Pierce visits RydellCars.com Victory Lane at River Cities

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (May 21, 2021) – There may be a new King of the Bullring at River Cities Speedway. Grand Forks’ Austin Pierce won eight races at the three-tenths mile oval in 2020. The two-time Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA series champion returned to victory lane in convincing fashion on Friday night. 

Aaron Blacklance and Lance Schill were victorious in WISSOTA action, while Dexter Dvergsten picked up the Lucas Oil POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint feature. 

Jack Croaker and Tim Estenson led the field of 18 Northern Outlaw Sprints to the green flag with Croaker jumping out to a big lead on lap one. Fourth-place starting Austin Pierce moved into second by the completion of the opening lap. 

Pierce quickly went after Croaker and took the point with a slider off turn four on lap three. 

The driver of the Opp Construction / Lithia Ford No. 2A checked out from the rest of the field while Croaker, Estenson, Jade Hastings, Nick Omdahl and Wade Nygaard all battled for second. 

With eight to go, Hastings found a way around Croaker to take the second spot. Pierce had well over a full straightaway advantage over Hastings, but Hastings went to work on reeling in Pierce. 

With five to go, Pierce was mired in heavy traffic which made his lead evaporate. Hastings had a run on Pierce with two laps to go, but a caution slowed the field. 

On the green-white-checkered restart, Pierce set sail and opened up a comfortable lead. Nygaard came up to challenge Hastings for second, but it was well behind Pierce, who collected his 36th career NOSA win. 

Hastings held on to the runner-up spot as Nygaard rounded out the podium. 

“I can’t thank my crew enough. They set this car up and it’s been spot on almost every night. It was an awesome race track. There was a nice top groove that reminded me of the old River Cities. I ran the bottom there right away and that helped me to get around Croaker for the lead. Overall it was a good night,” said Pierce in victory lane. 

Lance Schill dominated the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature to claim his first Midwest Modified feature win of the season at the Bullring and win number two overall at the speedway. 

The best battle on the track was the race for second where Jamie Dietzler, Jory Berg, Matt Schow and Nathan Raasakka fought all race long. In the end, Berg moved around Dietzler on the final lap to secure the runner-up spot as Schow and Raasakka rounded out the top five. 

Aaron Blacklance parked his WISSOTA Street Stock in RydellCars.com Victory Lane. Daniel McNamee led early and looked to have the car to beat, but a power move by Blacklance around the outside of McNamee propelled Blacklance into the lead. 

Once out front, Blacklance drove away with the win. 

Defending Lucas Oil POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints series champion Dexter Dvergsten picked up the feature win. Dvergsten led all 15 trips around the speedway. 

NOSA SPRINTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[4]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[7]; 3. 9N-Wade Nygaard[10]; 4. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[1]; 5. 0-Nick Omdahl[3]; 6. 11M-Brendan Mullen[5]; 7. 26-Blake Egeland[16]; 8. 14T-Tim Estenson[2]; 9. 99-Jordan Graham[13]; 10. 31-Shane Roemeling[9]; 11. 10TRB-Bob Martin[12]; 12. 55-Nick Ranten[8]; 13. 20A-Jordan Adams[11]; 14. 17-Zach Omdahl[15]; 15. 14-Tom Egeland[6]; 16. 41-Travis Strandell[17]; 17. 4-Colton Young[18]; 18. (DNF) 10S-Josh Swangler[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 14T-Tim Estenson[2]; 3. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 4. 9N-Wade Nygaard[7]; 5. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[3]; 6. 20A-Jordan Adams[6]; 7. 99-Jordan Graham[5]; 8. 26-Blake Egeland[9]; 9. 41-Travis Strandell[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[2]; 2. 11M-Brendan Mullen[8]; 3. 0-Nick Omdahl[3]; 4. 31-Shane Roemeling[5]; 5. 14-Tom Egeland[1]; 6. 10TRB-Bob Martin[6]; 7. 10S-Josh Swangler[7]; 

WISSOTA MIDWEST MODS:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[1]; 2. B0-Jory Berg[7]; 3. 39-Jamie Dietzler[6]; 4. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 5. 57-Nathan Raasakka[2]; 6. 4X-Phil Christlieb[9]; 7. 01-Zach Bruer[3]; 8. 28S-Ryan Schow[11]; 9. 54-Terry Nelson[13]; 10. 30-Cole Neset[8]; 11. 15C-Chris Edmonds[16]; 12. 180-Scott Kaml[12]; 13. (DNF) 16-Randy Thompson[5]; 14. (DNS) 48J-Justin Johnson; 15. (DNS) 46J-Taylor Jacobson; 16. (DNS) 77B-Logan Bauer

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. B0-Jory Berg[1]; 2. 2S-Matt Schow[2]; 3. 57-Nathan Raasakka[3]; 4. 16-Randy Thompson[4]; 5. 01-Zach Bruer[6]; 6. 30-Cole Neset[5]; 7. 4X-Phil Christlieb[7]; 8. 48J-Justin Johnson[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[1]; 2. 39-Jamie Dietzler[7]; 3. 15C-Chris Edmonds[8]; 4. (DNF) 28S-Ryan Schow[4]; 5. (DNF) 180-Scott Kaml[2]; 6. (DNF) 54-Terry Nelson[3]; 7. (DNF) 77B-Logan Bauer[5]; 8. (DNS) 46J-Taylor Jacobson

WISSOTA STREET STOCKS:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 539-Aaron Blacklance[5]; 2. 29-Dan McNamee[2]; 3. 3L-Zach Lee[1]; 4. 34-Ryne Uhrich[4]; 5. 22-Alex Minks[6]; 6. 30-Seth Klostreich[3]; 7. 7-James Meagher[7]; 8. 4-Trey Hess[10]; 9. 28-Greg Jose[13]; 10. 00-Brandon Corbett[14]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[11]; 12. 99-Josh Barker[9]; 13. 5S-Chris Smeby[12]; 14. 03-Bryce Reimer[8]; 15. 87-Alan Lane[15]; 16. (DNS) 7B-David Barker

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 539-Aaron Blacklance[4]; 2. 7-James Meagher[1]; 3. 30-Seth Klostreich[2]; 4. 03-Bryce Reimer[8]; 5. 99-Josh Barker[3]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske[7]; 7. 28-Greg Jose[6]; 8. (DNF) 87-Alan Lane[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 29-Dan McNamee[2]; 2. 34-Ryne Uhrich[4]; 3. 3L-Zach Lee[1]; 4. 22-Alex Minks[5]; 5. 4-Trey Hess[6]; 6. 5S-Chris Smeby[3]; 7. 00-Brandon Corbett[7]; 8. (DNF) 7B-David Barker[8]
17-Zach Omdahl[4]; 9. 4-Colton Young[9]

MINN-KOTA LIGHTNING SPRINTS: 
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 11-Dexter Dvergsten[1]; 2. 13-Alan Truscinski[4]; 3. 10-Alex Truscinski[3]; 4. 93-Kelsi Pederson[5]; 5. 51-Cody Swenson[2]; 6. 100-Jason Berg[6]; 7. 27-Weston Olson[7]; 8. 5G-Garrison Miller[12]; 9. 40-Lawrence Veralrud[9]; 10. 16E-Paul Ericson[13]; 11. (DNF) 24-Jake Haugeberg[11]; 12. (DNF) 1W-Mark Williams[14]; 13. (DNF) 22-Bryce Haugeberg[8]; 14. (DNF) 30M-Parker Monroe[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Dexter Dvergsten[2]; 2. 93-Kelsi Pederson[3]; 3. 51-Cody Swenson[1]; 4. 27-Weston Olson[6]; 5. 40-Lawrence Veralrud[4]; 6. 24-Jake Haugeberg[7]; 7. 16E-Paul Ericson[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Alex Truscinski[2]; 2. 13-Alan Truscinski[1]; 3. 100-Jason Berg[4]; 4. 22-Bryce Haugeberg[5]; 5. 30M-Parker Monroe[3]; 6. 5G-Garrison Miller[7]; 7. 1W-Mark Williams[6]