8-13 Page 6 | ATD Racing News

Becker, Gerdes, Reinke and Rohner roll past checkered flags first Friday at Fergus Falls, MN

By Ron Krog

FERGUS FALLS, MN (August 9) - The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat can really hit close to home, and on a cool Minnesota evening, it did multiple times at I-94 emr Speedway.

With the final checkered flag flying in the air Friday, WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Brady Gerdes, Chad Becker, Nate Reinke, and Jeff Rohner.

Twenty WISSOTA Midwest Mods were led to green by Zach Kort and Alan Oeltjen. Oeltjen looked good out front early on, before a caution on lap seven reset the field.

Ron Saurer took the lead away from Oeltjen following the restart, and Nate Reinke followed Saurer through to second. Reinke tried to pass Saurer many times to the inside, with Tanner Bitzan right on his rear bumper. Finally, on the last lap, Reinke went high coming off turn four and made the pass on the frontstretch in a breathtaking move for the win. Saurer had to settle for second, Bitzan was third, Oeltjen was fourth, and Shane Howell completed the top five.

The 19-car WISSOTA Late Model feature was led early by Chase Gelling, who broke out to a big advantage before a caution with three laps left made a mess of things.

Following the restart, Josh Zimpel threw a slider at Gelling, but the two tangled and Gelling had to hit his brakes. Lurking in the pack was Chad Becker, who started eighth; when Zimpel and Gelling got together, Becker was there to take advantage and grabbed the win. Shawn Meyer charged to second, Dave Mass was third, Zimpel was fourth and a strong running Travis Robertson completed the top five.

The 15-car WISSOTA Modified feature looked like it was gonna be all Jason Thoennes out front, as he dominated the first 11 laps. A caution allowed Brady Gerdes to slip by Thoennes for the win, however, and Thoennes had to settle for second. Landon Atkinson charged to third. The battle for fourth was a great one among Brett Hoium, Travis Saurer, Brandon Mehrwerth and Blake Jegtvig. In the end, Houim grabbed fourth, with Saurer close behind in fifth.

The WISSOTA Hornet field had their hands full as national point leader Jeff Rohner was in the house. He started sixth and quickly moved into the lead, with Kevin Wahl running a strong second. Nick Shirley held off Christian Kast for third, and newcomer Tucker Dally did a great job to come home fifth.

The Gen X Late Models ran for a $1,000-to-win purse and Scott Harrington made a late-race pass on Brad Staples for the win.

Next Friday, August 16 is the Bob Gierke Modified special, with a doubleheader scheduled and racing on August 17 as well.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 12-Chad Becker[8]; 2. 18X-Shawn Meyer[7]; 3. 2-Dave Mass[9]; 4. 5-Josh Zimpel[6]; 5. 8R-Travis Robertson[4]; 6. 18C-Chase Gelling[1]; 7. 42S-Don Shaw[14]; 8. 4J-Lee Grosz[12]; 9. 66-Sam Zender[5]; 10. 44*-Cole Schill[16]; 11. 10K-Shawn Kirwin[13]; 12. 12X-Ben Heinle[19]; 13. 12H-Mark Heinle[10]; 14. 18-Josh Rieck[18]; 15. 24-Mike Hart[15]; 16. 3H-Jerry Hauge[17]; 17. (DNF) 32T-Lindsey Hansen[3]; 18. (DNF) 50-Ben Wolden[2]; 19. (DNF) 15X-Blake Boelens[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 8R-Travis Robertson[3]; 2. 66-Sam Zender[2]; 3. 18C-Chase Gelling[4]; 4. 12H-Mark Heinle[1]; 5. 10K-Shawn Kirwin[5]; 6. 44*-Cole Schill[7]; 7. 12X-Ben Heinle[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 32T-Lindsey Hansen[2]; 2. 2-Dave Mass[4]; 3. 50-Ben Wolden[6]; 4. 15X-Blake Boelens[3]; 5. 42S-Don Shaw[5]; 6. 3H-Jerry Hauge[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Chad Becker[2]; 2. 18X-Shawn Meyer[4]; 3. 5-Josh Zimpel[3]; 4. 4J-Lee Grosz[6]; 5. 24-Mike Hart[1]; 6. 18-Josh Rieck[5]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 2X-Brady Gerdes[6]; 2. 52-Jason Thoennes[2]; 3. 18A-Landon Atkinson[7]; 4. 5H-Brett Hoium[4]; 5. 21X-Travis Saurer[5]; 6. 2J-Blake Jegtvig[8]; 7. 7M-Brandon Mehrwerth[1]; 8. 9B-Brendan Blascyk[9]; 9. 112-Brennan Gave[11]; 10. 7-Bryce Borgen[13]; 11. 19-Lucas Rodin[15]; 12. 11X-Austin Chyba[10]; 13. 51A-Avery Anderson[14]; 14. (DNF) 10X-Dustin Bitzan[3]; 15. (DNS) 12-TJ Heinle

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Jason Thoennes[3]; 2. 5H-Brett Hoium[1]; 3. 2J-Blake Jegtvig[4]; 4. 10X-Dustin Bitzan[7]; 5. 9B-Brendan Blascyk[5]; 6. 112-Brennan Gave[2]; 7. 7-Bryce Borgen[8]; 8. 51A-Avery Anderson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18A-Landon Atkinson[5]; 2. 21X-Travis Saurer[2]; 3. 2X-Brady Gerdes[7]; 4. 7M-Brandon Mehrwerth[3]; 5. 11X-Austin Chyba[6]; 6. 12-TJ Heinle[1]; 7. (DNF) 19-Lucas Rodin[4]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 71-Nate Reinke[8]; 2. 42-Ron Saurer[6]; 3. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[4]; 4. 554-Alan Oeltjen[2]; 5. L1-Shane Howell[5]; 6. 19-Lucas Rodin[9]; 7. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[7]; 8. 2HH-Oren Hoeper[10]; 9. 21Z-Zach Kort[1]; 10. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[14]; 11. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[3]; 12. 3T-Tucker Tschakert[18]; 13. 70JR-David Simpson[20]; 14. 13-Scott Oeltjen[11]; 15. TS42-Scott Samuelson[16]; 16. 10M-Noah McFarlane[15]; 17. 75JR-Daniel Harstad[12]; 18. 13K-Brad King[17]; 19. (DNF) 28K-Nick Preston[13]; 20. (DNS) 66-Kyle Langland

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[2]; 2. 42-Ron Saurer[3]; 3. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[7]; 4. 2HH-Oren Hoeper[1]; 5. 28K-Nick Preston[4]; 6. 10M-Noah McFarlane[5]; 7. (DNF) 70JR-David Simpson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Lucas Rodin[2]; 2. L1-Shane Howell[4]; 3. 71-Nate Reinke[6]; 4. 13-Scott Oeltjen[3]; 5. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[5]; 6. TS42-Scott Samuelson[1]; 7. 13K-Brad King[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 554-Alan Oeltjen[1]; 2. 21Z-Zach Kort[2]; 3. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[5]; 4. 75JR-Daniel Harstad[6]; 5. (DNF) 3T-Tucker Tschakert[3]; 6. (DNF) 66-Kyle Langland[4]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[6]; 2. 45W-Kevin Wahl[5]; 3. 17-Nick Shirley[2]; 4. 03-Christian Kast[4]; 5. I94-tucker Dally[7]; 6. 35-Chase Pourrier[9]; 7. 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[11]; 8. 988-Ayden Muchow[1]; 9. 10-Dexyn Habraken[10]; 10. 42W-Wyatt Green[12]; 11. 35P-Tylar Pourrier[8]; 12. (DNF) 988L-Lincoln Miller[3]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 45W-Kevin Wahl[3]; 2. 03-Christian Kast[1]; 3. 42W-Wyatt Green[6]; 4. (DNF) 35-Chase Pourrier[4]; 5. (DNF) 10-Dexyn Habraken[5]; 6. (DNS) 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[1]; 2. 17-Nick Shirley[4]; 3. 988L-Lincoln Miller[5]; 4. 988-Ayden Muchow[3]; 5. I94-tucker Dally[6]; 6. 35P-Tylar Pourrier[2]

Gen X Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 14-Scott Harrington[10]; 2. 10-Brad Staples[2]; 3. 50-Ben Wolden[5]; 4. 7-Rick Schroeder[3]; 5. 2-Derek Quinn[8]; 6. 1-Konner Sperle[9]; 7. 17J-John Winge[11]; 8. 811-Bodie Croninger[15]; 9. 49-Andrew Tysdal[7]; 10. 11*-Larry Samuelson[12]; 11. 00-Kevin Youngquist[19]; 12. 0-Shawn Beto[13]; 13. 22-Brady Mellendorf[4]; 14. 22K-Keith Konold[16]; 15. 1E-Tai Engels[17]; 16. (DNF) 4C-Brent Clemensen[18]; 17. (DNF) 20Z-Scott Zimmerman[1]; 18. (DNF) 8T-Tony Croninger[6]; 19. (DNS) 27-Jarrett Huus

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Andrew Tysdal[4]; 2. 2-Derek Quinn[7]; 3. 20Z-Scott Zimmerman[2]; 4. 14-Scott Harrington[3]; 5. 0-Shawn Beto[1]; 6. 22K-Keith Konold[6]; 7. 00-Kevin Youngquist[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Brad Staples[6]; 2. 22-Brady Mellendorf[2]; 3. 8T-Tony Croninger[4]; 4. 17J-John Winge[5]; 5. 27-Jarrett Huus[3]; 6. 1E-Tai Engels[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Rick Schroeder[2]; 2. 1-Konner Sperle[5]; 3. 50-Ben Wolden[4]; 4. 11*-Larry Samuelson[3]; 5. 811-Bodie Croninger[1]; 6. 4C-Brent Clemensen[6]