Tom Corcoran claims victory in sixth decade of racing

Tom Corcoran celebrates in Rydellcars.com Victory Lane after his Late Model win. | Photos by Adrienne Spieker (speedwayshots.com)

Seth Klostreich | WISSOTA Street Stocks

Jade Hastings | Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Cars

John Halvorson | Happy Harry's Midwest Mods

Tom Corcoran | Performance Auto Late Models

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (June 26, 2020) – Friday night was a special one at River Cities Speedway as one of its most decorated drivers scored a monumental win. Tom Corcoran, a 51-year veteran driver, won the Performance Auto WISSOTA NLRA Late Model feature. The win gave Corcoran a victory in six different decades – from the 1970s-2020s.

“I’m feeling pretty good about it,” said a happy Corcoran after the race. “That’s one of the reasons I came back (to race) again this year.”

Corcoran started on the pole with Brandon Fuller to his outside and grabbed the lead on the opening circuit. Three laps in, Corcoran began to distance himself from the rest of the 18-car field. 

Corcoran had well over a full straightaway advantage over Joey Pederson when the first caution flew on lap 11 of 20. On the restart, Pederson hammered the cushion to find a way around the No. T1, but Corcoran, running his patented groove around the inside, continued to pull away. 

Corcoran again pulled out to a full straightaway lead by the time he took the checkers. Pederson and Jeffrey Massingill rounded out the podium. 

“Even after all these years, every night is still a learning curve,” Corcoran said in RydellCars.com Victory Lane. “That’s why I’m so happy to be here. This is awesome, believe me, it’s awesome.”

Austin Pierce came into Friday’s event at River Cities Speedway undefeated in feature action at the Bullring. River Cities Speedway upped the anty for the other Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA drivers, offering an $800 bounty if Pierce could be beaten. Throughout the course of the night, sponsors and fans alike chipped in to make a $1,575 bounty by the time the green flag waved for the Sprint Car feature. 

Jade Hastings jumped out to the early lead from the pole position over 10-time NOSA champion, Wade Nygaard. Nick Ranten and Austin Pierce worked their way into second and third, respectively, early on. 

At the midway point of the race, Ranten reeled in Hastings and placed a bid for the lead. Ranten tried to drive to the inside of Hastings for several laps. He was successful on lap 12, but Hastings was able to quickly crossover and regain the point. 

With eight to go, Hastings found himself in heavy lapped traffic, with both Ranten and Pierce looming close by. 

A caution with five to go gave Hastings an open track but put Ranten and Pierce right behind him. On the restart, Hastings jumped out to a three-car length lead while Chris Ranten drove around both his younger brother, Nick, and Pierce. The chase was on for Chris Ranten to catch Hastings, but he ran out of time as Hastings scored his eighth career NOSA win. 

The win for Hastings breaks a tie with Donny Schatz and puts him in a tie with Nick Omdahl for 13th on the all-time NOSA wins list. 

Defending Street Stock track champion, John Halvorson, visited victory lane after cruising to the Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops Midwest Mod feature win. Halvorson started on the outside of the front row and led all 18 trips around the three-tenths mile oval, relatively unchallenged, en route to the win. Week two winner, Jamie Dietzler, and Jory Berg rounded out the podium.  

Seth Klostreich dominated the WISSOTA Street Stock feature for his first career victory at the Bullring. Klostreich drew the pole for the 15-lap main event and jumped out to the early lead Alan Lane and Jared Palm. 

Late in the going, Klostreich had to contend with Daniel Aberle and defending track champion, John Halvorson. Halvorson worked his way into second with seven laps to go but couldn’t find a way around Klostreich. Halvorson and Aberle worked the rear bumper of Klostreich in the final laps, but undeterred, Klostreich went on to win. 

SUMMARY
WISSOTA Late Models:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. T1-Tom Corcoran[1]; 2. 7P-Joey Pederson[6]; 3. 6M-Jeffrey Massingill[9]; 4. 9-Steve Anderson[3]; 5. 12S-Brad Seng[8]; 6. 14-Brody Troftgruben[12]; 7. C4-Ryan Corbett[4]; 8. 11-Troy Schill[13]; 9. 71-Dustin Strand[7]; 10. F9-Brandon Fuller[2]; 11. 1M-Nicholas Minske[10]; 12. 9A-Blake Anderson[16]; 13. 17-Lance Schill[5]; 14. 47-Kreig Kasin[18]; 15. 21-Brady Pengilly[15]; 16. (DNF) 18X-Shawn Meyer[11]; 17. (DNF) 03-Casey Meyer[14]; 18. (DNS) 105-Ryan Dahl

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Steve Anderson[1]; 2. C4-Ryan Corbett[4]; 3. 6M-Jeffrey Massingill[2]; 4. 1M-Nicholas Minske[3]; 5. 11-Troy Schill[6]; 6. 21-Brady Pengilly[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[4]; 2. 12S-Brad Seng[3]; 3. T1-Tom Corcoran[6]; 4. 18X-Shawn Meyer[2]; 5. 03-Casey Meyer[5]; 6. 9A-Blake Anderson[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7P-Joey Pederson[1]; 2. F9-Brandon Fuller[5]; 3. 17-Lance Schill[4]; 4. 14-Brody Troftgruben[2]; 5. (DNF) 47-Kreig Kasin[6]; 6. (DNS) 105-Ryan Dahl

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson[2]; 2. 39-Jamie Dietzler[4]; 3. B0-Jory Berg[10]; 4. 5C-Preston Carr[3]; 5. 57R-Nathan Raasakka[1]; 6. 2S-Matt Schow[7]; 7. 16-Randy Thompson[13]; 8. 2R-Jeff Reed[12]; 9. 87S-Reise Stenberg[11]; 10. 57H-Blake Higginbotham[9]; 11. 30-Cole Neset[14]; 12. 41-Tyler McClellan[8]; 13. 54-Terry Nelson[16]; 14. 33G-Connor Graff[17]; 15. (DNF) 17L-Jason LaValley[15]; 16. (DNF) E85-Jason Strand[6]; 17. (DNF) 17-Lance Schill[5]; 18. (DNS) B1O-Ronnie Novacek

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[2]; 2. 35-John Halvorson[4]; 3. 41-Tyler McClellan[1]; 4. B0-Jory Berg[5]; 5. 16-Randy Thompson[3]; 6. 54-Terry Nelson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 2. E85-Jason Strand[2]; 3. 5C-Preston Carr[1]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg[3]; 5. 30-Cole Neset[5]; 6. 33G-Connor Graff[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 57R-Nathan Raasakka[2]; 2. 39-Jamie Dietzler[4]; 3. 57H-Blake Higginbotham[1]; 4. 2R-Jeff Reed[5]; 5. 17L-Jason LaValley[3]; 6. (DNF) B1O-Ronnie Novacek[6]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 30-Seth Klostreich[1]; 2. 35-John Halvorson[9]; 3. 33-Daniel Aberle[6]; 4. 25-Ryan Johnson[13]; 5. 4-Trey Hess[8]; 6. 11X-Jared Palm[2]; 7. 27P-Tucker Pederson[10]; 8. 48-Chase Boen[5]; 9. 10-Joe Potter[15]; 10. 1M-Nicholas Minske[12]; 11. 7-James Meagher[4]; 12. 92-Megan McNamee[16]; 13. (DNF) 03-Bryce Reimer[11]; 14. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose[7]; 15. (DNF) 87-Alan Lane[3]; 16. (DNF) 34-Bill Gustafson[14]; 17. (DNF) 29-Dan McNamee[17]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[2]; 2. 11X-Jared Palm[1]; 3. 28-Greg Jose[4]; 4. 33-Daniel Aberle[6]; 5. 35-John Halvorson[5]; 6. 03-Bryce Reimer[3]; 7. 25-Ryan Johnson[9]; 8. 10-Joe Potter[7]; 9. 29-Dan McNamee[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 87-Alan Lane[2]; 2. 30-Seth Klostreich[1]; 3. 48-Chase Boen[4]; 4. 7-James Meagher[6]; 5. 27P-Tucker Pederson[5]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske[7]; 7. 34-Bill Gustafson[3]; 8. 92-Megan McNamee[8]

NOSA Sprint Cars:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[5]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce[3]; 4. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 5. 20A-Jordan Adams[6]; 6. 0-Nick Omdahl[9]; 7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[7]; 8. 31-Shane Roemeling[8]; 9. 99-Jordan Graham[16]; 10. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 11. 14T-Tim Estenson[12]; 12. 14-Tom Egeland[13]; 13. 8B-Jack Croaker[10]; 14. 26-Blake Egeland[11]; 15. 17-Zach Omdahl[17]; 16. 41T-Travis Strandell[15]; 17. 4-Colton Young[14]; 18. 10S-Josh Swangler[18]; 19. (DNS) 10TRB-Bob Martin; 20. (DNS) 13T-Ty Hanten; 21. (DNS) 2-Tee Young

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard[5]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[6]; 3. 14-Tom Egeland[2]; 4. 8B-Jack Croaker[4]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[3]; 6. 10S-Josh Swangler[7]; 7. (DNS) 13T-Ty Hanten

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 2. 31-Shane Roemeling[2]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[5]; 4. 14T-Tim Estenson[3]; 5. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 6. (DNF) 10TRB-Bob Martin[6]; 7. (DNF) 2-Tee Young[1]
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Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[6]; 3. 20A-Jordan Adams[3]; 4. 0-Nick Omdahl[5]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham[7]; 6. 4-Colton Young[2]; 7. (DNF) 41T-Travis Strandell[1]