9.1.17 River Cities Speedway Recap

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 1, 2017) – The Premier Racing Series produced a wild night on Friday at River Cities Speedway. Afternoon rains produced a fast and tacky three-tenths mile bullring, but the track crew stayed on top of the surface all night to ensure it remained smooth.

The Performance Auto WISSOTA Late Models put on a wild show during their 20-lap main event. It all began with Bill Mooney checking out from the field in the early going, just to have contact with lapped cars ruin his night.

Mooney started on the outside of the front row and opened up a comfortable advantage right at the drop of the green flag. Within several laps, Mooney held nearly a half-lap cushion over NLRA rookie of the year contenders, Travis Robertson and Brody Troftgruben. When Mooney encountered his first lapped car, Bryce Reimer, he suffered severe damage to the right side of his machine. Reimer began to spin just as Mooney was driving by, which resulted in heavy contact between the two drivers.

Mooney kept trucking forward, though, before reaching Nick Minske. In nearly identical fashion, Minske and Mooney made significant contact as well in turn two, which ended Minske’s night and cut down Mooney’s right rear tire.

Mooney’s crew was able to get the tire changed in time for the restart, but he had to rejoin the field at the tail. He would salvage a sixth place finish.

Robertson inherited the lead with 10 laps to go. Robertson held the point with Mike Balcaen and Ricky Weiss breathing down his neck. The final caution was displayed with three laps to go.

On the restart, Weiss moved by Balcaen for second and put Robertson in his crosshairs. On the final lap, Weiss moved to the inside of Robertson for the lead in turn one and the two got together. The contact resulted in a steering component breaking in the left front of Robertson.

Weiss drove away to take the win, as Robertson slowed significantly in turns three and four. Balcaen got into Robertson, which then started a chain reaction wreck at the finish line.

Robertson spun across the line to finish second, as Balcaen, Brad Seng, and Joey Pederson rounded out the top five.

Lapped traffic was the demise of Matt Schow’s solid run in the Happy Harry’s WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature. Schow took the lead over Gary Nelson on the opening lap before departing out to a 10 car length lead over Jeremy Lizakowski.

Schow extended his advantage further before reach the tail of the field. Schow maneuvered past the first lapped cars with little trouble, but he broke his momentum when he reached a pair of cars racing side by side. Schow moved to the inside to make it three wide in turn two, but one of the drivers began to lose the handle on their machine, which forced Schow to stab the brake.

That’s all it took for Lizakowski to reel in the McIntosh, Minn. driver.

With seven laps to go, Schow and Lizakowski reached a traffic jam of lapped cars. That’s where Lizakowski made his move.

The driver of the No. 96 machine went to the top of the race track and drove around Schow amidst four other lapped cars. Schow tried to battle back, but was pinned to the inside in traffic.

When the leaders reached open track, Lizakowski had an eight car length lead over Schow with three laps remaining. Lizakowski rode around the fast and tacky bullring to claim his first-ever win at River Cities Speedway.

Josh Barker jumped out to the early lead of the Wells Concrete WISSOTA Street Stock feature. Barker, of Thompson, N.D., pulled away to a 10 car length lead by lap two as Ron Olafson, Tiffany Noreikis, and John Halvorson battled for second.

On lap four, Halvorson moved around Noreikis for third and set his sights on Olafson.

Halvorson quickly closed in on Olafson, but struggled to get around the Performance Auto No. 76. The two drivers battled side by side for the runner-up position for six consecutive laps before Halvorson was finally able to clear Olafson in turn four.

With five laps remaining, Halvorson had clean shot a Barker for the lead, but Barker had opened up a full straightaway advantage. Halvorson steadily closed in on Barker, reaching his rear bumper with two laps to go. When the white flag flew from the Valley Sunrise Properties flagstand, Halvorson made his move.

Barker pushed up the track in turn one, which allowed Halvorson to peek underneath. Barker had the momentum exiting the corner to regain the lead, but he pushed again in turn three.

Halvorson drove underneath him once again as they drag raced to the North Dakota Eye Clinic finish line, where Halvorson edged out Barker by a half car length.

The win was Halvorson’s first Street Stock win at River Cities Speedway since September 4, 2009 and 10th overall win at the Bullring.

Olafson, Noreikis, and Daniel Aberle rounded out the top five.

After finishing second to Mark Dobmeier last week, Chris Ranten led all 25 laps of the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Car feature for his second win of the season. Ranten beat Austin Pierce into turn one on the opening lap from the outside of the front row to take the lead. Ranten had no time to get comfortable out front as he caught the tail of the field on lap two.

Ranten efficiently sliced through lapped traffic and put four cars between himself and Austin Pierce.

The race was marred by two red flags, the worst of which came on lap 10 when Jordan Adams took a hellacious ride down the front straightaway. Adams and Ty Hanten got together, which spun Adams and dug his left rear tire into the track. From there, Adams had to hang on as his Home of Economy No. 20A flipped a total of six times down the front straightaway into the entry of turn one. Adams fuel cell was ripped from the car and flew over the catch fence, over part of the turn one grandstand, and landed in a nearby vacant campground approximately 80-100 yards from the incident.

The 21-year-old driver claimed from his mangled machine and was immediately checked out by the Altru medical staff. Adams was reported to be ok, despite some minor injuries.

The second red flag occurred with five laps to go when Jack Croaker was exiting the racing surface. As he was doing so, Rick Bates climbed the left rear of Croaker and flipped end over end twice into the infield. Both Bates and Croaker were ok.

When the race resumed, Ranten paced the field as Pierce and Wade Nygaard gave chase. Nobody had anything for Ranten as he cruised to the win over Pierce, Nygaard, Casey Mack and Nick Omdahl.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7W-Ricky Weiss, [7]; 2. 1R-Travis Robertson, [4]; 3. 10-Mike Balcaen, [3]; 4. 12S-Brad Seng, [5]; 5. 7P-Joey Pederson, [6]; 6. 2-Bill Mooney, [2]; 7. F9-Brandon Fuller, [10]; 8. 14-Brody Troftgruben, [1]; 9. 9-Steve Anderson, [15]; 10. (DNF) 345-Bryce Reimer, [14]; 11. (DNF) T1-Tom Corcoran, [13]; 12. (DNF) 71-Dustin Strand, [8]; 13. (DNF) 1M-Nicholas Minske, [12]; 14. (DNF) 4C-Ryan Corbett, [9]; (DNS) 4-Shane Edginton,

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, [1]; 2. 10-Mike Balcaen, [3]; 3. 2-Bill Mooney, [5]; 4. 7W-Ricky Weiss, [8]; 5. 4C-Ryan Corbett, [2]; 6. 4-Shane Edginton, [7]; 7. T1-Tom Corcoran, [6]; 8. 9-Steve Anderson, [4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng, [2]; 2. 14-Brody Troftgruben, [1]; 3. 7P-Joey Pederson, [4]; 4. 1R-Travis Robertson, [7]; 5. F9-Brandon Fuller, [5]; 6. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [3]; 7. 345-Bryce Reimer, [6]

 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski, [4]; 2. 74-Gary Nelson, [1]; 3. 28S-Ryan Schow, [3]; 4. 44-Austin Hunter, [6]; 5. 17S-Lance Schill, [8]; 6. 16T-Tim Kanten, [5]; 7. 22-Rick Hamel, [7]; 8. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [10]; 9. 01-Zach Bruer, [12]; 10. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [9]; 11. 5C-Preston Carr, [13]; 12. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [18]; 13. 22S-Tyler Schow, [17]; 14. 35-John Halvorson, [15]; 15. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [23]; 16. M1-Ryan Oppegaard, [16]; 17. 77B-Logan Bauer, [19]; 18. 3-Adam Unrau, [24]; 19. (DNF) 2S-Matt Schow, [2]; 20. (DNF) 57-Nathan Raasakka, [20]; 21. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler, [22]; 22. (DNF) 21-Todd Johnson, [14]; 23. (DNF) 97-Grady Shearer, [11]; (DNS) 96-Brent Loftsgard,

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 74-Gary Nelson, [1]; 2. 16T-Tim Kanten, [4]; 3. 28S-Ryan Schow, [3]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [5]; 5. 5C-Preston Carr, [7]; 6. M1-Ryan Oppegaard, [8]; 7. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler, [2]; 8. (DNF) 6R-Nate Reynolds, [6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow, [2]; 2. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski, [1]; 3. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [7]; 4. 97-Grady Shearer, [4]; 5. 21-Todd Johnson, [5]; 6. 22S-Tyler Schow, [3]; 7. 77B-Logan Bauer, [8]; 8. (DNF) 3-Adam Unrau, [6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Rick Hamel, [2]; 2. 17S-Lance Schill, [1]; 3. 44-Austin Hunter, [4]; 4. 01-Zach Bruer, [6]; 5. 35-John Halvorson, [7]; 6. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [8]; 7. 57-Nathan Raasakka, [5]; 8. (DNF) 96-Brent Loftsgard, [3]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson, [4]; 2. 99-Josh Barker, [2]; 3. 76-Ron Olafson, [1]; 4. 24T-Tiffany Noreikis, [3]; 5. 33-Daniel Aberle, [8]; 6. 18B-Adam Burrows, [10]; 7. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [7]; 8. 48-Chase Boen, [11]; 9. 7-James Meagher, [6]; 10. 29-Dan McNamee, [12]; 11. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [16]; 12. 21J-Brian Johanson, [5]; 13. 00-Dustin Ebensteiner, [19]; 14. 11P-Jeremiah Porter, [14]; 15. 28-Greg Jose, [13]; 16. 18X-Riley Gregoire, [18]; 17. 03-Bryce Reimer, [15]; 18. 9-Jason Rethemeier, [17]; 19. (DNF) 25-Ryan Johnson, [9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Daniel Aberle, [2]; 2. 7-James Meagher, [1]; 3. 25-Ryan Johnson, [4]; 4. 18B-Adam Burrows, [3]; 5. 28-Greg Jose, [7]; 6. 27P-Tucker Pederson, [5]; 7. 18X-Riley Gregoire, [6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21J-Brian Johanson, [2]; 2. 1M-Nicholas Minske, [1]; 3. 76-Ron Olafson, [4]; 4. 48-Chase Boen, [6]; 5. 11P-Jeremiah Porter, [5]; 6. (DNF) 00-Dustin Ebensteiner, [3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 35-John Halvorson, [6]; 2. 99-Josh Barker, [1]; 3. 24T-Tiffany Noreikis, [4]; 4. 29-Dan McNamee, [3]; 5. 03-Bryce Reimer, [5]; 6. 9-Jason Rethemeier, [2]

NOSA 410 Sprint Cars:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 27-Chris Ranten, [2]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, [1]; 3. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [4]; 4. 8-Casey Mack, [3]; 5. 0-Nick Omdahl, [6]; 6. 99-Jordan Graham, [12]; 7. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [21]; 8. 8H-Jade Hastings, [5]; 9. 31-Shane Roemeling, [13]; 10. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [9]; 11. 26-Blake Egeland, [15]; 12. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [17]; 13. (DNF) 91M-Jackson Moffett, [8]; 14. (DNF) 6-Zach Wilde, [11]; 15. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland, [14]; 16. (DNF) 4M-Cale Mack, [16]; 17. (DNF) 8C-Jack Croaker, [23]; 18. (DNF) 42-Rick Bates, [18]; 19. (DNF) 51-Alex Larson, [19]; 20. (DNF) 20A-Jordan Adams, [7]; 21. (DNF) 13T-Ty Hanten, [10]; 22. (DNF) 24-Jon Sorenson, [20]; (DNS) 22-Tanner Wisk,

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings, [1]; 2. 91M-Jackson Moffett, [2]; 3. 13T-Ty Hanten, [3]; 4. 6-Zach Wilde, [5]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham, [6]; 6. 8C-Jack Croaker, [8]; 7. (DNF) 42-Rick Bates, [4]; 8. (DNF) 22-Tanner Wisk, [7]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 0-Nick Omdahl, [1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [4]; 3. 20A-Jordan Adams, [6]; 4. 31-Shane Roemeling, [2]; 5. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [8]; 6. 4M-Cale Mack, [5]; 7. 51-Alex Larson, [7]; 8. 24-Jon Sorenson, [3]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Chris Ranten, [3]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, [6]; 3. 8-Casey Mack, [7]; 4. 14-Tom Egeland, [2]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland, [4]; 6. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [5]; 7. (DNF) 10TRB-Bob Martin, [1]