Dobmeier, Olson, Eckerdt, &
Wittner Visit
Victory Lane
at River Cities
Speedway
By Mike Orness
Race Report for 8/3/07
The
Premier Racing Series was back in action at River Cities
Speedway last Friday with the race night sponsored by
Orchard Oil and Stamart. With Red River Valley Speedway
taking the night off, race fans were treated to a few more
cars than normal. Going into the night, Snare,
Strand, Balcaen and Dobmeier were the current
point leaders of their respective class.
In the Unicel Street Stock heat races, Joe Potter used the
outside pole position to his advantage to add another heat
race win to his total with pole-sitter Adam Thompson second.
Dale Fugleberg also used the outside pole spot to win the
second heat race holding off Geringer for the win. The third
heat race was won by Tyson Anderson from the fourth starting
spot with Darren Erickson second and Steffen Snare third
from the last starting spot.
Dempsey
Truck Service Midwest Modified heat races were up next with
Dan Ness and Matt Sparby on the front row. Sparby grabbed
the lead with Ness
falling into the second spot crossing the line the same way
at the finish. Dave Riopelle grabbed the lead in the second
heat race when the green flag was shown to the field on a
somewhat bad start. The race continued green with Riopelle
holding off Eckerdt for the win. Pole-sitter, Vargason, was
third. Dustin Strand chased Gary Nelson throughout the third
heat race and was unable to pass him before the checkered
was given to Nelson. Pole-sitter, Schroeder finished third.
The
DTRA Super Late Models ran three heat races sponsored by
Atekparts.com. The first heat race was won by Brad Seng who
had just picked up his first 2007 feature win in Mandan the weekend before. Seng held off
Balcaen who finished second after an early race caution was
charged to outside pole-sitter Erickson. The second heat
race was won by Joey Pederson who started outside Steve
Anderson on the front row. Troy Olson finished second after
starting fourth. Dale Skytland added his third heat race win
in 2007 by crossing under the checkered flag ahead of Howie
Schill during the third heat race.
Ryan
Wilson was the fastest driver during the first NOSA heat
race sponsored by Eide Motors. Wilson started outside the
front row and increased his lead over Fredrickson to take
the checkered flag and his first RCS heat win in 2007. The
second flight of sprints started with Nick Shirek and Jeff
Vonasek on the front row. Shirek grabbed the lead first with
Chris Burke moving quickly up to the second spot. Shirek
earned his first RCS heat win for 2007 with Burke second and
Nygaard third from the sixth starting spot. Mark Dobmeier
started tailend of the third heat race when front-row
starters, Jordan Graham and Shane Roemeling took the green
flag. Dobmeier easily took the lead and went on to win his
ninth heat race of 2007 at RCS. Chris Shirek chased Dobmeier
across the line in second with Kennedy third.
After
the brief intermission for re-draws and the Hugo’s/Neslte
Kids Candy Toss, the Unicel Street Stocks were lined up for
their fifteen lap feature event. Beier and Anderson started on the front row with Wittner
and Potter in the second row. On the start it was Wittner
that snuck past and grabbed the lead with Beier in second.
VandeKamp made his way up to the third spot from the fifth
spot during his first visit to the track this year. With
four laps complete the first caution came out and charged to
Neumann. Wittner continued to lead with the same running
order as prior to the caution. The next lap under green the
caution flew again for contact in turn two between Potter
and Arends. Officials charged Potter with the caution though
not agreed with Potter, but Potter went to the tail and
charged back forward to finish fourteenth. The rest of the
laps clicked off under green with Wittner leading every lap
to the checkered. The running order through fifth never
changed with Beier second followed by VandeKamp, Anderson,
and Leake. Snare ended up sneaking past Geringer for the
sixth spot after starting eighth.
Dempsey
Truck Service Midwest Modified eighteen lap feature was next
with Matt Sparby on the pole and Jason Strand outside of
him. Bobby Eckerdt and Dave Riopelle were lined up behind
the leaders. Once the green flag was displayed, Sparby
jumped out the lead with Jason Strand and Eckerdt racing for
the second spot. Soon after Eckerdt passed
Strand to be scored in the second spot, Eckerdt
passed Sparby on the highside for the lead. There was one
caution with thirteen laps other than that, it went green
the rest of the way with Eckerdt leading every lap for his
first win at RCS this year. Under those green flag laps,
Sparby slipped back, with Dustin Strand moving forward from
the twelfth starting spot to finish third behind Jason
Strand. Dale Kraling raced hard throughout the race to
finish with a top five finish in the fourth spot. Dave
Riopelle held on to finish sixth behind Sparby.
Nineteen of the twenty-one DTRA Super Late Models started
the twenty lap feature sponsored by Eide Motors. Even though
Skytland won his heat, he was unable to make the call for
the feature. Hapka pulled off in the heat race and also was
unable to make repairs for the feature. The first caution of
the feature flew before a lap was complete with Cody
Skytland spinning to avoid a larger mess. Officials were
unable to pin the caution on a certain driver so they
restarted the whole field. On the second start, Corcoran got
the jump on the rest of the field and led the first half of
the race with Skytland and Pederson in tow. Mike Balcaen
moved up from the ninth spot to compete for a top four spot
with Troy Olson also in the mix. After a couple more
cautions Mike Balcaen was able to move into the lead with
Pederson also following past Corcoran. Seng started twelfth
and also worked his way into the top five later in the race
with Corcoran slipping back to fifth. The last caution came
out for Chad Corbett which set up the field for a five lap
dash to the checkered flag. At this time Balcaen was leading
with Olson second and Pederson third. Under green flag
again, Olson made his move on the highside of the track
around Balcaen for the lead in turn four. Olson raced under
the checkered flag for the first time this season with
Balcaen second and Pederson third. Seng finished ahead of
Corcoran who rounded out the top five.
There
were nineteen cars in the heat races for the NOSA Sprints
and all nineteen started the Eide Motors twenty-five lap
feature. Heat winners, Nick Shirek and Ryan Wilson lead the
field around to the green flag with Dobmeier and Martin
starting tailend because of the first race of the new month.
On the start Fredrickson flew from the third spot to first
with Shirek falling into the second spot with Egeland third.
Next lap was Egeland passing Shirek for the second spot. The
first caution came out and charged to
Wilson
for slipping off the back stretch. With the field lined up
again, Fredrickson continued to lead with only five laps
complete Dobmeier was already up to sixth place. Nygaard
pressured Fredrickson for the lead while Dobmeier moved into
the third spot with eighteen laps to go. Nygaard claimed the
lead on the next lap as he passed Fredrickson, so did
Dobmeier. Dobmeier ran the low groove to get past Nygaard,
but the two raced hard for a couple laps, and Dobmeier
looked to lead Nygaard but was voided by a car that slowed
on the backstretch with twelve laps to go. With the field
restarted, Nygaard held off Dobmeier through another caution
but the two mixed it up in the closing laps which made for a
heckuva show for the fans. Dobmeier eventually made the pass
stick and pulled out to a small lead over Nygaard when the
white flag was given to the field. While the battle up from
was brewing, Nikitenko and casey Mack moved into the top
five after starting back in the fifth row and Bob Martin
worked his way through the field after starting last to
finish just one spot out of a top five finish. Dobmeier
added another feature win to his resume, bringing the total
at RCS to nine. Nygaard was second with last weeks feature
winner, Nikitenko in the third spot. Mack finished off the
night with a solid run in the fourth spot with Fredrickson
finishing in fifth ahead of Martin.
River
Cities Speedway will be back in
action again with the Premier Racing Series this Friday
sponsored by Hansen Cycle and Marine and 5-Star Collision
Center. This will also be another Family Fun Night sponsored
by Hugo’s and Nestle candy with a bike giveaway sponsored by
the Grand Forks County Sherriff’s Department.
Point
Standings should be updated by Wednesday and as always, you
can visit the website for more information.
www.rivercitiesspeedway.com
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