8-20 Page 27 | ATD Racing News

Carlson caps strong night at Casino in Late Models while Peterson, Thomas, Nichols, Broksieck and Kast claim other Sunday features

By Tony Steuck

WATERTOWN, SD (August 18) - David Carlson made the most of his second opportunity on Sunday. After leading the first half of the makeup Late Model feature, Carlson led every lap of the feature later in the night for his first win at Casino Speedway since 2019. Tyler Peterson, Joe Thomas, Tommy Nichols, Maria Broksieck and Christian Kast also topped WISSOTA Dirt Track Series action at the Watertown oval.

Carlson raced by Morgan Ward-Grosz into turn three on the third lap of the WISSOTA Late Model makeup feature from August 4. Carlson set the pace while Peterson slipped by Ward-Grosz for second on lap 10. Peterson was a straightaway behind Carlson, but worked to chip away at the gap while Chad Becker challenged and moved by Ward-Grosz on lap 15. Peterson was about five lengths back of the leader when the only caution in the race waved with nine laps to go.

Becker charged into turn one and slid into the lead in the second turn, but both Peterson and Carlson ducked under and they raced three wide down the back chute. Peterson barrelled into turn three and slid ahead of both drivers to claim the lead out of turn four. Peterson pulled away slowly over the remaining laps for his fourth win of the season at the oval. Becker finished second with Jayson Good third, Carlson fourth and Denver Nickeson fifth.

Blake Swenson and Carlson shared the front row for the night’s 25-lap Late Model main event, and spent the first five laps in a door-to-door battle. Carlson led at the line each time, then slowly inched away from Swenson. Ward-Grosz was into third by lap seven, and brought Peterson with her. Ward-Grosz made an outside pass on Swenson for second on lap 10, and again, Peterson followed her through for a position. Carlson maintained a slim lead before the first caution flag waved with 18 laps scored.

Peterson and Ward-Grosz fought for second for a couple laps after the restart before Peterson claimed the spot. He spent the final laps looking for a way by the leader, but Carlson made no mistakes and held on for his first Late Model win anywhere in just over three years. Peterson settled for second with Becker third, Ward-Grosz fourth and Good fifth.

Cayden Schmeling held the early lead in the 15-lap WISSOTA Modified main event, but Joe Thomas worked to his inside in a bid for the top spot. Thomas moved ahead on lap three while Tony Konold and Mike Stearns raced door to door for third.

After a lap three caution, Thomas switched to the high groove, and Konold worked by Schmeling down low for the second spot. Konold reeled in the leader near the halfway mark; Thomas switched his groove once again and closed the door on Konold. After a few laps of riding behind the leader, Konold jumped to the cushion and picked up the pace. He moved closer to the lead with each corner, but came up less than a car length shy at the finish line. Thomas earned his fourth win of the season ahead of Konold, Stearns, Schmeling and Tom Thomas.d

Adam VanDerostyne threaded the needle between the front row starters to lead the opening lap of the WISSOTA Hornet main event, but he could not shake Bradley Rossow. Jeff Rohner joined the mix on lap four, and VanDerostyne led a tight battle at the front of the field. Rohner, Rossow and VanDerostyne raced three wide for the lead on lap nine and Rohner moved ahead at the flagstand, but contact among the leaders into turn one brought out a caution; VanDerostyne was towed off the speedway and Rohner was sent to the tail.

Three laps remained when the field restarted, and although Rossow was the leader, Kast made a high-side charge in the final laps. They were door to door for much of the distance, and Kast’s final push propelled him to the checkers just ahead of Rossow in a photo finish. Rohner was third with Joshua Gebhart fourth and Nathan Smith fifth.

Corey Giessinger grabbed the early lead in the 20-lap WISSOTA Street Stock main event with Chris Serr second and Andy Rossow third. Giessinger spun in the second turn with two laps complete to bring out the only caution in the race.

Rossow made an outside move on Serr after the restart, and Maria Broksieck slipped by Serr a couple laps later. She quickly closed on Rossow and made an outside pass for the lead on lap six. She opened a five-car length advantage by the halfway point, and Rossow had the same margin over Serr. Tony Miller ran fourth and had a host of challengers behind.

Broksieck slowly opened her lead to the checkers and scored her fifth win of the season at the oval. Rossow was second, Serr was third, and Miller held off a charging Jason Marko for fourth.

Matt Heinzerling opened a big lead when the green dropped in the 20-lap WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature. Terry Reilly shook out into second with Tommy Nichols third before a lap-three melee brought out a caution.

Heinzerling remained out front, but had Reilly and Nichols door to door on his bumper. The top three remained tight, and Nichols made a three-wide move on the cushion to grab the lead out of turn four and led lap six. Nichols slipped away, while his older brother Mike joined the battle for second. Reilly kept the pressure on Heinzerling and moved into second on lap 15, but Heinzerling reclaimed the spot on the next lap. Tommy Nichols had a straightaway lead when the caution waved with three laps to go.

Tommy Nichols drove away after the restart while the field battled behind him. Derek Rieck briefly moved by Mike Nichols for fourth – the two drivers locked in a tight points battle – but Nichols regained the spot and picked off Reilly before the checkers.

Tommy Nichols grabbed his second straight win and third on the season with Heinzerling in second, Mike Nichols third, Reilly fourth and Rieck fifth. Mike Nichols and Rieck are tied atop the point standings with two races remaining.

Hope Swenson led the first lap of the Gen X Late Model feature before Brady Mellendorf took over. After a restart near halfway, Mellendorf was the victim of a banzai move that eliminated him from competition. Trevor Walsh grabbed the lead after the restart and pulled away for his third win of the season at the speedway.

A frightening moment occurred with three laps left in the race; Brittany Swenson slapped the wall in turn three, launched over it, turned on her side in the air and disappeared into the trees outside the race track. Fortunately, she escaped from the incident without injury.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 73M-David Carlson[2]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[8]; 3. 12-Chad Becker[9]; 4. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[4]; 5. 85-Jayson Good[6]; 6. 11-Denver Nickeson[5]; 7. 51-Justin Karlen[3]; 8. 20-Trevor Anderson[7]; 9. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[15]; 10. 1-Ryan Engels[17]; 11. 1X-Amelia Eisenschenk[10]; 12. 4J-Lee Grosz[12]; 13. 64-Russell Beadle[14]; 14. (DNF) 15-Laela Eisenschenk[11]; 15. (DNF) 87-Curt Kranz[18]; 16. (DNF) X-Blake Swenson[1]; 17. (DNF) 14-Nick Schmidt[13]; 18. (DNF) T3-Rich Thomas[16]; 19. (DNF) 133-Jon Starnes[19]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Trevor Anderson[4]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[5]; 3. 11-Denver Nickeson[2]; 4. 1X-Amelia Eisenschenk[1]; 5. 14-Nick Schmidt[6]; 6. T3-Rich Thomas[3]; 7. 133-Jon Starnes[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Chad Becker[3]; 2. 85-Jayson Good[5]; 3. 51-Justin Karlen[4]; 4. 15-Laela Eisenschenk[1]; 5. 64-Russell Beadle[2]; 6. (DNS) 1-Ryan Engels

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[1]; 2. X-Blake Swenson[2]; 3. 73M-David Carlson[3]; 4. 4J-Lee Grosz[5]; 5. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[4]; 6. (DNS) 87-Curt Kranz

Makeup Feature (25 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[4]; 2. 12-Chad Becker[6]; 3. 85-Jayson Good[3]; 4. 73M-David Carlson[2]; 5. 11-Denver Nickeson[5]; 6. 20-Trevor Anderson[9]; 7. 1-Ryan Engels[8]; 8. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[7]; 9. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[1]; 10. 51-Justin Karlen[12]; 11. 14-Nick Schmidt[11]; 12. (DNF) 87-Curt Kranz[14]; 13. (DNF) T3-Rich Thomas[13]; 14. (DNS) 748-Kyle Jensen; 15. (DNS) 12S-Trajan Schmidt

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[2]; 2. 15-Tony Konold[3]; 3. 24S-Mike Stearns[5]; 4. 13-Cayden Schmeling[1]; 5. 51T-Tim Thomas[4]; 6. 65-Dave Brooker[6]; 7. (DNF) 9L-Ed Leonard[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24S-Mike Stearns[2]; 2. 13-Cayden Schmeling[1]; 3. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[6]; 4. 15-Tony Konold[4]; 5. 51T-Tim Thomas[5]; 6. 65-Dave Brooker[3]; 7. 9L-Ed Leonard[7]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 28-Tommy Nichols[4]; 2. 22-Matt Heinzerling[1]; 3. 67-Mike Nichols[7]; 4. 69R-Terry Reilly[3]; 5. 34J-Derek Rieck[8]; 6. 31-Scott Hansen[6]; 7. 11-Kyle Schell[5]; 8. 17-Scott Hinricher[10]; 9. 2DR-Tom Neitzel[11]; 10. (DNF) 12E-Eric Cease[9]; 11. (DNF) 12R-Logan Redlin[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Scott Hansen[2]; 2. 34J-Derek Rieck[4]; 3. 69R-Terry Reilly[1]; 4. 11-Kyle Schell[3]; 5. 12E-Eric Cease[5]; 6. 2DR-Tom Neitzel[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Tommy Nichols[2]; 2. 12R-Logan Redlin[1]; 3. 67-Mike Nichols[3]; 4. 22-Matt Heinzerling[4]; 5. 17-Scott Hinricher[5]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (18 Laps): 1. 14-Maria Broksieck[8]; 2. 99-Andy Rossow[2]; 3. 01-Chris Serr[3]; 4. 80-Tony Miller[4]; 5. 31-Jason Marko[7]; 6. 95-Jayden Michaelsohn[6]; 7. 314-Tyler Lamb[10]; 8. 73-Cory Giessinger[1]; 9. 12-Al Schmidt[9]; 10. 12P-Spence Pollock[5]; 11. E30-Cooper Butterfield[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Jason Marko[1]; 2. 95-Jayden Michaelsohn[4]; 3. 01-Chris Serr[5]; 4. 12P-Spence Pollock[6]; 5. 12-Al Schmidt[2]; 6. (DNF) E30-Cooper Butterfield[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Andy Rossow[1]; 2. 14-Maria Broksieck[3]; 3. 80-Tony Miller[2]; 4. 73-Cory Giessinger[5]; 5. 314-Tyler Lamb[4]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 03-Christian Kast[3]; 2. 555-Bradley Rossow[1]; 3. 08-Jeff Rohner[5]; 4. 79-Joshua Gebhart[7]; 5. 81-Nathan Smith[2]; 6. 10B-Curtis Borstad[6]; 7. (DNF) 3-Adam VanDerostyne[4]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 3-Adam VanDerostyne[1]; 2. 81-Nathan Smith[4]; 3. 555-Bradley Rossow[7]; 4. 03-Christian Kast[6]; 5. 08-Jeff Rohner[5]; 6. 10B-Curtis Borstad[3]; 7. (DNF) 79-Joshua Gebhart[2]

Gen X Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 15-Trevor Walsh[7]; 2. 50-Joel Waba[3]; 3. 1K-Konner Sperle[13]; 4. 22N-Curtis Newberg[5]; 5. 20-Doug Walsh[6]; 6. 23JR-Parker Gilbertson[14]; 7. 19-Tyler McFarland[9]; 8. 1E-Tai Engels[10]; 9. 40+-Ryan Shepherd Sr[11]; 10. (DNF) 11X-Brittany Swenson[12]; 11. (DNF) 22-Brady Mellendorf[2]; 12. (DNF) 811-Bodie Croninger[4]; 13. (DNF) 8T-Tony Croninger[8]; 14. (DNF) XJR-Hope Swenson[1]; 15. (DNS) 87-Curt Kranz

Heat 1 (3 Laps): 1. 15-Trevor Walsh[3]; 2. 8T-Tony Croninger[1]; 3. 22N-Curtis Newberg[6]; 4. 22-Brady Mellendorf[7]; 5. 19-Tyler McFarland[8]; 6. 40+-Ryan Shepherd Sr[2]; 7. (DNF) 1K-Konner Sperle[5]; 8. (DNF) 23JR-Parker Gilbertson[4]

Heat 2 (3 Laps): 1. 20-Doug Walsh[2]; 2. 50-Joel Waba[3]; 3. 811-Bodie Croninger[7]; 4. XJR-Hope Swenson[1]; 5. 1E-Tai Engels[5]; 6. 11X-Brittany Swenson[4]; 7. (DNS) 87-Curt Kranz