore fifth.
Schow was lightning fast from the get-go, and he got by Storck for the top spot on the second lap. The caution would wave for Phil Christlieb’s spin just two laps into it.
On the restart, Schow was chased by Storck with Jacobson in third. Dietzler, Pavlicek, Stenberg and Blacklance were in a group fighting behind Jacobson. The 2S of Schow pushed the lead to more than 2.5 seconds over Storck, who had a car length over Jacobson. Dietzler had moved into fourth with Stenberg in fifth.
Schow was in complete control up front, pushed the lead to 3.3 seconds, and he was never threatened after the restart, winning by 3.9 seconds. Storck was second, while Jacobson capped off a good run in third. Dietzler was fourth and Stenberg topped Blacklance for fifth.
It’s just the fourth night in the new car for Schow; he’s won three features.
Only six IMCA Hobby Stocks took the green and Reid Randall of Park Rapids took the lead from the front row. Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks is usually fast at NCR and he moved into second. Todd Gettel of Mahnomen moved to third and started to close on Eckerdt.
Josh Malecki was running in fourth with Brad Orvedal of Fargo in fifth. Eckerdt was chipping away at Randall’s lead, which stood at about a second. With four to go the lead had dropped to .6 seconds as Eckerdt pushed hard.
Gettel was running in third, well ahead of Malecki. Randall was flawless up front and picked up the win by more than two seconds. Eckerdt threw it in hard on the final lap and checked up, and Gettel would make a late move for second. Malecki was fourth and Orvedal was fifth.
The IMCA Stock Cars capped off the night. I was bummed to see only seven cars on hand, but as we’ve seen before, you don’t need a ton of stock cars to put on a good show.
Rob VanMil of Barnesville jumped out to the lead over Rick Schulz of Horace. Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada jumped into second
Brody Carlsrud of Moorhead looked to have clipped a tire on the restart, and that would he would pull pitside. He won in the stock cars at RRVS for the first time last week.
VanMil and Kesselberg dueled up front with Schulz close behind. Five laps into it Kesselberg went around VanMil on the outside to take the lead.
Schulz and Aberle were fighting for third with Aberle taking the spot. Will Dittmer of Casselton was fifth. Meanwhile Kesselberg had extended to a 1.7 second lead over VanMil with three to go. Aberle, meanwhile was closing on VanMil for second.
Kesselberg would prevail by a comfortable 2.6 margin with Aberle edging VanMil for second. Schulz was fourth and Dittmer finished the top f
NCR Notes
--Tim Church of Moorhead’s #21 was pouring out smoke in the IMCA Hobby Stock heat and he would pull in, and he would not start the feature.
--It was good to see Chris VanMil back on the track. He was one of several cars who was involved in the big sport mod crash at Red River Valley Speedway last Friday. VanMil's 40 machine ended up on its roof last week. He finished a solid fourth on Thursday.
--Dietzler has bought a late model for this season, but he still has his old Wissota Midwest Modified, a Harris Chassis.
--I visited with Taylor Jacobson of Roseau, Wissota Midwest Modified driver. There will be a story on him in the weeks ahead. Jacobson is one of a handful of Midwest modified drivers who runs a Crate engine. It is about a 140-mile drive, one way, from Roseau to Ada.
--Andy Wagner of Ada missed his sport mod heat race – for good reason. He was attending his son’s Vacation Bible School program at church. Wagner returned for the feature and finished in sixth.
—Rich Pavlicek of Casselton wanted to watch his son Jayden race in the sport mods this year so he stepped away from driving the 17 car. He is, however driving Bob Sagen’s 99 Wissota Midwest Modified for several shows this summer.
--It had been several years since I had seen Jeremy Keller race, and that was in an IMCA Modified on the Dakota Classic Mod Tour. Keller used to make some trips to I-94 in the late models but has ran the IMCA Modified class for several years and is a top runner at Dacotah Speedway in Mandan.
--One editorial comment. KRJB radio of Ada has been covering the racing at NCR and Red River Valley Speedway for many years. R and J broadcasting covers a lot of local sporting events, in fact. It’s a lesson to these companies who are cutting their local broadcaster and talent: people want to listen to local coverage of sports, news and other events. They have no reason to listen to a local station without that information. Companies that have gutted their local programming, especially in smaller, rural communities, will find they won’t have any advertising left. Enough on that.
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