By Mike Spieker
ADA, MN (June 6, 2019) – Norman County Implement IMCA Stock Car rookie Travis Robertson of Moorhead picked up his first career win. Robertson had a lot of success in the WISSOTA Street Stock division at NCR for a few years before he made the move up to the NLRA Late Models. While still competing with the NLRA Late Models, Robertson now also races with the IMCA Stock Cars at NCR and Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo.
Robertson jumped out to the lead on lap one from his outside front row starting position. Robertson had a challenger early on in the form of Rob VanMil of Barnesville. VanMil entered the night undefeated in Stock Car competition between NCR and RRVS, but Robertson was no match for him on Thursday.
#10 Travis Robertson (Photo: Speedway-Shots.com)
Robertson cruised to the feature win with ease as VanMil held on for second over Rick Schulz of Horace, N.D.
The Lucas Oil Northern Renegade Sprint Cars made their inaugural visit to NCR and did not disappoint. After leading the majority of the race, it appeared that Caley Emerson had the race in hand when he maneuvered around lapped traffic to put some distance between himself and second-place runner Jori Hughes. Hughes was able to get by the lapped car down the back straightaway on the final lap and made things interesting in the final set of corners. Hughes all but erased Emerson’s lead and pulled even with the leader down the front stretch heading towards Matt Greseth’s checkered flag. At the AuctionBlock.com flagstand, Emerson held on to take the win by half a car length.
Austin Arneson of Fargo, N.D. is always a favorite when he unloads his No. 10 IMCA Modified at NCR, but his chances didn’t look as strong as usual after he failed to complete one lap in his heat. Arneson started 10th on the grid, but sliced his way to the front early on and quickly became a contender. Arneson grabbed the lead from Tyler Peterson with a strong move to the outside in turn four with five laps remaining.
From there Arneson checked out and cruised to take his first win at NCR this season.
It looked as though Reise Stenberg’s hot streak to the 2019 season was going to continue in the Christian Motors WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds. Stenberg of Argusville, N.D. jumped out to the lead over his brother-in-law Matt Schow of McIntosh. Schow stalked the rear bumper of Stenberg for the first half of the race until Stenberg suffered a mechanical failure. Stenberg had a three car length lead when his No. 87S machine suddenly slowed in turn four, which brought out the caution and handed the lead over to Schow.
On the ensuing restart, Schow had his hands full holding off Jeff Nelson of Perham. Schow was able to hang on to the point and pulled out to a comfortable lead in the final stages before cruising to the win.
Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls, Nelson, Matt’s younger brother Ryan Schow of McIntosh, and Jory Berg of Grand Forks, N.D. rounded out the top five.
Brandon Schmidt of Hillsboro, N.D. raced to the Titan Machinery IMCA SportMod feature win. Schmidt took the lead away from Andy Wagner of Ada on lap three and never looked back. Aaron Wetterlin of Moorhead took the second position on a restart with eight laps remaining, but he didn’t have anything for Schmidt as Schmidt took the win by nearly a second and a half. Wetterlin, Wagner, Luke Johnson of Moorhead, and Noah Metzger of Crookston rounded out the top five.
West Fargo, North Dakota’s Alyssa White led the early going of the Christian Brothers Ford IMCA Hobby Stock feature. However, a slight slip in turn two was all it took for Brad Orvedal of Fargo, N.D. to sneak by White and grab the lead. White mounted a charge on Orvedal in the second half of the race, but Orvedal held on to take the win.
IMCA Modifieds:
A Feature 1: 1. 10-Austin Arneson, [10]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [5]; 3. 6D-Dylan Goplen, [8]; 4. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [1]; 5. 442-Aaron Johnson, [6]; 6. 88B-Brady Petermann, [2]; 7. 7-Dale Kraling, [11]; 8. 69-Justin Jones, [3]; 9. 60-Tyler Hall, [9]; 10. 84-Michael Johnson, [4]; 11. K9-Tom Cummings, [7]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [1]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson, [3]; 3. 88B-Brady Petermann, [2]; 4. K9-Tom Cummings, [4]; 5. (DNF) 60-Tyler Hall, [5]; 6. (DNF) 7-Dale Kraling, [6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 6D-Dylan Goplen, [1]; 2. 84-Michael Johnson, [3]; 3. 442-Aaron Johnson, [4]; 4. 69-Justin Jones, [2]; 5. (DNF) 10-Austin Arneson, [5]
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
Feature: 1. 2S-Matt Schow, 12:47.374[5]; 2. 5-Aaron Blacklance, 12:49.635[2]; 3. 33-Jeff Nelson, 12:49.656[6]; 4. 28S-Ryan Schow, 12:50.771[4]; 5. B0-Jory Berg, 12:51.152[7]; 6. 81-Daniel Pederson, 12:56.944[8]; 7. (DNF) 87S-Reise Stenberg, 08:36.612[3]; 8. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler, 04:40.520[1]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [1]; 2. 28S-Ryan Schow, [2]; 3. 2S-Matt Schow, [6]; 4. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [4]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [3]; 6. 33-Jeff Nelson, [7]; 7. B0-Jory Berg, [5]; 8. 81-Daniel Pederson, [8]
IMCA SportsMods:
Feature: 1. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [6]; 2. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [8]; 3. 3X-Andy Wagner, [3]; 4. 8J-Luke Johnson, [9]; 5. 19D-Noah Metzger, [5]; 6. 47-Kreig Kasin, [2]; 7. 9-Torey Fischer, [7]; 8. 13C-Paul Colvin, [10]; (DNS) 29-Greg Schilling, ; (DNS) 51-Kelly Jacobson,
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 3X-Andy Wagner, [2]; 2. 8J-Luke Johnson, [5]; 3. 19D-Noah Metzger, [3]; 4. 9-Torey Fischer, [4]; 5. (DNF) 51-Kelly Jacobson, [1]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [3]; 2. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [4]; 3. 13C-Paul Colvin, [5]; 4. 47-Kreig Kasin, [1]; 5. 29-Greg Schilling, [2]
IMCA Stock Cars:
Feature: 1. 10-Travis Robertson, [4]; 2. 40-Rob VanMil, [6]; 3. 4-Rick Schulz, [5]; 4. 38-Todd Heinrich, [7]; 5. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg, [1]; 6. 21-Tim Church, [3]; 7. 86-Thomas Ahrndt, [10]; 8. 76Z-John Sandvig, [8]; 9. (DNF) 96-Erv Grossman, [2]; (DNS) 14-Aaron Olson,
Heat 1: 1. 38-Todd Heinrich, [4]; 2. 14-Aaron Olson, [5]; 3. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg, [1]; 4. 4-Rick Schulz, [3]; 5. 21-Tim Church, [2]
Heat 2: 1. 10-Travis Robertson, [2]; 2. 40-Rob VanMil, [3]; 3. 76Z-John Sandvig, [4]; 4. 96-Erv Grossman, [1]; 5. 86-Thomas Ahrndt, [5]
IMCA Hobby Stocks:
Feature: 1. 3XL-Brad Orvedal, [4]; 2. 14-Alyssa White, [1]; 3. 73-Todd Gettel, [3]; 4. 22W-Will Miller, [6]; 5. 106-Eric Novacek, [2]; 6. 31X-Tim Shiek, [5]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 14-Alyssa White, [1]; 2. 106-Eric Novacek, [2]; 3. 3XL-Brad Orvedal, [4]; 4. 31X-Tim Shiek, [5]; 5. 73-Todd Gettel, [3]; 6. 22W-Will Miller, [6]