I watched the weather all day — checking my phone constantly — to decide which RaceChaser area track to attend. River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks and Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo both cancelled. I wasn’t sure if I-94 Sure Step Speedway was going to get a show in or not with a shaky forecast, but they decided to give it a shot, so I ventured down the interstate for the 3rd annual Bob Gierke Memorial, gambling on the weather.
I admire the effort of the I-94 officials to get the show in. The event is a big deal to the Gierke family, and Abby Gierke and McKenzie Gerdes did a lot of work to raise money for the purse and other contingencies. Bob Gierke, who passed away in 2017, was a long-time modified racer at I-94 Sure Step and Viking Speedways and is remembered fondly by many in the local racing community. His children, Abby and Ryan, are racers themselves.
I-94 officials hustled as best they could but were fighting two things you can’t usually beat — weather and time. The skies kept getting darker and darker to the north and west. Then, the cold front came through — and man what a difference in made. A huge 40 mph northwest wind and a temperature drop of 10-15 degrees came. The heavy rain arrived about 9:25 in Fergus according to the radio. Check out the I-94 Facebook page to find out when/if the four features will be made up.
Also taking place on Friday was the latest stop on the Steffes Street Stock Tour at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen with Todd Carter of Lisbon picking up his first tour win of the season. That win was worth $1,753 and another great field of 34 streeters were on hand.
Let’s talk about the Steffes stop first. Todd Carter had the outside pole with Kyle Anderson of Jamestown was on the inside. Jonny Carter of Lisbon started third and he waged a great battle for the lead with Todd Carter that went down to the final lap. Jonny threw the car in hard in turns three and four in one last shot at the lead but hit a tire and spun, ending his hopes for the win. Todd Carter is the fifth different tour winner this year, joining Eric Riley (three wins), Jonny Carter (two), Ryan Satter and Justin Vogel.
Justin Vogel of Brooten, with a series win at Sheyenne earlier this season, finished second with Billie Christ of Jamestown running a solid race in taking third. Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck made a great run through the field, starting 17th and finishing fourth. Daniel Aberle of Finley was a solid fifth.
A pair of drivers from the B feature made good headway through the field. Maria Broksieck of Goodwin, who has two feature wins at BCS this season, finished ninth after starting 24th while Eric Riley of Morris finished 10th after starting 23rd.
Charlie Christ of Jamestown was third in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature at BCS while Lucas Rodin of Marion was fourth.
Back to Fergus, where 101 cars were on hand, including 34 modifieds and 34 midwest modified. The heats and B mains were completed. So, let’s highlight a few things from I-94.
—Danielle Stevens of Elizabeth won her heat in the Short Trackers. She drives the #45 truck.
—Justin Froemming of Garfield had rotten luck in his heat race as he was clobbered by another car in turns three and four, leading to some pretty significant front end damage. The crew worked hard on the 33X to get it ready for the B main, and got the car fixed. He finished third in the B main after starting 11th to make the feature. Nice work by that crew.
—I would like to have seen the Wissota Mod feature. Dan Ebert and Travis Saurer on the front row; Landon Atkinson starting fourth, Mike Greseth starting fifth, Dave Cain starting seventh, Brady Gerdes starting eighth, Tyler Peterson ninth, Blake Jegtvig 10th and Zach Johnson 11th — I’d take that group of cars to any track in Wissota as far as quality. It would have been hard to bet against Ebert, who won Thursday at Norman County Raceway in Ada.
—Driving home I passed the trailer of the #12 street stock of Kevin Pender of Barnesville — and I’m guessing one item off of his to-do list is washing the car. Man, did it rain around the Rothsay area.
—Scott “Rebel” Bintz of Jamestown is back on the track with his #1S midwest modified machine that is sponsored by Bob Sagen’s Shocker Hitch company. Bintz had bad luck a few weeks ago, totaling a car out in Aberdeen.
—A few out of the region drivers made the pull for the Wissota mods. That included mod rookie Brandon Copp of Brule, Wis., Jayson Good of Watertown, S.D., Matt Sorenson of Duluth, Jason Richardson of Spring Valley, Wis., Ken Hron of Grand Rapids and Scotty Messner of Bemidji.
—I was pleasantly surprised by street stock numbers — 16 — considering the Steffes Street Stock tour was taking place in Aberdeen.
—Justin Jones of Bemidji and Matt Baker of St. Joseph have the front row for the midwest modified feature. Jeff Ekdahl of Oakdale and Jack Koranda of Bluffton shared the front row for the street stock main event.
—Matt Aukland of Glyndon, who normally races an IMCA Modified at Red River Valley Speedway, competed in the Wissota Mods on Friday. Aukland finished seventh in the B main and missed a qualifying spot by one.
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