Wagner, Bunnis, Eisenschenk, Eckerdt, Storck and Aberle Seize NCR Feature Victories

Despite a rain shower that delayed the start for an hour, Norman County Raceway in Ada got its show in on Thursday night.

Car counts were modest, no doubt impacted by the ominous weather radar. Nothing scares away fans and drivers more than a radar that looks bleak. Credit to the NCR officials for getting the show in even after the rain shower.

Andy Wagner of Ada hadn’t had much success so far this season in the IMCA Sport Mods. In three starters he had not finished in the top five and had one DNF. On Thursday he would break through.

Wagner quickly took the lead of the IMCA Sport Mod feature over Kyle VanMil of Barnesville. The Turkey Man, James Taves of Glyndon settled into third over Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton.

Wagner opened about a one-second lead over VanMil with Pavlicek capturing third with about 10 to go. Week 1 winner Ryan Restad of West Fargo was fifth.

The lead increased to 1.3 seconds for Wagner at the halfway point. VanMil, a rookie in the sport mod, was holding his own in second as he had some breathing room over Pavlicek. Restad cleared Taves for the fourth spot. Taves had Chris VanMil of Barnesville chasing him.

Wagner controlled this one from the get-go and was never threatened, stretching the lead to 2.3 seconds by the checkered for his first win of 2025. Kyle VanMil, showing a lot of promise as a young driver, looked good all night and finished second with Pavlicek, Restad and Taves completing the top five. The caution-free race lasted about five minutes, nice work.

There was not going to be a repeat winner in the INEX Legends as Tye Wilke was not in attendance.  Brandon Bunnis of Detroit Lakes grabbed the INEX Legend feature lead over Steve Johnson of Mapleton. Howie Briss of Glyndon, Noah Lewis of Hawley and Mason Lemar of Casselton.

Bunnis had his hands full with Johnson with Briss and Noah Lewis not far behind. Alexander Clark of Moorhead moved into fifth with 11 to go. The caution came out for an incident involving Lemar and Caden Bunnis of Detroit Lakes in turn one and two. Caden Bunnis was done for the night, Lemar was sent to the tail. It was a tough break for Ben Lundquist, who was running sixth through four laps. He lost his bumper, and INEX rules state a car must go to the pits if that occurs.

Bunnis had about .4 seconds on Howie Briss, who was soon overtaken by Clark. Johnson and Lewis weren’t far back in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Clark was making a serious charge at Bunnis, and edged ahead at the line with four to go. That lead grew to .451 seconds with three to go as Johnson and Briss gave chase.

Bunnis fought back as Clark briefly slipped up and regained the top spot with one to go. The race went down to the wire as Bunnis nipped Clark at the line for his first career feature win. The margin of victory was .071 seconds. Johnson was third, Briss was fourth and Noah Lewis was fifth.

Morgan Nyquist, looking for his second career win, had the early advantage in the IMCA RaceSaver sprints but Laela Eisenschenk of Fargo would soon

Amelia Eisenschenk’s strong run ended with contact with an infield tire, and she would have to pull into the infield.

Laela Eisenschenk took total command up front with a 3.6 second lead over Brandon Rekow of Ellendale.  Nyquist was fighting with Josh Johnson of Harwood for third.

Up front, it was Laela Eisenschenk who crushed the field with a 5.6 win. She also won Sunday at Buffalo River Speedway and has three feature wins on the season. Rekow settled for second, Johnson moved into third later in the race ahead of Nyquist. The ageless Tom Cummings rounded out the top five. The caution free, 15-lap race took less than five minutes.

Tim Church of Moorhead was locked in a battle with Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature.  About five laps into the main event Eckerdt would grab the top spot. Church had the Week 1 winner, Reid Randall of Park Rapids, closing quickly on him for second.

Brad Orvedal of Fargo was running fourth ahead of Daniel Beckman.

Eckerdt didn’t have much trouble after getting the top spot and went on to a 2.2 second win. Church edged Randall by .007 seconds for second with Orvedal finishing in fourth. Beckman was fifth in a caution-free race that took less than five minutes.

Corey Storck of Dilworth had been knocking on the door for a feature win in the Wissota Midwest Modifieds. In his last three starts, he had two seconds and a third. On Thursday he was the class of the field.

Storck surged into the lead over Ryan Schow in the feature with Aaron Blacklance of  Thief River Falls in third and Taylor Jacobson of Roseau of Warroad.

There wasn’t a lot of racing for position as the top five got very spread out. Storck’s lead grew to 1.5 seconds, but Schow was slowly eating into the lead. Schow had the lead down to a second with one to go but didn’t have enough for Storck, who found victory lane for the first time in 2025. Schow capped off a good run in second with Blacklance in third, Jacobson in fourth and Rich Pavlicek, driving Bob Sagen’s 99, capping off the top five.  Another caution-free feature that lasted about five minutes.

Brody Carlsrud of Moorhead was dueling with Aaron Olson of Mekinock for the IMCA Stock Car lead. Rob VanMil of Barnesville was third ahead of Todd Heinrich of Fargo.

Carlsrud, who won at Red River Valley Speedway recently, had a fight on his hands as Olson inched ahead for the lead.  Rick Schulz of Horace would spin to bring out the caution four laps into the main event.

Heinrich moved into second on the restart with VanMil in tow. Carlsrud and Dan Aberle of Finley were battling for fourth. Olson’s lead was a few feet as Heinrich was all over him. However, with nine laps to go there was contact in the fight for the lead, and Heinrich was charged with the caution. Just one of those good, hard-racing deals there.

On the restart VanMil was now the primary challenger for Olson as Aberle moved into third ahead of Carlsrud. The top six cars were very even in this race.

Aberle found something as the laps waned and it turned into a great fight between him and Olson up front. Aberle would pull ahead on the white flag lap; Olson would get loose and dropped from second to seventh on the final lap.

Aberle would win by 2.235  seconds, but the race was much closer than that. Schulz recovered from the early caution to finish in second with Carlsrud, VanMil and Heinrich finishing in spots 3-5. Aberle has a bunch of wins in the Wissota Street Stock class, but it was his first feature win in the IMCA Stock Cars, good for him.

The final checkered waved just before 10 p.m. in what was an efficient racing program after the late start because of the rain.

Racing notes

--Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon cancelled on Thursday night because of a persistent drizzle. The officials tried hard to get the show in but the drizzle would not stop.

-Christian Kast of Fairmount won the Wissota Hornet feature Thursday night at KRA Speedway in Willmar.

Joe Martin of Willmar topped Justin Vogel of Brooten for the Wissota Street Stock win Thursday night at KRA Speedway.  Tommy Bawden of Clear Lake won the Wissota Super Stock main event.

--Trey Hess of Grand Forks won the Wissota Street Stock feature Wednesday night at Thunder City Speedway in Thunder Bay, Ontario.