Wilke, Restad, Eckerdt, Shipley, Johnson and Kesselberg Win RRVS Openers

Kalvin Kesselberg outdueled Jonny Carter for the IMCA Stock Car win. (Photo by Tom Berg)

Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo opened its 2025 season on Friday. It was a sunny but windy night and the breeze was pretty cool.

98 cars were on hand, a solid opening night, and racing concluded a little before 10:25 p.m. Not bad at all for Night 1.

The track was as smooth as glass – it was not touched once during the heat races. It was also very slick, and that meant there wasn’t much margin for error.

Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes took over the lead on lap two of the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature from Brandon Rekow of Ellendale with Jeremy Schultz of Stewart, Minn., moving into third.  Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton – making his debut in the IMCA sprints after racing in the INEX Legends previously – was fourth ahead of Amelia Eisenschenk of Fargo.

It was a pretty ho-hum single file race until there was about five laps left when Schultz got by Rekow for second.  Eisenschenk would pass Hendrickson shortly after.

For a while, Schultz was reeling in Wilke and pulled beside him; but Wilke would switch to a lower line and get some breathing room at the end to pick up the win. Schulz was second with Rekow, Eisenschenk and Hendrickson rounding out the top five in the caution-free race.

The IMCA Sport Mods had a multi-car spin before they even reached the flag stand and that seemed to set the tone in a caution-filled main event.  But for several laps things ran green with Landon Maatz of Walcott opening up a nice lead. Brennan Urbach of Lisbon settled into the second spot.

The car on the move was Ryan Restad of West Fargo, who started 12th. He stormed into the top three and soon got by Urbach for second.

Several cars were fighting for spots in the top five, including Chris VanMil of Barnesville, Scott Jacobson of Fargo, Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton and sport mod rookie Kyle VanMil of Barnesville.

Restad was flying. He had cut Maatz’s half straightaway lead to a half car length. He was making a run in turns three and four when the caution waved when Thomas Sandvig spun with nine to go.

Unfortunately, the last nine laps were plagued with cautions.  On the first restart Restad seized the lead with Urbach moving into second. Jacobson, Chris VanMil and Maatz were in a battle for third as Austin Veralrud of Audubon was closing on a top five spot.

There were more cautions, leading to the yellow/black coming out, but over the final five laps, Restad assumed control to pick up the feature victory. Urbach ran well all night and took second. Jacobson, who started 10th, was a solid third with Maatz and Veralrud rounding out the top five.

Brodee Eckerdt of Grand Forks and Brad Orvedal of Fargo were in a fight for the lead in the IMCA Hobby Stock main event. After a caution, Eckerdt grabbed the lead with Andrea Jacobson of Fargo battling Tim Church of Fargo for third. Defending track champion Tanner Engen of Detroit Lakes was running fifth.

Eckerdt would open up a 1.5 second advantage up front on his way to the win with Orvedal second. Jacobson was third with Engen and Caleb Gardner of Glyndon rounding out the top five.

It’s a tough task for fellow IMCA Modified drivers when Dave Shipley of Argusville is on the pole. He’s won a lot of features in the class in recent years and is the defending champ. He took the lead from the outside pole.

Jesse Skalicky of Fargo, who started fifth, took over second with Tyler Hall of Fertile climbing to third. Jeff Odden of Reiles Acres faced a challenge from Lindsey Hansen of Fargo for fourth.

Shipley built a three-second lead on Skalicky before encountering some lapped cars. Skalicky would cut the lead to about two seconds but once Shipley moved through the lapped cars, the lead grew back to about three seconds.

The caution-free main event saw Shipley prevail by 3.2 seconds over Skalicky. Hall, who started seventh, was third ahead of Hansen, who made a late pass of Odden for fourth.

Sean Johnson won the INEX Legends feature.

 Joshua Wiest of Jamestown was the early leader of the INEX legend feature but was challenged by defending RRVS champion Sean Johnson of Kindred. On the move was Wilke, who started 11th but didn’t take long to get into the top four. New Jersey driver Tanner Jones was also running in the top four before a caution waved.

Jones’s night would end when he lost a wheel with 12 to go. On the ensuing restart, Johnson resumed the lead but Cody Jawaski of Kindred moved into second on the restart with Kody Machart of Moorhead taking third from Wilke. Brian Frederick of Gwinner had moved into the top five but had to check up for a pair of cars in front of him and lost a couple of spots. The veteran Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids had climbed into fifth.

It turned into a duel between Johnson and Jawaski up front with Wilke close behind. Jawaski snuck into the top spot with two to go. Johnson fought back on the low line and made a run. Jawaski’s hopes for a win were crushed when he struck a tractor tire and spun. Since the field had taken the white flag, Johnson was declared the winner, picking up the victory after starting seventh. Wilke was second and Machart third. Richardson had a steady run to finish fourth ahead of the long-time veteran Tony Brockhouse of Glyndon.

The finale was a nine-car IMCA Stock Car main event. I don’t say much about car counts early in the year, but I will say this: there will be more than nine stock cars weekly at RRVS this summer. A couple of regulars were missing and some weren’t done. It was a hell of a race up front.

Derek Bernstein of Fargo grabbed the lead of the stock car feature but quickly faced a challenge from Rick Schulz of Horace. Rob VanMil of Barnesville and Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada battled for third.

Jonny Carter of Fairmount – armed with a new Rage chassis -- broke in his heat and didn’t even make it a lap. But in the feature he quickly surged into the top five.

After a restart Kesselberg took aim at the lead as things went three-wide for the top spot. Kesselberg secured the lead with Carter moving into second. Bernstein and VanMil were putting on a good show in the fight for third.  Schulz would get into the wall coming down the frontstretch while running fifth, the caution would wave and he would pull into the pits.

Kesselberg was making the high line work despite Carter’s best efforts on the bottom. The lead was about 0.2 seconds with two to go.  Kesselberg would prevail with Carter second. Bernstein edged VanMIl for third with Brennan Borg of Harwood rounding out the top five.

RRVS notes

--Kody Machart is doing double duty this season, running in the INEX Legends while also picking up an IMCA Sport Mod. Machart is driving the car previously piloted by Keyna Peterson.

--Lindsey Hansen raced in a late model the past couple of years, and was previously in the Wissota Midwest Modified class, but has moved to the IMCA Mods this year. It’s a pretty simple reason – he can race much closer to his Fargo home. Hansen looked good in his mod debut, taking a solid fourth.

--Ryan Seward of West Fargo has moved into the IMCA Sport Mods after racing previously in the hobby stocks. He has a sharp looking #23 machine. Kyle VanMil, son of Rob VanMil, has moved into the sport mods as well after starting out in the legends.

--I talked with Orvedal prior to the races, be looking for a feature story on him in the weeks ahead. He plans to make some trips to Minot and Bottineau this summer when the hobby stocks are off at other area tracks.

I-94 EMR Speedway Wins to Burdick, Bitzan, Riley, Saurer and Rohner

Kevin Burdick of Proctor won the Structural Buildings Wissota Late Model Challenge Series feature Friday night at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls.

Don Shaw of Ham Lake was second, Jeff Provinzino of Hibbing was third, Shane Sabraski of Rice fourth and defending series champion Cole Searing of Huron was fifth. Tyler Peterson (1TPO) was the hard charger, going from 23rd to eighth.

Tyler Bitzan of Brandon won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Ron Saurer of Dalton. Tanner Bitzan of Brandon was third, Onyx Johnson of Lowry fourth and Scott Oeltjen of Villard was fifth.

Eric Riley of Morris topped Kyle Dykhoff of Starbuck for the Wissota Street Stock feature win. Nick Shumansky of Perham was third, Braedyn Fleck of Cold Spring was fourth and Greg Platzer of Robbinsdale was fifth.

Travis Saurer of Dalton beat 1TPO for the Wissota Modified win. Sabraski was third, Landon Atkinson of Little Falls was fourth and Joe Thomas of Glyndon was fifth.

Jeff Rohner of Willmar won the Wissota Hornet feature over Christian Kast of Fairmount. Hunter Goulet of Fargo was third, Brady Fosso of Hibbing fourth and Lincoln Miller of Fergus Falls fifth.

River Cities Wins to Berg, Greseth, Strand, Dobmeier and Haugeberg

Jory Berg of Grand Forks topped Cylen Vargason of Edinburg for the Wissota Midwest Modified feature win Friday night at River Cities Speedway. Austin Hunter of Winnipeg was third, Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls was fourth and Connor Drewry of Bemidji was fifth.

Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks claimed the NOSA Sprint feature over Jack Croaker of East Grand Forks. Jade Hastings of Grand Forks was third, Andy Pake of Felton fourth and Brendan Mullen of Grand Forks.

Cole Greseth of Harwood topped Trey Hess of Grand Forks for the Wissota Street Stock feature. Weston Ramsrud of Bagley was third, Greg Jose of Grand Forks fourth and John Halvorson of Grand Forks was fifth.

Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks topped the Wissota Late Model feature with Joey Pederson of East Grand Forks taking second. Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., was third, Brad Seng of Grand Forks was fourth and Ryan Corbett of Grand Forks was fifth.

Bryce Haugeberg of West Fargo was victorious in the Lightning Sprint feature. Dylan Langevin of Thief River Falls was second, Emmitt Isane of Badger third, Loke Bjerke of Argusville was fourth and Jake Haugeberg of West Fargo was fifth.