Austin Pierce claims win No.7; Strand out-duels Seng for Late Model win

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 4, 2020) - If you were a Sprint Car fan on Friday night at River Cities Speedway, you got your money's worth. A total of 49 Sprint Cars were on hand, led by 30 Northern & Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints and 19 Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA 410 Sprints. 

Defending NOSA and River Cities Speedway champion, Nick Omdahl seemed to have the car to beat early on in the 25-lap Buffalo Wild Wings main event. However, current River Cities Speedway track point leader and former NOSA champion Austin Pierce found his groove around the midway point of the race. 

After one of many restarts, Pierce and Omdahl engaged in a thrilling battle for the lead. The two traded slide jobs at each end of the speedway, swapping the lead four different times in three laps. In the end, Pierce took the point. 

Things got interesting on the final lap as Pierce was slowed by lapped traffic. That allowed Jade Hastings to get a run on him down the back straightaway. Hastings looked to put a slider on Pierce in turns three and four, but couldn’t clear Pierce or the lapped car running in the middle groove. 

Pierce put his No. 2A machine up on the cushion and was able to power around Hastings to win the drag race back to the line to claim his seventh win of the season.

In Non-Wing Sprint Car action, things got off to a scary start as Eric Serabian went for a vicious tumble in turns one and two after jumping a right rear tire. Serabian’s car catapulted off the top of the banking before landing cage-first on the pit access road. The River Cities Speedway Fire & Rescue team was quickly on the scene and were quick to extract Serabian out of the car after it caught fire. 

In the incident, Serabian was transported to Altru Health System due to injuries received to his back and neck.

The 18-car Non-Wing feature did not disappoint. The two most recent Non-Wing winners at the Bullring, Jori Hughes and Rob Caho Jr., put on a great battle for the lead. Both drivers ran two distinctly different grooves, but the low side proved to be best for Hughes as he picked up his second career win at River Cities. 

The Performance Auto NLRA Late Models had 16 cars lined up for their 20-lap feature with Brad Seng and Dustin Strand on the front row. 

Seng raced out to a five car length lead after battling with Strand for the lead, but that battle wasn’t over. As the leaders began to encounter lapped traffic, Strand closed in on Seng. On lap nine, Strand had a run on the four-time and defending NLRA series champion and put a textbook slide job on the No. 12S into turn three. Strand looked to run away from Seng, but Seng remained within two car lengths of the No. 71. 

Strand was too fast, however, as he went on to claim his fifth win of the season at River Cities and the 2020 Late Model track championship. 

Jamie Dietzler led the opening lap of the 16-car, 18-lap Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops WISSOTA Midwest Modified main event. Dietlzer quickly opened up a five car length lead over point leader Matt Schow as he looked to check out from the rest of the field. 

On an early race restart, a chain reaction resulted in Schow being shoved into an infield implement tire. In the incident, Schow received heavy cosmetic damage to the front end of his No. 2S machine, but he was able to rejoin the field in the second position for the ensuing Evergreen Insurance restart. 

As the race resumed, Lance Schill moved into second and set his sights on Dietzler.

Dietzler survived one more restart as he cruised to his third feature win of the season. 

Schow held on to finish fourth and capture his second career River Cities Speedway track championship and his first since 2016. 

Sixteen Big Al’s Construction WISSOTA Street Stocks were led to the green flag by point leader Ryan Johnson and Trey Hess. A three wide race for the lead broke out on the opening lap in turn one and third-place starter, John Halvorson, quickly worked his way into the mix. Hess slid up and out of the groove in the first set of corners and Johnson and Halvorson continued their fight for the lead. 

Johnson also hit a slick spot on the speedway in turns three and four, which allowed Halvorson to clear for the position. 

Halvorson went on to lead all 15 laps, but things got tight in the closing stages. 

AJ Lane worked his way from fifth and applied heavy pressure to the rear bumper of Halvorson on the final lap. Halvorson was mired in heavy lapped traffic. Johnson had also recovered and was within striking distance as well. At the ND Eye Clinic finish line, Halvorson held on for the win as the top three cars finished within three car lengths of each other. The win was Halvorson’s first of the season at the Bullring. 

Johnson held on to claim his first track championship since 2017. 

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

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[3]; 3. 7P-Joey Pederson[2]; 4. 9-Steve Anderson[4]; 5. C4-Ryan Corbett[6]; 6. 02-Dan Dowling[7]; 7. 1M-Nicholas Minske[5]; 8. 105-Ryan Dahl[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[1]; 2. T1-Tom Corcoran[2]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben[3]; 4. F9-Brandon Fuller[5]; 5. 2*-Cole Babcock[8]; 6. 9A-Blake Anderson[6]; 7. 11-Troy Schill[4]; 8. 16S-Jeff Hapala[7]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler[2]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[5]; 3. B0-Jory Berg[4]; 4. 2S-Matt Schow[1]; 5. 57-Nathan Raasakka[3]; 6. 23-Scott Vasichek[7]; 7. 87S-Reise Stenberg[13]; 8. 16-Randy Thompson[9]; 9. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski[14]; 10. 46-Cole Neset[16]; 11. 54-Terry Nelson[15]; 12. 28S-Ryan Schow[6]; 13. (DNF) 3L-Logan Salazar[10]; 14. (DNF) 50C-Cody Lee[8]; 15. (DNF) 50H-Haley Lee[12]; 16. (DNF) 4-Michael Miller[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler[2]; 2. B0-Jory Berg[1]; 3. 17-Lance Schill[8]; 4. 50C-Cody Lee[4]; 5. 16-Randy Thompson[5]; 6. 4-Michael Miller[6]; 7. 87S-Reise Stenberg[7]; 8. 54-Terry Nelson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Scott Vasichek[2]; 2. 28S-Ryan Schow[5]; 3. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 4. 57-Nathan Raasakka[7]; 5. 3L-Logan Salazar[8]; 6. 50H-Haley Lee[1]; 7. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski[6]; 8. 46-Cole Neset[3]

WISSOTA Street Stocks
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson[3]; 2. 87-Alan Lane[5]; 3. 25-Ryan Johnson[1]; 4. 10-Joe Potter[7]; 5. 4-Trey Hess[2]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske[4]; 7. 91-Shane Swenson[8]; 8. 27P-Tucker Pederson[12]; 9. 21J-Brian Johanson[10]; 10. 30-Seth Klostreich[16]; 11. 33-Daniel Aberle[6]; 12. 7-James Meagher[11]; 13. 29-Dan McNamee[9]; 14. 5S-Chris Smeby[13]; 15. 00-Brandon Corbett[15]; 16. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[2]; 2. 1M-Nicholas Minske[1]; 3. 25-Ryan Johnson[3]; 4. 87-Alan Lane[6]; 5. 29-Dan McNamee[8]; 6. 7-James Meagher[7]; 7. 5S-Chris Smeby[5]; 8. 00-Brandon Corbett[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson[1]; 2. 91-Shane Swenson[2]; 3. 33-Daniel Aberle[3]; 4. 10-Joe Potter[7]; 5. 21J-Brian Johanson[4]; 6. 27P-Tucker Pederson[8]; 7. 28-Greg Jose[5]; 8. 30-Seth Klostreich[6]

NOSA Sprints
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 3. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[8]; 4. 14-Tom Egeland[19]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham[12]; 6. 31-Shane Roemeling[9]; 7. 0-Nick Omdahl[2]; 8. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 9. 35-Brenden Wilde[14]; 10. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 11. 22-Tanner Wisk[16]; 12. 6-Zach Wilde[15]; 13. 10S-Josh Swangler[13]; 14. 41T-Travis Strandell[18]; 15. 17-Zach Omdahl[11]; 16. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[17]; 17. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]; 18. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[10]; 19. (DNF) 20A-Jordan Adams[7]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 4. 20A-Jordan Adams[4]; 5. 31-Shane Roemeling[3]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 7. 10S-Josh Swangler[8]; 8. 6-Zach Wilde[9]; 9. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[10]; 10. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland[6]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 0-Nick Omdahl[2]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]; 4. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[3]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[5]; 6. 99-Jordan Graham[6]; 7. 35-Brenden Wilde[8]; 8. 22-Tanner Wisk[9]; 9. 41T-Travis Strandell[7]

Western & Northern Renegade Wingless Sprints
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 19-Jori Hughes[1]; 2. 78-Rob Caho Jr[2]; 3. 69S-Jon Lewerer[3]; 4. 126-Joel Larson[12]; 5. 52-Adam Sobolik[5]; 6. 3-Ryan Johnson[16]; 7. 56-Josh Braford[13]; 8. 22-Brandon Palm[18]; 9. 46H-Ken Hron[10]; 10. 101-Paul Schultz[6]; 11. 47-Jake Barsness[9]; 12. 15E-Caley Emerson[4]; 13. 30M-Chris Lewis[15]; 14. 5-Troy Gessner[11]; 15. 15T-Myles Tomlinson[7]; 16. 21-Cory Palm[17]; 17. Z15-Zach Olson[8]; 18. (DNS) 16-Ross Cummings

B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 6-Brody Hutton[8]; 2. 2-Teal Arnason[5]; 3. 69-Tom Cummings[4]; 4. 18-Zach Hultstrand[11]; 5. 16K-Matt Knudson[3]; 6. 91B-Dave Braford[6]; 7. 92-Danny Wait Jr[2]; 8. 36-Tyler Wass[1]; 9. (DNF) 04-Brian Trembath[7]; 10. (DNS) 49-Eric Serabian; 11. (DNS) 4-Joshua Johnson; 12. (DNS) 45-Lance Solem

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. Z15-Zach Olson[3]; 2. 15E-Caley Emerson[7]; 3. 5-Troy Gessner[4]; 4. 15T-Myles Tomlinson[5]; 5. 56-Josh Braford[10]; 6. 3-Ryan Johnson[9]; 7. 36-Tyler Wass[1]; 8. 69-Tom Cummings[6]; 9. 91B-Dave Braford[8]; 10. (DNF) 6-Brody Hutton[2]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 52-Adam Sobolik[1]; 2. 19-Jori Hughes[4]; 3. 101-Paul Schultz[9]; 4. 47-Jake Barsness[6]; 5. 16-Ross Cummings[3]; 6. 21-Cory Palm[10]; 7. 92-Danny Wait Jr[5]; 8. (DNF) 49-Eric Serabian[8]; 9. (DNF) 4-Joshua Johnson[7]; 10. (DNF) 45-Lance Solem[2]

​Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 126-Joel Larson[1]; 2. 78-Rob Caho Jr[5]; 3. 69S-Jon Lewerer[7]; 4. 46H-Ken Hron[10]; 5. 30M-Chris Lewis[6]; 6. 22-Brandon Palm[8]; 7. 16K-Matt Knudson[9]; 8. (DNF) 2-Teal Arnason[2]; 9. (DNF) 04-Brian Trembath[4]; 10. (DNF) 18-Zach Hultstrand[3]