Dustin Strand wins first Modified special of 2020 at River Cities

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (August 9, 2020) - The WISSOTA Modifieds made their season debut at River Cities Speedway this past weekend. Dustin Strand picked up the Modified win, with Seng, Hastings, Schill, and Hess also capturing the checkered flags.

John Halvorson and Dan McNamee led the 14-car field to green for 15 laps. Into turn one, the Tucker Pederson and Greg Jose went four-wide between the front row starters. Halvorson, who was running the high side, got the advantage going down the backstretch to led the first lap. While Halvorson was breaking away from the pack, Trey Hess worked his way up to fourth from the eighth starting spot using the middle and low grooves.

With nine laps to go, Pederson, who was running third, and Hess began to track down the leaders. Hess was able to move around Pederson using the low groove and quickly took care of Jose as well. A caution flew with seven laps to go, putting Hess right on Halvorson’s bumper.

With four laps remaining a hard-charging Ryan Johnson made his way up to third to make it a three-car battle for the lead, but a caution flew for a car off the pace. On the restart, Hess was able to get his nose under Halvorson while Johnson used the top side to make it a three-wide battle going into turn three. Out of turn four, Halvorson pushed and squeezed Johnson into the front stretch wall. Halvorson received extensive damage and was unable to continue, while Johnson suffered a flat left rear. Hess went unchallenged on the restart and went on to pick up the checkered flag for the second time this year at the Bullring. Pederson, Jose, McNamee, and Dan Aberle rounded out the top five.

Cole Neset and Scott Bintz rolled the 16-car field to green for the 18-lap Happy Harry’s Midwest Modified feature. Last week’s winner Nate Reynolds quickly got to the inside of Neset and took the lead on lap two. Reise Stenberg threw his hat in the ring as he slid over the nose of the No. 30 machine to take second and began tracking down Reynolds. But as he does most weekends, Lance Schill quickly moved to the third spot and set his sights on the lead duo. 

Stenberg and Reynolds ran side-by-side on lap seven, and while they battled Schill was able to catch them and challenged Reynolds for the lead out of turn four with seven to go. Even after a few late-race cautions, no one had anything for Schill as he cruised to the feature win for the fourth time this year. Stenberg, Reynolds, Matt Schow, and Jesse Aho rounded out the top five.

Thirteen Schill Construction WISSOTA Modifieds were checked in and ready to battle for 20 laps. Aaron Holtan from Newfolden, Minn. was on the pole with Dustin Strand to his outside. Holtan jumped to the early lead and led lap one, but out of turn four on lap two Strand took the lead and never looked back, picking up his fourth Modified win of the season. Matt Gilbertson, Joseph Thomas, Tyler Peterson, and Holtan completed the top five.

Tim Estenson and Jordan Graham led the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint cars to green with a 17-car field. Graham inherited the early lead out of turn one, but was being stalked by Jade Hastings. An early race caution flew and lined the cars side-by-side lining Hastings up to the outside of Graham. Again Graham shot to the lead, but was pestered by Hastings on the high side. 

Three laps in and using the extreme high side, Hastings took over the lead and checked out to pick up his third win at River Cities of the season. He still sits 14 points behind Austin Pierce in track points, but holds a 33 point advantage in NOSA points over Wade Nygaard. Pierce, Nygaard, Brendan Mullen, and Blake Egeland rounded out the top five finishers.

Twenty Performance Auto Late Models were ready to go 20 laps in the final feature of the night. Lance Schill and Blake Anderson brought the field to green with Schill taking the advantage out of turn two. Two drivers running double-duty, Dustin Strand and Schill, had already been to victory lane on the night, but it was Brad Seng who had the entire field covered. Seng found a lot of speed using the middle-to-high groove to make quick work of all eight cars that had started in front of him. At the halfway point, Seng took the point from Schill, who was caught in lapped traffic. 

Seng went on to take the win unchallenged, picking up his second-straight NLRA Late Model feature win at River Cities by over two seconds. The win increased his lead in track points to 14 over Strand.

The Premier Racing Series continues next Friday, August 14th with hot laps at 6:30pm and racing at 7 pm. If you can’t make it to the track, watch every lap on RiverCitiesSpeedway.tv.

SUMMARY:
WISSOTA Late Models
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[9]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[8]; 3. T1-Tom Corcoran[5]; 4. 17-Lance Schill[1]; 5. 14-Brody Troftgruben[7]; 6. C4-Ryan Corbett[3]; 7. Z17-Zach Naastad[6]; 8. 7P-Joey Pederson[12]; 9. 11-Troy Schill[14]; 10. 9-Steve Anderson[15]; 11. F9-Brandon Fuller[4]; 12. 02-Dan Dowling[16]; 13. 105-Ryan Dahl[19]; 14. 42-Matthew Jarvis[13]; 15. 1M-Nicholas Minske[11]; 16. 16S-Jeff Hapala[10]; 17. 21-Brady Pengilly[17]; 18. 9A-Blake Anderson[2]; 19. 47-Kreig Kasin[20]; 20. 2*-Cole Babcock[18]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. C4-Ryan Corbett[4]; 2. F9-Brandon Fuller[3]; 3. 9A-Blake Anderson[2]; 4. 16S-Jeff Hapala[5]; 5. 42-Matthew Jarvis[1]; 6. 02-Dan Dowling[6]; 7. 105-Ryan Dahl[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[3]; 2. T1-Tom Corcoran[2]; 3. Z17-Zach Naastad[4]; 4. 1M-Nicholas Minske[5]; 5. 11-Troy Schill[6]; 6. 21-Brady Pengilly[1]; 7. 47-Kreig Kasin[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. 14-Brody Troftgruben[5]; 3. 17-Lance Schill[3]; 4. 7P-Joey Pederson[4]; 5. 9-Steve Anderson[2]; 6. 2*-Cole Babcock[6]

WISSOTA Modifieds
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[2]; 2. 23-Matt Gilbertson[3]; 3. 7T-Joseph Thomas[6]; 4. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[7]; 5. 2-Aaron Holtan[1]; 6. 22-Davey Mills[4]; 7. 74-Dustin Wahl[12]; 8. 2S-Matt Schow[9]; 9. 81-Jordan Duray[8]; 10. 7J-Richard Jacobson[5]; 11. 32-Eric Haugland[10]; 12. 1RM-Taylor Grove[11]; 13. 51T-Tim Thomas[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 2. 22-Davey Mills[4]; 3. 7T-Joseph Thomas[6]; 4. 2-Aaron Holtan[5]; 5. 2S-Matt Schow[2]; 6. 1RM-Taylor Grove[3]; 7. 51T-Tim Thomas[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7J-Richard Jacobson[1]; 2. 23-Matt Gilbertson[4]; 3. 71-Dustin Strand[6]; 4. 81-Jordan Duray[2]; 5. 32-Eric Haugland[3]; 6. 74-Dustin Wahl[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 17S-Lance Schill[7]; 2. 87S-Reise Stenberg[5]; 3. 6R-Nate Reynolds[3]; 4. 2S-Matt Schow[6]; 5. 25A-Jesse Aho[11]; 6. 188-Hunter Hougard[4]; 7. 28S-Ryan Schow[16]; 8. 1S-Scott Bintz[2]; 9. 23-Scott Vasichek[10]; 10. 3L-Logan Salazar[12]; 11. 01-Zach Bruer[9]; 12. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski[13]; 13. 17-Jason LaValley[14]; 14. 30-Cole Neset[1]; 15. 54-Terry Nelson[15]; 16. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 87S-Reise Stenberg[1]; 2. 6R-Nate Reynolds[2]; 3. 1S-Scott Bintz[5]; 4. 30-Cole Neset[3]; 5. 01-Zach Bruer[4]; 6. 25A-Jesse Aho[6]; 7. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski[8]; 8. 54-Terry Nelson[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17S-Lance Schill[4]; 2. 39-Jamie Dietzler[1]; 3. 188-Hunter Hougard[3]; 4. 2S-Matt Schow[2]; 5. 23-Scott Vasichek[5]; 6. 3L-Logan Salazar[8]; 7. 17-Jason LaValley[6]; 8. 28S-Ryan Schow[7]

WISSOTA Street Stocks
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[8]; 2. 27-Tucker Pederson[5]; 3. 28-Greg Jose[3]; 4. 29-Dan McNamee[1]; 5. 33-Daniel Aberle[6]; 6. 7-James Meagher[13]; 7. 87-Alan Lane[10]; 8. 3L-Zach Lee[12]; 9. 25-Ryan Johnson[7]; 10. 30-Seth Klostreich[4]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[9]; 12. (DNF) 35-John Halvorson[2]; 13. (DNF) 03-Bryce Reimer[11]; 14. (DNF) 10-Joe Potter[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[2]; 2. 29-Dan McNamee[1]; 3. 35-John Halvorson[4]; 4. 28-Greg Jose[5]; 5. 1M-Nicholas Minske[3]; 6. 03-Bryce Reimer[8]; 7. 7-James Meagher[7]; 8. 10-Joe Potter[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Tucker Pederson[2]; 2. 33-Daniel Aberle[3]; 3. 25-Ryan Johnson[5]; 4. 30-Seth Klostreich[1]; 5. 87-Alan Lane[6]; 6. 3L-Zach Lee[4]

NOSA Sprints
​A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[3]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[6]; 3. 9N-Wade Nygaard[7]; 4. 11M-Brendan Mullen[9]; 5. S26-Blake Egeland[4]; 6. 20A-Jordan Adams[8]; 7. 0-Nick Omdahl[11]; 8. 10TRB-Bob Martin[10]; 9. 14-Tom Egeland[14]; 10. 31-Shane Roemeling[5]; 11. 14T-Tim Estenson[1]; 12. 99-Jordan Graham[2]; 13. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[12]; 14. 17-Zach Omdahl[13]; 15. 2-Tee Young[17]; 16. 41T-Travis Strandell[16]; 17. (DNF) 4-Colton Young[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 2. 20A-Jordan Adams[5]; 3. S26-Blake Egeland[2]; 4. 99-Jordan Graham[7]; 5. 0-Nick Omdahl[3]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[1]; 7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]; 8. 4-Colton Young[8]; 9. 2-Tee Young[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Shane Roemeling[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[5]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce[6]; 4. 14T-Tim Estenson[2]; 5. 10TRB-Bob Martin[4]; 6. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[3]; 7. 14-Tom Egeland[7]; 8. 41T-Travis Strandell[8]