Pierce wins NOSA Opener at River Cities Speedway

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (June 5, 2020) – River Cities Speedway returned to full throttle on Friday night as the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Cars and Performance Auto NLRA Late Models made their 2020 debut at the Bullring. A strong field of 17 NOSA Sprints, including two rookies, led all classes in terms of car count. 

Those rookies were Zach Omdahl of East Grand Forks, Minn. and Josh Swangler of Detriot Lakes, Minn. Omdahl got upside down after contact with the turn four water barrels during his heat race, which brought his night to an end early. He was okay. Swangler came home 14th. 

Shane Roemeling and Nick Ranten brought the field to the green flag for the first NOSA feature of the season. However, it was Bobby Martin taking the lead to pace the opening lap. Martin quickly jumped out to a big lead as 10-time NOSA champion, Wade Nygaard, filed into second. 

A caution on lap four set off a series of yellows that slowed the field throughout the midportion of the 25-lap feature. By lap 10, Martin and Austin Pierce were able to distance themselves from the rest of the field during a green flag stretch. Pierce took the lead from Martin on lap 11 as Chris Ranten moved his way into the third position. 

Pierce was strong on each and every restart, including three attempts at a green flag on lap 15. 

Pierce, a two-time NOSA champion, cruised to take the first checkered flag of the season, followed by Chris Ranten and Martin. 

“The track had two really good lanes in the beginning so I was searching the track, trying to figure out where I could gain some ground on guys,” said an excited Pierce after the race. “We had a long enough green where we got into lapped traffic and I think that helped me get by Martin for the lead. Luckily, we were able to take the lead before those yellows started coming out. After that, it was up to me to pick where we restarted, which is always an advantage.”

Ryan Corbett led all 20 laps en route to a dominating Performance Auto NLRA win. Corbett started on the outside of the front row and took the lead over Joey Pederson on lap one. Dustin Strand took the runner-up position on lap four and set his sights on Corbett for the lead. Strand searched every inch of the three-tenths mile oval to find a way around Corbett, but Corbett was too strong. 

2017 Street Stock track champion, Ryan Johnson, flexed his muscle in the WISSOTA Street Stock feature as he made a power move late in the going to take the lead. Johnson drove from fourth to the lead in one set of corners to take command with six laps to go. Once out front, Johnson checked out as he cruised to the win. Fifth-place starter, John Halvorson, finished second, followed by pole-sitter and early race leader, James Meagher. 

Terry Nelson and Ronnie Novacek made up the front row for the Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops Midwest Mod feature. Lance Schill made a big move to take the lead with a daring three-wide pass on the opening lap. Once out front, Schill opened up a comfortable lead. 

Schill ran unchallenged until a caution set up a restart between Schill, the defending track champion, and opening night winner Matt Schow with just four laps remaining. As the green flag flew, Schill quickly jumped out to a five car length lead once again and picked up the win. 

NOSA Sprint Cars:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[5]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[7]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin[4]; 4. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 5. 051-Nick Omdahl[6]; 6. 8-Jade Hastings[9]; 7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[10]; 8. 55-Nick Ranten[2]; 9. 8C-Jack Croaker[12]; 10. 20A-Jordan Adams[11]; 11. 26-Blake Egeland[8]; 12. 13-Ty Hanten[13]; 13. 41T-Travis Strandell[15]; 14. 10S-Josh Swangler[16]; 15. (DNF) 31-Shane Roemeling[1]; 16. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland[14]; 17. (DNS) 17-Zach Omdahl

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Chris Ranten[6]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[5]; 3. 55-Nick Ranten[1]; 4. 8-Jade Hastings[4]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[8]; 6. 14-Tom Egeland[7]; 7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[3]; 8. (DNF) 8C-Jack Croaker[2]; 9. (DNF) 10S-Josh Swangler[9]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard[4]; 2. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 3. 31-Shane Roemeling[1]; 4. 051-Nick Omdahl[6]; 5. 13-Ty Hanten[2]; 6. 20A-Jordan Adams[3]; 7. 41T-Travis Strandell[7]; 8. (DNF) 17-Zach Omdahl[8]

WISSOTA Late Models:
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 4C-Ryan Corbett[2]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[4]; 3. 12S-Brad Seng[8]; 4. 7P-Joey Pederson[1]; 5. T1-Tom Corcoran[6]; 6. 17-Lance Schill[7]; 7. 9A-Steve Anderson[3]; 8. F9-Brandon Fuller[10]; 9. 11-Troy Schill[9]; 10. 14-Brody Troftgruben[5]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[12]; 12. 9-Blake Anderson[14]; 13. 16H-Jeff Hapala[11]; 14. 02-Dan Dowling[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. T1-Tom Corcoran[2]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[3]; 3. 4C-Ryan Corbett[4]; 4. 14-Brody Troftgruben[1]; 5. 11-Troy Schill[7]; 6. 16H-Jeff Hapala[5]; 7. (DNF) 9-Blake Anderson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[4]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[6]; 3. 7P-Joey Pederson[3]; 4. 9A-Steve Anderson[7]; 5. F9-Brandon Fuller[5]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske[2]; 7. 02-Dan Dowling[1]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[5]; 2. 2S-Matt Schow[6]; 3. B0-Jory Berg[4]; 4. 33-Jeff Nelson[7]; 5. 39-Jamie Dietzler[8]; 6. 16-Randy Thompson[11]; 7. 35-John Halvorson[3]; 8. 54-Terry Nelson[1]; 9. 77B-Logan Bauer[9]; 10. (DNF) B1N-Ronnie Novacek[2]; 11. (DNF) 57-Nathan Raasakka[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[1]; 2. B0-Jory Berg[4]; 3. 54-Terry Nelson[3]; 4. 33-Jeff Nelson[2]; 5. 77B-Logan Bauer[5]; 6. (DNF) 16-Randy Thompson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler[2]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[4]; 3. B1N-Ronnie Novacek[5]; 4. 35-John Halvorson[3]; 5. 57-Nathan Raasakka[1]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 25-Ryan Johnson[6]; 2. 35-John Halvorson[5]; 3. 7-James Meagher[1]; 4. 28-Greg Jose[4]; 5. 48-Chase Boen[10]; 6. 27-Tucker Pederson[2]; 7. 30-Seth Klostreich[7]; 8. 33-Daniel Aberle[12]; 9. 3L-Zach Lee[8]; 10. 4-Trey Hess[11]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[15]; 12. 29-Dan McNamee[13]; 13. 87-Alan Lane[9]; 14. 92-Megan McNamee[14]; 15. (DNF) 03-Bryce Reimer[3]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Ryan Johnson[2]; 2. 03-Bryce Reimer[4]; 3. 30-Seth Klostreich[3]; 4. 3L-Zach Lee[8]; 5. 87-Alan Lane[1]; 6. 4-Trey Hess[6]; 7. 29-Dan McNamee[5]; 8. (DNS) 1M-Nicholas Minske

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson[2]; 2. 27-Tucker Pederson[3]; 3. 28-Greg Jose[5]; 4. 7-James Meagher[7]; 5. 48-Chase Boen[4]; 6. 33-Daniel Aberle[6]; 7. 92-Megan McNamee[1]