Trautner Triumphs on Night Three of Sanders Mod Tour at Jamestown!

JAMESTOWN, ND (August 20) – The penultimate night of the inaugural Sanders Mod Tour brought 54 IMCA Modifieds to Jamestown Speedway for the Saturday night special. Compared to the standard of the first two nights, Saturday’s event was a bit offbeat. After failing to transfer out of the heat race, Sanders Mod Tour point leader, Austin Arneson, made a big charge in the B-main, but came up a half car length short of finishing in the top four and moving on to the A-main. Felton, Minnesota’s Jamie Trautner led the 25-lap feature wire to wire to score the upset victory.
“This is outstanding,” said Trautner in victory lane. “When I started racing I ran Jamestown and [Norman County Raceway] and I’ve never won here. I’ve been close a few times here, but I finally got one and this is the biggest one of my career. It was tough. The track was pretty rutted up on top and it was hard just to keep the car straight. I knew there was so many good guys behind me that if I didn’t hit my mark, they were going to be rolling by.”

Trautner started outside the front row and ran the cushion to beat pole sitter Jerry Lamb off of turn two. Riding right in Trautner’s tire tracks was hometown driver, Ryan Mikkelson, who started in fourth.

The first caution flew on lap three when Hunter Marriott and Hank Berry made contact in turn three, which sent Marriott to the back. On the restart Darin Duffy challenged Mikkelson for the runner-up position, but Mikkelson withstood the threat. On the following circuit Marriott was in trouble again as he was spun in turn two, bringing out the caution. He would rebound to finish eighth.

Restarts were the key for Trautner as he was able to not only fend off Mikkelson and Duffy, but pull away from the pack on most occasions.

“I’m not a very good restarter,” admitted Trautner. “Every time we had a restart I kept thinking, ‘When do I hit the gas, when do I hit the gas? I have to protect the bottom, then get to the top. If I get passed I guess it’s just not my night, it’s theirs,’ but it worked out.”

The final caution of the race flew on the lap six restart when Tyler Peterson, who was running third and entered the night second in the Sanders Mod Tour points, and Mikkelson made heavy contact in turn two. As a result, Peterson spun exiting the corner as several other cars also spun out trying to avoid the AllFinish Concrete ‪#‎1TPO‬ and did so successfully. One driver that wasn’t as fortunate was Friday night’s Out-Pace Racing Products hard charger, Dave Shipley. Shipley had no where to go and made significant contact with the left front of Peterson’s machine, which sent the rear end of Shipley’s car airborne. Shipley landed on all fours, and was unharmed in the incident, but both he and Peterson were done for the night.

Trautner was able to hold on for one more restart and went on to lead the final five laps as Duffy sneaked by Mikkelson on the final lap to take second. Tyler Hall wheeled his way from 14th to fourth, while Rich Pavlicek rounded out the top five after starting ninth.

John Nord was the Out-Pace Racing Products hard charger, advancing from 22nd to 10th to score the $100 bonus.
With Arneson not making Saturday night’s A-main, Marriott is now the new point leader entering the final night of action Sunday evening at Buffalo River Race Park in Glyndon, MN. Pavlicek and Mikkelson are tied for second, each 11 points back with Arneson and Peterson still within striking distance in fourth and fifth, respectively.

RESULTS:

Feature – 1. Jamie Trautner, 2. Darin Duffy, 3. Ryan Mikkelson, 4. Tyler Hall, 5. Rich Pavlicek, 6. Hank Berry, 7. Rob VanMil, 8. Hunter Marriott, 9. Greg Friestad, 10. John Nord, 11. Tim Thomas, 12. Tory Heupel, 13. Tom Silver, 14. Bob Banish Jr., 15. Jerry Lamb, 16. Andrew Michel, 17. Jeff Odden, 18. Jarrett Carter. 19. Cody Peterson, 20. Dave Shipley, 21. Mike Johnson, 22. Josh Eberhardt, 23. Tyler Peterson, 24. Marlyn Seidler, 25. Michael Griffin

B-Main 1 – 1. Shipley, 2. VanMil, 3. Banish Jr., 4. Nord, 5. Josh Rogotzke, 6. John Corell, 7. Dwighth Wegner, 8. Eric Edwards, 9. Marcus Tomlinson, 10. Tailin Tommerdahl, 11. Tim Compson, 12. Owen Siebert, 13. Mark Trautner, 14. Don Robinson

B-Main 2 – 1. Hall, 2. Odden, 3. Johnson, 4. Griffin, 5. Austin Arneson, 6. Justin Jones, 7. Cody Erickson, 8. Ryan Wolla, 9. Myles Tomlinson, 10. Jamall Wold, 11. Billy Vogel, 12. Lance Schilling, 13. Crist Pettinger, 14. Delay Dykstra

B-Main 3 – 1. Heupel, 2. Silver, 3. Eberhardt, 4. Carter, 5. C. Peterson, 6. Rusty Coleman, 7. Jason Grimes, 8. Craig Larson, 9. Randy Kollman, 10. Josh Wolla, 11. Josh Anderson, 12. Kelly Hagel, 13. Tommy Lee, 14. Bryce Bjerken

Heat 1 – 1. Friestad, 2. T. Peterson, 3. Banish Jr., 4. Nord, 5. Corell, 6. Rogotzke, 7. Edwards, 8. Compson, 9. Siebert

Heat 2 – 1. Duffy, 2. J. Trautner, 3. Odden, 4. Griffin, 5. Wold, 6. Jones, 7. Arneson, 8. Tomlinson, 9. Tommerdahl

Heat 3 – 1. Seidler, 2. Lamb, 3. Silver, 4. Eberhardt, 5. Bjorken, 6. Ra. Coleman, 7. Larson, 8. Grimes, 9. Pittenger

Heat 4 – 1. Berry, 2. Pavlicek, 3. Shipley, 4. VanMil, 5. M. Trautner, 6. Wegner, 7. Robinson, 8. Tomlinson, 9. Erickson