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Jake Knapper (Contributed Photo)

Knapper claims Mod main as long list of winners visit victory lane at Willmar, MN

By Ron Krog

WILLMAR, MN (June 13) - Race fans at KRA Speedway in Willmar, MN were treated to a very busy nine-feature night, as some unfinished business from the June 6 races added makeup features in the WISSOTA Mod Fours and the WISSOTA Hornets to the program.

WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Blake Adams, Jacob Knapper, Andrew Hedtke, Braden Brauer, Robert Holtquist, Tommy Bawden, Jeff Rohner, and Matthew Dittman.

The WISSOTA Hornets put on their feature in grand fashion as an amazing four-car battle among Kole Kampsen, Justin Schelitzche, Jeff Rohner and Matt Dittman highlighted the full 12 laps.

Kampsen led much of the race, but he had Schelitzche alongside many times, losing the lead on several occasions. Not to be outdone, Rohner and Dittman jumped up alongside many times and made it three wide and sometimes even close to four wide.

As the race ran down in laps, each of the cars had a piece of the lead - and the last lap was pretty wild. Rohner grabbed the lead with Schelitzche and Dittman going at it for second, and Kampsen was also right in the hunt. When the checkered flew, Rohner got the win followed by Schelitzche, Dittman and Kampsen - all within 20 feet of him - in what could be considered as a candidate for one of the top races so far this season at KRA.

In the Hornet makeup feature, Schelitzche and Dittman were side by side for four laps, with Dittman taking the eventual win ahead of Schelitzche, Rohner, Kampsen and Braxton Schmitz in the top five.

The WISSOTA Mod Fours also ran double features, as Blake Hawker passed Dean Larson for the lead with three laps in the books in the makeup feature. Tommy Bawden got by Larson for second a lap later. The battle for the lead was a good one, as Hawker fought off several charges from Bawden. With four laps to go, Bawden made the pass for the lead and the eventual win, with Hawker finishing second, Larson third, and Bob Holtquist fourth. Josh Litzau was fifth.

The regular feature for the evening was led early by Craig Gertsema, who led strongly for the first seven laps before he spun. Connor Bruss was also very impressive as he ran second and then took over the lead from Gertsema.

Bob Holtquist then took his turn out front, getting by Bruss for the top spot, and Bawden following through to second. With three laps to go, Bawden broke and about the same time Dustin Holtquist got into the back of Bob Holtquist, spinning him. Dustin was put to the back and Bob drove off to the win, with Bruss second, and Josh Litzau third. Dean Larson and Hawker completed the top five.

A nice field of 18 WISSOTA Street Stocks took to the track, and Jimmy Williams and Braden Brauer battled for the lead to start the 20-lap main. Williams took the top spot for the first few laps, before Brauer got by on lap four. Ethan Iiams was on the move, as he passed Williams for second and set his sights on Brauer. With 13 laps to go, Iiams took charge, just ahead of Braden and Kolton Brauer. A yellow with two laps to go reset the field.

When back underway, on the last lap off turn two, it was a three-wide battle as Kolton Brauer took the lead and then Iiams slipped ahead, but by the time they got to turn three, Braden Brauer somehow found enough speed to take charge and edged out the victory with Iiams second, Kolton Brauer third, and a charging Zach Flickinger fourth. Justin Vogel completed the top five.

The 13-car WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature was led early by Johnny Lindgren, with Tim Kanten moving by Gage Myers for second. Soon Blake Adams worked his way up from his seventh starting spot, as he and Kanten got by Lindgren for the lead and they went at it pretty hard for the spot. With six laps to go, Lindgren had the lead with Adams all over him, and two laps later Adams took the spot and drove off to the win, with a hard-charging Jason Vejtruba taking second, Kanten third, and Lindgren looking very strong in fourth. Benjamin Beekman was fifth.

The WISSOTA Super Stock feature looked like it was going to be a battle between Jacob Knapper and Shawn Fernkes, but on the second lap Fernkes broke and Knapper took charge. The class of the field was Andrew Hedtke, however, as he caught Knapper about lap six and passed him, driving off for the win. Knapper continued to look good in the No. 12 car and finished second just ahead of Eric Martin, Zach Schultz and Brayden Hedtke in the top five.

Jake Knapper left no doubt in the WISSOTA Modified feature, as he ran off strongly ahead of a good race for second between Ryan Flaten and Seth Brede. Knapper got the win with Jonathan Olmscheid, who charged to second ahead of Flaten. Two strong runners in the small field had tough nights taking them out of action, as Buzzy Adams broke in his heat and never started the feature, and Don Eischens pulled off early in the feature.

Coltyn Schuler picked up his ninth win of the season in the Pure Stock class, as he continues his red-hot streak!

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 66-Jacob Knapper[1]; 2. US-Jonathan Olmscheid[4]; 3. 15F-Ryan Flaten[5]; 4. 6SL-Seth Brede[2]; 5. 10-Justin VanEps[6]; 6. (DNF) 9E-Don Eischens[3]; 7. (DNS) 40-Kevin Adams

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15F-Ryan Flaten[1]; 2. 9E-Don Eischens[4]; 3. 66-Jacob Knapper[3]; 4. 6SL-Seth Brede[2]; 5. US-Jonathan Olmscheid[5]; 6. 10-Justin VanEps[7]; 7. (DNF) 40-Kevin Adams[6]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (18 Laps): 1. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[4]; 2. 12T-Jacob Knapper[2]; 3. 24M-Eric Martini[5]; 4. 511-Zach Schultz[3]; 5. 19-Brayden Hedtke[6]; 6. 71X-Travis Scott[7]; 7. 32-Max Nelson[8]; 8. 00-Jason Hobbs[9]; 9. 4-Jay Hedtke[13]; 10. 14-Jayden Friauf[10]; 11. (DNF) 55-Gary Husmann[12]; 12. (DNF) 99-Shawn Fernkes[1]; 13. (DNS) 31R-Rob Revermann

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Brayden Hedtke[4]; 2. 24M-Eric Martini[1]; 3. 99-Shawn Fernkes[2]; 4. 12T-Jacob Knapper[3]; 5. 00-Jason Hobbs[5]; 6. (DNF) 31R-Rob Revermann[7]; 7. (DNF) 4-Jay Hedtke[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 511-Zach Schultz[2]; 2. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[4]; 3. 71X-Travis Scott[5]; 4. 32-Max Nelson[1]; 5. 14-Jayden Friauf[3]; 6. (DNF) 55-Gary Husmann[6]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[7]; 2. 38JV-Jason Vejtruba[8]; 3. 16T-Tim Kanten[6]; 4. 29-Johnny Lindgren[2]; 5. 2-Benjamin Beekman[10]; 6. 10K-Kailey VanEps[3]; 7. 75-Randy Klein[9]; 8. (DNF) 46-Ryan Putnam[5]; 9. (DNF) 32C-Zach Clark[4]; 10. (DNF) 19M-Gage Myers[1]; 11. (DNF) 31C-Tony Clark[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 46-Ryan Putnam[1]; 2. 40D-Blake Adams[2]; 3. 19M-Gage Myers[4]; 4. 10K-Kailey VanEps[5]; 5. 75-Randy Klein[3]; 6. (DNF) 31C-Tony Clark[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 29-Johnny Lindgren[1]; 2. 38JV-Jason Vejtruba[3]; 3. 16T-Tim Kanten[4]; 4. 32C-Zach Clark[5]; 5. 2-Benjamin Beekman[2]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 34JR-Braden Brauer[1]; 2. I7-Ethan Iiams[4]; 3. KOL34-Kolton Brauer[7]; 4. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[6]; 5. 10-Justin Vogel[9]; 6. 69-Dominick Platow[10]; 7. 2-Joe Martin[5]; 8. 22W-Jim Williams[2]; 9. 35S-Kegan Stueve[3]; 10. 19-Derek Zieske[12]; 11. 7X-Peter Martin[15]; 12. 83-Doug Olmscheid[13]; 13. 84-Doug Martin[14]; 14. 18-Dan Lorensen[17]; 15. 76-Braedyn Fleck[16]; 16. 5F-Mike Flickinger[18]; 17. (DNF) 16S-Ty Schuler[11]; 18. (DNF) 26-Ty Agen[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Ty Agen[1]; 2. I7-Ethan Iiams[3]; 3. 22W-Jim Williams[4]; 4. 69-Dominick Platow[6]; 5. 83-Doug Olmscheid[2]; 6. 76-Braedyn Fleck[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 34JR-Braden Brauer[1]; 2. 10-Justin Vogel[2]; 3. 2-Joe Martin[3]; 4. 16S-Ty Schuler[5]; 5. 84-Doug Martin[4]; 6. (DNF) 18-Dan Lorensen[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. KOL34-Kolton Brauer[2]; 2. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[1]; 3. 35S-Kegan Stueve[5]; 4. 19-Derek Zieske[4]; 5. 7X-Peter Martin[3]; 6. 5F-Mike Flickinger[6]

WISSOTA Mod Fours:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 5-Robert Holtquist[4]; 2. 20-Connor Bruss[1]; 3. 8R-Josh Litzau[3]; 4. 37-Dean Larson[6]; 5. 21-Blake Hawker[10]; 6. 5H-Dustin Holtquist[7]; 7. 13-Casey Traxler[9]; 8. 3G-Craig Gertsema[2]; 9. (DNF) TB81-Tommy Bawden[8]; 10. (DNF) 7L-Tyler Larson[5]; 11. (DNF) 14-Chris Benny[11]

Makeup Feature (14 Laps): 1. TB81-Tommy Bawden[3]; 2. 21-Blake Hawker[1]; 3. 37-Dean Larson[2]; 4. 5-Robert Holtquist[5]; 5. 8R-Josh Litzau[6]; 6. 3G-Craig Gertsema[8]; 7. 7L-Tyler Larson[4]; 8. 20-Connor Bruss[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. TB81-Tommy Bawden[2]; 2. 5-Robert Holtquist[5]; 3. 3G-Craig Gertsema[1]; 4. 37-Dean Larson[6]; 5. 13-Casey Traxler[4]; 6. (DNF) 14-Chris Benny[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5H-Dustin Holtquist[1]; 2. 7L-Tyler Larson[5]; 3. 20-Connor Bruss[2]; 4. 8R-Josh Litzau[3]; 5. 21-Blake Hawker[4]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[3]; 2. 14-Justin Schelitzche[2]; 3. 22-Matthew Dittman[4]; 4. 2-Kole Kampsen[1]; 5. 26-Braxton Schmitz[6]; 6. 11K-Paul Kester[7]; 7. 20-Christopher Winter Jr[5]; 8. 19A-Alysha Christenson[8]; 9. (DNS) 27X-Hailey Borer

Makeup Feature (12 Laps): 1. 22-Matthew Dittman[4]; 2. 14-Justin Schelitzche[3]; 3. 08-Jeff Rohner[5]; 4. 2-Kole Kampsen[6]; 5. 26-Braxton Schmitz[1]; 6. 11K-Paul Kester[10]; 7. 27X-Hailey Borer[2]; 8. 19A-Alysha Christenson[9]; 9. (DNS) 10-Dexyn Habraken; 10. (DQ) 20-Christopher Winter Jr[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Matthew Dittman[6]; 2. 14-Justin Schelitzche[5]; 3. 08-Jeff Rohner[1]; 4. 2-Kole Kampsen[8]; 5. 20-Christopher Winter Jr[4]; 6. 26-Braxton Schmitz[9]; 7. 11K-Paul Kester[3]; 8. 19A-Alysha Christenson[7]; 9. (DNS) 27X-Hailey Borer

Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[4]; 2. 18-Chris Isdal[2]; 3. 511-Colsten Schultz[1]; 4. 611-Brady Schultz[3]; 5. 82JR-Sophie Anderson[6]; 6. 27A-Jacob Aasgaard[5]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 18-Chris Isdal[1]; 2. 611-Brady Schultz[2]; 3. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[6]; 4. 511-Colsten Schultz[3]; 5. 27A-Jacob Aasgaard[4]; 6. (DNF) 82JR-Sophie Anderson[5]