The addition of the Wissota Mods highlighted the night at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon. A great field of 103 cars was on hand on a nice evening at the 1/4-mile track.
Not only did they have 19 Wissota Mods, but they also had several quality cars. That included former national champ Mike “Superman” Stearns of Aberdeen. By my count, nine of the 19 drivers had won at least one mod feature this year: Michael Greseth, Tyler Peterson, Joseph Thomas, Dustin Strand, Travis Saurer, Stearns, Brent Dutenhoffer, Dale Ames and Dylan Zabel. That’s a great field.
Greseth, from Harwood who was interviewed above, took the lead from the inside pole with Peterson giving chase. Dutenhoffer, from Watertown, S.D., was running third.
On a restart, Duttenhofer went to the high side and found some speed and was closing the gap on Greseth when the caution came out. On the restart, it was Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks who moved into second and became Greseth’s latest worry. Peterson’s hopes for a top five finish ended when he slid off of turn three and pulled the 1TPO machine in. It was a busy week for the Hickson driver as he was running the Hell Tour in Illinois.
Strand found some speed on the outside of one and two and closed the gap on Greseth, but every time Greseth was challenged on this night, he had an answer. He maneuvered through lapped traffic and had a few car length lead at the checkered. The win, which was worth $1,000, was his second of 2020. Strand, Dutenhoffer, Travis Saurer of Dalton and Randy Klein of Lisbon rounded out the top five. Stearns, who slid off of turn four briefly, recovered to finish sixth, ahead of Ames, who made the long trek north from Huron. Stearns is one driver I don’t get to see race nearly enough.
I thought it was a very good race. The top 3-4 cars put on a nice show and drivers were running different lines. If you read my blog regularly, you know, as a fan, I prefer Wissota mod racing over IMCA. So I’d love to see Sheyenne bring the Wissota mods back.
Point leader Bo Gregor of Lisbon led almost the whole hobby stock feature — except for the final lap. Gregor looked to have the win in his hands, even after receiving pressure from Nick Thoreson of Valley City — who started 13th — for several laps, but a caution came out with two to go.
On the restart, Thoreson was right on Gregors bumper; Gregor got loose and that was the opening Thoreson needed to make the pass to pick up his third Sheyenne win of the year. Gregor was second while Jayden Michaelsohn of Aberdeen, who is locked in a very tight points race with Gregor, was third. Dalton Aalbrekke of Lisbon, a hobby stock rookie, was fourth while Zack Nord of Enderlin had a solid run, taking fifth after starting way back in 14th. He had a flat in his heat but came back with a nice feature finish.
Gregor leads Michaelsohn by seven points.
Brody Carlsrud of Fargo, interviewed above, is going to move up to IMCA Stock Cars next year but will finish out the year running the INEX Legend Class locally. And he seems to run well in Lisbon, picking up his third win of the year at the 1/4-mile oval.
Carlsrud took the lead but Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes was right in his tracks for the last several laps. Wilke took a peek underneath a few times but Carlsrud didn’t make any mistakes to pick up the win. Wilke was second.
Another Legends driver who has run well at Sheyenne is Alex Kukowski of Edgeley. He finished a solid third after starting fourth. Alex Braseth of Ulen was fourth and Bismarck driver Drew Papke, a top runner in that region, was fifth.
Lindsey Hansen of Fargo led early in the Wissota Midwest Mod feature but Brennon Weight of Lamoure, interviewed above, was applying the pressure on the low line. He made the pass on the frontstretch and settled into the top spot.
Hansen was slid off turn two after contact with Randy Klein of Lisbon; Klein pulled in quickly after that, ending his night. He would fare better in the Wissota Mod feature with a top five, but is not having a good year in his midwest modified. Another driver with rotten luck for much of the year, is Haley Lee of Starbuck; she now has eight DNFs on the year. A car spun in front of her right away in turns one and two and she had nowhere to go and got collected. It left her with a flat left rear and some damage on the right side, ending her night. I feel for her, the messes she's been in this year that I've seen have been caused by others.
Weight’s 28 car was flawless. Meanwhile another driver who had a good run going was Jamestown driver Charlie Christ. His 79 machine was good on the bottom the whole race and he gave good chase to Weight, despite receiving pressure from Nate Reinke of Lisbon for the final laps of the race.
Weight picked up his second straight Sheyenne win and seventh overall with a commanding performance. Christ was second after a great night with Reinke, who holds a slim point lead over Lucas Rodin in the division a solid third. Zach Reinke of Lisbon ran in or near the top five all night and took fourth with Hansen taking fifth. Rodin, who started 15th, finished sixth but lost some points ground to Nate Reinke.
Here’s something to note at Sheyenne. Remember when the Reinkes (Nate and Zach) and Klein won on a pretty regular basis? This year, none of the three have a feature win at Sheyenne. That’s not an indictment on them at all as much as it shows how the competition has gotten that much better — and the fields have gotten deeper. I counted 14 cars who going into the night who I thought had a shot to win last night. That’s a deep field.
It was a pretty typical performance for Jonny Carter of Lisbon as he won the Wissota Street Stock feature by a comfortable margin. He started sixth on the 12-car field.
The best battle on the track was for second between veteran Todd Carter of Lisbon and Eric Riley of Morris. The two ran side by side for several laps with Todd holding the advantage at the line. Kyle Anderson of Jamestown was fourth and Kasey Ussatis of Nome earned his second straight top five in as many nights, taking fifth.
The Mini Stock feature was marred by a rollover by Devin Goulet of Fargo. He was OK but his 70 machine was beat up. I apologize because of the red flag I left to get a jump on the blog, so I didn’t catch the end of the race, but I do know Kelby Anderson of Fort Ransom found victory lane for a second time this season. Anderson is doing double duty this year and also running a hobby stock as well.
Cole Bogart of Milnor finished second in the Mini Stocks with Justin Hainline of Lisbon third. Hunter Goulet of Fargo was fourth and Joshua Abney of Lisbon finished fifth. The point standings had a shakeup, too; Hainline took over the lead from Kevin Youngquist and now has a 13-point advantage. I talked with Youngquist at intermission and he’s been having some issues with the engine missing in the #00 car in the corners. He finished 12th.
댓글