By Mike Spieker
ADA, Minn. (July 25, 2019) – The 101-year-old grandstand at Norman County Raceway was packed with race fans on Thursday night for the speedway’s Jam the Stands night.
Photo: Austin Arneson cruised to the Dakota Cat Shootout win in the IMCA Modifieds Thursday night at Norman County Raceway.
A strong field of Sanders Metal Products IMCA Modifieds was set for 20 trips around the high-banked three-eighths-mile oval for the Dakota Cat Shootout. Fargo’s Austin Arneson started on the outside of the front row and grabbed the lead on lap one over Dale Kraling of Mayville, N.D. Arneson checked out and ran away from the rest of the field.
As the checkers flew from the AuctionBlock.com flagstand, Arneson’s margin of victory was over six seconds, equating to a little more than a full straightaway over Kraling.
The IMCA Stock Car feature got off to a wild start as the field went three wide two rows deep in the first set of corners. Jordan Zillmer of Cleveland, N.D. took the lead on the opening lap from the fifth position with Travis Robertson of Moorhead, Minn. behind him.
Further back in the field, drivers were racing four wide on lap two. The race for the lead went three wide again on lap three as Robertson and Rick Schulz of Horace, N.D. both challenged Zillmer. Schulz made contact with Robertson and spun to bring out the first caution. On the restart, the three and four-wide racing continued which significantly shuffled the running order. After no less than six cars raced within two and a half car lengths of each other, Todd Heinrich of Fargo emerged as the race leader over Rob VanMil of Barnesville, Minn. and Tim Church of Dilworth, Minn.
With five to go, rookie Stock Car driver Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada entered the fray as he peeked under both Heinrich and VanMil for the lead to make it a three-wide battle. VanMil took the lead from Heinrich with two to go. VanMil took the win by a car length as Heinrich edged out Kessleberg for second.
After picking up her first career Norman County Implement IMCA Hobby Stock feature win last week, Alyssa White of West Fargo, N.D. went back-to-back. White had a mid-race challenge in the form of Tim Shiek, but held him off to pick up a dominating win.
After a runner-up finish last week, Andy Wagner of Ada picked up a convincing Titan Machinery IMCA SportMod feature win. Wagner started in the third position on the 18-car grid, the largest field seen all year at NCR in the SportMods. Kelly Jacobson of Fargo, N.D. jumped out to the early lead from the pole and opened up a comfortable lead. Once Wagner reached the second spot on lap four, he quickly began reeling in Jacobson.
On the restart with 10 laps to go, Wagner dove to the inside of Jacobson to place a bid for the lead. The hometown favorite took the point on the low side of the speedway and cruised to his second Norman County Raceway win of the season.
Cole Searing of Huron, S.D. made his Norman County Raceway debut on Thursday night in the Christian Motors WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds. Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls, Minn. led early, but had his hands full with Searing and Reise Stenberg of Argusville, N.D.
Stenberg and Searing had a torrid battle going for second, which quickly became a fight for the lead as they both reeled in Blacklance. Both Stenberg and Searing quickly disposed of Blacklance with Searing taking the point over Stenberg.
Stenberg hung tough for several laps, but Searing eventually pulled away and cruised to KRJB/KRJM Victory Lane.
A week after his younger brother, Ryan, picked up his first career win, Alex Braseth of Ulen raced to the Petermann Seeds INEX Legends win. Twelve-year-old rookie Ashton Spieker of Sabin, Minn. led his first career lap to open the race before Alex Braseth took the point on lap two.
From there, Braseth held off a fast and aggressive Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes, Minn. by a mere car length to grab the win.
Racing continues on Thursday, August 1st with the eighth annual Sanders IMCA Modified Challenge, featuring a post-race pork chop feed.
IMCA Modifieds
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 10-Austin Arneson, [2]; 2. 7-Dale Kraling, [1]; 3. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [3]; 4. 72-Dave Shipley, [5]; 5. 88B-Brady Petermann, [4]; 6. 84-Michael Johnson, [8]; 7. 442-Aaron Johnson, [7]; 8. 60-Tyler Hall, [6]; 9. 57-Tom Cummings, [9]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Austin Arneson, [1]; 2. 7-Dale Kraling, [3]; 3. 72-Dave Shipley, [6]; 4. 88B-Brady Petermann, [2]; 5. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [5]; 6. 60-Tyler Hall, [7]; 7. 442-Aaron Johnson, [8]; 8. 84-Michael Johnson, [4]; 9. (DNF) 57-Tom Cummings, [9]
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing, [4]; 2. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [3]; 3. 33-Jeff Nelson, [2]; 4. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [1]; 5. 01-Zach Bruer, [5]; 6. (DNF) 81-Daniel Pederson, [6]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing, [2]; 2. 33-Jeff Nelson, [1]; 3. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [3]; 4. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [5]; 5. 01-Zach Bruer, [4]; 6. 81-Daniel Pederson, [6]
IMCA Hobby Stocks:
A Feature (12 Laps): 1. 14-Alyssa White, [1]; 2. 3XL-Brad Orvedal, [3]; 3. 31X-Tim Shiek, [4]; 4. 73-Todd Gettel, [2]; 5. 44-Tanner Engen, [5]; 6. 9-Skyla Miller, [6]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 14-Alyssa White, [1]; 2. 73-Todd Gettel, [2]; 3. 31X-Tim Shiek, [4]; 4. 3XL-Brad Orvedal, [3]; 5. 44-Tanner Engen, [5]; 6. 9-Skyla Miller, [6]
IMCA SportMods:
A Feature (16 Laps): 1. 3X-Andy Wagner, [9]; 2. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [8]; 3. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [10]; 4. 8J-Luke Johnson, [11]; 5. 51-Kelly Jacobson, [1]; 6. 19D-Noah Metzger, [5]; 7. 13C-Paul Colvin, [3]; 8. 5F-Brandon Ferris, [6]; 9. 5-Scott Jacobson, [12]; 10. 77-Charles Jensen, [13]; 11. 15-Matthew Clark, [7]; 12. 5T-Matt Talley, [14]; 13. 9-Torey Fischer, [17]; 14. 22-Vince Jegtvig, [18]; 15. 47-Kreig Kasin, [2]; 16. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [16]; 17. 29-Greg Schilling, [15]; 18. (DNF) 2X-Brady Moore, [4]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 3X-Andy Wagner, [5]; 2. 51-Kelly Jacobson, [1]; 3. 13C-Paul Colvin, [2]; 4. 15-Matthew Clark, [4]; 5. 77-Charles Jensen, [6]; 6. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [3]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 19D-Noah Metzger, [3]; 2. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [5]; 3. 2X-Brady Moore, [2]; 4. 47-Kreig Kasin, [1]; 5. 5T-Matt Talley, [6]; 6. 9-Torey Fischer, [4]
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 5F-Brandon Ferris, [3]; 2. 8J-Luke Johnson, [5]; 3. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [4]; 4. 5-Scott Jacobson, [6]; 5. 29-Greg Schilling, [2]; (DNS) 22-Vince Jegtvig,
INEX Legends:
A Feature (12 Laps): 1. 20-Alex Braseth, [6]; 2. 72-Tye Wilke, [8]; 3. B1-Brody Carlsrud, [7]; 4. 34-Alex Kukowski, [4]; 5. 29-Ryan Braseth, [5]; 6. D1RT-Tony Brockhouse, [12]; 7. 5G-Garrison Miller, [2]; 8. D11RT-Blaise Deckert, [3]; 9. 2-Ashton Spieker, [1]; 10. 19-Elzetta Bitker, [10]; 11. 16L-Lillian Bitker, [11]; 12. (DNF) 58-Sean Johnson, [9]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 72-Tye Wilke, [4]; 2. 20-Alex Braseth, [3]; 3. 34-Alex Kukowski, [2]; 4. D11RT-Blaise Deckert, [6]; 5. 2-Ashton Spieker, [1]; 6. 19-Elzetta Bitker, [5]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 29-Ryan Braseth, [2]; 2. B1-Brody Carlsrud, [3]; 3. 58-Sean Johnson, [4]; 4. D1RT-Tony Brockhouse, [6]; 5. 5G-Garrison Miller, [1]; 6. 16L-Lillian Bitker, [5]
IMCA Stock Cars:
A Feature (16 Laps): 1. 40-Rob VanMil, [9]; 2. 38-Todd Heinrich, [8]; 3. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg, [3]; 4. 21-Tim Church, [4]; 5. 10-Travis Robertson, [6]; 6. 86-Thomas Ahrndt, [11]; 7. 4-Rick Schulz, [7]; 8. 76Z-John Sandvig, [2]; 9. 34-Jordan Zillmer, [5]; 10. 57K-Derrick Kronbach, [10]; 11. (DNF) 96-Erv Grossman, [1]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 10-Travis Robertson, [4]; 2. 38-Todd Heinrich, [5]; 3. 86-Thomas Ahrndt, [6]; 4. 76Z-John Sandvig, [2]; 5. 21-Tim Church, [3]; 6. (DNF) 57K-Derrick Kronbach, [1]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 40-Rob VanMil, [5]; 2. 4-Rick Schulz, [4]; 3. 34-Jordan Zillmer, [3]; 4. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg, [2]; 5. 96-Erv Grossman, [1]