Wilke, Johnson, Restad, Strandberg, Shipley and Kesselberg Victorious at Red River Valley Speedway

Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo dodged some early day rain/mist to get their show in on Friday night. It was an overcast, cool evening but a good field of 94 cars was on hand.

I’ll be honest, the way it looked at 11 a.m. in Fargo, I didn’t think they’d get the show in. It was a steady drizzle, enough to wet the roadways. The one thing working in RRVS’s favor was the area didn’t get much rain on Thursday, as was forecast.  It ended up being a dry-slick track, which I would not have expected with a cloudy, cool day.

The INEX Legends continue to lead the way in car counts in this area at least. The IMCA Sport Mods have solid numbers each week, as well, with 20 on hand on Friday.

Tye Wilke won the IMCA Sprint feature.

The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature got off to a shaky start with a red flag on lap 1. Dan Griep of Minnetonka and Ty Hanten of West Fargo got the worst of the incident and left on the hook; both drivers were OK.

Josh Johnson of Harwood led early in the sprint feature with Brandon Rekow of Ellendale giving chase. Rekow would grab the top spot.

Marcus Rothenbacher was running third with Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes in fourth and Jeremy Kerzman of Grey Eagle in fifth.

Rekow built a one-second lead over Rothenbacher as Wilke cleared Johnson for third. Rekow’s lead grew to two seconds by the halfway point.  Kerzman got by Johnson for the fifth spot.

Rothenbacher surged into the top spot as Rekow was slowed by a lapped car, and Wilke followed into second. With four to go Wilke would seize the lead for good and from there, had no issues up front in recording a 2.57 second victory.

Rothenbacher and Rekow were locked in a duel for second for a few laps before Rothenbacher pulled away late to earn the runner-up spot. Rekow was third, Kerzman fourth and Johnson capped off a nice run in fifth. It was the second top five of the season for Johnson’s 84.

The IMCA SportMods had a rough feature race.  It only took six laps for the yellow/black to wave, and five laps were cut as a result of further cautions.

The last couple of weeks have been lousy for IMCA SportMod veteran Scott Jacobson of Fargo. The former track champion at RRVS has had two straight DNFs but was alongside sport mod rookie Carter Restad of West Fargo on the front row.

Restad led the early portion of the feature over Jacobson with Thomas Sandvig in third and Brennan Urbach of Lisbon fourth. Last week’s winner Kyle VanMil of Barnesville was in fifth. The caution would wave for Kevin Veralrud’s spin in turn four; Reile Sailer was tagged with that caution.

Jacobson charged into the lead after the restart, but the car on the move was point leader Ryan Restad of West Fargo as he surged into third; he restarted 11th. The caution would wave for Carter Restad’s spin with 15 to go; he was running second but had to go to the tail.

Ryan Restad’s 7R is lightning quick right now, and on the restart he grabbed the lead.  But the race, which was plagued by cautions over the first six laps, saw a multi-car incident with Torey Fischer of West Fargo, Brodie Johnson of Moorhead and Restad involved. Fischer was tagged with the yellow.

The yellow/black was waved with 14 to go – which is never a good sign in a feature race – that soon led to the threat of laps being cut after the fourth caution of the race with 13 to go.

Ryan Restad resumed the lead up front and built a one-second advantage with five laps to go. Kyle VanMil, a young driver who has shown great improvement, moved into third with Urbach in fourth and Landon Maatz of Walcott in fifth. Carter Restad, who had gone to the tail for the early yellow, had fought back to sixth.

Ryan Restad was the class of the field, pulling away to an impressive 2.583 second win. He now has three wins on the year and has six straight top four finishes this season, dating back to May 9.

Jacobson ran well all night and took second; after two straight DNFs I’m sure that is a step in the right direction. Kyle VanMil was third, Urbach fourth and Maatz fifth at the finish.

The IMCA Hobby Stocks have not been plentiful in numbers locally this year, and eight were on hand Friday night with only seven taking the feature. Reid Randall of Park Rapids and Andrea Jacobson of Fargo led the group to green.

Randall, who won earlier at Norman County Raceway, grabbed the lead over Jaeden Strandberg of Worthington grabbing second.  Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks, who started dead last on the field, had charged up to second, but would spin the B2 and had to go to the tail.

Randall had a big challenge from Strandberg, a first-time visitor at RRVS, with Tim Church of Moorhead in third and Jacobson in fourth.  Engen, normally very tough at RRVS, had slid way back to seventh.

Strandberg stayed within a half-second of Randall, while Eckerdt and Church fought for second.  Eckerdt moved past Church for third with three to go with Brad Orvedal of Fargo moving into fifth.

It was a great fight for the lead between Strandberg and Randall, and Strandberg made his move on the final lap to grab the win. Randall had to settle for second. Eckerdt was third, Church was fourth and Orvedal was fifth.

In his postrace victory interview with Mark Askelson, Strandberg said he was on a family camping trip up in the Detroit Lakes area this weekend and decided to bring his hobby stock with. It was worthwhile when he picked up the feature win.

There are so many new faces in the INEX Legends since I lasted blogged in 2023, including many young drivers. Alexander Clark was the early leader over Cody Jawaski, but it was shorted lived as Jawaski grabbed the lead three laps into. Sean Johnson of Kindred almost always in the hunt at RRVS and grabbed second ahead of Clark. Brian Frederick of Gwinner was fourth and Carter Restad moved into fifth.

Johnson was pursuing Jawaski up front as Tye Wilke, the point leader and dominant car locally so far, was mired in a big back of cars mid-pack. Joshua Wiest moved past Frederick for fourth.

Jawaski’s lead was just under a half-second on Johnson with five to go. Clark and Wiest went at it hard for third with Carter Restad ahead of Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids after him.

Jawaski had to be on his mark with Johnson chasing, and the last thing he wanted was a caution. That happened with Tanner Riewer’s spin with two to go.  Wilke would pull in on the caution and it was a rare DNF for the 72, but he had won the sprint feature earlier in the evening.

Jawaski got a good restart with two to go, but Johnson took a shot on the low line on the last lap and made it stick, making the pass in turns three and four and recording a .288 second victory. It was a heartbreaking loss for Jawaski, who led almost the whole race and I think would have won the feature without that late caution. Clark ran a solid third with Richardson, who started 10th, taking fourth. Wiest started 14th but moved to fifth at the checkered.

Talon Seckerson and Jamie Schulz were in a fight for the top spot early in the IMCA Modified feature. I was watching Jesse Skalicky of Fargo and three-time defending track champion Dave Shipley of  move through the field.

Schulz would grab the lead with Jeff Odden moving into second. Shipley and Skalicky fought for third as Seckerson fell back to fifth.

Schulz led with 13 to go as Shipley and Skalicky were closing. Shipley snared the top spot with 12 to go and took Skalicky with him.

Shipley’s 72 is so tough at RRVS, and by the halfway point he had built the lead to two seconds over Skalicky, who was well ahead of third-place Schulz.  

Skalicky had reduced Shipley’s lead to 1.4 seconds with four to go; Skalikcy had a 6.4 second advantage on Schulz for the runner-up slot. Odden and Seckerson maintained their spots in fourth and fifth, with Lindsey Hansen of Fargo moving into second.

Ben Hunt spun with two to go, eliminating a 2.5 second lead for Shipley.  On the restart things got crazy behind the top two with a three-wide racing with Hansen moving into third ahead of Seckerson. The field took the white flag, and Lynn Sather spun after that; the race would end under checkered/yellow as a result.

Shipley would prevail with Skalicky second, Hansen third, Seckerson fourth and Schulz fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car numbers are a little down this year at RRVS – 13 were on hand on Friday and 12 started the feature – but  that is a class you don’t need 20-plus cars in to have a good show.

The winner of the Bison Battle, Andrew Jochim of Harwood, led early with former track champion Rob VanMil of Barnesville chasing him. Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada moved into third ahead of Dan Aberle of Finley.

VanMil edged ahead for the lead on the third lap, when the caution would wave for Will Dittmer’s spin in turn four.

VanMil and Jochim squared off up front on the restart with Kesselberg close behind. Aberle was fourth and Rick Schulz of Horace was fifth ahead of Jeremy Herr Wishek.

With 12 to go Kesselberg had worked past Jochim for second, and set his sights on VanMil up front. The 11 and the 40 were about to engage in a fierce battle for the lead as Dittmer spun for a second time with 10 to go. The race resumed for one lap before a few cars went around, Brody Carlsrud of Moorhead, who had been lurking outside the top five, was charged with that yellow but all cars were able to continue.

Kesselberg was smooth up front and would start to pull away, as the lead was 2.5 seconds with five to go.  VanMil was off the pace briefly and Jochim and Aberle would both get by, with the veteran Todd Heinrich of Fargo climing fifth.

Kesselberg had no worries up front. The lead grew to 3.6 seconds by the checkered as he picked up a dominant victory. Jochim was second. Heinrich made a late charge past a pair of cars into third with VanMIl and Aberle rounding out the top five.  Heinrich started back in ninth.

RRVS Notes

It was good to see Dylan Goplen back in the IMCA Modified ranks at RRVS. According to myracepass.com it was his first time racing since 2022.

River Cities Wins to Greseth, Schow, Sward, Peterson

Cole Greseth of Harwood continues to run well as he picked up the Wissota Street Stock feature win Friday night at River Cities Speedway. He now has nine wins in 17 starts this season. Levi Randt of Siren, Wis., was second, Greg Jose of Grand Forks was third, Trey Hess of Grand Forks fourth and Kasey Ussatis of Nome was fifth.

Matt Schow of McIntosh won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Ryan Flaten of Madison. Austin Hunter of Winnipeg was third, Ryan Schow of McIntosh was fourth and Justin Olson of Thief River Falls was fifth.

Bryce Sward of Nelson won his first feature in Corey Svor’s 6X Wissota Modified, topping Mike Stearns of Aberdeen. Tyler Peterson of Hickson as third, Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks fourth and Ward Imrie of Headingley, Man., fifth.

Tyler Peterson topped Dustin Strand for the Wissota Late Model win. John Seng of Grand Forks was third, Don Shaw of Ham Lake fourth and former national champion Chad Becker of Aberdeen was fifth.

Austin Pierce of East Grand Forks won the NOSA Sprint feature over Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks. Jade Hastings of Grand Forks was third, Nick Omdahl of Grand Forks fourth and Brendan Mullen of Grand Forks was fifth.

Friday notes

--I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls had the night off. The track resumes on June 20 with former NASCAR driver Ryan Newman scheduled to be in attendance racing as part of the NLRA Late Model show.

--Tracks cancelling because of rain: Fiesta City Speedway, Gondik Law Speedway, Red Cedar Speedway, Brown County Speedway, Princeton Speedway. 

--The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour is having a rough stretch weather wise. The tour’s show at the King of the Dirt was halted because of rain last week and shows at KRA and Fiesta City Speedway were canceled as well. Madison Speedway has announced its Saturday races are canceled as well. That western/central MN area received a lot of rainfall on Thursday.