Matt Gilbertson Secures Schill Construction Modified Feature Win

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 8, 2017) – Matt Gilbertson picked up his second career Seitz Memorial WISSOTA Modified win, presented by Schill Construction. Gilbertson led 25 of the 26-lap feature, which honored the late Bobby Gierke. ​

Gilbertson started on the pole of the A-main and jumped out to the early lead over Zach Johnson and Cody Skytland. Johnny Broking was the beneficiary of the lap four restart, which helped him propel from fourth to holding the lead momentarily. Gilbertson leaned on the thick cushion to regain the point, but he and Broking became deadlocked in a great battle for the lead.

Gilbertson held a slight advantage for several laps until Broking found his groove right around the bottom side of the speedway. Broking cleared Gilbertson for the lead with 13 down, but Gilbertson came storming back on the following lap to take command once again.

A late race restart gave Broking once more chance, but as the race resumed he had his hands full with AJ Diemel, who was wheeling Lance Schill’s No. 17. Diemel was able to get by Broking with three to go, but by then Gilbertson had checked out.

Gilbertson, Diemel, Broking, Johnson, and Blake Jegtvig rounded out the top five.

​​RESULTS:
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 23-Matt Gilbertson, [1]; 2. 17-AJ Diemel, [8]; 3. 45J-Johnny Broking, [7]; 4. 6X-Zach Johnson, [3]; 5. 2J-Blake Jegtvig, [14]; 6. 5G-Scott Greer, [10]; 7. 51-Alex Guthmiller, [5]; 8. 10W-Ward Imrie, [20]; 9. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [22]; 10. 7K-Dale Kraling, [16]; 11. 99B-Bryce Borgen, [23]; 12. 1S-Joey Rowell, [13]; 13. 85-Jayson Good, [6]; 14. 2-Aaron Holtan, [24]; 15. 52-Jason Thoennes, [11]; 16. 8T-Doug VanMill, [19]; 17. (DNF) 4N-Nolan Olmstead, [2]; 18. (DNF) 71-Dustin Strand, [12]; 19. (DNF) 75-Cody Skytland, [4]; 20. (DNF) 22-Rick Hamel, [17]; 21. (DNF) 74-Dustin Wahl, [15]; 22. (DNF) 1R-Rick Delaine, [18]; 23. (DNF) 24S-Mike Stearns, [9]; 24. (DNF) 45-Bob Broking, [21]

B Feature 1: 1. 45-Bob Broking, [1]; 2. 99B-Bryce Borgen, [3]; 3. 73P-Rene Poluyko, [2]; 4. 81-Jordan Duray, [4]; 5. 84-Michael Johnson, [6]; 6. 99-Jake Wildman, [5]; 7. 48-Jerome Guyot, [8]; 8. 27-Chris Unrau, [9]; 9. 57H-Blake Higginbotham, [7]
B Feature 2: 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [1]; 2. 2-Aaron Holtan, [5]; 3. 77R-Ryan Schroeder, [7]; 4. 29K-Ryan Kereluk, [8]; 5. 92-Justin Bronk, [2]; 6. 39-Shawn Teunis, [3]; 7. 1-Ryan Engels, [4]; 8. 57-Michael Tiani, [6]; 9. 7-Jason Urdahl, [9]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 45J-Johnny Broking, [1]; 2. 6X-Zach Johnson, [3]; 3. 24S-Mike Stearns, [6]; 4. 1S-Joey Rowell, [8]; 5. 22-Rick Hamel, [9]; 6. 45-Bob Broking, [10]; 7. (DNF) 48-Jerome Guyot, [4]; 8. (DNF) 29K-Ryan Kereluk, [5]; 9. (DNF) 27-Chris Unrau, [7]; 10. (DNF) 7-Jason Urdahl, [2]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 75-Cody Skytland, [2]; 2. 51-Alex Guthmiller, [1]; 3. 5G-Scott Greer, [3]; 4. 2J-Blake Jegtvig, [8]; 5. 1R-Rick Delaine, [9]; 6. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [6]; 7. 99B-Bryce Borgen, [5]; 8. 1-Ryan Engels, [7]; 9. 84-Michael Johnson, [10]; 10. 57H-Blake Higginbotham, [4]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 85-Jayson Good, [1]; 2. 4N-Nolan Olmstead, [4]; 3. 52-Jason Thoennes, [5]; 4. 74-Dustin Wahl, [8]; 5. 8T-Doug VanMill, [2]; 6. 73P-Rene Poluyko, [7]; 7. 39-Shawn Teunis, [6]; 8. 99-Jake Wildman, [9]; 9. 57-Michael Tiani, [3]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 17-AJ Diemel, [2]; 2. 23-Matt Gilbertson, [3]; 3. 71-Dustin Strand, [6]; 4. 7K-Dale Kraling, [9]; 5. 10W-Ward Imrie, [7]; 6. 92-Justin Bronk, [4]; 7. 81-Jordan Duray, [5]; 8. 2-Aaron Holtan, [1]; 9. (DNF) 77R-Ryan Schroeder, [8]