Bob Martin Claims First River Cities Speedway Win Since 2010

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (August 23, 2019) – A wild night of action at River Cities Speedway was capped off with veteran Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Car driver, Bob Martin, visiting RydellCars.com Victory Lane for the first time since 2010. 

Martin started 11th on the grid of 22 and patiently rode the low side of the speedway all the way to the front of the pack. Nick Ranten led the first five circuits until Wade Nygaard took the point on lap six. On the following lap, Austin Pierce suffered damage to his left front after contact with another car and attempted to take his No. 2A to the infield. However, the field stacked up behind him and an eight-car pile up on the front straightaway ensued. 

On the restart, seventh-place starter Mark Dobmeier took the point as Nygaard, Ranten and Martin battled for second. With 11 to go, Martin cleared Nygaard for second and set his sights on Dobmeier, who had a full straightaway advantage. 

Lap by lap, Martin reeled in Dobmeier. With two laps to go, Martin pulled even with Dobmeier and took the lead in turns one and two. Dobmeier tried to rally past Martin on the final lap, but Martin was too strong and took the win. 

“[The moisture] stuck around on the bottom the whole race, both in turns two and four,” said Martin after the race. “I got by Wade, and Mark was up there a little ways. Little by little I was creeping up on him. With about two or three to go, he was up high and two lapped cars pushed up in front of him and took his line away. I went underneath and I expected him to roar around me on the top and it never happened. 

“It still baffles me. It’s amazing. It’s been a long time. We’ve had some dumb luck this year, but it all came together tonight,” he said. 

Daniel Aberle picked up his first Wells Concrete WISSOTA Street Stock win of the season in convincing fashion. Aberle grabbed the lead from Kasey Ussatis on lap one of 15 and never looked back. The Finley, N.D. driver held off Doug VanMil in the late going to pick up the win. The win for Aberle was his fifth of the year overall and first at River Cities since August 24th of last year. 

Ryan Johnson, Tucker Pederson, and Trey Hess rounded out the top five. 

Lance Schill raced to his division-leading fourth Happy Harry’s WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature win of the season. After starting ninth out of 19 cars, Schill worked his way forward to crack the top five on lap four of 18. The driver of the Schill Construction / Forks Mobile Wash No. 17 moved by both Ryan Schow and Aaron Blacklance to take the lead on lap seven. From there, Schill checked out from the rest of the field to pick up the win by 2.3 seconds over Schow. Todd Johnson, Jamie Dietzler and Blacklance rounded out the top five. 

The Allstate Peterbilt WISSOTA Modifieds made another special appearance to the Bullring on Friday night. Just as he did in the Midwest Modified feature, Lance Schill looked to dominate the 20 lap Modified main event. However, in the final laps, Schill had a contender in the form of Dustin Strand. 

Strand worked his way around Schill with three laps to go and went on to claim his second Modified win of the season at River Cities. Schill had to settle for second ahead of Dustin Wahl. Aaron Holtan and Rick Delaine rounded out the top five. 

SUMMARY
NOSA Sprint Cars:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [11]; 2. 13-Mark Dobmeier, [7]; 3. 55-Nick Ranten, [1]; 4. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [3]; 5. 8H-Jade Hastings, [5]; 6. 0-Nick Omdahl, [4]; 7. 14-Tom Egeland, [17]; 8. 20A-Jordan Adams, [2]; 9. 13T-Ty Hanten, [13]; 10. 11M-Brendan Mullen, [9]; 11. 35-Brenden Wilde, [16]; 12. 27-Chris Ranten, [8]; 13. 31-Shane Roemeling, [21]; 14. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [18]; 15. (DNF) 41T-Travis Strandell, [19]; 16. (DNF) 99-Jordan Graham, [20]; 17. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland, [15]; 18. (DNF) 8C-Jack Croaker, [10]; 19. (DNF) 42-Rick Bates, [14]; 20. (DNF) 2A-Austin Pierce, [6]; 21. (DNF) 22-Tanner Wisk, [22]; (DNS) 5-Presley Truedson,

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [4]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings, [5]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce, [6]; 4. 26-Blake Egeland, [2]; 5. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [1]; 6. (DNF) 41T-Travis Strandell, [7]; 7. (DNF) 5-Presley Truedson, [3]; (DNS) 22-Tanner Wisk,

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 13-Mark Dobmeier, [6]; 2. 55-Nick Ranten, [3]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [4]; 4. 8C-Jack Croaker, [5]; 5. 14-Tom Egeland, [1]; 6. 42-Rick Bates, [2]; 7. (DNF) 99-Jordan Graham, [7]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 20A-Jordan Adams, [3]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl, [4]; 3. 27-Chris Ranten, [6]; 4. 11M-Brendan Mullen, [5]; 5. 35-Brenden Wilde, [1]; 6. 13T-Ty Hanten, [2]; 7. 31-Shane Roemeling, [7]

WISSOTA Modifieds:
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, [5]; 2. 17-Lance Schill, [3]; 3. 74-Dustin Wahl, [8]; 4. 2-Aaron Holtan, [6]; 5. 1R-Rick Delaine, [2]; 6. 57-Michael Tiani, [1]; 7. (DNF) 10W-Ward Imrie, [4]; 8. (DNF) 81-Jordan Duray, [9]; 9. (DNF) 39-Shawn Teunis, [7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, [1]; 2. 17-Lance Schill, [5]; 3. 1R-Rick Delaine, [4]; 4. 10W-Ward Imrie, [8]; 5. 57-Michael Tiani, [3]; 6. 2-Aaron Holtan, [6]; 7. 39-Shawn Teunis, [2]; 8. 74-Dustin Wahl, [9]; 9. 81-Jordan Duray, [7]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 17S-Lance Schill, [9]; 2. 28S-Ryan Schow, [4]; 3. 21-Todd Johnson, [2]; 4. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [10]; 5. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [3]; 6. 19-Lucas Rodin, [6]; 7. 29X-Brandon Bahr, [5]; 8. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [7]; 9. 188-Hunter Hougard, [17]; 10. 23-Scott Vasichek, [16]; 11. 3L-Logan Salazar, [13]; 12. 41-Tyler McClellan, [14]; 13. 8-Jason Schuh, [15]; 14. B4-Tim Berg, [1]; 15. B0-Jory Berg, [12]; 16. (DNF) 87S-Reise Stenberg, [11]; 17. (DNF) 44-Austin Hunter, [8]; 18. (DNF) 96-Brent Loftsgard, [18]; (DNS) 68-Joe Henninger,

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Austin Hunter, [1]; 2. 29X-Brandon Bahr, [4]; 3. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [3]; 4. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [5]; 5. 3L-Logan Salazar, [6]; 6. 23-Scott Vasichek, [7]; 7. 96-Brent Loftsgard, [2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17S-Lance Schill, [3]; 2. B4-Tim Berg, [2]; 3. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [1]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [6]; 5. 41-Tyler McClellan, [4]; 6. 188-Hunter Hougard, [5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Lucas Rodin, [3]; 2. 28S-Ryan Schow, [2]; 3. 21-Todd Johnson, [4]; 4. B0-Jory Berg, [6]; 5. 8-Jason Schuh, [5]; 6. (DNF) 68-Joe Henninger, [1]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 33-Daniel Aberle, [2]; 2. 8T-Doug VanMill, [8]; 3. 25-Ryan Johnson, [6]; 4. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [3]; 5. 4-Trey Hess, [11]; 6. 2U-Kasey Ussatis, [1]; 7. 48-Chase Boen, [5]; 8. 5-Bradon Miller, [17]; 9. 35-John Halvorson, [7]; 10. 30-Seth Klostreich, [10]; 11. 539-Aaron Blacklance, [24]; 12. 29-Dan McNamee, [13]; 13. 03-Bryce Reimer, [9]; 14. 7-James Meagher, [15]; 15. 21J-Brian Johanson, [14]; 16. 91-Shane Swenson, [19]; 17. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [12]; 18. 18B-Adam Burrows, [18]; 19. 99-Josh Barker, [16]; 20. 74-Steve Nordhagen, [21]; 21. 92-Megan McNamee, [20]; 22. (DNF) 18-Scotty Messner, [4]; 23. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose, [22]; (DNS) 10-Thomas Neihart, ; (DQ) 17-Adam Rassier, [25]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson, [3]; 2. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [2]; 3. 03-Bryce Reimer, [1]; 4. 29-Dan McNamee, [5]; 5. 5-Bradon Miller, [6]; 6. 92-Megan McNamee, [4]; 7. 74-Steve Nordhagen, [7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8T-Doug VanMill, [1]; 2. 2U-Kasey Ussatis, [3]; 3. 30-Seth Klostreich, [4]; 4. 21J-Brian Johanson, [5]; 5. 18B-Adam Burrows, [2]; 6. (DNF) 10-Thomas Neihart, [6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Ryan Johnson, [2]; 2. 33-Daniel Aberle, [6]; 3. 4-Trey Hess, [3]; 4. 7-James Meagher, [5]; 5. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose, [1]; 6. (DNF) 539-Aaron Blacklance, [4]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Scotty Messner, [2]; 2. 48-Chase Boen, [5]; 3. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [6]; 4. 99-Josh Barker, [4]; 5. 91-Shane Swenson, [3]; (DQ) 17-Adam Rassier, [1]