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Strand, Uhrich and Hess hoist checkers after a night of Devil’s Playground action in North Dakota

By Heather MacDonald

CRARY, ND (August 3) - It was another big night of action Saturday at Devils Lake Speedway, as the track played host to WISSOTA Dirt Track Series action in the Late Models, Midwest Mods and Street Stocks. Winners in WISSOTA-sanctioned action included Dustin Strand, Ryne Uhrich, and Trey Hess.

Due to scheduling conflicts, the season points championship for WISSOTA Late Models had to be moved up in the track’s schedule for the year. Heading into the night’s program, Dustin Strand had a 19-point lead over Cole Schill, with Brody Troftgruben not far behind. Strand made quick work of his pole starting position in the feature, while Jason Strand quickly maneuvered his way to second and tried to run Dustin down. Cole Babcock charged his way into third.

About halfway through the feature, Troftgruben came alive and drove past Schill, and then made a power move past Babcock to take third. Troftgruben started to reel in Jason Strand, but ran out of laps. Dustin Strand took the checkered flag ahead of Jason Strand, while Troftgruben was third. Schill was fourth and Babcock was fifth.

The WISSOTA Street Stocks had another barn burner of a race. Greg Jose was on cruise control with an early lead, but with nine to go a caution came out and brought Hess right to Jose’s bumper. With Hess being dominant most of the season in Devils Lake, Jose had his hands full keeping Hess at bay. Hess and Jose had a stiff battle running side by side, before Hess made a last-lap pass to secure another trip to victory lane. Jose finished second, and Austin Dueck was third. Shane Swenson and Drew Peterson completed the top five.

The battles were tight throughout the field in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods on Saturday night as well. Often, they were four wide in and out of the corners. Ryne Uhrich took an early lead, getting past the young driver Brody Kraft to take the top spot. He held off a tough field of cars to take home his second feature win of the 2024 season. In the closing laps, Matt Schow and Reise Stenberg tried every move in the book on Uhrich, but Uhrich prevailed and Stenberg had to settle for second, while Schow was third. Austin Hunter and Bailey Cousins rounded out the top five.

The Pure Stock feature was a fun one to watch, with tight, close battles throughout the race. Austin Harris led a good portion of the feature, with Steven Richards and Joe Armstrong hot on his tail. At one point they were three wide, challenging for the lead. Richards eventually snuck past Armstrong and Harris to capture another checkered flag for the 2024 season.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. E85-Jason Strand[3]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben[6]; 4. 44-Cole Schill[2]; 5. 2*-Cole Babcock[4]; 6. 6R-Nate Reynolds[5]; 7. 9-Steve Anderson[8]; 8. 25-Jamie Trautner[7]; 9. 47-Kreig Kasin[9]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand[1]; 2. 44-Cole Schill[2]; 3. E85-Jason Strand[4]; 4. 2*-Cole Babcock[5]; 5. 6R-Nate Reynolds[7]; 6. 14-Brody Troftgruben[3]; 7. 25-Jamie Trautner[9]; 8. 9-Steve Anderson[6]; 9. 47-Kreig Kasin[8]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 34-Ryne Uhrich[2]; 2. 87S-Reise Stenberg[7]; 3. 2S-Matt Schow[8]; 4. 44-Austin Hunter[3]; 5. 7B-Bailey Cousins[6]; 6. 29-Cylen Vargason[4]; 7. 12-Jaden Varnson[5]; 8. 8-Jason Schuh[9]; 9. 25-Josh Ostenson[11]; 10. 77JR-Brody Kraft[1]; 11. (DNF) 15-MaKenna Romuld[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 87S-Reise Stenberg[2]; 2. 12-Jaden Varnson[1]; 3. 44-Austin Hunter[4]; 4. 77JR-Brody Kraft[6]; 5. 8-Jason Schuh[5]; 6. 25-Josh Ostenson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 2. 7B-Bailey Cousins[2]; 3. 34-Ryne Uhrich[1]; 4. 29-Cylen Vargason[5]; 5. 15-MaKenna Romuld[3]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[5]; 2. 28-Greg Jose[1]; 3. 07HD-Austin Dueck[6]; 4. 91-Shane Swenson[2]; 5. 06-Drew Peterson[8]; 6. (DNF) 69-Stoney Kruk[3]; 7. (DNF) 19-Cole Greseth[4]; 8. (DNF) B2-Brodee Eckerdt[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Greg Jose[1]; 2. 69-Stoney Kruk[2]; 3. 19-Cole Greseth[4]; 4. 4-Trey Hess[5]; 5. 91-Shane Swenson[7]; 6. 07HD-Austin Dueck[6]; 7. B2-Brodee Eckerdt[8]; 8. 06-Drew Peterson[3]

Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 3-Steven Richards[4]; 2. 1CJ-Joe Armstrong[5]; 3. 69-Austin Harris[2]; 4. 8-Kyle Charette[3]; 5. 2-Liam Schow[7]; 6. (DNF) 64-Joe Ree[1]; 7. (DNF) 12-Dan Arends[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3-Steven Richards[2]; 2. 1CJ-Joe Armstrong[5]; 3. 69-Austin Harris[7]; 4. 8-Kyle Charette[6]; 5. 64-Joe Ree[1]; 6. 12-Dan Arends[3]; 7. (DNS) 2-Liam Schow