RaceChaser blog wrapped up the weekend with a trip to River Cities Speedway for the World of Outlaws Late Model Show. A solid 27-car late model field was on hand along with 18 NOSA Sprints and 15 Wissota Street Stocks.
As I mentioned with any tour, I always want to see how the locals stack up. Keep in mind, the WOO Lates run open motors and have a substantial horsepower advantage on the Wissota cars. We’re talking 250-300 horsepower. Plus, as one RCS regular told me, the touring drivers equipment is just better overall.
Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks put on a big-time show, starting 14th and finishing fifth to highlight the local Wissota cars. More on that in a minute.
Ricky Weiss, the local fan favorite who's won the John Seitz Memorial at RCS in the past, looked tough for the first half of the race. He took the lead from the inside pole and led the first 31 laps. However, lapped traffic proved to be his undoing. Brandon Sheppard, defending tour champion and current point leader who started on the outside pole, made the pass for the lead in lapped traffic and led the final 19 laps to pick up the $10,000 win. Cade Dillard was a strong second, Weiss third, Dennis Erb Jr. fourth and Dustin Strand fifth.
Speaking of Weiss, I caught up with him for a few minutes for a RaceChaser blog that will come out this week.
Man did Strand run well. Let’s put in some perspective some of the drivers he passed — Donny Schatz, Darrell Lanigan (who won at Red River Valley Speedway on Saturday), late model legend Scott Bloomquist and Chase Junghans. Strand ran on the bottom effectively and just edged Schatz, the WOO sprint star, at the line. Schatz, by the way, was running a spec motor. By finishing fifth, Strand took home $2,000.
Brad Seng of Grand Forks ran well. He started 16th and finished 9th in the #12S machine. So that’s two RCS regulars in the top 10 which to me is an excellent showing for the local drivers. Bloomquist, by the way, finished 12th. Might have been the most non-competitive race I’ve seen from him in a long time, honestly.
Onto the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint marathon — I mean feature. Three red flags really slowed the race doing. Jade Hastings of Grand Forks, however is showing no signs of slowing down. He picked up his third straight win on Sunday with a pretty dominating performance, especially over the final laps.
Austin Pierce of Grand Forks, with four wins this season, had the pole and took the lead. The red flag came out for Zach Omdahl’s flip off of turns three and four; he was OK, car was banged up good. Hastings and Bob Martin of East Grand Forks both passed Pierce on the restart.
Hastings, interviewed above, had the lead when Nick Ranten’s #55 took a hard flip after contact with another car which brought out the second red flag. Ranten walked away but the car was heavily damaged. It was a tough break for him as he recently picked up his first career win.
On the restart, Pierce briefly regained the lead but Hastings came back to take over the top spot, which he would never relinquish.
One car on the move was Brendan Mullen of Grand Forks. He had come into the pit area on one of the cautions so he had to go to the tail, but found speed on the high line and soon was in the top five. Mullen was battling with Pierce for a spot when the two got together in turn one. Pierce was charged with the yellow and pulled in after that with some apparent issues
On the restart, Hastings pulled away from second-place Jack Croaker of Grand Forks, who had a good battle with Mullen. Jordan Adams of Reynolds also ran well and moved into the top five in his #20A machine.
Hastings finished off the win — he now has four wins in his last six starts. Keep in mind, this is a different car the #8H team put together after destroying a car at RCS on June 19. He’s rolling now. Croaker, Mullen, Adams and Shane Roemeling rounded out the top five.
Wade Nygaard's frustrating season continued with a DNF, his sixth of the year. He's second all-time with 142 NOSA wins but has none this season. He pulled in after a red flag as the engine had issues.
One driver desperate for a win was Trey Hess of Lakota, interviewed above. Well, he put the #4 Wissota Street Stock in victory lane for the first time in 2020.
Hess found a lane in the middle between front row starts Dan McNamee and Joe Potter to take over the lead. For a few laps, it looked like things might repeat themselves, as Hess and Potter battled for the lead at Devils Lake with Potter prevailing. But Potter fell back. Tucker Pederson and Aaron Blacklance moved into the top three, and Ryan Johnson moved into the top five.
Hess was never seriously threatened in picking up his first win since August 2019. Blacklance, who debuted a new street stock on Saturday at Greenbush, ran a solid second, with Pederson third and Johnson fourth. Potter picked up the second top five in as many nights.
Broksieck Picks Up Steffes Tour Win at Casino
A huge congrats to Maria Broksieck of Goodwin, S.D. for picking up the Steffes Street Stock Tour win Sunday night at Casino Speedway in Watertown, S.D.
Broksieck is the sixth different winner on the tour. She beat the previous two Wissota Street Stock national champions — Jonny Carter of Lisbon (2019) and Justin Vogel of Brooten (2018) — for the win, which is one of the biggest wins of Broksieck’s career. She bested a field of 32 street stocks for the win.
Broksieck won at Madison on Saturday and has four wins this season. She has finished second three times. For the last several years she has been one of the top street stocks in eastern South Dakota.
Carter was second, Vogel third, Daniel Aberle of Finley fourth and Jake Froemke of International Falls fifth. Todd Carter of Lisbon finished sixth. It was a good showing for the tour regulars.
Tyler Peterson of Hickson finished second to Matt Gilbertson of Montevideo in the Wissota Modified feature.
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