Dobmeier, Pederson, Hunter & Blacklance tame the Bullring

Mark Dobmeier - NOSA Sprints

Aaron Blacklance - Street Stocks

Joey Pederson - Late Models

Austin Hunter - Midwest Mods

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (May 25, 2018) – Travis Robertson seemed poised to collect his first career Performance Auto WISSOTA Late Model feature win Friday night. The sophomore Late Model driver took the lead on the opening lap. Heading into turn one, Shane Edginton’s machine biked up as he had the left side tires about three feet in the air. Luckily, Edginton was able to bring his machine back down on all four and continue on, but he lost several spots in the process. 

Meanwhile, Robertson extended his lead to eight car lengths over Brad Seng. Robertson encountered a pair of lapped cars, who were racing side by side. Robertson dove to the inside of one car, but made heavy contact with him. The two cars pushed up the track on the front stretch before making heavy contact with the wall.

The lapped car was called for the caution, which allowed Robertson to rejoin the field in the lead. On the restart, however, Robertson’s machine wasn’t the same as it appeared to have suffered damage to the steering.

After another restart, Brad Seng inherited the lead with Joey Pederson right behind him. The two veteran drivers then engaged an a thrilling battle for the lead. Seng held the point at the halfway point, but Pederson remained patient running the low side of the speedway.

Seng’s machine kept pushing high out of turn four, which allowed Pederson to grab the point. Once out front, Pederson was able to distance himself from Seng and cruise to the win.

A slim but stout field of Happy Harry’s WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds were checked in. Just nine drivers made up the field as the Minnesota Modified Nationals attracted many of the River Cities Speedway regulars.

Defending track champion, Austin Hunter jumped out to the early lead from his front row starting position and quickly checked out from the field. Fellow front row starter, Dean Eggebraaten ran in the second position, but he was a distant straightaway behind Hunter in the closing stages.

Hunter cruised to the win in the caution-free race. Eggebraaten, Todd Johnson, Lance Schill and Matt Schow rounded out the top five.

Nick Minske and Jeremy Castro led a full field of 25 Wells Concrete Street Stocks to the green flag. Castro took the lead on the opening lap as Blacklance charged from fourth to second. Blacklance quickly put pressure on Castro for the lead on lap two before powering around the outside of Castro for the lead on lap three.

Sixth place starter, Kasey Ussatis followed Blacklance into second on lap four. Adam Burrows moved into second on a restart around the halfway point. Burrows set sail to try to chase down Blacklance, but he didn’t quite have enough.

Blacklance ran comfortably out front as he took the win by five car lengths. Burrows, Ussatis, Trey Hess, and Eric Riley, who started 22nd, rounded out the top five.

The Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints were 21 cars strong for their main event. It looked as though Chris Ranten was going to run away with the 25 lap feature early on.

Ranten took the lead on the opening lap over Jade Hastings. Mark Dobmeier drove from sixth to second on lap one, but he was relegated back to third as Hastings reclaimed the runner-up position. Ranten raced his way to a full straightaway lead over Hastings as he sliced his way through lapped traffic. Hastings managed to keep Dobmeier at bay as well through the first half of the race.

The only thing that could slow Ranten was the caution flag. A restart just after halfway was all Dobmeier needed to charge from third to the lead. Ranten remained within striking distance for several laps, but Dobmeier eventually became untouchable as he stretched out his lead.

Dobmeier took the win over Austin Pierce, Ranten, Wade Nygaard and Jordan Adams.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7P-Joey Pederson, [7]; 2. 12S-Brad Seng, [4]; 3. 4-Shane Edginton, [1]; 4. 4C-Ryan Corbett, [5]; 5. 10-Mike Balcaen, [6]; 6. T1-Tom Corcoran, [12]; 7. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [9]; 8. 345-Bryce Reimer, [11]; 9. (DNF) 11-Troy Schill, [3]; 10. (DNF) 14-Brody Troftgruben, [10]; 11. (DNF) 71-Dustin Strand, [8]; 12. (DNF) 1R-Travis Robertson, [2]; 13. (DNF) 48-Larry Niemi, [14]; (DNS) F9-Brandon Fuller, ; (DNS) 2-Bill Mooney,

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4C-Ryan Corbett, 06:42.992[2]; 2. 10-Mike Balcaen, 06:44.101[7]; 3. 7P-Joey Pederson, 06:44.892[5]; 4. 4-Shane Edginton, 06:48.329[6]; 5. 1M-Nicholas Minske, 06:51.576[8]; 6. 345-Bryce Reimer, 00:17.866[3]; 7. 2-Bill Mooney, 07:31.526[4]; 8. (DNF) F9-Brandon Fuller, 00:17.866[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, [4]; 2. 12S-Brad Seng, [1]; 3. 11-Troy Schill, [6]; 4. 1R-Travis Robertson, [5]; 5. 14-Brody Troftgruben, [3]; 6. T1-Tom Corcoran, [2]; 7. 48-Larry Niemi, [7]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 44-Austin Hunter, [2]; 2. 6-Dean Eggebraaten, [1]; 3. 21-Todd Johnson, [4]; 4. 17S-Lance Schill, [5]; 5. 2S-Matt Schow, [3]; 6. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [6]; 7. B0-Jory Berg, [7]; 8. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [8]; 9. 57-Nathan Raasakka, [9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Todd Johnson, 02:03.654[4]; 2. 44-Austin Hunter, 02:05.021[2]; 3. 6-Dean Eggebraaten, 02:05.713[3]; 4. 2S-Matt Schow, 02:05.983[8]; 5. 17S-Lance Schill, 02:07.257[6]; 6. 39-Jamie Dietzler, 02:07.954[9]; 7. B0-Jory Berg, 02:08.833[7]; 8. 87S-Reise Stenberg, 02:10.768[1]; 9. 57-Nathan Raasakka, 02:12.863[5]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 5C-Aaron Blacklance, [4]; 2. 18B-Adam Burrows, [8]; 3. 2U-Kasey Ussatis, [6]; 4. 4-Trey Hess, [11]; 5. 51-Eric Riley, [22]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [1]; 7. 5-Miller Bradon, [12]; 8. 7-James Meagher, [5]; 9. 35-John Halvorson, [3]; 10. 48-Chase Boen, [21]; 11. 03-Bryce Reimer, [16]; 12. 29-Dan McNamee, [13]; 13. 33-Daniel Aberle, [9]; 14. 3-Steven Richards, [7]; 15. 17-Casey Vargason, [19]; 16. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [17]; 17. 14C-Jeremy Castro, [2]; 18. 9A-Blake Anderson, [23]; 19. 92-Megan McNamee, [18]; 20. 28-Greg Jose, [10]; 21. 99-Josh Barker, [20]; 22. 7B-David Barker, [24]; 23. (DNF) 11-Kyle Dykhoff, [14]; 24. (DNF) 9-Jason Rethemeier, [15]; 25. (DNF) 25-Ryan Johnson, [25]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5C-Aaron Blacklance, 02:10.889[2]; 2. 35-John Halvorson, 02:14.413[6]; 3. 2U-Kasey Ussatis, 02:15.506[3]; 4. 28-Greg Jose, 02:15.753[1]; 5. 29-Dan McNamee, 02:17.691[5]; 6. 03-Bryce Reimer, 02:17.762[4]; 7. 17-Casey Vargason, 02:18.758[8]; 8. 48-Chase Boen, 02:18.827[9]; 9. 9A-Blake Anderson, 02:16.986[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Daniel Aberle, [3]; 2. 3-Steven Richards, [4]; 3. 18B-Adam Burrows, [1]; 4. 4-Trey Hess, [5]; 5. 11-Kyle Dykhoff, [8]; 6. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [7]; 7. 99-Josh Barker, [2]; 8. 51-Eric Riley, [6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7-James Meagher, 04:46.062[5]; 2. 1M-Nicholas Minske, 04:48.737[2]; 3. 14C-Jeremy Castro, 04:49.080[7]; 4. 5-Miller Bradon, 04:51.503[6]; 5. 9-Jason Rethemeier, 01:05.524[1]; 6. 92-Megan McNamee, 05:02.641[8]; 7. (DNF) 7B-David Barker, 01:05.524[3]; 8. (DNF) 25-Ryan Johnson, 01:05.524[4]

Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints:
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 13-Mark Dobmeier, [6]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, [4]; 3. 27-Chris Ranten, [2]; 4. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [5]; 5. 20A-Jordan Adams, [3]; 6. 0-Nick Omdahl, [7]; 7. 8H-Jade Hastings, [1]; 8. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [10]; 9. 13T-Ty Hanten, [9]; 10. 31-Shane Roemeling, [19]; 11. 22-Tanner Wisk, [11]; 12. 14-Tom Egeland, [21]; 13. 55-Nick Ranten, [14]; 14. 26-Blake Egeland, [8]; 15. 4M-Cale Mack, [12]; 16. 8C-Jack Croaker, [15]; 17. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [16]; 18. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [18]; 19. 99-Jordan Graham, [13]; 20. 14H-Bill Holler, [17]; 21. (DNF) 24-Jon Sorenson, [20]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 20A-Jordan Adams, [2]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [7]; 3. 26-Blake Egeland, [4]; 4. 22-Tanner Wisk, [5]; 5. (DNF) 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [1]; 6. (DNF) 24-Jon Sorenson, [6]; 7. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland, [3]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Chris Ranten, 02:07.240[2]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, 02:10.110[5]; 3. 13T-Ty Hanten, 02:14.408[4]; 4. 8H-Jade Hastings, 02:15.020[7]; 5. 8C-Jack Croaker, 02:21.323[3]; 6. 12-Brayden Pengilly, 02:17.776[1]; 7. (DNF) 31-Shane Roemeling, 01:38.958[6]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 13-Mark Dobmeier, 02:14.161[6]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl, 02:14.581[1]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin, 02:18.509[2]; 4. 4M-Cale Mack, 02:22.134[5]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham, 02:25.941[4]; 6. 55-Nick Ranten, 02:26.790[7]; 7. 14H-Bill Holler, 02:23.496[3]