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Searing stands atop the podium after Challenge Series opener Friday night at I-94 Speedway

By Ron Krog

FERGUS FALLS, MN (May 10) - Another solid field of WISSOTA racers rolled into I-94 emr Speedway with 142 cars hitting the track throughout the program. It was a big night for race fans, as the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Series brought in 46 of the best in the business.

Cole Searing grabbed a thrilling last-lap victory in the Late Models to headline action at the Fergus Falls track May 10, while other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Ty Agen, Nate Reinke, Ryan Gierke, and Chase Pourrier. Scott Harrington won the Gen X Late Model feature.

In the headlining 25-car Late Model division, Sam Mars started on the pole and led the first six laps, with Ryan Mikkelson, Jeff Massingill and Dave Mass close behind. A yellow on lap five for Shane Edginton regrouped the field.

Following the restart, 2022 series champion Cole Searing, who restarted fifth, jumped to the cushion and passed two cars on the restart. He then got by Mikkelson and on lap seven, and powered past Mars on the outside to take the lead.

Searing began to stretch his lead and had a healthy advantage at the halfway mark, as Jake Redetzke cracked the top five.

Lapped traffic became a factor as the race progressed and it began to have a significant effect on Searing’s progress with about 10 to go, as Mars chipped away at the advantage. On the final lap, Mars closed in and threw a slider on Searing in the final corner; Searing was ready and made the crossover move, nipping Mars at the line by about a car length, or .136 seconds. Mikkelson was third, Dave Mass was fourth and Jeff Massingill was fifth.

Young Chase Pourrier has only run about eight shows in the WISSOTA Hornets, but has already showed he has what it takes to be a consistent winner — much like his grandfather Bob and his dad Corey. After starting third in the feature he quickly moved into the lead, with Payson Patrin running a distant second. As the laps wound down Patrin closed in, and then with three laps remaining a caution tightened up the field. Patrin was able to get alongside of Pourrier heading toward the end of the race, but the young driver held on for a very close finish and his first career win. Patrin, Kevin Wahl, Jeff Rohner and Danna Gronwold were top-five finishers.

A nice 20-car field of WISSOTA Modifieds took the green, led early by Avery Anderson ahead of Bryce Borgen and a bunch of his buddies in hot pursuit. With four laps scored, Ryan Gierke made a nice move to get by Anderson for the lead, bringing Mike Stearns along into second as the two broke away from the field.

The battle for third was a good one, as Jody Bellefeuille came from eighth to take over third, with Landon Atkinson charging from 12th to move into fourth and Jason Thoennes looking very strong in fifth from his 13th-starting spot.

It was a nice win for Gierke, who looks like a driver who is gonna spend a lot of time in victory lane this summer. Stearns was solid as usual in second, ahead of Bellefeuille, Atkinson and Thoennes in the top five.

The WISSOTA Street Stocks have been putting on great shows at every track they’ve run at this spring, and the 25-car field had another wild one at I-94. Joe Martin got the early lead in the 20-lap feature, but soon Eric Riley got by for the top spot. Cory Dykhoff took his turn out front, leading the pack as well, but sometimes patience pays off. Ty Agen, who started eighth, was able to take the lead with a late pass and racked up another win in this early season. Joe Martin finished second, while Braden Brauer, who started 24th in his backup car, blasted through the field to finish third. Riley’s strong run ended in fourth, Dykhoff was fifth.

A big field of 30 WISSOTA Midwest Mods took the green and after a couple of early cautions things settled down, with Jamie Norman and Ron Saurer holding down the top spots early. Corey Mehrwerth jumped into the battle, while Nate Reinke moved to the top and found speed, racing into the lead. Reinke hung on for the win, ahead of 10th-starter Corey Storck. Mehrwerth was third, Cole Boston grabbed fourth, and Lucas “The Nightmare” Rodin was the hard charger of the race as he came from 18th to fifth.

Scott Harrington made the drive up from Waubay, SD to win the Gen X Late Model feature with a solid run.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing[3]; 2. 28S-Sam Mars[1]; 3. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[2]; 4. 2M-Dave Mass[6]; 5. 6M-Jeff Massingill[4]; 6. 7A-Shane Sabraski[9]; 7. 22P-Nick Panitzke[12]; 8. 28-Jeff Provinzino[10]; 9. 27-Jake Redetzke[5]; 10. 30-Kevin Burdick[19]; 11. 5-Josh Zimpel[11]; 12. 32-Jordan Tollakson[15]; 13. 16-Thomas Weisgram[8]; 14. 7-Joel Bennett[21]; 15. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[20]; 16. 11-Pat Doar[18]; 17. 42S-Don Shaw[14]; 18. 44-Cole Schill[17]; 19. 22E-Kevin Eder[16]; 20. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[13]; 21. 21F-Gunner Frank[23]; 22. 47-Danny Vang[25]; 23. 63-Patrick Kelley[24]; 24. (DNF) 5E-Shane Edginton[7]; 25. (DNF) 29F-Dave Flynn[22]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Jake Redetzke[2]; 2. 5-Josh Zimpel[1]; 3. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[3]; 4. 44-Cole Schill[5]; 5. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[8]; 6. 37-Scott Ward[6]; 7. 07-Cory Crapser[4]; 8. 42-Paul Niznik[9]; 9. 3H-Jerry Hauge[10]; 10. (DNF) 30-Kevin Burdick[7]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 5E-Shane Edginton[1]; 2. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[5]; 3. 22P-Nick Panitzke[3]; 4. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 5. 18-Chase Gelling[2]; 6. 54-Rick Niemi[7]; 7. 29F-Dave Flynn[6]; 8. 3S-Nathan Sletto[8]; 9. 50-Ben Wolden[9]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 16-Thomas Weisgram[1]; 2. 28S-Sam Mars[4]; 3. 42S-Don Shaw[3]; 4. 21-Todd Frank[6]; 5. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[8]; 6. 45-Dustin Bluhm[2]; 7. 47-Danny Vang[5]; 8. 18R-Josh Rieck[7]; 9. 24-Mike Hart[9]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 2. 6M-Jeff Massingill[5]; 3. 28-Jeff Provinzino[4]; 4. 22E-Kevin Eder[6]; 5. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[7]; 6. 18X-Shawn Meyer[3]; 7. 21F-Gunner Frank[9]; 8. XXX-Jon Tollakson[8]; 9. (DNS) 155-Gavin Shaw

Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 2M-Dave Mass[2]; 2. 10-Cole Searing[4]; 3. 32-Jordan Tollakson[3]; 4. 4J-Lee Grosz[1]; 5. 7-Joel Bennett[5]; 6. 66-Sam Zender[6]; 7. 63-Patrick Kelley[8]; 8. 92-Richard Chasteen[9]; 9. (DNF) 7L-Scott Lehn[7]

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 44-Cole Schill[3]; 2. 30-Kevin Burdick[15]; 3. 7-Joel Bennett[5]; 4. 07-Cory Crapser[9]; 5. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[2]; 6. 18X-Shawn Meyer[6]; 7. 47-Danny Vang[10]; 8. 45-Dustin Bluhm[7]; 9. XXX-Jon Tollakson[12]; 10. 66-Sam Zender[8]; 11. 24-Mike Hart[14]; 12. 92-Richard Chasteen[11]; 13. 3H-Jerry Hauge[13]; 14. (DNF) 21-Todd Frank[1]; 15. (DNS) 4J-Lee Grosz

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[2]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 3. 29F-Dave Flynn[9]; 4. 54-Rick Niemi[5]; 5. 42-Paul Niznik[10]; 6. 50-Ben Wolden[13]; 7. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[1]; 8. 63-Patrick Kelley[8]; 9. 18R-Josh Rieck[12]; 10. (DNF) 21F-Gunner Frank[6]; 11. (DNF) 3S-Nathan Sletto[11]; 12. (DNF) 37-Scott Ward[7]; 13. (DNF) 7L-Scott Lehn[14]; 14. (DNF) 18-Chase Gelling[4]; 15. (DNS) 155-Gavin Shaw

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 26G-Ryan Gierke[3]; 2. 24S-Mike Stearns[5]; 3. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[8]; 4. 18A-Landon Atkinson[10]; 5. 52-Jason Thoennes[13]; 6. 10X-Dustin Bitzan[4]; 7. 51A-Avery Anderson[1]; 8. 04N-Nick Ayotte[9]; 9. 7A-Shane Sabraski[15]; 10. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[11]; 11. 7-Bryce Borgen[2]; 12. 6X-Zach Johnson[7]; 13. 21X-Travis Saurer[6]; 14. 19-Lucas Rodin[19]; 15. 11X-Austin Chyba[14]; 16. 43-Lance Schilling[20]; 17. (DNF) 2G-Brock Gronwold[16]; 18. (DNF) 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[17]; 19. (DNF) 2X-Brady Gerdes[12]; 20. (DNF) 9B-Brendan Blascyk[18]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21X-Travis Saurer[1]; 2. 04N-Nick Ayotte[2]; 3. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[4]; 4. 18A-Landon Atkinson[7]; 5. 52-Jason Thoennes[6]; 6. 2G-Brock Gronwold[3]; 7. 19-Lucas Rodin[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Bryce Borgen[2]; 2. 26G-Ryan Gierke[1]; 3. 24S-Mike Stearns[3]; 4. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[4]; 5. 11X-Austin Chyba[6]; 6. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[5]; 7. 43-Lance Schilling[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 6X-Zach Johnson[1]; 2. 51A-Avery Anderson[2]; 3. 10X-Dustin Bitzan[3]; 4. 2X-Brady Gerdes[6]; 5. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 6. 9B-Brendan Blascyk[4]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 71-Nate Reinke[4]; 2. 57-Corey Storck[10]; 3. 27-Corey Mehrwerth[3]; 4. 33C-Cole Boston[8]; 5. 19-Lucas Rodin[18]; 6. 73-Zach Johnson[13]; 7. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[9]; 8. 66-Kyle Langland[16]; 9. 32-Shawn Olson[21]; 10. 13-Scott Oeltjen[11]; 11. 50-Kyle Dykhoff[17]; 12. 42-Ron Saurer[2]; 13. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[12]; 14. 092-Nick Bruder[14]; 15. 12X-Jamie Norman[1]; 16. 30-Cole Neset[25]; 17. 97-Michelle Hutt[19]; 18. 4-Phil Christlieb[28]; 19. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[29]; 20. 28K-Nick Preston[22]; 21. 75JR-Daniel Harstad[23]; 22. 24X-Rick Norman[27]; 23. 13K-Brad King[24]; 24. 21Z-Zach Kort[26]; 25. (DNF) 11R-Landyn Randt[5]; 26. (DNF) 8-Jon Carlson[20]; 27. (DNF) 3T-Tucker Tschakert[7]; 28. (DNF) 13T-Tyson Roush[30]; 29. (DNF) TS42-Scott Samuelson[15]; 30. (DNF) 36-Jaren Wibstad[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11R-Landyn Randt[1]; 2. 33C-Cole Boston[6]; 3. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[7]; 4. 73-Zach Johnson[3]; 5. 50-Kyle Dykhoff[2]; 6. 32-Shawn Olson[5]; 7. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[8]; 8. (DNF) 4-Phil Christlieb[4]=

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Nate Reinke[1]; 2. 3T-Tucker Tschakert[3]; 3. 57-Corey Storck[6]; 4. 092-Nick Bruder[4]; 5. 19-Lucas Rodin[7]; 6. 28K-Nick Preston[2]; 7. 30-Cole Neset[5]; 8. 13T-Tyson Roush[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 36-Jaren Wibstad[1]; 2. 12X-Jamie Norman[3]; 3. 13-Scott Oeltjen[6]; 4. TS42-Scott Samuelson[7]; 5. 97-Michelle Hutt[4]; 6. 75JR-Daniel Harstad[2]; 7. (DNF) 24X-Rick Norman[5]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Corey Mehrwerth[1]; 2. 42-Ron Saurer[4]; 3. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[3]; 4. 66-Kyle Langland[6]; 5. 8-Jon Carlson[7]; 6. 13K-Brad King[5]; 7. 21Z-Zach Kort[2]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 26-Ty Agen[8]; 2. 2-Joe Martin[2]; 3. 34JR-Braden Brauer[24]; 4. 51-Eric Riley[5]; 5. 3C-Cory Dykhoff[7]; 6. 111-Keith Tourville[6]; 7. 4-Mike Mund[3]; 8. 59-Kyle Anderson[10]; 9. 24W-Ashley Wampler[1]; 10. 80-Tony Miller[12]; 11. 17B-Rachel Boston[22]; 12. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[13]; 13. 12-Kevin Pender[11]; 14. 30B-Wade Bergerud[14]; 15. 7X-Peter Martin[23]; 16. 16-Greg Platzer[16]; 17. 23-Maverick Janssen[15]; 18. 18J-Justin Peterson[19]; 19. 3-Ryan Mund[17]; 20. 57-Jason Fechtner[25]; 21. 84-Doug Martin[20]; 22. 24-Mike Hart[18]; 23. (DNF) 11R-Levi Randt[9]; 24. (DNF) 17-Nick Shumansky[4]; 25. (DNS) 12S-Joshua Schroeder

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11R-Levi Randt[4]; 2. 2-Joe Martin[2]; 3. 24W-Ashley Wampler[1]; 4. 59-Kyle Anderson[7]; 5. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[8]; 6. 16-Greg Platzer[5]; 7. 18J-Justin Peterson[9]; 8. 17B-Rachel Boston[3]; 9. 57-Jason Fechtner[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 51-Eric Riley[1]; 2. 17-Nick Shumansky[6]; 3. 4-Mike Mund[2]; 4. 12-Kevin Pender[3]; 5. 30B-Wade Bergerud[4]; 6. 3-Ryan Mund[5]; 7. 84-Doug Martin[7]; 8. 7X-Peter Martin[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 111-Keith Tourville[6]; 2. 26-Ty Agen[2]; 3. 3C-Cory Dykhoff[1]; 4. 80-Tony Miller[3]; 5. 23-Maverick Janssen[8]; 6. 24-Mike Hart[4]; 7. 12S-Joshua Schroeder[7]; 8. 34JR-Braden Brauer[5]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 35-Chase Pourrier[3]; 2. 73-Payson Patrin[4]; 3. 45W-Kevin Wahl[5]; 4. 08-Jeff Rohner[7]; 5. 988-Danna Gronwold[2]; 6. 11K-Paul Kester[10]; 7. 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[8]; 8. (DNF) 988CC-Clinton Starnes[6]; 9. (DNF) 03-Christian Kast[9]; 10. (DNF) 10-Dexyn Habraken[1]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[4]; 2. 45W-Kevin Wahl[5]; 3. 35-Chase Pourrier[3]; 4. 73-Payson Patrin[2]; 5. 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[1]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 988-Danna Gronwold[4]; 2. 10-Dexyn Habraken[2]; 3. 988CC-Clinton Starnes[1]; 4. (DNF) 03-Christian Kast[5]; 5. (DNS) 11K-Paul Kester

Gen X Late Models:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 14-Scott Harrington[5]; 2. 50-Ben Wolden[8]; 3. 20Z-Scott Zimmerman[6]; 4. 1776-Joseph Thomas[4]; 5. 4C-Brent Clemensen[1]; 6. 11*-Larry Samuelson[7]; 7. 49-Andrew Tysdal[3]; 8. 27-Jarrett Huus[9]; 9. 00-Kevin Youngquist[2]; 10. 0-Shawn Beto[11]; 11. 1-Tai Engels[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1776-Joseph Thomas[4]; 2. 00-Kevin Youngquist[1]; 3. 14-Scott Harrington[5]; 4. 4C-Brent Clemensen[2]; 5. 27-Jarrett Huus[3]; 6. (DNF) 0-Shawn Beto[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Ben Wolden[1]; 2. 20Z-Scott Zimmerman[2]; 3. 11*-Larry Samuelson[5]; 4. 49-Andrew Tysdal[3]; 5. 1-Tai Engels[4]