The Rebel Midwest Mod Tour resumed on Thursday at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon. There was a good field of 25 Wissota Midwest Modifieds on hand for the Rebel Tour, and car counts were solid in the other classes. The Wissota Mods had the night off.
Entering the night, there had been four different winners in four nights on the Rebel Tour: Jaren Wibstad of Jamestown at Norman County Raceway, Jory Berg of Grand Forks at River Cities Speedway, Lucas Rodin of Marion at Greenbush Race Park and Justin Jones of Bemidji at Buffalo River Speedway. Jones, who had finished in the top three all four nights, was the point leader over Jamestown’s Jarod Klein.
The track had some character that provided challenges, especially for the Midwest mods. I thought the street stock feature had some good side-by-side racing and so did the Legends, the Midwest mods became pretty top heavy.
Klein and Brennon Weight of LaMoure led the 25-car field to green. Klein, however, would spin it by himself in turn four on the opening lap which proved very costly as he had to go to the rear of the 25-car field.
Weight held the top spot with Matt Schow of McINtosh battling Aaron Michel of Jamestown for second. Jones was in the hunt as well battling for the second spot. Wibstad and the Cowboy, Shane Howell of Buffalo, were closing in on Schow, who had dropped to fourth.
Michel slid off the backstretch and lost a lot of ground on Weight, but that lead was erased when Todd Wallner spun in turn four. ON the restart there was a multi-car melee in turns one and two – I didn’t see the cause – but involved were Tim Compson of Valley City, Brayden Kunze of Lisbon, Wallner and Wibstad. Wibstad suffered the worst and left on the wrecker, ending what was shaping up to be a top five finish.
On the restart Weight led with Michel in second and Jones in third. The top line was the place to be as very few cars were running down low.
Michel made a mistake and slid off of turn two and lost a bunch of spot, moving Jones to second, Howell to third and Schow to fourth. Nate Reinke of Lisbon had moved into fifth.
Jones and Weight had a huge lead on the field and Jones was within striking distance of Weight with seven to go. Lapped traffic was now a factor for the top two. Jones had more than a three-second lead on third-place Howell.
After clearing lapped traffic Weight opened an advantage of nearly a second on Jones to pick up the feature win, his eighth of 2023. Jones has shown remarkable consistency on the tour, finishing in the top three all five nights after a runner-up finish on Thursday. Howell finished third, Schow fourth and Reinke fifth.
Defending tour champion Lucas Rodin of Marion was the Hard Charger, going from 18th to seventh. Brennon Urbach of Lisbon also made good progress through the field, going from 24th to 13th.
Taylor Sargent of Gwinner led the first lap of the INEX Legends feature with Ty Olson of Mandan settling into second.
Collin Compson of Valley City went to the very high side and was flyuing. He went around Olson, Dusty Mund of Lisbon and Sargent and had taken over the top spot with 11 to go. His younger brother Zander, who started way back in 12th, also was moving quickly and moved into second. Mund settled into third.
The red flag would wave with nine to go when rookie Regan Reinke of Lisbon lost a motor and had some flames as a result. He got out of the car OK. I will say, in recent years, I’ve seen
The next restart was a bit messy in traffic but Collin Compson remained out front. Mund stuck his #28 to the bottom, looking to making up any kind of ground, but would lose second to Zander Compson.
Point leader Bo Gregor of Lisbon moved into fourth after starting back in 10th, and Glenn Mitchell, who had went to the tail earlier for a caution, had worked back to fifth.
Zander Compson stayed close to his older brother as the laps waned but another caution would wave when Josh Black spun in turn four with four to go. On the restart Zander Compson and Mund would fight for second as Collin Compson opened a few car-length lead, on his way to .512 victory over his brother, Zander. Mund was third, Gregor was fourth and Mitchell fifth. Collin Compson is up to seven feature wins this season.
Ten Hobby Stocks were on hand with Dylan Krueger leading the first lap over Cade Gentzkow. Krueger would get sideways in turn two and lost a bunch of positions, moving Gentzkow briefly to the top spot.
Hayden Aberle moved into the lead but on the move was Jayden MIchaelsohn of Aberdeen, who started dead last on the field. It took him four laps to get to second and he was working the low line on Aberle. Michaelsohn would take over the lead with eight laps to go. The caution would wave for Billy Carow’s spin in turn four.
On the restart Gentzkow moved into second on the lower line. Tyce Boisjolie of Enderlin and Dalton Aabrekke were fighting hard for the fourth spot.
Aberle would regain second, but by then MIchaelsohn had taken control with nearly a straightaway lead. But a caution would wipe that out as Gentzkow spun in turn four, which cost him a spot in the top three.
Boisjolie took a look at Aberle for second, but had Kelby Anderson of Fort Ransom and Ryan Mund of Milnor all over him for the third spot.
MIchaelsohn would go on to pick up his fifth Sheyenne win of the year and padded his point lead in the process. The only other driver to win at Sheyenne in the Hobby Stocks this season is Anderson, who is second in the points. Michaelsohn now has 12 feature wins overall this season.
Aberle ran second while Boisjolie went from sixth to third. Mund went from eighth to fourth while Anderson rounded out the top five.
Weston Clauson of Kathryn and Nathan Kelley of Fargo had the front row for the Mini Stocks. Clauson took the early lead but Kelley was working the outside. Pokey Lukes of Lisbon was third running low, while Mason Bogart of Milnor had charged up to the fourth spot and was all over Kelley for second.
Bogart has been fast all year at Sheyenne and with sixth to go powered around Clauson on the high side. Clauson didn’t give up but Bogart’s momentum, particularly out of turn four, was the difference.
Chandler Dick of Lisbon, who has a feature win at Sheyenne, moved into third ahead of Kelley, who was being chased by Lukes.
Clauson fought back on the low side and got beside Bogart on the final lap but Bogart would prevail for his third win of the year by just .307 seconds. Dick finished third with Kelley and Lukes rounding out the top five in a caution-free main event.
Mund led the first lap over Kasey Ussatis of Nome, who is sixth in the latest Wissota Street Stock national points. Trey Hess of Grand Forks was battling Tucker Pederson of Grand Forks for third in a battle of two of the top five cars in Wissota national points. Kyle Anderson would spin to bring out the caution.
Mund had four cars chasing him – Ussatis, Hess, Pederson, and Carter. Soon it was Ussatis, Pederson and Carter battling for the second spot as Hess slid back to fifth.
Carter moved into third using the very low lane as Pederson was right there. All three were reeling in Mund with 12 to go. Pederson got a huge run on the bottom of turns one and two and would take over the top spot. Ussatis and Carter were giving Mund all he could handle for second and both would move ahead a position.
Once out front, Pederson opened up a 2.4 second lead on second as Ussatis and Carter continue to run side by side for second. Meanwhile, Anderson, who had gone to the tail for the caution, had surged back to fourth with seven laps left.
Pederson was in his own area code, opening up a four second lead as the three-car fight for second between Ussatis, Carter and Anderson continued to be tense. Hess was running in fifth.
There was some drama late. Pederson had sparks coming off of his left front suspension on the white flag lap and had slowed some, but had enough of a cushion where it didn’t matter as he picked up win #16 on 2023. Pederson is second in the national points and has been a busy traveler this summer. A broken left upper control arm was the culprit that led to the sparks, and he had to be towed from victory lane.
Ussatis held off Anderson for second with Carter taking third. Hess rounded out the top five in a caution-free race.
Sheyenne/Thursday Notes
--One thing I am encouraged about at Sheyenne is there are two new local drivers in the Wissota Street Stock class. Tempest Trone has moved up from the Mini Stocks while Anthony Wendel moved up from the Hobby Stocks.
--Kyle Schell, formerly of Lisbon and now of Aberdeen, had his Wissota Midwest Modified on hand on Thursday. Schell used to own the Pizza Ranch in Lisbon (And was a RaceChaser sponsor) And now owns the one in Aberdeen.
--Kris Jackson of Lebanon, Mo., is a top B mod driver in that region. In fact, he won back-to-back USRA B Modified National Championships in 2018 and 2019. He was in attendance in the J21 and plans to run all four nights of the tour this week. And his first night was not bad at all – going from 15th to sixth.
Otterness Makes it 2-for-2 with IMCA Hobby Stock Win at NCR
Tim Otterness of Brainerd is having a good week in the IMCA Hobby Stocks. He picked up the IMCA Hobby Stock special Thursday at Norman County Raceway, a night after winning the special at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo. Otterness won both $500 to win features and also won both $200 to win dashes to take home $1,400 over the past two days.
Nate Hanson of Brainerd was second, Tim Church of Moorhead was third, Brad Orvedal of Fargo was fourth and William Herron of Brainerd was fifth. Herron was the Hard Charger, going from 13th to the fifth spot.
Rob VanMil of Barnesville topped Rick Schulz of Horace for the IMCA Stock Car feature win. Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada was third, Brody Carlsrud of Fargo third and Wil Dittmer of Casselton was fifth.
Rich Pavlicek of Casselton won the IMCA Sport Mod feature over Patrick Brejcha of Breckenridge. Dave Siercks of Princeton was third, Ryan Restad of West Fargo was fourth and Andy Wagner of Ada was fifth.
Amelia Eisenschenk of West Fargo won the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature over Jeremy Snow of Princeton. Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes was third, Andy Pake of Felton was fourth and Tyler Rabenberg of Princeton was fifth.
Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton topped Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids for the INEX Legends win. Ryan Braseth of Ulen, who won Wednesday at Red River Valley Speedway, was third, with Shawn Wiest of Fargo fourth and Carter Restad of West Fargo recorded the first top five of his career by taking fifth.
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