By Mike Spieker
ADA, Minn. (August 8, 2019) – The racing action has been incredible all season long at Norman County Raceway and last Thursday night was no different.
The winner of the Sanders Metal Products IMCA Modified feature was determined until the final few feet after 18 trips around the high-banked three-eighths-mile oval.
Norman County Raceway regulars Jesse Skalicky of Fargo, N.D. and Tyler Hall of Fertile, Minn. battled for the lead and the win in the closing stages. Skalicky was looking for his first win at NCR of the season, while Hall was in search of his second.
Brady Petermann of Hawley, Minn. showed the way at the drop of the green flag until Hall took the position on lap six. Skalicky followed Hall around Petermann to take over second.
Photo: Jesse Skalicky edges out Tyler Hall (60) at the checkers to win Thursday’s IMCA Modified feature at Norman County Raceway. Photo by Steven Young.
Hall was in command with a somewhat comfortable lead until the closing stages as Skalicky found his groove and reeled in Hall. On the final lap, Skalicky entered turns three and four side by side with Hall.
Skalicky got a great run on the high side and edged Hall in a photo finish by a margin of 0.04 seconds.
Petermann, Rich Pavlicek, and Dylan Goplen rounded out the top five.
After a rough last week, Reise Stenberg of Argusville, N.D. redeemed himself and picked up his fourth Christian Motors WISSOTA Midwest Modified win of the year at NCR. Stenberg’s margin of victory was a whopping 3.3 seconds over Jeff Nelson of Fergus Falls, Minn.
Alyssa White of West Fargo, N.D. continued to find victory lane in her break out season in the Christian Brothers Ford IMCA Hobby Stocks. The third-year, 17-year-old racer picked up her third NCR win of the season after holding off a hard-charging Brad Orvedal of Fargo in the closing laps.
The Northern Lightning Sprint Association made their third and final appearance of the season on Thursday night. Kelsi Pederson of East Grand Forks, Minn. raced to the win to deny Alex Truscinski of the season sweep at NCR. Pederson dominated the feature event, picking up the win over Murray Temple. Truscinski rounded out the podium in third.
An early race wreck in the Titan Machinery IMCA SportMods put the heavily damaged machines of point leaders, Luke Johnson of Moorhead, Minn. and Andy Wagner of Ada, back in the pack. That allowed Aaron Wetterlin, who was still seeking his first win of the year at the track to capitalize. Wetterlin was untouchable on the bottom and easily cruised to the feature win.
Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes, Minn. had a slow start to the Petermann Seed INEX Legend feature and had to pick cars off one-by-one. He was the driver willing to run the bottom and he used that to his advantage, picking up his 3rd win of the year at NCR.
Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada found some grip on the bottom and powered his way past Aaron Olson of Mekinock, N.D. on lap three of the Norman County Implement IMCA Stock Car feature. He held the lead for the next five laps, but he struggled to get his car and continued to drift higher in turns three and four which opened the door for Rob VanMil of Barnesville, Minn. to pounce on Kesselberg. Rick Schulz of Horace, N.D. would give VanMil a run for his money on the final laps running the top lane, but there wasn’t enough grip at that point to make it stick.
On Thursday, August 15th, the NLRA Late Models will make their first visit to NCR in two years. Tickets are just $10. College students get in for $5 with a valid student ID. High school students and younger get in for free.
RESULTS:
A Modifieds
A Feature 1: 1. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, 06:27.393[7]; 2. 60-Tyler Hall, 06:27.434[5]; 3. 88B-Brady Petermann, 06:28.786[3]; 4. 17P-Rich Pavlicek, 06:30.502[6]; 5. 6D-Dylan Goplen, 06:30.803[9]; 6. 10-Austin Arneson, 06:31.575[10]; 7. 7-Dale Kraling, 06:33.091[8]; 8. 6Z-Zach Dockter, 06:34.501[2]; 9. 84-Michael Johnson, 06:39.661[4]; 10. (DNF) 12A-Matt Aukland, 03:21.848[11]; 11. (DNF) 57-Tom Cummings, 02:04.665[1]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 88B-Brady Petermann, [2]; 2. 60-Tyler Hall, [3]; 3. 6D-Dylan Goplen, [5]; 4. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [4]; 5. (DNF) 57-Tom Cummings, [1]; 6. (DNF) 12A-Matt Aukland, [6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Austin Arneson, [5]; 2. 6Z-Zach Dockter, [1]; 3. 7-Dale Kraling, [4]; 4. 84-Michael Johnson, [2]; 5. 17P-Rich Pavlicek, [3]
B Modifieds
A Feature 1: 1. 87S-Reise Stenberg, 08:23.728[3]; 2. 33-Jeff Nelson, 08:27.065[2]; 3. 19-Lucas Rodin, 08:28.195[5]; 4. 5-Aaron Blacklance, 08:29.193[4]; 5. 01-Zach Bruer, 08:33.320[1]; 6. TS42-Scott Samuelson, 08:34.032[6]; 7. (DNF) 81-Daniel Pederson, 02:55.216[7]; 8. (DNF) 6J-Taylor Jacobson, 02:55.216[8]; (DNS) 2M-Rob Metzger, 02:55.216
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 01-Zach Bruer, [1]; 2. 33-Jeff Nelson, [4]; 3. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [6]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [5]; 5. 19-Lucas Rodin, [8]; 6. TS42-Scott Samuelson, [2]; 7. 81-Daniel Pederson, [3]; 8. 2M-Rob Metzger, [9]; 9. 6J-Taylor Jacobson, [7]
Hobby Stocks
A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 14-Alyssa White, 04:01.135[2]; 2. 3XL-Brad Orvedal, 04:06.119[4]; 3. 31X-Tim Shiek, 04:09.544[3]; 4. 73-Todd Gettel, 04:09.544[1]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 14-Alyssa White, [2]; 2. 3XL-Brad Orvedal, [4]; 3. 31X-Tim Shiek, [3]; 4. 73-Todd Gettel, [1]
Lightning Sprints
A Feature 1: 1. 93-Kelsi Pederson, 04:54.518[1]; 2. 33-Murray Temple, 04:57.693[3]; 3. 10-Alex Truscinski, 04:58.131[7]; 4. 40-Lawrence Veralrud, 05:03.819[9]; 5. 100-Jason Berg, 04:54.535[4]; 6. 22-Bryce Haugeberg, 05:04.330[8]; 7. (DNF) 11-Dexter Dvergsten, 05:04.330[5]; 8. (DNF) 13-Alan Truscinski, 05:04.330[2]; (DNS) 16-Josh Abrahamson, 05:04.330
Heat 1: 1. 13-Alan Truscinski, [1]; 2. 93-Kelsi Pederson, [5]; 3. 100-Jason Berg, [3]; 4. 33-Murray Temple, [7]; 5. 16-Josh Abrahamson, [6]; 6. 11-Dexter Dvergsten, [9]; 7. 10-Alex Truscinski, [8]; 8. 22-Bryce Haugeberg, [2]; 9. 40-Lawrence Veralrud, [4]
Limited Sport Mod
A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, 05:32.134[7]; 2. 219-Brandon Schmidt, 05:37.543[8]; 3. 8J-Luke Johnson, 05:42.501[9]; 4. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, 05:44.649[2]; 5. 3X-Andy Wagner, 05:46.449[10]; 6. 5F-Brandon Ferris, 05:49.562[4]; 7. 29-Greg Schilling, 05:52.724[13]; 8. 2X-Brady Moore, 05:52.973[12]; 9. 47-Kreig Kasin, 05:53.735[1]; 10. 15-Matthew Clark, 05:32.828[11]; 11. 22-Vince Jegtvig, 05:36.005[3]; 12. (DNF) 9-Torey Fischer, 05:36.005[5]; 13. (DNF) 19D-Noah Metzger, 05:36.005[6]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 22-Vince Jegtvig, [2]; 2. 3X-Andy Wagner, [7]; 3. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [6]; 4. 19D-Noah Metzger, [5]; 5. 47-Kreig Kasin, [1]; 6. (DNF) 15-Matthew Clark, [4]; 7. (DNF) 29-Greg Schilling, [3]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 8J-Luke Johnson, [6]; 2. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [1]; 3. 5F-Brandon Ferris, [3]; 4. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [5]; 5. 9-Torey Fischer, [4]; 6. 2X-Brady Moore, [2]
Semi-Pro Legends
A Feature 1: 1. 72-Tye Wilke, 11:21.610[5]; 2. 58-Sean Johnson, 11:22.115[1]; 3. B1-Brody Carlsrud, 11:22.311[4]; 4. 20-Alex Braseth, 11:22.896[6]; 5. 29-Ryan Braseth, 11:23.213[3]; 6. 7-Chase Schlafmann, 11:23.518[2]; 7. D11RT-Tony Brockhouse, 11:23.891[7]; 8. 16L-Lillian Bitker, 11:29.955[8]; 9. (DNF) 19E-Elzetta Bitker, 04:40.375[9]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 72-Tye Wilke, [6]; 2. 29-Ryan Braseth, [3]; 3. B1-Brody Carlsrud, [4]; 4. 58-Sean Johnson, [1]; 5. 7-Chase Schlafmann, [2]; 6. 20-Alex Braseth, [5]; 7. D11RT-Tony Brockhouse, [8]; 8. 16L-Lillian Bitker, [7]; (DNS) 19E-Elzetta Bitker,
Stock Cars
A Feature 1: 1. 40-Rob VanMil, 05:34.548[5]; 2. 4-Rick Schulz, 12:28.980[3]; 3. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg, 12:30.090[1]; 4. 38-Todd Heinrich, 12:30.249[4]; 5. 14-Aaron Olson, 12:31.148[2]; 6. 57K-Derrick Kronbach, 12:34.053[7]; 7. 76Z-John Sandvig, 12:34.198[8]; 8. 21-Tim Church, 12:36.031[9]; 9. (DNF) 96-Erv Grossman, 05:34.548[6]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 38-Todd Heinrich, [8]; 2. 40-Rob VanMil, [9]; 3. 14-Aaron Olson, [6]; 4. 11-Kalvin Kesselberg, [4]; 5. 4-Rick Schulz, [7]; 6. 96-Erv Grossman, [2]; 7. 57K-Derrick Kronbach, [1]; 8. 76Z-John Sandvig, [3]; 9. 21-Tim Church, [5]