By Mike Spieker

WEST FARGO – Many race fans left Red River Valley Speedway after Thursday night’s ‘Dakota Cat 100’ event thinking Austin Arneson won the night’s 42-lap IMCA Modified feature. However, Arneson came up 25 pounds light at the scales, forcing an automatic disqualification. That handed the win over to Austin’s brother, Cale, who followed Austin to the checkered flag.

That only fueled Austin’s drive to win even more on Friday night.

The Fargo native led the final 27 laps in a dominating performance to win the second and final night of the inaugural ‘Dakota Cat 100.’

With 12 laps in the books, it quickly became another battle between the Arneson brothers for the win as Cale led Austin.

On lap 15, Austin got a run on Cale and stole the point before opening a sizable lead.

With 23 laps to go, a caution reset the field, which allowed last Friday’s winner, Michael Greseth, to move into the runner-up spot. Greseth set his sights on the No. 10 of Arneson, but Arneson was too strong as he pulled away by four seconds in the closing laps.

Arneson was unchallenged on the final lap as he took his second RRVS win of the season.

“The track was [in the best condition] we’ve seen in a long time. Hats off to Jake and Sharnel [Bitker] and Nick [Skalicky],” said Arneson in victory lane. “The track was really technical tonight. It was slow and you had to hit your marks. We are still fine tuning on some things to make [the car] better.”

Luke Johnson edged out Dan Dowling in the final laps of the IMCA Sport Mod feature. However, Johnson and Dowling were both disqualified following post-race inspection. That gave Jesse Skalicky his fourth RRVS win of 2017.

Duffy Froemke held off Rick Schulz in a thrilling green-white-checkered finish during the IMCA stock car feature. The win was Froemke’s second of the year at the West Fargo three-eighths mile dirt oval.

Scotty Richardson picked up a popular win in the INEX Legends, while Tim Shiek was victorious in IMCA Hobby Stock action.

Racing continues next Friday night at Red River Valley Speedway, starting at 7pm.