Strand doubles up at River Cities with Late Model, Modified wins

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (May 14, 2021) – Grand Forks’ Dustin Strand pulled double duty on Friday night as River Cities Speedway welcomed the WISSOTA Modifieds for the first time this season. Strand ran both his Modified and Late Model and parked in RydellCars.com Victory Lane in both divisions. 

Strand started on the pole for the 20-lap, 24-car WISSOTA Late Model feature and took the lead over Joey Pederson after the first set of corners. 

Strand led all 20 trips around the bullring, but Pederson remained within striking distance throughout the caution-free event. 

On the final lap, Strand was mired in heavy lapped traffic, allowing both Pederson and Michael Greseth to close in. Things got tight off turn four, coming to the checkers, but Strand was able to hold on for the win. Greseth, who was making his Late Model debut at River Cities, snuck around Pederson for second at the line. 

The WISSOTA Modifieds took the green flag with Joe Thomas showing the way. Behind him, Aaron Holtan, Tyler Peterson and Strand battled hard for the runner-up spot. 

After getting by Holtan, Peterson and Strand continued their torrid battle for second. Thomas had a comfortable lead until Peterson slipped off the top of the track to bring out the yellow. 

From there, Thomas had a hungry Strand nipping at his heels. 

Strand muscled around the outside of Thomas with seven laps to go to take the point.  Once out front, Strand never looked back. He took the win over Thomas, Tim Thomas, Jordan Duray and Holtan. 

Zach Bruer and Reise Stenberg led the field of 16 WISSOTA Midwest Mods to the green flag. Stenberg took the point exiting turn four to complete lap one using the middle groove around the three-tenths mile oval. 

The yellow flag was the only thing that could slow down Stenberg. One caution flew early on for a four-car pile up on the back straightaway. Following that, Stenberg opened up a half-lap lead over the rest of the field as he cruised to the feature win. 

Jamie Dietzler held off Jory Berg and Lance Schill to finish in second. 

Chase Boen looked to have the WISSOTA Street Stock feature in hand until a late-race restart put Trey Hess and Ryan Johnson right on his rear bumper. Boen held them off until lap 10 of 15 when not only Hess and Johnson closed in, but so did Daniel Aberle. 

Coming off of turn four to complete lap 12, Boen and Hess made contact. That upset the car of Boen as he fish-tailed to a spin in turn one. With nowhere to go, John Halvorson made heavy contact with the front end of Boen, ending both of their nights early. 

Hess was charged for the caution and sent to the tail of the field. 

As the race resumed, Johnson walked away from the rest of the pack to pick up the win. 

SUMMARY
WISSOTA Late Models:
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71S-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. 17G-Mike Greseth[6]; 3. 7P-Joey Pederson[2]; 4. 12S-Brad Seng[8]; 5. 5E-Shane Edginton[9]; 6. 17-Lance Schill[7]; 7. C4-Ryan Corbett[3]; 8. 14-Brody Troftgruben[11]; 9. T1-Tom Corcoran[4]; 10. E85-Jason Strand[10]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[5]; 12. 2D-Dan Dowling[13]; 13. 11-Troy Schill[16]; 14. 9-Steve Anderson[17]; 15. 00-Mitch Johnson[18]; 16. 12F-Greg Friestad[15]; 17. F9-Brandon Fuller[12]; 18. 9A-Blake Anderson[19]; 19. 21-Brady Pengilly[22]; 20. 14M-Greg Moore[21]; 21. (DNF) 2*-Cole Babcock[14]; 22. (DNF) 35-John Halvorson[23]; 23. (DNF) 4-Brandon Corbett[20]; 24. (DNS) 42-Matthew Jarvis

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. T1-Tom Corcoran[5]; 2. 7P-Joey Pederson[8]; 3. 17-Lance Schill[7]; 4. E85-Jason Strand[4]; 5. 2D-Dan Dowling[1]; 6. 11-Troy Schill[6]; 7. 9A-Blake Anderson[2]; 8. 14M-Greg Moore[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. C4-Ryan Corbett[2]; 2. 5E-Shane Edginton[8]; 3. 71S-Dustin Strand[3]; 4. 14-Brody Troftgruben[1]; 5. 2*-Cole Babcock[6]; 6. 9-Steve Anderson[4]; 7. (DNF) 35-John Halvorson[7]; 8. (DNF) 42-Matthew Jarvis[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[3]; 2. 1M-Nicholas Minske[2]; 3. 17G-Mike Greseth[5]; 4. F9-Brandon Fuller[4]; 5. 12F-Greg Friestad[6]; 6. 00-Mitch Johnson[8]; 7. 4-Brandon Corbett[1]; 8. 21-Brady Pengilly[7]

WISSOTA Modifieds:
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[5]; 2. 7T-Joseph Thomas[1]; 3. 51T-Tim Thomas[2]; 4. 81-Jordan Duray[8]; 5. 2-Aaron Holtan[4]; 6. 22-Davey Mills[11]; 7. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[3]; 8. 6T-Corky Thomas[7]; 9. (DNF) 74-Dustin Wahl[9]; 10. (DNF) 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[6]; 11. (DNS) 57-Michael Tiani

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Aaron Holtan[3]; 2. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[2]; 3. 81-Jordan Duray[1]; 4. 6T-Corky Thomas[6]; 5. 74-Dustin Wahl[4]; 6. 57-Michael Tiani[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[3]; 3. 7T-Joseph Thomas[5]; 4. 51T-Tim Thomas[2]; 5. (DNF) 22-Davey Mills[4]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 87S-Reise Stenberg[2]; 2. 39-Jamie Dietzler[4]; 3. B0-Jory Berg[7]; 4. 17-Lance Schill[8]; 5. 2S-Matt Schow[16]; 6. 6R-Nate Reynolds[6]; 7. 57-Nathan Raasakka[3]; 8. 01-Zach Bruer[1]; 9. 54-Terry Nelson[9]; 10. 46J-Taylor Jacobson[14]; 11. 77B-Logan Bauer[13]; 12. 30-Cole Neset[10]; 13. 4X-Phil Christlieb[15]; 14. (DNF) 28S-Ryan Schow[5]; 15. (DNF) 33G-Connor Graff[11]; 16. (DNF) 06-Chris Vargason[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 6R-Nate Reynolds[1]; 2. 28S-Ryan Schow[2]; 3. 57-Nathan Raasakka[4]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg[6]; 5. 54-Terry Nelson[7]; 6. 33G-Connor Graff[3]; 7. 77B-Logan Bauer[8]; 8. (DNF) 4X-Phil Christlieb[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler[2]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[1]; 3. B0-Jory Berg[3]; 4. 01-Zach Bruer[5]; 5. 30-Cole Neset[4]; 6. 06-Chris Vargason[6]; 7. 46J-Taylor Jacobson[8]; 8. (DNF) 2S-Matt Schow[7]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 25-Ryan Johnson[7]; 2. 33-Daniel Aberle[5]; 3. 10-Joe Potter[12]; 4. 22-Alex Minks[10]; 5. 7-James Meagher[9]; 6. 29-Dan McNamee[4]; 7. 00C-Brandon Corbett[14]; 8. 34R-Ryne Uhrich[17]; 9. 28-Greg Jose[15]; 10. 4-Trey Hess[2]; 11. 5S-Chris Smeby[16]; 12. 30-Seth Klostreich[6]; 13. 99-Josh Barker[18]; 14. (DNF) 48-Chase Boen[1]; 15. (DNF) 35-John Halvorson[11]; 16. (DNF) 1M-Nicholas Minske[3]; 17. (DNF) 34-Bill Gustafson[13]; 18. (DNF) 7B-David Barker[19]; 19. (DNS) 3L-Zach Lee

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1M-Nicholas Minske[6]; 2. 3L-Zach Lee[4]; 3. 29-Dan McNamee[5]; 4. 22-Alex Minks[3]; 5. 34-Bill Gustafson[2]; 6. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker[1]; 7. (DNF) 7B-David Barker[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Daniel Aberle[1]; 2. 4-Trey Hess[3]; 3. 48-Chase Boen[4]; 4. 35-John Halvorson[6]; 5. 00C-Brandon Corbett[2]; 6. 5S-Chris Smeby[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Ryan Johnson[1]; 2. 7-James Meagher[3]; 3. 30-Seth Klostreich[4]; 4. 10-Joe Potter[2]; 5. 28-Greg Jose[6]; 6. 34R-Ryne Uhrich[5]