Hastings collects the bounty; Four first-time winners visit RydellCars.com Victory Lane

Jade Hastings - NOSA Sprints winner. Photos by Mike Spieker (SpeedwayShots.com).

By Mike Spieker
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 18, 2020) - A lot was up for grabs during Friday night’s season finale at River Cities Speedway as the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Car and River Cities Speedway Sprint Car titles were on the line, as well as a hefty bounty if a Sprint Car driver could beat Austin Pierce. 

A total of 90 race teams were checked in as River Cities Speedway hosted, in addition to the NOSA Sprints, the Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints, Lucas Oil POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA SportMods and IMCA Hobby Stocks.

The season finale for the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints was led to the green by Blake Egeland and 10-time series champion, Wade Nygaard. Nygaard took the point on the opening lap before the yellow was displayed. Zach Omdahl got loose in turn two as Zach Wilde made heavy contact with his front end. Tom Egeland was also involved. All drivers were okay and all unfortunately were done for the night. 

As the race resumed, Nygaard continued to lead but NOSA point leader Jade Hastings took the point on lap three. 

At the halfway point, eighth-place starter Brendan Mullen moved around his teammate Wade Nygaard for second and set his sights on Hastings. Hastings had built up well over a straightaway advantage, but Mullen seemed to be quicker in open track and began to reel him in. Mullen cut Hastings' lead in half as the white flag flew but ran out of time as Hastings collected his sixth win of the season and fourth at the Bullring. 

Austin Pierce, who finished third, came into the night on a three-race win streak. That meant River Cities Speedway put up a $300 bounty on the two-time NOSA champion. Thanks to the contributions by various sponsors and fans the bounty escalated to $1,520 by the time the green flag flew for the NOSA feature. For the second time this season, Hastings collected the bounty. 

By starting the night’s races, Hastings was named the 2020 NOSA Sprint Car series champion. Pierce was crowned as River Cities Speedway track champion. ​

Rob Caho Jr. led in the early going of the Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprint Car feature over Ross Cummings. Caho Jr., who has tallied two career victories at the Bullring since August of 2019, looked to be the class of the field again on Friday night. 

With six to go in the 20-lap feature, ninth-place starter Brandon Palm snuck right around the outside of Caho Jr.

Caho Jr. changed his lane in an attempt to regain the lead, but Palm had already set sail. 

Palm opened up a 12 car length lead over Caley Emerson as he cruised to his first career win at River Cities. ​

Travis Robertson - IMCA Stock Car winner

A familiar face returned to RydellCars.com Victory Lane in the IMCA Stock Cars. Travis Robertson dominated the 20-lap main event to score his 18th career victory at the Bullring. Robertson started on the pole and out-raced fellow front row starter Mike Anderson on the opening lap. 

Robertson steadily distanced himself from the rest of the field as he cruised to the win. Behind him, Tyler McDougall finished in second over Stock Car rookie Keaten Froemke.

The Lucas Oil POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints took the green flag with Patrick Brejcha and Dexter Dvergsten leading the 15-car field to green. With just two races remaining on the Minn-Kota schedule, point leader Dvergsten was looking for a good run to solidify the second career points championship. Dvergsten did just that. 

The Greenbush, Minn. driver took the lead on the opening lap before checking out from the rest of the field. Things got interesting late in the going, however, as 2018 NLSA series champion, Kelsi Pederson, reeled in Dvergsten. 

Dvergsten negotiated the lapped traffic to perfection in the final laps to hang on to the lead and collect his seventh win of the season. ​

On June 5th, Brodee Eckerdt, son of River Cities Speedway legend Bob Eckerdt, became the youngest winner in the 50-year history of Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo by winning at age 14. On August 28th, he became the youngest champion in speedway history as he was crowned the IMCA Hobby Stock track champ. 

Eckerdt had high expectations as he made his return to his hometown track on Friday night. Eckerdt wasted no time moving to the front from his outside row two starting position as he took the lead off turn four on the opening lap. 

Eckerdt was unchallenged throughout the 15-lap feature as he cruised to his first career feature win at River Cities. ​

Isaac Sondrol - IMCA SportMod winner

All 17 IMCA SportMods made the call for their 15-lap main event. The green flag was quickly replaced by the yellow on the opening circuit as Vince Jegtvig made heavy contact with fellow front row starter Kelly Jacobson on turn one. The contact spun Jacobson around, collecting Red River Valley Speedway track champion, Rich Pavlicek, and Isaac Sondrol. Jacobson was forced to the pits due to extensive damage, but Pavlicek and Sondrol were able to continue. 

On the restart, Paul Colvin took command, but had heavy pressure from Sondrol. Sondrol took the point from Colvin on lap six, but lapped traffic allowed Colvin to regain the point on lap nine. 

Colvin looked to have the race in hand as he was hooked up on the highside of the speedway, but in the closing laps Sondrol found some speed on the bottom. Sondrol took the lead coming to the white flag and held off a hard-charging Andy Wagner and Colvin to pick up the win. 

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

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Blake Egeland[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 3. 8H-Jade Hastings[5]; 4. 0-Nick Omdahl[6]; 5. 17-Zach Omdahl[4]; 6. 6-Zach Wilde[7]; 7. 4-Colton Young[2]; 8. 2-Tee Young[8]; 9. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Jordan Graham[2]; 2. 11M-Brendan Mullen[3]; 3. 31-Shane Roemeling[5]; 4. 2A-Austin Pierce[4]; 5. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[9]; 6. 14-Tom Egeland[1]; 7. 20A-Jordan Adams[6]; 8. 10S-Josh Swangler[7]; 9. 41-Travis Strandell[8]

Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 11-Dexter Dvergsten[2]; 2. 93-Kelsi Pederson[3]; 3. 13-Alan Truscinski[5]; 4. 51-Cody Swenson[7]; 5. 19S-Travis Surerus[13]; 6. 10T-Alex Truscinski[10]; 7. 60X-Patrick Brejcha[1]; 8. 100-Jason Berg[9]; 9. 22-Bryce Haugeberg[4]; 10. 5G-Garrison Miller[6]; 11. 16C-Corey Olson[11]; 12. 19-Wesley Van Drunen[8]; 13. 72-Kate Taves[14]; 14. 16E-Paul Ericson[12]; 15. 10H-Evan Hendrickson[15]; 16. (DNS) 10-Danny Hazemann

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Dexter Dvergsten[2]; 2. 22-Bryce Haugeberg[1]; 3. 51-Cody Swenson[4]; 4. 10T-Alex Truscinski[3]; 5. 19S-Travis Surerus[5]; 6. 72-Kate Taves[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 13-Alan Truscinski[4]; 2. 100-Jason Berg[1]; 3. 93-Kelsi Pederson[3]; 4. 16C-Corey Olson[5]; 5. 10H-Evan Hendrickson[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 60X-Patrick Brejcha[4]; 2. 19-Wesley Van Drunen[1]; 3. 5G-Garrison Miller[5]; 4. 16E-Paul Ericson[2]; 5. (DNS) 10-Danny Hazemann

IMCA Stock Cars
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 10R-Travis Robertson[1]; 2. 1-Tyler McDougall[3]; 3. 88K-Keaten Froemke[5]; 4. 14-Aaron Olson[7]; 5. 38-Todd Heinrich[6]; 6. 52-Brennan Borg[8]; 7. 4-Rick Schulz[9]; 8. 76Z-John Sandvig[10]; 9. 17-Chad Hunteman[13]; 10. 85K-Ernest Geist[12]; 11. (DNF) 8-Billy Michaelsohn[11]; 12. (DNF) 11-Kalvin Kesselberg[4]; 13. (DNF) 18-Mike Anderson[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Brennan Borg[1]; 2. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg[4]; 3. 10R-Travis Robertson[5]; 4. 88K-Keaten Froemke[7]; 5. 4-Rick Schulz[6]; 6. 8-Billy Michaelsohn[3]; 7. 17-Chad Hunteman[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14-Aaron Olson[1]; 2. 18-Mike Anderson[5]; 3. 38-Todd Heinrich[3]; 4. 1-Tyler McDougall[6]; 5. 76Z-John Sandvig[2]; 6. 85K-Ernest Geist[4]

IMCA Hobby StocksA Feature (20 Laps): 1. B2-Brodee Eckerdt[4]; 2. B1-Marvin Priem[5]; 3. 39-Caleb Gardner[1]; 4. 3XL-Brad Orvedal[3]; 5. 73-Todd Gettel[2]; 6. 9-Skyla Miller[7]; 7. 15-Andrea Jacobson[6]; 8. (DNS) 99H-Brandon Beeter

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. B2-Brodee Eckerdt[5]; 2. 3XL-Brad Orvedal[2]; 3. B1-Marvin Priem[7]; 4. 39-Caleb Gardner[8]; 5. 73-Todd Gettel[1]; 6. 15-Andrea Jacobson[3]; 7. 9-Skyla Miller[4]; 8. (DNF) 99H-Brandon Beeter[6]

Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Palm[9]; 2. 15E-Caley Emerson[5]; 3. 78-Rob Caho Jr[2]; 4. 16-Ross Cummings[1]; 5. 2-Teal Arnason[11]; 6. 52-Adam Sobolik[4]; 7. 15T-Myles Tomlinson[18]; 8. 36-Tyler Wass[8]; 9. 126-Joel Larson[3]; 10. 04-Brian Trembath[13]; 11. 4-Joshua Johnson[17]; 12. 250-Brad Larsen[10]; 13. 91-Dave Braford[15]; 14. 16K-Matt Knudson[7]; 15. 69-Tom Cummings[12]; 16. (DNF) 6-Brody Hutton[16]; 17. (DNF) 56-Josh Braford[14]; 18. (DNF) 46H-Ken Hron[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 46H-Ken Hron[4]; 2. 126-Joel Larson[3]; 3. 15E-Caley Emerson[9]; 4. 16K-Matt Knudson[1]; 5. 22-Brandon Palm[8]; 6. 2-Teal Arnason[5]; 7. 04-Brian Trembath[6]; 8. 91-Dave Braford[2]; 9. (DNS) 15T-Myles Tomlinson

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 78-Rob Caho Jr[5]; 2. 52-Adam Sobolik[2]; 3. 16-Ross Cummings[4]; 4. 36-Tyler Wass[6]; 5. 250-Brad Larsen[9]; 6. 69-Tom Cummings[8]; 7. 56-Josh Braford[7]; 8. (DNF) 6-Brody Hutton[1]; 9. (DNF) 4-Joshua Johnson[3]

IMCA Northern SportMods
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 12S-Isaac Sondol[3]; 2. 3X-Andy Wagner[6]; 3. 13C-Paul Colvin[4]; 4. 48-Brock Beeter[8]; 5. 5T-Matt Talley[11]; 6. 15-Matthew Clark[10]; 7. 17-Rich Pavliceck[5]; 8. 5-Scott Jacobson[7]; 9. 9-Torey Fischer[13]; 10. 40-Chris VanMil[9]; 11. 12T-Brandon Tendeland[15]; 12. 66-Kevin Veralrud[16]; 13. 5F-Brandon Ferris[14]; 14. 22J-Vince Jegtvig[2]; 15. (DNF) 22-Landon Maatz[17]; 16. (DNF) 49-Erik Laudenschlager[12]; 17. (DNF) 51-Kelly Jacobson[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Scott Jacobson[1]; 2. 13C-Paul Colvin[3]; 3. 3X-Andy Wagner[4]; 4. 22J-Vince Jegtvig[2]; 5. 40-Chris VanMil[7]; 6. 5T-Matt Talley[8]; 7. 9-Torey Fischer[9]; 8. 12T-Brandon Tendeland[5]; 9. (DNF) 22-Landon Maatz[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Rich Pavliceck[2]; 2. 51-Kelly Jacobson[7]; 3. 48-Brock Beeter[5]; 4. 12S-Isaac Sondol[6]; 5. 15-Matthew Clark[1]; 6. 49-Erik Laudenschlager[8]; 7. 5F-Brandon Ferris[4]; 8. 66-Kevin Veralrud[3]