7-16 Page 9 | ATD Racing News

Mass, Froemming, Johnson, Ekdahl and Rohner race to the checkered flags first Friday at I-94

By Ron Krog

FERGUS FALLS, MN (July 12) - The racing season is really starting to move along, as most tracks have now hit the midway point. I-94 emr Speedway held its annual Meet the Drivers night and it was a great time, with drivers bringing the cars right into the grandstand so everybody young and old could get up close.

With 103 cars in the pits it was a very busy night, but with a lot of help from the racers all went well. WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Dave Mass, Justin Froemming, Jeff Ekdahl, Jeff Rohner and Zach Johnson.

The WISSOTA Midwest Mods sent out 25 cars, but two early cautions sent six cars to the pits. Early on Chad Gronner and Brennan Weight had a great battle for the lead, with Justin Froemming - filling in for the injured Shawn Olson - moving into second with six laps complete. Two laps later Froemming, Nate Reinke and Weight were in a heated scrap for the lead. Froemming took the top spot with five laps left, and in the meantime Reinke and Weight swapped spots back and forth. Tayten Blascyk joined in and as the checkered flew, it was a big celebration for the Olson team with the win. Weight, Blascyk, Reinke and Ron Saurer were close behind.

A nice field of 22 WISSOTA Street Stocks took the green with Mike Hart leading the first three laps. Kyle Dykhoff, Jeff Ekdahl and Parker Anderson made their way into battle, and it was game on. A bad break came for Levi Randt as he got into the back end of Ekdahl, which sent him to the back.

The battle for the lead was a good one, with Dykhoff and Ekdahl going back and forth with Anderson in third. With five laps to go everything broke loose, as Eric Riley moved to third, and then he and Dykhoff got tangled up. Ekdahl slipped into the lead as the race came to a wild finish. Riley was second, with Dykhoff third and Anderson fourth.

The 14-car WISSOTA Modified feature had a little less drama than the Street Stocks and Midwest Mods, as Zach Johnson took charge and led all 20 laps with Brenden Blascyk running a solid second. He had company, as Jason Thoennes had the No. 52 car really cookin’ and caught Blascyk, but was unable to pass him and settled for third. Travis Saurer was fourth and Brett Houim ran a strong fifth.

The race of the night was the 19-car WISSOTA Late Model feature as Blake Boelens broke out to a nice lead, but with five laps complete, Shawn Meyer caught him and took the lead away.

Back in the pack Dave Mass was on the move, but so was Don Shaw as the duo moved through traffic and in on Meyer. A yellow with five laps to go reset the field with Meyer up front and Mass and Shaw alongside him. As the green flew, the three went into turn one and Shaw slid under both of them for the lead, but on the back straight Meyer moved back past him. Mass then came flying by both for the lead, as Shaw took second, and he and Mass swapped sliders with Mass finally edging out Shaw for a hard-fought win. Meyer was third, and Charlie Olsen charged into fourth right ahead of Cole Schill.

Jeff Rohner won a close feature over Matt Dittman, as the two swapped the lead on the last lap of the WISSOTA Hornet feature. Justin Schelitzche, Christian Kast and Bobie Arnes rounded out the top five.

Mike Anderson won the Gen X Late Model feature with a solid run.

I-94 thanks West Bay Leasing, West Metro Buick GMC, Nordick Farms, Ben Wolden Landscaping, Doug Wolden Trucking and Blondies Beauty Bar for their great sponsorship of a very fun evening.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 2-Dave Mass[6]; 2. 42S-Don Shaw[7]; 3. 18X-Shawn Meyer[5]; 4. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[9]; 5. 44*-Cole Schill[8]; 6. 8R-Travis Robertson[4]; 7. 00-Mitch Johnson[2]; 8. 3S-Nathan Sletto[14]; 9. 15X-Blake Boelens[1]; 10. 66-Sam Zender[11]; 11. 9R-Erik Robertson[13]; 12. 18-Josh Rieck[12]; 13. 66*-Larry Samuelson[19]; 14. 25T-Jamie Trautner[16]; 15. 24-Mike Hart[15]; 16. 3H-Jerry Hauge[18]; 17. (DNF) 10R-Kevin Robertson[3]; 18. (DNF) 27-Jared Zimpel[10]; 19. (DNF) 50-Ben Wolden[17]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[4]; 2. 42S-Don Shaw[3]; 3. 00-Mitch Johnson[5]; 4. 27-Jared Zimpel[6]; 5. 9R-Erik Robertson[1]; 6. 25T-Jamie Trautner[2]; 7. 66*-Larry Samuelson[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Dave Mass[1]; 2. 10R-Kevin Robertson[3]; 3. 44*-Cole Schill[6]; 4. 66-Sam Zender[4]; 5. 3S-Nathan Sletto[5]; 6. 50-Ben Wolden[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 8R-Travis Robertson[2]; 2. 15X-Blake Boelens[1]; 3. 18X-Shawn Meyer[3]; 4. 18-Josh Rieck[6]; 5. 24-Mike Hart[4]; 6. 3H-Jerry Hauge[5]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 6X-Zach Johnson[2]; 2. 9B-Brendan Blascyk[4]; 3. 52-Jason Thoennes[3]; 4. 21X-Travis Saurer[6]; 5. 5H-Brett Hoium[10]; 6. 6T-Corky Thomas[9]; 7. 6SL-Seth Brede[7]; 8. 10X-Dustin Bitzan[12]; 9. 7-Bryce Borgen[1]; 10. US-Jonathan Olmscheid[11]; 11. (DNF) 2X-Brady Gerdes[8]; 12. (DNF) 11X-Austin Chyba[14]; 13. (DNF) 6ST-Joseph Thomas[5]; 14. (DNS) 35-Brad Jensen

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Jason Thoennes[4]; 2. 21X-Travis Saurer[1]; 3. 6SL-Seth Brede[2]; 4. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[7]; 5. 6T-Corky Thomas[5]; 6. (DNF) 10X-Dustin Bitzan[3]; 7. (DNF) 35-Brad Jensen[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9B-Brendan Blascyk[1]; 2. 6X-Zach Johnson[4]; 3. 2X-Brady Gerdes[6]; 4. 7-Bryce Borgen[7]; 5. 5H-Brett Hoium[5]; 6. US-Jonathan Olmscheid[3]; 7. (DNF) 11X-Austin Chyba[2]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 32F-Justin Froemming[7]; 2. 28-Brennon Weight[4]; 3. 71-Nate Reinke[9]; 4. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[5]; 5. 42-Ron Saurer[2]; 6. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[6]; 7. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[8]; 8. 82G-Chad Gronner[1]; 9. 11R-Landyn Randt[11]; 10. 13-Scott Oeltjen[3]; 11. 4-Phil Christlieb[16]; 12. 73-Onyx Johnson[17]; 13. 110-Tate Kelderman[23]; 14. TS42-Scott Samuelson[18]; 15. 75JR-Daniel Harstad[21]; 16. 13T-Tyson Roush[24]; 17. 13K-Brad King[22]; 18. (DNF) 554-Alan Oeltjen[12]; 19. (DNF) 10B-Tyler Bitzan[20]; 20. (DNF) 28K-Nick Preston[13]; 21. (DNF) 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[14]; 22. (DNF) 12X-Jamie Norman[15]; 23. (DNF) 7T-Joseph Thomas[10]; 24. (DNF) 21Z-Zach Kort[19]; 25. (DNS) 17K-Kamey Leedom

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[1]; 2. 42-Ron Saurer[4]; 3. 82G-Chad Gronner[5]; 4. 7T-Joseph Thomas[6]; 5. 28K-Nick Preston[8]; 6. 4-Phil Christlieb[7]; 7. 21Z-Zach Kort[3]; 8. 13K-Brad King[2]; 9. 13T-Tyson Roush[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Nate Reinke[2]; 2. 32F-Justin Froemming[3]; 3. 13-Scott Oeltjen[1]; 4. 11R-Landyn Randt[6]; 5. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[8]; 6. 73-Onyx Johnson[4]; 7. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[7]; 8. 110-Tate Kelderman[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[2]; 2. 28-Brennon Weight[6]; 3. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[5]; 4. 554-Alan Oeltjen[8]; 5. 12X-Jamie Norman[1]; 6. TS42-Scott Samuelson[3]; 7. 75JR-Daniel Harstad[7]; 8. (DNF) 17K-Kamey Leedom[4]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[2]; 2. 51-Eric Riley[9]; 3. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[10]; 4. 127-Parker Anderson[7]; 5. 12-Kevin Pender[11]; 6. 2-Joe Martin[16]; 7. 2K-Tyler Klugman[4]; 8. 18J-Justin Peterson[19]; 9. 19-Cole Greseth[15]; 10. 30B-Wade Bergerud[18]; 11. 23-Maverick Janssen[14]; 12. 80-Tony Miller[22]; 13. 84-Doug Martin[20]; 14. 57-Jason Fechtner[17]; 15. 11R-Levi Randt[5]; 16. (DNF) 7X-Peter Martin[21]; 17. (DNF) 24-Mike Hart[1]; 18. (DNF) 04-Tommy Pogones[3]; 19. (DNF) 16-Greg Platzer[12]; 20. (DNF) 83-Doug Olmscheid[13]; 21. (DNF) 26-Ty Agen[8]; 22. (DNS) 17-Nick Shumansky

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 127-Parker Anderson[2]; 2. 26-Ty Agen[4]; 3. 51-Eric Riley[5]; 4. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[7]; 5. 83-Doug Olmscheid[1]; 6. 2-Joe Martin[8]; 7. 18J-Justin Peterson[3]; 8. 80-Tony Miller[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2K-Tyler Klugman[3]; 2. 04-Tommy Pogones[5]; 3. 11R-Levi Randt[6]; 4. 12-Kevin Pender[7]; 5. 23-Maverick Janssen[2]; 6. 57-Jason Fechtner[4]; 7. 84-Doug Martin[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Nick Shumansky[2]; 2. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[6]; 3. 24-Mike Hart[1]; 4. 16-Greg Platzer[3]; 5. 19-Cole Greseth[5]; 6. 30B-Wade Bergerud[4]; 7. 7X-Peter Martin[7]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[6]; 2. 22-Matthew Dittman[7]; 3. 14-Justin Schelitzche[8]; 4. 03-Christian Kast[2]; 5. 94A-Bobie Arnes[4]; 6. 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[11]; 7. 10-Dexyn Habraken[9]; 8. 19A-Alysha Christenson[10]; 9. I94-Gus Helleksen[12]; 10. (DNF) 17-Nick Shirley[3]; 11. (DNF) 988T-Tristan Anderson[1]; 12. (DQ) 35-Chase Pourrier[5]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 35-Chase Pourrier[2]; 2. 08-Jeff Rohner[5]; 3. 988T-Tristan Anderson[1]; 4. 03-Christian Kast[6]; 5. 10-Dexyn Habraken[3]; 6. (DQ) 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[4]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 94A-Bobie Arnes[1]; 2. 14-Justin Schelitzche[4]; 3. 22-Matthew Dittman[5]; 4. 17-Nick Shirley[2]; 5. I94-Gus Helleksen[6]; 6. (DNF) 19A-Alysha Christenson[3]

Gen X Late Models:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 18A-Mike Anderson[2]; 2. 49-Andrew Tysdal[5]; 3. 14-Scott Harrington[6]; 4. 50-Ben Wolden[7]; 5. 20Z-Scott Zimmerman[1]; 6. 10-Brad Staples[8]; 7. 1776-Joseph Thomas[9]; 8. 11*-Larry Samuelson[11]; 9. 0-Shawn Beto[3]; 10. 4C-Brent Clemensen[10]; 11. 00-Kevin Youngquist[4]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20Z-Scott Zimmerman[1]; 2. 14-Scott Harrington[2]; 3. 49-Andrew Tysdal[4]; 4. 10-Brad Staples[3]; 5. 1776-Joseph Thomas[6]; 6. 11*-Larry Samuelson[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Ben Wolden[5]; 2. 18A-Mike Anderson[1]; 3. 00-Kevin Youngquist[3]; 4. 0-Shawn Beto[4]; 5. 4C-Brent Clemensen[2]