WEST FARGO – The pits were packed on Friday night at Red River Valley Speedway with 93 race cars checked in for action in what would be a wild night of racing.
The crowd of over 1,000 witnessed big hits, rollovers, and a fire throughout the night, but all drivers involved were okay.
In the first lap of feature action of the night, outside front row starter Dan Pederson of Moorhead lost the handle of his IMCA SportMod right in front of the field. Charlie Jensen of Pelican Rapids, Minn. made heavy contact with Pederson. The impact made the rear end of Jensen’s car lift off the ground, and as it did so, Kelly Jacobson of Fargo came sliding into the wreck. Jensen’s rear end came to rest on top of Jacobson’s roof by the time everything came to rest.
Two rollovers were seen during INEX Legends action. The worst of the two came when Elzetta Bitker of Halstad, Minn. jumped over the right rear of a slower car. Bitker’s machine ramped off the other car, hit the outside retaining wall on the back straightaway before enduring a violent series of end-over-end flips. Bitker was transported to a local hospital for observation but is okay.
Also during the legends feature, a fire broke out under the hood of Ashton Spieker’s No. 2, prompting a red flag. The West Fargo Rural Fire Department was quickly on the scene to extinguish the flames.
Matt Aukland of Fargo topped a stout field of 18 IMCA modifieds to claim his first win of the season and first at Red River Valley Speedway since June 14, 2019. Aukland charged from the ninth starting position and held off defending track champion Austin Arneson en route to the win.
“The wins only come every couple of years the way it seems for me lately, so it feels good,” said Aukland in victory lane. “The Arneson crew is on their game so we have to cherish every (win) we can get.”
After winning a heat race earlier in the night, Aukland quickly charged his way through the running order before taking the point from modified rookie Luke Johnson on lap three. Once out front, the only thing that slowed Aukland were two caution flags.
Aukland has been doing a lot of midweek testing all spring, trying to learn more about how to set up his car.
“Our goal has been to try to get to the race track and not have to guess on what to do with our setup. I’ve been racing the last couple of years and I’ve always been guessing. I just wanted to be more confident in what I had for the feature each night,” said Aukland.
Aukland, a veteran in the late model class, moved to IMCA modifieds in 2019. He said the transition has taken some time to get used to.
“With the crate motor in the modified, as opposed to an open motor in the late model, I’ve had to learn a momentum-style of driving. What feels good in the car isn’t necessarily fast,” he explained. “I’ve been doing a lot more testing with the stopwatch now. In the past, I used to just go with what felt good. With the crate motor and a hard compound tire that comes with the modified, it’s more about momentum than it is traction and side bite like the late model.”
U-Motors Racing had swept the first two modified races of the season with Casey Arneson of Fargo and Pahrump, Nevada driver Kollin Hibdon taking the wins. Austin Arneson of Fargo was the highest finishing U-Motors driver on Friday, finishing second to Aukland.
The win was Aukland’s 16th of his career at the speedway.
In its inaugural season, the IMCA sprint cars may be light on cars, but not on parity. Marcus Rothenbacher of Ulen, Minn. became the third different driver to win in the class in the first three weeks of the season.
After sweeping both the legends and sprint car feature wins last week, Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes, Minn. returned to victory lane once again, picking up the legends feature. The win was his 14th at Red River Valley Speedway.
Rich Pavlicek of Casselton, N.D. picked up his second IMCA SportMod feature win at the speedway, while Rob VanMil Barnesville, Minn. won an entertaining IMCA stock car main event. Skyla Miller of Harwood, N.D. led early in her Mopar No. 9 IMCA hobby stock, but Tanner Engen of Detroit Lakes tracked her down mid-race and went on to win.
Next Friday night is fireworks night at Red River Valley Speedway.
RESULTS:
IMCA MODIFIEDS:
A Feature: 1. 12-Matt Aukland[9]; 2. 10-Austin Arneson[12]; 3. 4V-Billy Vogel[8]; 4. 33-Allen Kent[5]; 5. 02-Jordan Sours[7]; 6. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[18]; 7. 2A-Casey Arneson[11]; 8. 3S-Jesse Skalicky[14]; 9. 60-Tyler Hall[10]; 10. 21-Jamie Schulz[2]; 11. 55X-Chris Mack[4]; 12. 12C-Nick Curtis[16]; 13. (DNF) 76-John Miller[13]; 14. (DNF) 75-Brandon Langer[17]; 15. (DNF) 0-Jeff Odden[6]; 16. (DNF) 8J-Luke Johnson[1]; 17. (DNF) 91-Jarrett Carter[3]; 18. (DNS) 72-Dave Shipley
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Matt Aukland[5]; 2. 8J-Luke Johnson[1]; 3. 60-Tyler Hall[6]; 4. 0-Jeff Odden[4]; 5. 76-John Miller[2]; 6. 12C-Nick Curtis[3]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2A-Casey Arneson[6]; 2. 02-Jordan Sours[4]; 3. 21-Jamie Schulz[1]; 4. 55X-Chris Mack[2]; 5. 3S-Jesse Skalicky[5]; 6. (DNF) 75-Brandon Langer[3]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 4V-Billy Vogel[4]; 2. 10-Austin Arneson[6]; 3. 33-Allen Kent[2]; 4. 91-Jarrett Carter[1]; 5. (DNF) 72-Dave Shipley[3]; 6. (DNF) 48K-Kollin Hibdon[5]
IMCA SPRINT CARS:
A Feature: 1. 3M-Marcus Rothenbacher[1]; 2. 72-Tye Wilke[4]; 3. 13-Ty Hanten[3]; 4. 69-Brandon Rekow[2]
Heat 1: 1. 3M-Marcus Rothenbacher[1]; 2. 13-Ty Hanten[3]; 3. 72-Tye Wilke[4]; 4. 69-Brandon Rekow[2]
IMCA STOCK CARS:
A Feature: 1. 40-Rob VanMil[8]; 2. 52-Brennan Borg[5]; 3. 10R-Travis Robertson[7]; 4. 4-Rick Schulz[11]; 5. 38-Todd Heinrich[1]; 6. 1-Tyler McDougall[2]; 7. 8-Billy Michaelsohn[3]; 8. 76Z-John Sandvig[14]; 9. 18A-Mike Anderson[10]; 10. 21J-Andrew Jochim[9]; 11. 17-Chad Hunteman[17]; 12. 21-Tim Church[13]; 13. 85K-Ernest Geist[16]; 14. 219-Brandon Schmidt[12]; 15. E72-Adam Geist[19]; 16. 57K-Derrick Kronbach[15]; 17. B1-Brody Carlsrud[18]; 18. (DNF) 88K-Keaten Froemke[4]; 19. (DNF) 71-Trent Grager[6]
Heat 1: 1. 52-Brennan Borg[4]; 2. 38-Todd Heinrich[1]; 3. 10R-Travis Robertson[5]; 4. 18A-Mike Anderson[6]; 5. 21-Tim Church[2]; 6. 85K-Ernest Geist[3]; 7. E72-Adam Geist[7]
Heat 2: 1. 1-Tyler McDougall[2]; 2. 4-Rick Schulz[6]; 3. 40-Rob VanMil[5]; 4. 8-Billy Michaelsohn[3]; 5. 76Z-John Sandvig[4]; 6. (DNF) 17-Chad Hunteman[1]
Heat 3: 1. 71-Trent Grager[4]; 2. 88K-Keaten Froemke[3]; 3. 219-Brandon Schmidt[6]; 4. 21J-Andrew Jochim[5]; 5. 57K-Derrick Kronbach[2]; 6. B1-Brody Carlsrud[1]
IMCA SPORTMODS:
A Feature: 1. 17-Rich Pavlicek[10]; 2. 41-Doug Gardner[5]; 3. 5-Scott Jacobson[12]; 4. 5F-Brandon Ferris[13]; 5. 40-Chris VanMil[11]; 6. 66-Kevin Veralrud[15]; 7. 22-Vince Jegtvig[6]; 8. 7R-Ryan Restad[14]; 9. 9-Torey Fischer[8]; 10. 12T-Brandon Tendeland[4]; 11. 77S-Brian Schaffer[3]; 12. 14S-Thomas Sandvig[16]; 13. (DNF) 22M-Landon Maatz[1]; 14. (DNF) 51-Kelly Jacobson[9]; 15. (DNF) 77-Charles Jensen[7]; 16. (DNF) 81-Dan Pederson[2]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 41-Doug Gardner[3]; 2. 17-Rich Pavlicek[5]; 3. 77S-Brian Schaffer[2]; 4. 9-Torey Fischer[4]; 5. 5F-Brandon Ferris[6]; 6. 14S-Thomas Sandvig[1]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 40-Chris VanMil[5]; 2. 22-Vince Jegtvig[3]; 3. 12T-Brandon Tendeland[2]; 4. 22M-Landon Maatz[1]; 5. 7R-Ryan Restad[4]
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 51-Kelly Jacobson[4]; 2. 5-Scott Jacobson[5]; 3. 77-Charles Jensen[3]; 4. 81-Dan Pederson[1]; 5. 66-Kevin Veralrud[2]
IMCA HOBBY STOCK
A Feature: 1. 44T-Tanner Engen[9]; 2. 9-Skyla Miller[2]; 3. 54DK-Dylan Krueger[1]; 4. B2-Brodee Eckerdt[10]; 5. 73-Todd Gettel[3]; 6. 3XL-Brad Orvedal[4]; 7. 15-Andrea Jacobson[5]; 8. (DNF) 14-Alyssa White[6]; 9. (DNF) 39-Caleb Gardner[7]; 10. (DNS) 4-Marvin Priem; 11. (DNS) 99-Nathan Gegner
INEX LEGENDS
A Feature : 1. 72-Tye Wilke[9]; 2. 29-Ryan Braseth[7]; 3. 34-Alex Kukowski[10]; 4. 58-Sean Johnson[8]; 5. 79-Scott Richardson[1]; 6. 28-Joshua Wiest[4]; 7. D1RT-Tony Brockhouse[6]; 8. 28M-Dusty Mund[12]; 9. 41AU-Glenn Mitchell[2]; 10. 7F-Brian Frederick[5]; 11. 08-Zander Bauer[11]; 12. 79X-Chuck Christ[15]; 13. 8-Ethan Mabus[16]; 14. 701-Taylor Sargent[13]; 15. 49-Collin Compson[19]; 16. 23B-Jared Beck[22]; 17. 24-Shaun Erickson[20]; 18. 2J-Joseph Lewis[18]; 19. 18-Austin Wimer[17]; 20. 31C-Emmitt Curtis[24]; 21. (DNF) 2-Ashton Spieker[3]; 22. (DNF) 17M-Jeremy Meyer[14]; 23. (DNF) 19E-Elzetta Bitker[21]; 24. (DNF) 17-Zander Compson[23]; 25. (DNS) 35-Michael Good
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 34-Alex Kukowski[6]; 2. 72-Tye Wilke[5]; 3. 7F-Brian Frederick[4]; 4. 701-Taylor Sargent[2]; 5. 18-Austin Wimer[7]; 6. 19E-Elzetta Bitker[3]; 7. 17-Zander Compson[1]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 79-Scott Richardson[2]; 2. D1RT-Tony Brockhouse[4]; 3. 41AU-Glenn Mitchell[3]; 4. 17M-Jeremy Meyer[6]; 5. 2J-Joseph Lewis[1]; 6. (DNS) 35-Michael Good
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 29-Ryan Braseth[4]; 2. 2-Ashton Spieker[3]; 3. 08-Zander Bauer[6]; 4. 79X-Chuck Christ[2]; 5. 49-Collin Compson[1]; 6. 31C-Emmitt Curtis[5]
Heat 4 (6 Laps): 1. 58-Sean Johnson[4]; 2. 28-Joshua Wiest[3]; 3. 28M-Dusty Mund[6]; 4. 8-Ethan Mabus[1]; 5. 24-Shaun Erickson[2]; 6. 23B-Jared Beck[5]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 44T-Tanner Engen[5]; 2. 54DK-Dylan Krueger[1]; 3. 73-Todd Gettel[2]; 4. 15-Andrea Jacobson[3]; 5. (DNF) 39-Caleb Gardner[4]; 6. (DNS) 99-Nathan Gegner
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 9-Skyla Miller[1]; 2. B2-Brodee Eckerdt[5]; 3. 3XL-Brad Orvedal[2]; 4. 14-Alyssa White[3]; 5. 4-Marvin Priem[4]