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Mod fans get two features worth of fun at River Cities; Blacklance and Wahl share the victory lane celebrations in open-wheelers while Strand wins Late Models

By Steven Young

GRAND FORKS, ND (July 26) - July’s racing action at River Cities Speedway is in the books as five drivers found their way to victory lane Friday during the annual Big Motor Mania special.

Dustin Strand won his fifth WISSOTA Late Model feature of 2024, and was joined by Aaron Blacklance and Dustin Wahl in WISSOTA Dirt Track Series victory lane in the Modified class.

The WISSOTA Modifieds ran two features at the Bullring on Friday night. The first was the originally scheduled feature, while the second was a makeup feature from June 14.

Ryan Schroeder and Joseph Thomas led the field to green in the first feature. Aaron Blacklance took third and immediately ducked to the inside of Schroeder for second. It quickly became a three-car battle for the lead just two laps into the race, with Blacklance taking second on lap three. He began to reel in Thomas for the top spot from there.

The lead duo remained nose-to-tail for two laps before Blacklance took the lead on lap seven. The Modified field continued to set a torrid pace, going cautionless past the halfway point when Blacklance began to work lapped traffic.

Thomas started to close in again in traffic with seven to go. With four to go, Thomas cut Blacklance's advantage to within five car lengths before the final caution of the race at the end of the lap.

Blacklance got a great restart, while Schroeder took second after he, Thomas, and Dustin Strand battled three-wide for the spot.

Blacklance remained out front in the closing laps and continued on to victory lane, becoming a winner in three different classes at the Bullring. Strand, Thomas, and Schroeder finished second through fourth, respectively, after their battle in the closing laps. Aaron Holtan was fifth.

The NLRA WISSOTA Late Models were next for their 25-lap, $1,500-to-win feature. Tyler Peterson and Ryan Corbett led the field to green from the front row, with Peterson grabbing the opening lap advantage ahead of Corbett and Brad Seng.

Seng took second in the following laps, while Jason Strand moved into third after a good battle with Corbett on lap four. Sixth-starter Dustin Strand started moving his way through the field from there, moving in on Corbett before a caution on lap six.

On the restart, Dustin Strand moved into fourth and ducked to the inside of Jason Strand to take third. Dustin Strand then hounded Brad Seng, running the cushion of the high-banked quarter-mile oval, eventually taking second on lap 11.

With eight to go, Strand had erased Peterson's lead as they worked lapped traffic, peeking to the inside of the race-long leader with seven to go. Lapped traffic initially blocked Strand for a lap or two, but Strand regained his momentum while watching more traffic return the favor upon Peterson with four to go.

Strand came off of the cushion in turn two and beat Peterson to turn three on the inside, taking the lead at the end of lap number 22. With two to go, Strand was already a half a straightaway ahead and continued on for his fifth Bullring victory of the season, taking the NLRA point lead in the process.

Peterson, Seng, Jason Strand, and Corbett completed the top five.

The final feature of the night was the makeup of the Modified feature rained out on June 14. Dustin Wahl and Davey Mills made up the front row at the start, with Wahl leading the first two circuits as Mills was challenged by Rick Delaine and Ward Imrie for second.

Imrie eventually took the position, while Wahl continued to pace the field through five laps. Imrie closed in on Wahl from there, who was running the middle to the top, as Imrie held court on the bottom.

Following a caution on lap seven, Wahl and Imrie broke away from the field on the ensuing restart and continued their battle for the lead. A second caution on lap 10 gave Joseph Thomas a chance to enter in a three-car battle for the top spot

Wahl pulled away from both Imrie and Thomas in the first laps past the halfway mark, but Imrie again pulled within three car lengths before the final caution with four to go.

Wahl continued on to victory on the final restart, winning his second feature at the Bullring this season over Imrie, Josh Beaulieu, Rick Delaine, and Davey Mills.

Jade Hastings won his third NOSA Sprint Car feature of the year, while Jeremy Lizakowski won in the Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints.

Racing action continues next Friday night with Hall of Fame night featuring the Premier Racing Series and WISSOTA Modifieds making up a five-class program with racing starting at 7 p.m.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[6]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 3. 12S-Brad Seng[3]; 4. E85-Jason Strand[5]; 5. 50-Ryan Corbett[2]; 6. 5E-Shane Edginton[17]; 7. 2*-Cole Babcock[9]; 8. 7P-Joey Pederson[4]; 9. 14-Brody Troftgruben[7]; 10. 44*-Cole Schill[8]; 11. 27P-Tucker Pederson[10]; 12. T 1-Tom Corcoran[14]; 13. 4C-Brandon Corbett[15]; 14. 11S-Casey Stremick[16]; 15. F9-Brandon Fuller[12]; 16. 54-Terry Nelson[21]; 17. 97-Dan McNamee[18]; 18. 47-Kreig Kasin[13]; 19. (DNF) 6R-Nate Reynolds[20]; 20. (DNF) 21S-John Seng[11]; 21. (DNF) 33-Ryan Dahl[19]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[6]; 2. 50-Ryan Corbett[4]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben[2]; 4. 27P-Tucker Pederson[3]; 5. 47-Kreig Kasin[1]; 6. (DNF) 6R-Nate Reynolds[7]; 7. (DNF) 54-Terry Nelson[5]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 7P-Joey Pederson[1]; 2. E85-Jason Strand[2]; 3. 44*-Cole Schill[3]; 4. 21S-John Seng[5]; 5. T 1-Tom Corcoran[6]; 6. 11S-Casey Stremick[7]; 7. 97-Dan McNamee[4]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[1]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 3. 2*-Cole Babcock[4]; 4. F9-Brandon Fuller[6]; 5. 4C-Brandon Corbett[5]; 6. 5E-Shane Edginton[2]; 7. 33-Ryan Dahl[7]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[6]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[7]; 3. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[2]; 4. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[1]; 5. 50-Aaron Holtan[10]; 6. 81-Jordan Duray[3]; 7. 51T-Tim Thomas[4]; 8. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[5]; 9. 1R-Rick Delaine[8]; 10. 10W-Ward Imrie[16]; 11. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[11]; 12. 74-Dustin Wahl[9]; 13. 6T-Corky Thomas[12]; 14. 22-Davey Mills[22]; 15. 7-Bryce Borgen[19]; 16. 57-Michael Tiani[13]; 17. 39-Shawn Teunis[15]; 18. 25-Ryan Johnson[20]; 19. 96-Erv Grossman[17]; 20. 40-Patrick Sobolik[18]; 21. 5JF-Jonathen Feda[14]; 22. (DNF) 18P-Tevin Poluyko[21]; 23. (DNS) 43-Lance Schilling; 24. (DNS) 27-Chris Unrau

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[2]; 2. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[1]; 3. 1R-Rick Delaine[4]; 4. 50-Aaron Holtan[6]; 5. 57-Michael Tiani[7]; 6. 10W-Ward Imrie[3]; 7. 7-Bryce Borgen[5]; 8. 22-Davey Mills[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[2]; 2. 81-Jordan Duray[1]; 3. 74-Dustin Wahl[5]; 4. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[7]; 5. 5JF-Jonathen Feda[8]; 6. 96-Erv Grossman[6]; 7. 25-Ryan Johnson[4]; 8. (DNF) 43-Lance Schilling[3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[3]; 2. 51T-Tim Thomas[2]; 3. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[1]; 4. 6T-Corky Thomas[4]; 5. 39-Shawn Teunis[5]; 6. 40-Patrick Sobolik[7]; 7. 18P-Tevin Poluyko[8]; 8. (DNS) 27-Chris Unrau

410 Winged Sprints:

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[3]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl[4]; 3. 27-Weston Olson[5]; 4. 8-Jack Croaker[6]; 5. 52-Adam Sobolik[11]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[1]; 7. 41T-Travis Strandell[8]; 8. 50-Brad Flaten[9]; 9. 14-Tom Egeland[2]; 10. 19B-Dustin Burke[10]; 11. (DNF) 22-Tanner Wisk[7]; 12. (DNF) 25-Jerzee Rosinski[14]; 13. (DNS) 4-Colton Young; 14. (DNS) 26-Blake Egeland

Heat 1 (9 Laps): 1. 17-Zach Omdahl[2]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl[4]; 3. 27-Weston Olson[3]; 4. 22-Tanner Wisk[6]; 5. 50-Brad Flaten[5]; 6. (DNF) 52-Adam Sobolik[1]; 7. (DNF) 4-Colton Young[7]

Heat 2 (9 Laps): 1. 14-Tom Egeland[1]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 3. 8-Jack Croaker[3]; 4. 41T-Travis Strandell[5]; 5. 19B-Dustin Burke[6]; 6. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[2]; 7. (DNS) 25-Jerzee Rosinski

Western Renegade Wingless Sprints:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 96-Jeremy Lizakowski[2]; 2. 5H-Nick Shirek[6]; 3. 5J-Chris Lewis[3]; 4. 25-Eric Guyot[5]; 5. 8-Parker Vilandre[1]; 6. (DNF) 2-Tee Young[4]; 7. (DNF) 15B-Doug Mccambridge[7]; 8. (DNF) 16K-Matt Knudson[8]; 9. (DNF) 38-Xander Coleman[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5H-Nick Shirek[2]; 2. 5J-Chris Lewis[4]; 3. 96-Jeremy Lizakowski[3]; 4. 25-Eric Guyot[7]; 5. 8-Parker Vilandre[8]; 6. 2-Tee Young[6]; 7. 16K-Matt Knudson[1]; 8. 15B-Doug Mccambridge[9]; 9. (DNF) 38-Xander Coleman[5]