Strand, Pierce, Dietlzer and Johnson visit RydellCars.com Victory Lane at River Cities

Dustin Strand - NLRA Late Model winner. All photos by Adrienne Spieker.

Austin Pierce - NOSA Sprints winner

Jamie Dietzler - Midwest Mod winner

Ryan Johnson - Street Stock winner

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (July 24, 2020) – Familiar faces visited RydellCars.com Victory Lane on Friday night as the Premier Racing Series returned to the bullring. Dustin Strand, Jamie Dietlzer and Ryan Johnson all picked up WISSOTA feature wins, while Austin Pierce was victorious in the NOSA Sprints. 

Dustin Strand topped the field of 20 Performance Auto WISSOTA NLRA Late Models by leading all 20 trips around the three-tenths mile oval. Strand had to work for it, however. Four-time and defending NLRA series champion, Brad Seng, was hot on his heels in the early going, but Strand was able to extend his advantage when he encountered lapped traffic at the halfway point. 

With Seng getting held up in traffic, that allowed Strand to pull away to a big lead. 

In the closing laps, Seng began to find his groove and became a contender again with five to go. Seng got to within three car lengths of Strand with three to go, but again, Seng was held up in traffic, which ultimately sealed the win for Strand. 

Strand’s win was his third of the season at River Cities and extended his points lead to seven over Seng in the track standings. 

Tom Corcoran, Brody Troftgruben and Joey Pederson rounded out the top five. 

The Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints were 17 cars strong for their 25-lap main event. For the second week in a row on the opening lap, NOSA rookie Zach Omdahl got upside down. Omdahl was okay and a complete restart followed the red flag. 

Following another complete restart, Austin Pierce took the point over fellow front row starter Jack Croaker. The race was halted again on lap one as Brendan Mullen went for a tumble in turns one and two. Mullen was okay. 

Pierce grabbed the lead again after a great battle with Croaker. 

On lap five, the caution came out for a car off the banking, but just as it did, Croaker slid off the top of turn two, slammed hard into the back straightaway wall and got upside down. Croaker also walked away uninjured.

That moved Wade Nygaard into the second position for the ensuing restart. 

Nobody had anything for Pierce, however. The two-time series champion dominated the remainder of the event to score his fifth win of the season and the 32nd of his career, which ties him for fourth on the all-time NOSA wins list with Casey Mack. 

The Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature got out to an exciting start with a three wide battle for the lead. Nathan Raasakka took the point over Matt Schow and Jamie Dietzler, but a quick caution on lap two slowed the field. 

On the restart, Dietzler and Lance Schill found a way around Raasakka as they battled for the lead. Schill rode right in the tire tracks of Dietzler for the next 10 circuits as the lead duo checked out from the rest of the pack. 

With five to go, Schill slipped up and out of the groove and off the track to bring out the yellow.

That gave Dietzler clear sailing to pick up his second win of the season. 

Former track champion, Ryan Johnson, appears to be back in championship form. The Karlstad, Minn. driver raced to his second WISSOTA Street Stock win of the season at the bullring in convincing fashion, leading all 15 laps. 

Johnson started on the pole and took the point over fellow front row starter John Halvorson. Halvorson ran in the second spot until he made heavy contact with the turn four water barrels and brought out the caution. Halvorson was okay, but his car had to leave the track on the hook. 

As the race resumed, Tucker Pederson assumed the second position but had his hands full with Seth Klostreich. That allowed Johnson to pull away to a comfortable lead. 

Johnson went on to score the win as Pederson and Klostreich rounded out the podium positions. 
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SUMMARY
WISSOTA Late Models:
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. 12S-Brad Seng[2]; 3. T1-Tom Corcoran[4]; 4. 14-Brody Troftgruben[5]; 5. 7P-Joey Pederson[3]; 6. C4-Ryan Corbett[7]; 7. 9-Steve Anderson[6]; 8. F9-Brandon Fuller[8]; 9. 2*-Cole Babcock[15]; 10. 11-Troy Schill[19]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[9]; 12. 02-Dan Dowling[12]; 13. 16S-Jeff Hapala[13]; 14. 15-Cody Storbakken[16]; 15. 84-Joshua Johnson[14]; 16. 21-Brady Pengilly[17]; 17. 47-Kreig Kasin[18]; 18. (DNF) 17-Lance Schill[11]; 19. (DNF) 71S-Steffen Snare[10]; 20. (DNS) 42-Matthew Jarvis
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. T1-Tom Corcoran[2]; 3. C4-Ryan Corbett[4]; 4. 71S-Steffen Snare[6]; 5. 16S-Jeff Hapala[5]; 6. 15-Cody Storbakken[7]; 7. 11-Troy Schill[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[1]; 2. 14-Brody Troftgruben[3]; 3. F9-Brandon Fuller[4]; 4. 17-Lance Schill[2]; 5. 84-Joshua Johnson[7]; 6. 21-Brady Pengilly[5]; 7. (DNF) 42-Matthew Jarvis[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7P-Joey Pederson[1]; 2. 9-Steve Anderson[2]; 3. 1M-Nicholas Minske[3]; 4. 02-Dan Dowling[4]; 5. 2*-Cole Babcock[6]; 6. 47-Kreig Kasin[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler[3]; 2. 57-Nathan Raasakka[2]; 3. 28S-Ryan Schow[7]; 4. 2S-Matt Schow[1]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg[4]; 6. 16-Randy Thompson[10]; 7. 23-Scott Vasichek[13]; 8. 54-Terry Nelson[12]; 9. (DNF) 17-Lance Schill[6]; 10. (DNF) 30-Cole Neset[5]; 11. (DNF) 99-Ed Lehrke[11]; 12. (DNF) 21L-Jarett Lovcik[8]; 13. (DNF) 35-John Halvorson[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler[1]; 2. 30-Cole Neset[2]; 3. 28S-Ryan Schow[3]; 4. 21L-Jarett Lovcik[4]; 5. 35-John Halvorson[5]; 6. 99-Ed Lehrke[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[2]; 3. 87S-Reise Stenberg[1]; 4. 57-Nathan Raasakka[5]; 5. 16-Randy Thompson[7]; 6. 54-Terry Nelson[3]; 7. 23-Scott Vasichek[6]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 25-Ryan Johnson[1]; 2. 27-Tucker Pederson[3]; 3. 30-Seth Klostreich[4]; 4. 87-Alan Lane[6]; 5. 7-James Meagher[5]; 6. 03-Bryce Reimer[7]; 7. 4-Trey Hess[10]; 8. 28-Greg Jose[9]; 9. 1M-Nicholas Minske[11]; 10. (DNF) 34-Ryne Uhrich[8]; 11. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker[12]; 12. (DNF) 35-John Halvorson[2]; 13. (DNF) 29-Dan McNamee[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson[6]; 2. 30-Seth Klostreich[2]; 3. 7-James Meagher[7]; 4. 34-Ryne Uhrich[3]; 5. 28-Greg Jose[1]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske[5]; 7. 29-Dan McNamee[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Tucker Pederson[3]; 2. 25-Ryan Johnson[6]; 3. 87-Alan Lane[2]; 4. 03-Bryce Reimer[1]; 5. 4-Trey Hess[4]; 6. 99-Josh Barker[5]

NOSA Sprints:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin[9]; 4. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 5. 31-Shane Roemeling[10]; 6. 14T-Tim Estenson[8]; 7. 20A-Jordan Adams[7]; 8. 99-Jordan Graham[12]; 9. 14-Tom Egeland[13]; 10. 35-Brenden Wilde[14]; 11. 10S-Josh Swangler[15]; 12. (DNF) 8BALL-Jack Croaker[2]; 13. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[16]; 14. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]; 15. (DNF) 0-Nick Omdahl[5]; 16. (DNF) 17-Zach Omdahl[11]; 17. (DNS) 22-Brandon Palm

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 3. 0-Nick Omdahl[3]; 4. 20A-Jordan Adams[4]; 5. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 7. 14-Tom Egeland[6]; 8. 10S-Josh Swangler[8]; 9. 22-Brandon Palm[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[2]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]; 4. 14T-Tim Estenson[6]; 5. 31-Shane Roemeling[3]; 6. 99-Jordan Graham[7]; 7. 35-Brenden Wilde[8]; 8. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[5]