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Young fans the focus at KRA Thursday as features go to Eischens, Schultz, Vejtruba, Tourville and Larson

By Ron Krog

WILLMAR, MN (July 18) - After all the early season rainouts, racing is back to normal at KRA Speedway as the folks from the Eagles Nest Bar and Grill sponsored Kids Night on Thursday. A pile of bikes, scooters, cash and racing goodies made several happy young race fans.

A nice field of 95 cars filled the pits and nine Vintage cars were also part of the program, so fans were treated to a great race show. WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Jason Vejtruba, Don Eischens, Zach Schultz, Keith Tourville, and Tyler Larson.

Nine WISSOTA Modified competitors were on hand, with Justin VanEps the early leader. Three laps into the 16-lapper, Don Eischens was really hooked up and slid by on the outside. He pulled away out front as Zach Johnson and Bryce Borgen were in a heated battle for fourth. With seven laps to go, Seth Brede passed VanEps for second, and Mike Stearns advanced five spots into third. Eischens took the win with Brede second, Stearns third, Johnson fourth and VanEps fifth.

Twenty WISSOTA Street Stocks were on hand for their wild 20-lap feature. Ethan Iiams passed Derek Zieske for the lead with two laps complete. Two laps later, Kolton Brauer moved into second.

With 15 laps left, Keith Tourville moved to third with Ty Agen fourth and Justin Vogel fifth. For the next four laps it was a real battle among the top five; Tourville passed Iiams for the lead, and Vogel and Iiams were in a good fight for second. For the last 10 laps, Tourville and Vogel put on a great show as they went back and forth for the lead, with Brauer and Agen going at it for third right behind them.

In the end Tourville hung on for the win, with Vogel second, Brauer third, and Joe Martin charged from 14th to take fourth. Agen completed the top five.

The 14-car, 20-lap WISSOTA Super Stock feature also had plenty of action. Brayden Hedtke took charge after two first-lap cautions, but then on lap two he spun in turn two in front of the whole field. Somehow the field missed him, but apparently something broke in the rear end and he had to be towed off. WISSOTA national point leader Dexton Koch suffered severe damage to his car and he also went to the pits.

Once the race resumed, Zach Schultz and Shawn Fernkes had a great battle for the lead. With 11 laps left, Schultz took over and cruised home with the win with Fernkes second, and close behind was Eric Martini in third. Andrew Hedtke and Jacob Knapper rounded out the top five.

The 12-car WISSOTA Mod Four field had several top cars in it, with Tyler Larson jumping from his front-row spot and dominating the feature to pick up career win No. 100. Back in traffic, Tommy Bawden was hard at work, as he passed Dustin Holtquist for fourth with 10 laps to go, and then passed Blake Hawker for third with seven laps left. He then moved into second as he passed Josh Litzau with five laps left. Litzau ended up third with Hawker fourth and Dean Larson fifth.

A nice field of 14 WISSOTA Midwest Mods were led by Zach Clark, before Ryan Putnam took charge. Jason Vejtruba came from eighth to pass Tim Kanten for second with 11 laps left. A caution reset the field and Kanten took over second, and then he got by Putnam with nine laps left for the lead. Three laps later Vejtruba struck again, as he passed Kanten for the lead and went on for the win. Kanten did hold on for second, but the guy on the move through traffic was Joey Jensen, as he came from sixth to finish a very strong third. Ryan Putnam and Onyx Johnson were top-five finishers.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 9E-Don Eischens[3]; 2. 6SL-Seth Brede[7]; 3. 24S-Mike Stearns[8]; 4. 6X-Zach Johnson[4]; 5. 10-Justin VanEps[1]; 6. 7-Bryce Borgen[5]; 7. (DNF) 66-Jacob Knapper[9]; 8. (DNF) US-Jonathan Olmscheid[6]; 9. (DQ) 15S-Wade Skindelien[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 6X-Zach Johnson[2]; 2. 9E-Don Eischens[6]; 3. 10-Justin VanEps[1]; 4. 7-Bryce Borgen[4]; 5. 15S-Wade Skindelien[3]; 6. US-Jonathan Olmscheid[5]; 7. 6SL-Seth Brede[7]; 8. 24S-Mike Stearns[9]; 9. 66-Jacob Knapper[8]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 511-Zach Schultz[4]; 2. 99-Shawn Fernkes[3]; 3. 24M-Eric Martini[5]; 4. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[7]; 5. 12T-Jacob Knapper[6]; 6. 55-Gary Husmann[1]; 7. 24-Dustin Zieske[9]; 8. 6SIX-Forrest Foster[12]; 9. 2B1-Matt Fester[10]; 10. 31R-Rob Revermann[11]; 11. 4-Jay Hedtke[14]; 12. (DNF) 78K-Dexton Koch[8]; 13. (DNF) 19-Brayden Hedtke[2]; 14. (DNF) 14-Jayden Friauf[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24M-Eric Martini[1]; 2. 12T-Jacob Knapper[4]; 3. 511-Zach Schultz[7]; 4. 55-Gary Husmann[5]; 5. 24-Dustin Zieske[3]; 6. 31R-Rob Revermann[6]; 7. 14-Jayden Friauf[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[7]; 2. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[6]; 3. 99-Shawn Fernkes[4]; 4. 19-Brayden Hedtke[3]; 5. 2B1-Matt Fester[2]; 6. 6SIX-Forrest Foster[1]; 7. 4-Jay Hedtke[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (18 Laps): 1. 38J-Jason Vejtruba[8]; 2. 16T-Tim Kanten[5]; 3. 30-Joey Jensen[6]; 4. 46-Ryan Putnam[3]; 5. 73-Onyx Johnson[4]; 6. 3D-Daniel Bjonfald[7]; 7. 29-Johnny Lindgren[2]; 8. 10K-Kailey VanEps[14]; 9. 30K-Jake Kierstead[13]; 10. (DNF) 81-Dominick Dieken[9]; 11. (DNF) 32C-Zach Clark[1]; 12. (DNF) 2-Benjamin Beekman[10]; 13. (DNF) 31C-Tony Clark[11]; 14. (DNF) 85J-Justin Jensen[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 38J-Jason Vejtruba[4]; 2. 73-Onyx Johnson[2]; 3. 16T-Tim Kanten[6]; 4. 3D-Daniel Bjonfald[3]; 5. 81-Dominick Dieken[7]; 6. 31C-Tony Clark[5]; 7. (DNF) 30K-Jake Kierstead[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[3]; 2. 46-Ryan Putnam[5]; 3. 29-Johnny Lindgren[2]; 4. 32C-Zach Clark[6]; 5. 2-Benjamin Beekman[4]; 6. 85J-Justin Jensen[7]; 7. (DNF) 10K-Kailey VanEps[1]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 111JR-Keith Tourville[9]; 2. 10-Justin Vogel[8]; 3. KOL34-Kolton Brauer[7]; 4. 2-Joe Martin[14]; 5. 26-Ty Agen[10]; 6. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[6]; 7. 35S-Kegan Stueve[11]; 8. I7-Ethan Iiams[5]; 9. 9-Cody Hatch[3]; 10. 15X-Taylor Willms[2]; 11. 28-Justin Litzau[16]; 12. 84-Doug Martin[15]; 13. 5F-Mike Flickinger[17]; 14. 57-Jason Fechtner[19]; 15. 12-Melvin Flickinger[18]; 16. (DNF) 19-Derek Zieske[1]; 17. (DNF) 22W-Jim Williams[4]; 18. (DNF) 7X-Peter Martin[13]; 19. (DNF) 83-Doug Olmscheid[12]; 20. (DNF) 14-Merlyn Flickinger Jr[20]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22W-Jim Williams[4]; 2. 10-Justin Vogel[3]; 3. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[5]; 4. 26-Ty Agen[6]; 5. 7X-Peter Martin[1]; 6. 28-Justin Litzau[7]; 7. 57-Jason Fechtner[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 111JR-Keith Tourville[1]; 2. 15X-Taylor Willms[2]; 3. I7-Ethan Iiams[5]; 4. 35S-Kegan Stueve[3]; 5. 2-Joe Martin[6]; 6. 5F-Mike Flickinger[7]; 7. (DNF) 14-Merlyn Flickinger Jr[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. KOL34-Kolton Brauer[1]; 2. 9-Cody Hatch[2]; 3. 19-Derek Zieske[5]; 4. 83-Doug Olmscheid[3]; 5. 84-Doug Martin[4]; 6. 12-Melvin Flickinger[6]

WISSOTA Mod Fours:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 7L-Tyler Larson[1]; 2. TB81-Tommy Bawden[6]; 3. 8R-Josh Litzau[2]; 4. 21-Blake Hawker[3]; 5. 37-Dean Larson[12]; 6. 5-Robert Holtquist[8]; 7. 3G-Craig Gertsema[9]; 8. 9-Thomas Burgard[7]; 9. 99JR-Peewee Kuhnau[5]; 10. (DNF) 5H-Dustin Holtquist[4]; 11. (DNS) 14G-Brayden Ahlers; 12. (DNS) 20-Connor Bruss

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 8R-Josh Litzau[1]; 2. TB81-Tommy Bawden[6]; 3. 5-Robert Holtquist[5]; 4. 21-Blake Hawker[4]; 5. 3G-Craig Gertsema[3]; 6. (DNF) 20-Connor Bruss[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5H-Dustin Holtquist[2]; 2. 7L-Tyler Larson[4]; 3. 9-Thomas Burgard[1]; 4. 99JR-Peewee Kuhnau[6]; 5. (DNF) 14G-Brayden Ahlers[5]; 6. (DNF) 37-Dean Larson[3]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature - No information at press time.

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 22-Matthew Dittman[1]; 2. 08-Jeff Rohner[4]; 3. 14-Justin Schelitzche[2]; 4. 94A-Bobie Arnes[3]; 5. 26-Braxton Schmitz[5]; 6. 11K-Paul Kester[7]; 7. 27X-Hailey Borer[6]; 8. 19A-Alysha Christenson[8]

Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[5]; 2. 6-Bruce Laabs[1]; 3. 18-Chris Isdal[3]; 4. 511-Colsten Schultz[6]; 5. 71-Matt Wartman[8]; 6. (DNF) 611-Brady Schultz[4]; 7. (DNF) 13-Brett Hedtke[7]; 8. (DNF) 13G-Mike Goude[9]; 9. (DNF) 82JR-Sophie Anderson[2]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[1]; 2. 18-Chris Isdal[2]; 3. 6-Bruce Laabs[4]; 4. 82JR-Sophie Anderson[3]; 5. 611-Brady Schultz[6]; 6. 511-Colsten Schultz[8]; 7. 13-Brett Hedtke[5]; 8. 71-Matt Wartman[7]; 9. (DNF) 13G-Mike Goude[9]