By Mike Spieker
ADA, Minn. (June 28, 2018) – Tyler Hall of Fertile has won in just about everything at Norman County Raceway. From Four-Cylinders, to Mod Fours, to Midwest Mods. He even claimed the 2017 IMCA Modified track championship. However, Hall, who is in his third year in the IMCA Modified division, had yet to win a Modified race at the high-banked three-eighths-mile dirt oval.
Until Thursday.
Photo: Tyler Hall of Fertile claimed his first career IMCA Modified win at Norman County Raceway on Thursday night.
Hall jumped into second in the early going of the 20-lap Sanders Metal Products IMCA Modified feature as fellow Fury Chassis pilot, Jesse Skalicky, showed the way. Hot on their heels were a trio of Black Widow Chassis drivers: Jason Strand, Dale Kraling, and Tyler Peterson.
Skalicky and Hall distanced themselves from the back as it looked as though Skalicky, who was also in search of his first Modified win at Norman County, was the car to beat. With six laps to go, Skalicky missed the groove in turns one and two ever so slightly, which opened the door for Hall.
Hall capitalized immediately and made the pass for the lead inside of Skalicky. Skalicky did the best he could to battle back, but Hall was too quick as he went on to secure that coveted first Modified win at his home track. Skalicky, Peterson, Kraling and Michael Greseth rounded out the top five.
Rob VanMil of Barnesville picked up his fourth Norman County Implement IMCA Stock Car win of 2018. Rick Schulz grabbed the lead on lap one, but suffered a push out of turn four, giving an opportunity to VanMil. VanMil took the lead exiting the corner to lead the opening lap and never looked back.
The Titan Machinery IMCA SportMods had the most exciting feature of the evening. The event got off to a ragged start as four cars were collected in an incident on the opening lap. When the race resumed, SportMod rookie Brady Moore held the point over second-year driver Brandon Tendeland. Kelly Jacobson entered the mix in the early stages as well and made it a three wide race for the lead on lap three.
Jacobson and Tendeland made contact in turns one and two, which sent Tendeland around. On the ensuing restart, Jacobson took the point and held it until the hard-charging Vince Jegtvig drove around the outside of him to take the lead with nine to go.
Jegtvig looked strong on the top side of the speedway, but Aaron Wetterlin began creeping closer and closer in the final laps. Wetterlin, who was the only driver in the top five running the extreme bottom groove pulled even with Jegtvig as they came to the white flag. Jegtvig still had the advantage down the back straightaway, but Wetterlin stole the lead in the final set of corners. It came down to a drag race to the AuctionBlock.com Flagstand, where Wetterlin held on to win by a half car length. Jegtvig, Jacobson, Andy Wagner and Tendeland rounded out the top five.
Joseph Thomas started on the pole of the Christian Motors WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature and led until Sam Zender and Aaron Blacklance moved by on lap three. Blacklance, who started fourth, took the top spot away from Zender the following lap and looked to distance himself from the rest of the field. Eighth place starter, Lance Schill, moved into second and set his sights on Blacklance for the lead. Schill closed the gap to within four car lengths, but couldn’t get any closer.
Schill drove his car deep into turn three on the final lap, pulled even with Blacklance, but Blacklance’s momentum carried him to the win.
Norman County Raceway will be off next week but will return to action with Ladies’ Night on July 12th. Green flag drops at 7 pm.
RESULTS:
IMCA Modifieds:
A Feature 1: 1. 60-Tyler Hall, [4]; 2. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [2]; 3. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [8]; 4. 7-Dale Kraling, [3]; 5. 17-Michael Greseth, [10]; 6. 7B-Bryce Borgen, [6]; 7. 88B-Brady Petermann, [7]; 8. E85-Jason Strand, [1]; 9. 60X-Patrick Brejcha, [9]; 10. 25-Jamie Trautner, [5]; 11. 96A-Jake Bitker, [11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. E85-Jason Strand, [1]; 2. 60-Tyler Hall, [3]; 3. 60X-Patrick Brejcha, [6]; 4. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [5]; 5. 7B-Bryce Borgen, [4]; 6. (DNF) 17-Michael Greseth, [2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Dale Kraling, [2]; 2. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [1]; 3. 25-Jamie Trautner, [3]; 4. 88B-Brady Petermann, [4]; 5. 96A-Jake Bitker, [5]
WISSOTA Midwest Modified:
Feature: 1. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [4]; 2. 17-Lance Schill, [8]; 3. 11-Sam Zender, [3]; 4. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [5]; 5. RED1-Dan Wheeler, [6]; 6. 7X-Corky Thomas, [10]; 7. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [2]; 8. 7T-Joseph Thomas, [1]; 9. SS42-Scott Samuelson, [9]; (DNS) 33-Jeff Nelson,
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [4]; 2. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [1]; 3. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [2]; 4. 33-Jeff Nelson, [3]; 5. SS42-Scott Samuelson, [5]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. RED1-Dan Wheeler, [3]; 2. 17-Lance Schill, [5]; 3. 7T-Joseph Thomas, [1]; 4. 11-Sam Zender, [2]; 5. 7X-Corky Thomas, [4]
IMCA SportMods:
Feature: 1. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [8]; 2. 22-Vince Jegtvig, [7]; 3. 51-Kelly Jacobson, [9]; 4. 3X-Andy Wagner, [10]; 5. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [3]; 6. 29-Greg Schilling, [4]; 7. 47-Kreig Kasin, [12]; 8. 2X-Brady Moore, [2]; 9. 13C-Paul Colvin, [11]; 10. 9-Torey Fischer, [6]; 11. 19D-Noah Metzger, [5]; 12. 3E-Chris Evoniuk, [1]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 3E-Chris Evoniuk, [1]; 2. 51-Kelly Jacobson, [6]; 3. 22-Vince Jegtvig, [5]; 4. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [2]; 5. 19D-Noah Metzger, [4]; 6. 13C-Paul Colvin, [3]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 3X-Andy Wagner, [6]; 2. 2X-Brady Moore, [1]; 3. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [5]; 4. 9-Torey Fischer, [4]; 5. 29-Greg Schilling, [2]; 6. 47-Kreig Kasin, [3]
IMCA Stock Cars:
Feature: 1. 40-Rob VanMil, [4]; 2. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [3]; 3. 4-Rick Schulz, [2]; 4. 21-Tim Church, [1]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 40-Rob VanMil, [4]; 2. 4-Rick Schulz, [2]; 3. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [3]; 4. 21-Tim Church, [1]