RIVER CITIES RECAP: STRAND ECLIPSES CENTURY MARK IN CAREER WINS AT THE BULLRING

Dvergsten, Raasaaka, and Pederson also winners

Another week of action at the Bullring, and another milestone victory, as Dustin Strand won his 100th and 101st features at the Legendary quarter-mile oval last Friday night, winning both the WISSOTA Modified and NLRA Late Model features.
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Brandon Corbett and Tom Corcoran brought the 20 lap Cirrus Aircraft Late Model feature to green, with Corcoran taking the point at the start. Corcoran led until a lap six restart when Strand roared around his outside to take the top spot.

Leading through a pair of cautions at the halfway point and with six circuits remaining, Strand and Tyler Peterson went to war for the lead trading sliders on each end of the track. The pair made contact fighting for the same piece of real estate at the bottom of turn two with two laps left, sending Strand into a spin.

Strand survived the contact, while Peterson was charged with the caution. Strand continued on to his 101st River Cities win over Joey Pederson, Brad Seng, Lance Schill, and Greg Moore.

Strand's milestone 100th speedway victory started with Shawn Teunis and Ryan Schroeder leading the 20 lap WISSOTA Modified feature to the drop of the green.

Strand took the lead pair three wide on the opening lap, and ended the circuit with the lead. Following cautions on two of the next three laps, Strand continued with the lead as Peterson reeled him in in lapped traffic.

With six laps left, Peterson made one final peek to Strand's inside, but bobbled in traffic in turn four, allowing Strand to rebuild his advantage, and continue on to victory.

Peterson, Ward Imrie, Joseph Thomas, and Aaron Blacklance completed the top five.

Dylan Langevin and Dexter Dvergsten paced the 20 lap POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint feature at the start, with Dvergsten winning the race to turn one.

Kelsi Pederson followed Dvergsten into the second spot, as the latter started to run away from the field.

After two cautions which included a rollover for Mark Williams, who exited his wrecked racers unharmed, Dvergsten continued to be the class of the field, dominating despite working lapped traffic late to win his fourth Minn-Kota feature in a row, and 11th in his career at the Bullring.

Kate Taves, Jason Berg, and Weston Olson finished third through fifth.

Alex Johnson and Taylor Jacobson led the 20 lap Happy Harry's WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature to green. Jacobson took the lead in turn one as Nate Raasaaka followed into second. The lead duo pulled away from the rest of the field as Johnson battled with Phil Christlieb for third.

Jacobson continued to lead following a caution at the midway point, and was leading coming off of turn four with what would've been three to go, but a plume of white smoke sent him to the infield, ending his hopes of his first Bullring win.

It took three restarts, but Raasakka was the one to capitalize on Jacobson's misfortune to win his second career feature at River Cities. 

Jory Berg, Lance Schill, Jason Halverson, and Reise Stenberg rounded out the top five.

Chris Ekren and Josh Barker made up the front row for the 20 lap Big Al's Construction WISSOTA Street Stock feature, with the South Carolina transplant Barker leading until a lap four restart.

Shane Swenson led the following lap, but it was seventh starting Tucker Pederson taking the lead two circuits later. 

A few cautions slowed the pace of the race around the midway point, eliminating both front row starters Barker and Ekren, and the former race leading Swenson.

Pederson led the final eight circuits to score his first win of the year in Grand Forks, the 12th of his career at the Bullring.

John Halvorson, Weston Ramsrud, Chase Boen, and Scotty Messner were second through fifth.

RESULTS:
LIGHTNING SPRINTS
​A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Dexter Dvergsten[2]; 2. 93-Kelsi Pederson[4]; 3. 72-Kate Taves[5]; 4. 100-Jason Berg[3]; 5. 27-Weston Olson[8]; 6. 87-Matthew Taves[7]; 7. 12-Loki Bjerke[13]; 8. 8-Wesley Van Drunen[12]; 9. 4-Dylan Langevin[1]; 10. 40-Evan Yanish[11]; 11. 7S-Sean Enright[14]; 12. (DNF) 23-Gerald Hatlestad[15]; 13. (DNF) 11B-Brad Bjerke[6]; 14. (DNF) 1W-Mark Williams[9]; 15. (DNF) 99-Brody Graham[16]; 16. (DNF) 18-Hayden Koehmstedt[10]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 100-Jason Berg[1]; 2. 11-Dexter Dvergsten[4]; 3. 27-Weston Olson[3]; 4. 72-Kate Taves[7]; 5. 40-Evan Yanish[2]; 6. 8-Wesley Van Drunen[5]; 7. 12-Loki Bjerke[6]; 8. (DNS) 99-Brody Graham
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 93-Kelsi Pederson[1]; 2. 11B-Brad Bjerke[2]; 3. 4-Dylan Langevin[8]; 4. 87-Matthew Taves[6]; 5. 1W-Mark Williams[4]; 6. 18-Hayden Koehmstedt[7]; 7. 7S-Sean Enright[3]; 8. 23-Gerald Hatlestad[5]

WISSOTA LATE MODEL
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[6]; 2. 7P-Joey Pederson[12]; 3. 12S-Brad Seng[8]; 4. 17-Lance Schill[3]; 5. 14M-Greg Moore[4]; 6. T 1-Tom Corcoran[2]; 7. 14-Brody Troftgruben[5]; 8. 9A-Blake Anderson[14]; 9. 33-Ryan Dahl[20]; 10. 70-Jesse Teunis[16]; 11. 21S-John Seng[11]; 12. 16S-Jeff Hapala[17]; 13. F9-Brandon Fuller[13]; 14. 1M-Nicholas Minske[19]; 15. 00C-Brandon Corbett[1]; 16. 54-Terry Nelson[18]; 17. 5S-Chris Smeby[21]; 18. (DNF) 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[9]; 19. (DNF) 21-Brady Pengilly[15]; 20. (DNF) 00-Mitch Johnson[7]; 21. (DNF) E85-Jason Strand[10]; 22. (DNS) 97-Dan McNamee
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[6]; 2. 12S-Brad Seng[3]; 3. 00C-Brandon Corbett[2]; 4. E85-Jason Strand[7]; 5. F9-Brandon Fuller[4]; 6. 70-Jesse Teunis[5]; 7. 1M-Nicholas Minske[1]; 8. 33-Ryan Dahl[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[6]; 3. 14M-Greg Moore[4]; 4. 21S-John Seng[7]; 5. 9A-Blake Anderson[3]; 6. 16S-Jeff Hapala[5]; 7. (DNF) 5S-Chris Smeby[2]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 00-Mitch Johnson[1]; 2. 14-Brody Troftgruben[5]; 3. T 1-Tom Corcoran[3]; 4. 7P-Joey Pederson[6]; 5. 21-Brady Pengilly[2]; 6. 54-Terry Nelson[7]; 7. (DNF) 97-Dan McNamee[4]

WISSOTA MIDWEST MODS
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 57-Nathan Raasakka[3]; 2. BO-Jory Berg[12]; 3. 17-Lance Schill[8]; 4. 111-Jason Halverson[11]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg[14]; 6. 7B-Bailey Cousins[7]; 7. 36-Ryan Cousins[5]; 8. 33G-Connor Graff[17]; 9. 29-Cylen Vargason[13]; 10. 77JR-Brody Kraft[16]; 11. (DNF) 44-Austin Hunter[18]; 12. (DNF) 4X-Phil Christlieb[4]; 13. (DNF) 2S-Matt Schow[6]; 14. (DNF) 46J-Taylor Jacobson[2]; 15. (DNF) 41-Tyler McClellan[10]; 16. (DNF) 15TRX-Chris Edmonds[15]; 17. (DNF) 007-Alex Johnson[1]; 18. (DNF) 21-Joel Olson[9]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[3]; 2. 36-Ryan Cousins[5]; 3. 57-Nathan Raasakka[2]; 4. 41-Tyler McClellan[6]; 5. 29-Cylen Vargason[4]; 6. (DNF) 33G-Connor Graff[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[2]; 2. 46J-Taylor Jacobson[1]; 3. 4X-Phil Christlieb[3]; 4. 111-Jason Halverson[6]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg[4]; 6. (DNF) 44-Austin Hunter[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7B-Bailey Cousins[2]; 2. 21-Joel Olson[1]; 3. 007-Alex Johnson[4]; 4. BO-Jory Berg[3]; 5. 15TRX-Chris Edmonds[6]; 6. 77JR-Brody Kraft[5]

WISSOTA STREET STOCK
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 27P-Tucker Pederson[7]; 2. 35-John Halvorson[8]; 3. 67-Weston Ramsrud[10]; 4. 48-Chase Boen[5]; 5. 18-Scotty Messner[11]; 6. 30-Seth Klostreich[9]; 7. 7-James Meagher[3]; 8. 69-Jayson Bronk[6]; 9. 49-Rodney Hulst[14]; 10. 29-Rachael McNamee[12]; 11. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker[2]; 12. (DNF) 37-Chris Ekren[1]; 13. (DNF) 91-Shane Swenson[4]; 14. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose[13]; 15. (DNF) 105-Terry Blacklance[15]; 16. (DNS) 28J-John Current; 17. (DNS) 1J-Cody Armstrong; 18. (DNS) 4-Trey Hess
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Josh Barker[3]; 2. 48-Chase Boen[2]; 3. 35-John Halvorson[6]; 4. 67-Weston Ramsrud[4]; 5. 28-Greg Jose[1]; 6. 105-Terry Blacklance[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27P-Tucker Pederson[4]; 2. 30-Seth Klostreich[1]; 3. 91-Shane Swenson[3]; 4. 18-Scotty Messner[2]; 5. 49-Rodney Hulst[6]; 6. (DNF) 1J-Cody Armstrong[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7-James Meagher[4]; 2. 69-Jayson Bronk[2]; 3. 37-Chris Ekren[3]; 4. 29-Rachael McNamee[6]; 5. (DNF) 28J-John Current[1]; 6. (DNF) 4-Trey Hess[5]

WISSOTA MODIFIEDS
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[3]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[8]; 3. 10W-Ward Imrie[4]; 4. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[6]; 5. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[5]; 6. 7-Bryce Borgen[10]; 7. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[15]; 8. 39-Shawn Teunis[1]; 9. 73P-Rene Poluyko[12]; 10. E3-Ethan Friesen[7]; 11. 81-Jordan Duray[18]; 12. 25-Ryan Johnson[14]; 13. 57-Michael Tiani[13]; 14. 16-Brenden Luschinski[16]; 15. 8T-Doug VanMill[17]; 16. (DNF) 74-Dustin Wahl[11]; 17. (DNF) 77R-Ryan Schroeder[2]; 18. (DNF) 1R-Rick Delaine[9]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Shawn Teunis[3]; 2. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[4]; 3. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[5]; 4. 7-Bryce Borgen[6]; 5. 57-Michael Tiani[1]; 6. 16-Brenden Luschinski[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10W-Ward Imrie[1]; 2. 1R-Rick Delaine[2]; 3. E3-Ethan Friesen[3]; 4. 74-Dustin Wahl[4]; 5. 25-Ryan Johnson[5]; 6. (DQ) 81-Jordan Duray[6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[2]; 3. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[1]; 4. 73P-Rene Poluyko[5]; 5. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[4]; 6. 8T-Doug VanMill[6]