Dobmeier Claims $8,200 Blazin’ Challenge, Imrie Victorious in the Modifieds

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 7, 2018) – Night one of the 2018 John Seitz Memorial kicked off Friday night at River Cities Speedway with heat races and the Go Hard or Go Home Pole Dash for the Late Models, a complete show for the Modifieds, the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin’ Challenge for the NOSA Sprints and heat races for the Midwest Mods and Street Stocks.

Dustin Strand made a last lap pass for the lead on Scott Ward in the dash to earn the pole position for Saturday’s 92-lap, $9,200-to-win John Seitz Memorial Late Model A-main.

A lot of money was up for grabs for the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints with the fourth running of the back row Blazin’ Challenge. Jade Hastings and Mark Dobmeier finished first and second, respectively, in the dash for the opportunity to start in the 10th and final row for $8,200 to win.

Bob Martin and Ty Hanten brought the field to the green flag with Martin leading the opening lap. The race was quickly red flagged on lap two for Ty Hanten, who biked up on the choppy cushion and flipped off the turn two banking. Hanten made heavy contact with the outside water barrels and catch fence, but was okay.

Row nine starter, Thomas Kennedy, sliced through the field in the opening laps and held the fourth position by lap two. Two laps later, Kennedy was battling with Austin Pierce for second when Pierce caught a rut and slid off the track.

On the restart, Kennedy lined up in second but was called for jumping the start which put him back two rows. That put Martin and Skylar Prochaska, who was making his River Cities Speedway debut, on the front row. Kennedy drove from sixth to regain the lead on lap 13 and brought fellow Blazin’ Challenge qualifier, Mark Dobmeier, with him into second. Jade Hastings also found his way to the front and moved into third on lap 15 of 30.

With nine to go, Kennedy and Dobmeier made contact while racing for the lead. The two drivers got tied up, as Dobmeier drove over the left front of Kennedy, kept his car fired and drove away from the incident to inherit the lead for the ensuing restart. The incident brought Kennedy’s night to an end.

A pair of quick cautions gave Hastings a shot at Dobmeier, but the all-time River Cities Speedway wins leader was too strong. Dobmeier cruised to his second consecutive $8,200 Blazin’ Challenge win.

As Dobmeier climbed from his car in RydellCars.com Victory Lane, a shower of boos and cheers from the crowd rained down as some felt Dobmeier ran up into Kennedy.

“This feels great. I knew it was going to be tough considering how sticky the track was,” said Dobmeier. “It got a little dicey there with Thomas. I don’t know if he was falling out of his seat or losing his head. I took the inside and he almost spun it sideways and came down. It definitely wasn’t an intentional move. I apologize if he’s upset, but at the end of the day we were both racing hard.”

Ward Imrie led all 20 laps in the Popeyes Chicken WISSOTA Modified feature. Imrie started on the pole and took the lead on lap one before he had his hands full with Matt Gilbertson on lap three. Imrie was able to fend off the charge from the Montevideo, Minn. driver and held the lead. Imrie ran a smooth line a car-width off the bottom the entire race and cruised to the feature win over Dustin Strand and Gilbertson.

Austin Hunter picked up the Happy Harry’s WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature win. The race was the AFCO Race of Champions qualifier that was rained out on August 31st. Hunter led every lap, but Hunter Hougard was within striking distance all race long. At the checkers, the top five was comprised of Hunter, Hougard, Nate Reynolds, Todd Johnson and Jory Berg.

The initial start of the Performance Auto WISSOTA Late Model make-up feature got off to a rocky start. Mike Balcaen was spun in turn four as five other cars were collected. Brad Seng, who was in AJ Diemel’s backup car after destroying his primary car last weekend at Viking Speedway, spun to another spinning car and was hit in the driver side door and flipped over. Seng landed on his wheels and was okay. When the race resumed, Dave Smith led the opening lap over Steve Anderson.

Smith pushed in turn one on lap four, which gave the lead to sophomore Late Model driver, Brody Troftgruben. Ricky Weiss was all over Troftgruben, but Troftgruben held off Weiss for eight laps until he had to brake for lapped traffic. Weiss drove around the outside to take the point. Once out front, he never looked back.

SUMMARY
WISSOTA Modifieds:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 10W-Ward Imrie, [1]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand, [7]; 3. 23-Matt Gilbertson, [4]; 4. 1R-Rick Delaine, [3]; 5. 51-Alex Guthmiller, [10]; 6. 5M-Tyler McDonald, [22]; 7. 5G-Scott Greer, [5]; 8. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [8]; 9. 88XXX-Randy Klein, [12]; 10. 74-Dustin Wahl, [19]; 11. 57H-Blake Higginbotham, [17]; 12. 24S-Mike Stearns, [21]; 13. (DNF) 27-Chris Unrau, [2]; 14. (DNF) 99-Jake Wildman, [23]; 15. (DNF) 48-Jerome Guyot, [13]; 16. (DNF) 92-Justin Bronk, [15]; 17. (DNF) 71S-Brian Strand, [6]; 18. (DNF) 37JR-Morgan Ward, [14]; 19. (DNF) 22-Davey Mills, [20]; 20. (DNF) 88-Chad Dyrdahl, [9]; 21. (DNF) 2-Aaron Holtan, [18]; 22. (DNF) 7-Dale Kraling, [11]; 23. (DNF) 6X-Zach Johnson, [16]; (DNS) 99S-Brody Strachan,
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 74-Dustin Wahl, [3]; 2. 22-Davey Mills, [4]; 3. 24S-Mike Stearns, [5]; 4. 5M-Tyler McDonald, [12]; 5. 99-Jake Wildman, [2]; 6. 99S-Brody Strachan, [7]; 7. 2S-Matt Schow, [10]; 8. 57-Michael Tiani, [8]; 9. 31-Eric Klassen, [6]; 10. (DNF) 39-Shawn Teunis, [13]; 11. (DNF) 81-Jordan Duray, [11]; 12. (DNF) 8-Al Giesbrecht, [9]; (DQ) 17-Lance Schill, [1]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [1]; 2. 71S-Brian Strand, [2]; 3. 10W-Ward Imrie, [3]; 4. 51-Alex Guthmiller, [4]; 5. 48-Jerome Guyot, [7]; 6. 6X-Zach Johnson, [5]; 7. 17-Lance Schill, [8]; 8. 74-Dustin Wahl, [6]; 9. 24S-Mike Stearns, [9]; 10. 99S-Brody Strachan, [11]; 11. (DNF) 39-Shawn Teunis, [10]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 23-Matt Gilbertson, [1]; 2. 1R-Rick Delaine, [2]; 3. 88-Chad Dyrdahl, [4]; 4. 7-Dale Kraling, [3]; 5. 37JR-Morgan Ward, [6]; 6. 57H-Blake Higginbotham, [7]; 7. 99-Jake Wildman, [5]; 8. 22-Davey Mills, [9]; 9. 31-Eric Klassen, [10]; 10. 57-Michael Tiani, [8]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Chris Unrau, [2]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand, [4]; 3. 5G-Scott Greer, [10]; 4. 88XXX-Randy Klein, [8]; 5. 92-Justin Bronk, [1]; 6. 2-Aaron Holtan, [9]; 7. (DNF) 8-Al Giesbrecht, [5]; 8. (DNF) 2S-Matt Schow, [7]; 9. (DNF) 81-Jordan Duray, [6]; 10. (DNF) 5M-Tyler McDonald, [3]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 44-Austin Hunter, [6]; 2. 188-Hunter Hougard, [1]; 3. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [11]; 4. 21-Todd Johnson, [14]; 5. B4-Jory Berg, [2]; 6. 74-Gary James Nelson, [15]; 7. 96-Jeremy Lizakowski, [13]; 8. 33A-Austin Overwater, [17]; 9. 77B-Logan Bauer, [22]; 10. (DNF) 8-Jason Schuh, [18]; 11. (DNF) 57-Nathan Raasakka, [10]; 12. (DNF) 2G-Brock Gronwold, [9]; 13. (DNF) 1S-Scott Bintz, [5]; 14. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler, [16]; 15. (DNF) 5-Aaron Blacklance, [3]; 16. (DNF) 17S-Lance Schill, [7]; 17. (DNF) 2S-Matt Schow, [8]; 18. (DNF) 87S-Reise Stenberg, [21]; 19. (DNF) 68-Joe Henninger, [19]; (DNS) 01-Zach Bruer, ; (DNS) 54-David Hultstrand, ; (DNS) 2R-Jeff Reed

NOSA Sprints:
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 13-Mark Dobmeier, [19]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, [6]; 3. 31-Shane Roemeling, [4]; 4. 8H-Jade Hastings, [20]; 5. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [2]; 6. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [17]; 7. 35P-Skylar, Prochaska, [10]; 8. 20A-Jordan Adams, [3]; 9. 14-Tom Egeland, [9]; 10. 26-Blake Egeland, [5]; 11. 99-Jordan Graham, [12]; 12. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [11]; 13. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [13]; 14. (DNF) 8C-Jack Croaker, [14]; 15. (DNF) 0-Nick Omdahl, [16]; 16. (DNF) 22-Tanner Wisk, [7]; 17. (DNF) 35-Brenden Wilde, [15]; 18. (DNF) 4M-Cale Mack, [8]; 19. (DNF) 13T-Ty Hanten, [1]; (DQ) 21K-Thomas Kennedy, [18]
Dash 1 (8 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings, [1]; 2. 13-Mark Dobmeier, [3]; 3. 21K-Thomas Kennedy, [8]; 4. 13T-Ty Hanten, [2]; 5. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [4]; 6. 0-Nick Omdahl, [5]; 7. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [7]; 8. 20A-Jordan Adams, [6]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Shane Roemeling, [2]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, [4]; 3. 4M-Cale Mack, [5]; 4. 35P-Skylar, Prochaska, [6]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham, [3]; 6. 8C-Jack Croaker, [1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Blake Egeland, [4]; 2. 22-Tanner Wisk, [2]; 3. 14-Tom Egeland, [3]; 4. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [6]; 5. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [1]; 6. 35-Brenden Wilde, [5]