Tanner Bitzan, Dykhoff, Rohner, Saurer and Dusty Bitzan win at Viking

Viking Speedway in Alexandria held Night 1 of its annual Labor Day doubleheader on Saturday with a solid 71 cars on hand.

Night 2 of the doubleheader is Sunday, with a big purse available for the Wissota Hornets for the Dustin Virkus Memorial. More on that later.

Buzz Muzik of Brandon and the long-time veteran Scott Tofte of Madison were on the front row for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature.  The race didn’t make it a lap as a few cars went off of turn three. The first lap the track was a pretty greasy, and the caution was called on well…the track.  On the second try Tim Pederson went off of turn two to bring out the second caution.

Muzik, who has had a tough year with only one top five in 11 starts, led Lap 1 once things got going as Tanner Bitzan of Brandon moved into second ahead of Tofte. The third caution came out on Lap 2 as Nic Hiles of Miltona lost a drive shaft.

Muzik had a lot of pressure from both Tofte and Tanner Bitzan on the restart. Jon Carlson of Brandon was dueling with Taylor Bitzan for fourth.

The top three broke away a bit from the pack as Tanner Bitzan captured second ; he went to the bottom in turns one and two and got beside Muzik; at the halfway point the lead was just .186 seconds.

Tanenr Bitzan decided to try the outside lane and looked to have the spot, but Muzik was pushing very hard and fought back to take th top spot. Tanner Bitzan, though wasn’t going away and got a great run off of turn two on the outside, that would take the lead with four laps remaining.  Tofte was a solid third with Taylor Bitzan fourth and Carlson in fifth.

Tanner Bitzan began to pull away an pushed the advantage to 1.4 seconds with two to go when the fourth caution of the feature waved for a spin in turn four.

Tanner Bitzan got a good restart. Tofte did not, and slid high off of turn two and lost a ton of spots. Tyler Bitzan moved into fourth and the teenager Noah McFarlane of Brandon fighting Carlson for fifth.

Tanner Bitzan earned a 1.55 second win for his third victory of 2025. Muzik had a good run all night and will be happy with a runner-up finish. Taylor Bitzan was third, and Tyler Bitzan fourth; meaning the three Bitzan brothers captured three of the top four spots. McFarlane capped off an nice in fifth.  A couple of cars made up some good ground in the field – Shawn Olson of Alexandria went from 12^th to seventh while Ron Saurer of Dalton went from 15^th to eighth.

Good friends – and two very good race cars – Eric Riley of Morris and the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten. Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck, who entered the night with 14 wins in 28 starts, was lurking in row 2 next to 2025 Viking champion Joe Martin of Willmar. Not far back was the national point leader, Kolton Brauer of Eyota in what was a pretty stacked field.

Vogel would move ahead but Riley attempted a slider on the third turn and made it stick to take the lead. Vogel had both Martin and Dykhoff fighting him for second. Wisconsin driver Kammron Rose was running in fifth and not far back.

Vogel was about one car length behind Riley as Dykhoff worked the bottom. Martin was a few car lengths back as the top three started to tighten up. The first caution waved with seven to go when Chris Winter went around in turn two.

Vogel went for the slider for the lead as the fight went three-wide on the restart. Rose moved into fourth as Martin slid back to sixth behind Brauer.

Dykhoff had cleared Vogel for second and was working the bottom and it remained a side-by-side tussle for the lead.  Dykhoff went for a slider with two to go to move ahead, while Riley returned the favor, but Dykhoff would lead at the white flag.

Riley took a big shot on the outside on the final lap and came so close, but Dykhoff would prevail by .077 seconds in what was an outstanding race. Vogel was third, Rose was fourth and Brauer held off Kegan Stueve of Greenwald for fifth. J.J. Nieuwbeerta of Alexandria was the hard charger, going from 12^th to eighth.

Trevor Saurer led the opening moments of the Wissota Super Stock feature but soon had a lot of heat from Ryan Satter of Dent.  Karter Reents of Glenwood was dueling Brady Gerdes for third with two-time Viking champion Bailey Rosch of Alexandria in fifth.

Saurer had about a half second on Satter with eight to go as Gerdes passed Reents for third.  The supers wre mainly working the high line.

Rosch cleared Reents for fourth as Satter stayed within striking distance of Saurer up front as the laps waned.  Satter was within a car length with two to go and took a look on the inside a couple of times in turns one and two. Satter then went for broke and tried the slider  heading into the white flag lap, but slid just a bit too high and Saurer was able to cross over to regain the top spot. It was Saurer’s second win of 2025, and his first since May 31.

Satter was second by .668 seconds while Gerdes was third, Rosch fourth and Reents fifth in a caution-free, clean main event that lasted a bit over six minutes.

The Wissota Hornets are running for big money on Sunday at Viking for the Dustin Virkus Memorial – as of this writing it is $2,460 to win, which is a record for the class.

Matt Dittman of Lake Lillian and Christian Kast of Fairmount, N.D. – the 2025 KRA Speedway champion, were on the front row for the hornets and Dittman took the lead.  Rohner and Travis Bruns of Alexandria were chasing him. Kole Kampsen of Belgrade, making his first appearance of the year, was on the move. With five to go he moved into the second spot.  Dittman’s lead shrunk and Kampsen would take the lead, and Rohner would go three wide. That lead to contact and Dittman being turned around on the front stretch and Kampsen into the infield wall. You would think they were running for the $2,460 tonight….

Dittman left on the hook and Kampsen would pull pitside with damage, and some fluids leaking from the 90K (which was one of Kreg Anderson’s cars)

On the restart Kreg Anderson was fighting with Kast for second as Chris Winter Jr. was in fourth and Bruns in fifth. With  

I don’t want to put a number on it, but I suspect there will be a ton of hornets on hand on Sunday. The purse is very good from top to bottom, and I think the closest track running the Wissota class is Casino Speedway in Watertown. Virkus, who was tragically killed in an accident earlier this month, was a two-time Wissota Hornet national champion who raced out of my hometown, Clarkfield.

The restart was crazy as there were two sets of cars going three-wide in the field. Rohner was thrilled to see that as he opend up about 5 car lengths on Kast.  Rohner picked up his 16^th win of the year by .928 seconds with Kast in second. Winter was third, Bruns fourth and Anderson in fifth. Rohner is locked in a very tight battle with Anthony Jenson of Milaca and Brady Fosso of Hibbing for the Wissota Hornet national point lead, I suspect that race will go down to the final weekend of the season.

Avery Anderson of Alexandria, coming off of a top five at I-94and Dusty Bitzan of Brandon led the Wissota Mods to the green. Unfortunately long-time racer John Oeltjen of Glenwood struck a tire in turn one and flipped his 43 machine to bring out the red flag. He was OK but his night was done, obviously. Oeltjen might be the only weekly racer at Viking still racing from when I was a kid in the late 1980s.

On the restart Bitzan grabbed the lead as Anderson fought Brady Gerdes for second. Brendan Blascyk of Hoffman was fourth as Josh Thoennes of Nelson was fifth.

Gerdes seized second but was about 1.6 seconds behind Bitzan with 12 to go. Anderson was third, a few car lengths ahead of Blascyk, who had a couple of car lengths on Josh Thoennes.

Gerdes was cutting into Bitzan’s lead, and with seven to go the lead was down to .823 seconds. Anderson was well back in fourth as Josh Thoennes passed Blascyk for fifth.  Bitzan was facing some lapped traffic but added to his lead , extending the advantage to 2.2 seconds with four to go.

Josh Thoennes was able to get by Anderson for third, and Blascyk challenging the 51A for fourth.

Bitzan was never threatened down the stretch, winning by 3.3 seconds. Josh Thoennes really ran strong all night, finishing third after starting seventh.  Anderson held off Blascyk by .017 seconds for fourth.  After the early red flag, the race went straight through without any more stoppages.

Saturday/Racing Notes

--Sklyer Smith of Bemidji topped Cylen Vargason of Edinburg for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature win at Greenbush Race Park. Cole Greseth of Harwood picked up his 26^th win of the summer in the Wissota Street Stocks with a win over Jerome Berger of Roseau. Chris Dudley of Bemidji was third.

Bryce Sward of Nelson topped Patrick Sobolik of Hallock for the Wissota Modified win. Ward Imrie of Winnipeg was third.

Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., topped Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks for the NLRA Late Model win. Brad Seng was third, Cole Schill of Hawley fourth, Ryan Corbett of Grand Forks fifth, and Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks went from 24th to sixth.

-- Trey Hess of Grand Forks made the long trek (about 430 miles) to Thunder Bay, Ontario each week to race his Wissota Street Stock. Well, in terms of the points, it paid off as he won the 2025 track champion at the Thunder City Speedway.  He won by three points over A.J. Kellar of Thunder Bay.  As of Aug. 24 Hess has raced 74 shows with 14 wins and 62 top fives.

--Greg Jose of Grand Forks topped Kasey Ussatis of Nome for the Wissota Street Stock feature win at Devils Lake Speedway on Saturday night. Jory Berg of Grand Forks topped Jason Schuh of Lakota for the Wissota Midwest Modified win. Two non-winged sprint features were held with Colton Young of Devils Lake and Eric Guyot of Fannystelle, Man., winning those races.

--Joseph Thomas of Glyndon won the Wissota Modified feature at the Big Buck Nationals at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen on Saturday night.

--Nate Reinke of Lisbon was the 2024 I-94 EMR Speedway Wissota Midwest Modified champion and was in the midst of another good year. However, I confirmed with his brother Zach that he broke his leg in a non-racing deal in July, and it’s possible his season is over.

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