Pierce Claims First Win of 2019; Strand Completes Three-Peat

Austin Pierce - NOSA Sprints

Dustin Strand - Late Models

Lance Schill - Midwest Mods

John Halvorson - Street Stocks

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (July 5, 2019) – In what was a wild Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Car feature, Austin Pierce emerged as the victor after 25 trips around the high-banked three-tenths mile oval. Pierces started on the outside of the front row and grabbed the lead on the opening lap. 

After pulling out to a big lead early, Pierce nearly lost it all when he almost spun on his own in turn one. The defending River Cities Speedway co-champion was able to reel his No. 2A machine back in, however, and get back up to speed in the lead. 

Pierce led every lap en route to his first win of the season. 

“I started driving pretty hard,” said Pierce after the race. “My front end all of a sudden turned and pulled me into the wall. I drove up it and came back down and just about spun it out. I thought I was a goner but somehow the car just grabbed and I was able to drive it out of there.”

“Since we won our first one here in 2014, we’ve won one every year,” said Pierce. “Last year, we waited until the last night (of the season) to win. It feels better to get in July than in September.”

The race was red flagged around the midpoint after a steering component broke on the No. 31 of Shane Roemeling, which sent him hard into the outside retaining wall and catch fence in turn four. Roemeling came to an abrupt stop in what was a vicious incident, but he climbed from his mangled machine uninjured. 

Nick Omdahl, Chris Ranten, Jade Hastings and Jordan Adams rounded out the top five. 

For the third week in a row, Dustin Strand topped a stout field of Performance Auto NLRA Late Models. Like Pierce, Strand led the opening lap from the outside of the front row as Shane Edginton and Joey Pederson battled for second. 

In the closing laps, Strand found himself in heavy lapped traffic, which allowed Edginton to close the gap to within two car lengths. Strand found his groove on the highside and pulled away from Edginton to score the win. Brody Troftgruben finished a career best third behind Edginton. 

“My dad was giving me signals. I knew he was kind of hanging in there through the whole race,” said Strand. “He usually runs good on the bottom so I figured that’s where he was. I saw his nose a couple of times but I just concentrated on hitting my marks. I guess it worked out.”

Lance Schill raced to his first River Cities Speedway Happy Harry’s Midwest Modified feature win of the season. Schill battled early with Reise Stenberg and Matt Schow before taking the lead. Schow, who led the opening lap, stayed with Schill for the remainder of the feature, but didn’t have enough to mount a challenge and Schill cruised to the win. 

John Halvorson collected his second win of the season in the Wells Concrete Street Stocks. Halvorson started on the pole and held off a hard-charging Ryan Johnson. Chase Boen was third, Jonny Carter fourth and Kyle Anderson fifth.

RESULTS:
NOSA Sprints
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce, [2]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl, [1]; 3. 27-Chris Ranten, [7]; 4. 8H-Jade Hastings, [4]; 5. 20A-Jordan Adams, [3]; 6. 13T-Ty Hanten, [5]; 7. 26-Blake Egeland, [6]; 8. 55-Nick Ranten, [8]; 9. 8C-Jack Croaker, [9]; 10. 99-Jordan Graham, [14]; 11. 47-Sabrina Hockenson, [15]; 12. 41T-Travis Strandell, [13]; 13. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen, [16]; 14. (DNF) 31-Shane Roemeling, [11]; 15. (DNF) 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [12]; (DNS) 12-Brayden Pengilly, ; (DNS) 14-Tom Egeland,
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 0-Nick Omdahl, [1]; 2. 20A-Jordan Adams, [2]; 3. 13T-Ty Hanten, [4]; 4. 27-Chris Ranten, [6]; 5. 8C-Jack Croaker, [5]; 6. 31-Shane Roemeling, [3]; 7. (DNF) 99-Jordan Graham, [7]; 8. (DNF) 47-Sabrina Hockenson, [8]; (DNS) 12-Brayden Pengilly,
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce, [2]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings, [1]; 3. 26-Blake Egeland, [3]; 4. 55-Nick Ranten, [6]; 5. 14-Tom Egeland, [4]; 6. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [7]; 7. 41T-Travis Strandell, [8]; 8. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen, [5]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
A Feature 1 (18 Laps): 1. 17S-Lance Schill, [4]; 2. 2S-Matt Schow, [1]; 3. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [2]; 4. 96-Jeremy Lizakowski, [6]; 5. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [3]; 6. 21-Todd Johnson, [5]; 7. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [12]; 8. 21L-Jarett Lovcik, [14]; 9. 67-Mike Nichols, [16]; 10. 44-Austin Hunter, [11]; 11. 3L-Logan Salazar, [7]; 12. 28S-Ryan Schow, [13]; 13. 20K-Kyle Lovcik, [10]; 14. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [22]; 15. 01-Zach Bruer, [18]; 16. B4-Jory Berg, [17]; 17. 57-Nathan Raasakka, [20]; 18. 56-Laine Schwehr, [15]; 19. #1-Tony Smith, [23]; 20. 23D-George Dalbeck, [8]; 21. 26G-Ryan Gierke, [19]; 22. 23-Scott Vasichek, [9]; 23. 8-Jason Schuh, [24]; 24. 06-Jay Holub, [21]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17S-Lance Schill, [1]; 2. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [2]; 3. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [3]; 4. 20K-Kyle Lovcik, [5]; 5. 28S-Ryan Schow, [8]; 6. 67-Mike Nichols, [6]; 7. 26G-Ryan Gierke, [4]; 8. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Todd Johnson, [2]; 2. 3L-Logan Salazar, [1]; 3. 23D-George Dalbeck, [6]; 4. 44-Austin Hunter, [4]; 5. 21L-Jarett Lovcik, [3]; 6. B4-Jory Berg, [5]; 7. 57-Nathan Raasakka, [7]; 8. #1-Tony Smith, [8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow, [2]; 2. 96-Jeremy Lizakowski, [1]; 3. 23-Scott Vasichek, [3]; 4. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [7]; 5. 56-Laine Schwehr, [6]; 6. 01-Zach Bruer, [5]; 7. 06-Jay Holub, [8]; 8. (DNF) 8-Jason Schuh, [4]

NLRA Late Models
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, [2]; 2. 4-Shane Edginton, [1]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben, [6]; 4. 7P-Joey Pederson, [4]; 5. 12S-Brad Seng, [3]; 6. 44-Cole Schill, [7]; 7. F9-Brandon Fuller, [8]; 8. 2-Bill Mooney, [13]; 9. 2*-Cole Babcock, [9]; 10. T1-Tom Corcoran, [5]; 11. 29K-Ryan Kereluk, [16]; 12. 1R-Travis Robertson, [12]; 13. 11-Troy Schill, [11]; 14. 2D-Dan Dowling, [14]; 15. 16S-Jeff Hapala, [18]; 16. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [20]; 17. 71X-Cory Tammen, [17]; 18. 345-Bryce Reimer, [19]; 19. (DNF) 9-Blake Anderson, [15]; (DNS) 71G-Trent Grager,
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Shane Edginton, [1]; 2. 7P-Joey Pederson, [2]; 3. 44-Cole Schill, [6]; 4. 71G-Trent Grager, [7]; 5. 2-Bill Mooney, [4]; 6. 29K-Ryan Kereluk, [3]; 7. 345-Bryce Reimer, [5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, [1]; 2. T1-Tom Corcoran, [2]; 3. F9-Brandon Fuller, [5]; 4. 11-Troy Schill, [3]; 5. 2D-Dan Dowling, [6]; 6. 71X-Cory Tammen, [7]; 7. (DNF) 1M-Nicholas Minske, [4]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng, [1]; 2. 14-Brody Troftgruben, [2]; 3. 2*-Cole Babcock, [3]; 4. 1R-Travis Robertson, [6]; 5. 9-Blake Anderson, [4]; 6. 16S-Jeff Hapala, [5]

WISSOTA Street Stocks
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson, [1]; 2. 25-Ryan Johnson, [5]; 3. 48-Chase Boen, [4]; 4. 46-Jonny Carter, [9]; 5. 59-Kyle Anderson, [8]; 6. 30-Seth Klostreich, [10]; 7. 03-Bryce Reimer, [2]; 8. 4-Trey Hess, [12]; 9. 28-Greg Jose, [13]; 10. 2U-Kasey Ussatis, [21]; 11. 5-Bradon Miller, [20]; 12. 1J-Joe Armstrong, [16]; 13. 3L-Zach Lee, [6]; 14. 7-James Meagher, [14]; 15. 33-Daniel Aberle, [3]; 16. 5J-Royce Jawaski, [17]; 17. 88-Chad Puschinsky, [18]; 18. 92-Megan McNamee, [19]; 19. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker, [15]; 20. (DNF) 27P-Tucker Pederson, [11]; 21. (DNF) 29-Dan McNamee, [22]; 22. (DNF) 51-Eric Riley, [7]; (DNS) 1M-Nicholas Minske,
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3L-Zach Lee, [1]; 2. 03-Bryce Reimer, [2]; 3. 48-Chase Boen, [3]; 4. 30-Seth Klostreich, [5]; 5. 28-Greg Jose, [6]; 6. 1J-Joe Armstrong, [8]; 7. 92-Megan McNamee, [7]; 8. (DNF) 1M-Nicholas Minske, [4]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson, [2]; 2. 51-Eric Riley, [1]; 3. 46-Jonny Carter, [5]; 4. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [3]; 5. 7-James Meagher, [6]; 6. 5J-Royce Jawaski, [8]; 7. 5-Bradon Miller, [4]; 8. 29-Dan McNamee, [7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 59-Kyle Anderson, [1]; 2. 25-Ryan Johnson, [4]; 3. 33-Daniel Aberle, [2]; 4. 4-Trey Hess, [3]; 5. 99-Josh Barker, [5]; 6. 88-Chad Puschinsky, [7]; 7. 2U-Kasey Ussatis, [6]