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Henkemeyer rebounds for night two Qualifying Feature win in WISSOTA Super Stock action at the 100

By Meghan Diemel
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 12) - Jordan Henkemeyer overcame the bad fortune of Wednesday night’s qualifying efforts to nail down the top spot on the outside row of Saturday’s Championship Feature of the 2024 Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100.

Matt Johnson and James Trantina III earned the front row for Thursday’s 15-lap WISSOTA Super Stock Qualifying Feature, with Trantina getting the lead into turn one before the yellow flew for Jason Garner, whose car took a trip into the wall farther back in the field.

Trantina was back out front at the drop of the green, as Dylan Kromschroeder, Johnson, Henkemeyer and Mass completed the top five following the completion of the first lap.

During the field’s second tour around I-94, Henkemeyer hustled into third, as Mass moved to fourth a lap later.

Kromschroeder made it two wide for the lead to complete the fourth lap, and Henkemeyer joined in the fun taking it three wide into turn one; Henkemeyer used the high side to sling past both Kromschroeder and Trantina into the lead, and immediately drove off down the backstretch and out of turns three and four to complete the lap.

Mass used the same path to move to second with seven laps scored, displacing Kromschroeder and Trantina to third and fourth. Shawn Fernkes worked his way into the top five about two seconds behind Trantina.

Henkemeyer’s lead was about 1.5 seconds with five laps to go. Mass was slowly chipping away at the advantage, as he narrowed it to one second with two to go while Henkemeyer navigated through lapped traffic. The yellow fell just then for the spun No. 79 of Josh Roggatz.

With the field back together with two to go, Henkemeyer led the field back to green, with Kromschroeder to the low side in row two and Mass along the high side. At the drop of the green, Mass shot to the inside to gain the advantage on Henkemeyer into turn one, but contact was made with Dylan Kromschroeder. Kromschroeder slowed with issues as a result; he shuffled backward and became a pinball through the competitors as they rushed past his disabled car. Contact was made first with Trantina and then others, resulting in mayhem farther back in the pack. The yellow fell and the field was reset.

Two laps remained on the board for the restart, with Henkemeyer leading them back to green. Mass held second, with Trantina third. Fernkes was fourth and Austin Niemeyer cracked the top five.

Henkemeyer drove on to the Qualifying Feature victory, with Mass second, Trantina third, Austin Niemeyer grabbing fourth on the final lap, and Fernkes fifth. Dexton Koch, Dalton Carlson, and Alex Myers were the final top-eight finishers.

The eight drivers accepting starting spots in the outside row of Saturday night’s Championship Feature included Henkemeyer, Mass, Trantina, Niemeyer, Fernkes, Carlson, Myers and Matt Johnson.

Five heat races were on tap to set the 24-car field for the feature earlier in the program.

The first heat race was led early by Stewart Schipke, but Jordan Henkemeyer proved he was a force to be reckoned with, charging to the lead during lap two. Farther back, Dylan Kromschroeder made his way from sixth into third. As Henkemeyer began to pull away from the field out front to the checkered flag, Kromschroeder pressured Schipke for second in the remaining laps, but Schipke had enough in the tank to hold onto second.

Dalton Carlson was the early leader of the second heat race from the pole, as Dexton Koch looked on from second and Alex Myers moved ahead one spot to third. Koch tried to work the high side to gain the advantage over Carlson in the lead, but Carlson stymied his efforts each lap. Koch pulled to the inside of Carlson in turn one of the final lap, but Carlson shut the door on him heading into turn two and down the backstretch. Koch tried the top side into turns three and four, but didn’t have enough and Carlson hung on for the victory. Koch and Myers completed the top three.

In the third heat race, James Trantina III was the early leader ahead of Curt Myers and Matt Fester. Myers began to pressure Trantina for the lead with three laps complete, drawing to his bumper one lap later. Myers dove down to the inside of Trantina in turns three and four, but Trantina pulled back out ahead down the frontstretch. Myers tried to gain the advantage once again in turn four as the field came around to take the white flag, and contact was made; Myers was sent to the back of the pack. An incident in the back of the pack during the restart kept the field under yellow.

Once the field was back under green, Trantina held command at the front of the pack, with Matt Johnson taking second. Justin Tammen then spun in turn four, and the field was back under caution. Trantina was out front for the green and he drove to the eventual victory, as Johnson held second and Myers came from the back of the pack to finish third ahead of Fester.

Heat race four was led to the green flag by Denis Czech, with Jeff Frey and Patrick LaMere in the top three spots. Three laps later LaMere took second, as Frey then had Shawn Fernkes to deal with for third. With three laps to go, the yellow fell for Chris Winter, who was in the wall. Back under green, Czech took off with the lead and drove to the victory, just ahead of LaMere in second. Fernkes finished third.

During the final heat race, Brayden Hedtke was the leader to complete lap one. Fifth-starter Dave Mass turned it up a notch and drove into second, as Jon Tribble was third. Farther back in the field, Matt Sparby drove hard into turn three and made hard contact with Andrew Johnson, bringing the field under caution; Sparby went to the back.

With the green in the air once again, Mass and Hedtke were side by side for the lead, with Mass gaining the advantage to complete the lap. Mass had about a 1-second advantage at the checkered flag, taking the win ahead of Hedtke and Tribble in the top three.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[6]; 2. 2M-Dave Mass[3]; 3. 19X-James Trantina III[2]; 4. 33N-Austin Niemeyer[10]; 5. 99-Shawn Fernkes[7]; 6. 78K-Dexton Koch[11]; 7. 57-Dalton Carlson[8]; 8. 1M-Alex Myers[16]; 9. 17J-Matt Johnson[1]; 10. 67S-Ryan Satter[12]; 11. 2-Denis Czech[9]; 12. 76-Doug Koski[22]; 13. 19XH-Brayden Hedtke[15]; 14. 333-Stewart Schipke[13]; 15. 5-Brad Kopecky[21]; 16. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[24]; 17. 3T-Jon Tribble[20]; 18. (DNF) 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[4]; 19. (DNF) 32-Max Nelson[14]; 20. (DNF) 85-Patrick LaMere[5]; 21. (DNF) 79M-Josh Roggatz[19]; 22. (DNF) L1-Andrew Johnson[23]; 23. (DNF) 2XL-Jason Garner[18]; 24. (DNS) 33-Curt Myers

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[4]; 2. 333-Stewart Schipke[2]; 3. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[6]; 4. 33N-Austin Niemeyer[8]; 5. 77-Carson Miller[1]; 6. 67-Casey Steffenson[5]; 7. 32*-Bodie Smith[3]; 8. 25-Dylan Nelson[7]; 9. 28*-Bailey Rosch[10]; 10. 11-Riley Groshong[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Dalton Carlson[1]; 2. 78K-Dexton Koch[3]; 3. 1M-Alex Myers[4]; 4. 67S-Ryan Satter[7]; 5. 2XL-Jason Garner[8]; 6. 5-Brad Kopecky[9]; 7. 28-Kaden Woodie[6]; 8. 14J-Jayden Friauf[2]; 9. 27C-Cameron Labelle[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 19X-James Trantina III[2]; 2. 17J-Matt Johnson[7]; 3. 33-Curt Myers[4]; 4. 2B1-Matt Fester[1]; 5. 79M-Josh Roggatz[8]; 6. 8T-Nick Schultz[6]; 7. 6SIX-Forrest Foster[3]; 8. (DNF) 71-Justin Tammen[9]; 9. (DNS) 4A-Anna Cleveland

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Denis Czech[1]; 2. 85-Patrick LaMere[4]; 3. 99-Shawn Fernkes[6]; 4. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[2]; 5. 32-Max Nelson[9]; 6. 4AA-Allan Cleveland[7]; 7. 31-Rob Revermann[3]; 8. (DNF) 10X-Josh Schmidt[5]; 9. (DNF) 31W-Chris Winter[8]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 2M-Dave Mass[5]; 2. 19XH-Brayden Hedtke[1]; 3. 3T-Jon Tribble[2]; 4. L1-Andrew Johnson[3]; 5. 71X-Travis Scott[4]; 6. 76-Doug Koski[9]; 7. 14-Russell Kostreba[6]; 8. 54-William Lund[8]; 9. (DNF) 81X-Matt Sparby[7]