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On final night of WISSOTA 100 qualifying, Adams puts his Midwest Mod on the front row for the Championship Feature

By Ryan Schmitz
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 13) - In the history of the WISSOTA 100, Kevin “Buzzy” Adams is a nine-time winner and Friday night his son, Blake Adams, continued adding to his own chapter he started last year, following in his dad’s footsteps. After last year’s Friday night win of the Qualifying Feature, the younger Adams duplicated his efforts in 2024, driving to the Qualifying Feature win during the third night of action at the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100. His efforts earned the front-row middle position for the start of the Championship Feature on Saturday night at I-94 emr Speedway.

Adams sat on the pole for the 24-car WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature, joined on the front row by Jamestown entrant Aaron Michel. Adams blasted to the lead ahead of third-starter Nate Reinke. The yellow flew over the speedway on lap two for Jarod Klein, who made heavy contact with the infield wall on the backstretch. During the caution period, heat race winner Derek Rieck pulled to the infield with a broken driveshaft.

Adams jumped back to the lead following the restart with Reinke in tow. The field was only able to complete one more lap before the caution came back out for Jake Molitor, who spun in turn two.

Adams once again led Reinke back to the green, with Michel, Tayten Blascyk and Engebretson in tow. On the restart, Blascyk worked his way around Michel into third.

Nate Reinke and Blake Adams (Cody Papke Photo)

With the top three comfortably locked into their spots, Travis Saurer, Engebretson, Cory Mehrwerth, Jaren Wibstad, and Onyx Johnson were locked in a great five-car battle for top-eight qualifying positions. Saurer worked his way to fifth with a handful of laps remaining, while Mehrwerth and Engebretson battled for sixth and Johnson fought with Wibstad for the final transfer spot.

Adams went on to claim the win, with Reinke was second, Blascyk third, Michel a solid fourth, and Saurer fifth. Mehrwerth was sixth, Engebretson was seventh, and in the final corner, Wibstad took eighth to lock himself into the Championship Feature.

A solid field of 58 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds were split into six heat races. In heat one, Pine Island, MN driver Nick Kramer and Montana wheelman Travis Shumate paced the field to the green flag. Fifth-starter Onyx Johnson began to work his was to the front and raced up to challenge early race leader Michelle Hutt. A mid-race caution brought the field back together, and Johnson and eighth-starter Blake Adams were to Hutt’s bumper for the restart. Johnson worked his way around Hutt with Adams in tow and the teenage duo began to battle it out between themselves. As the cars entered turn three on the final lap, Adams worked to the low side of Johnson and raced to the heat race win with Johnson in second. Andy Davey was third.

A pair of Minnesota drivers, Jake Molitor and Kaden Woodie, sat on the front row for the second heat race. Molitor jumped out to early race lead with eighth-starter Nate Reinke working his way to the second in just one lap. The caution flag flew numerous times over the course of the first half of the race, ending the nights of both Arin Beyer and John Johnson.

Reinke raced by Molitor on lap four and began to open up a huge lead as the laps wound down. Reinke claimed the heat race win, Molitor was second, and Woodie was third.

The third heat race was led to green by Corey Mehrwerth and Colton Kramer from the front row. Mehrwerth jumped to the top side of the speedway into the lead, with Kramer settling into second. Kramer was quickly joined by Jarod Klein and James Trantina in the battle for the runner-up spot. Back out front Mehrwerth raced to the heat race win with Kramer in second, and Klein third.

Kensington, MN driver Tayten Blascyk was the early leader of the fourth heat race, while Nick Thoreson, Travis Engebretson, and Tate Kostreba locked horns for the second through fourth. All three drivers searched high and low on the speedway and Thoreson eventually separated himself from that pack into second. Back up front Blascyk continued to dominate, as he raced to the convincing heat race win. Thoreson was second ahead of Engebretson in third.

Payton Asche and Derek Rieck led the fifth heat race to the green. At the drop of the green it was apparent that Asche was off the pace and he dropped through the field, handing the lead to Rieck.

As Rieck worked the speedway, Travis Saurer—in his father Ron’s familiar 42 machine—raced up to challenge for the lead, with Phil Christlieb and Jamie Dietzler behind him in a battle for third. Rieck continued to stretch his lead up front and he raced to the heat race win with Saurer in second and Christlieb third.

Veteran Doyle Erickson and Manitoba young gun Memphis Klassen sat on the front row for the sixth and final heat race Friday. Erickson, making his first qualifying effort of the week, jumped the lead while Jaren Wibstad challenged Klassen for second. Erickson continued to pace the field during several caution periods and raced to the heat win. Wibstad was second, and Klassen crossed the line in third, but was later disqualified in the tech shed, elevating Aaron Michel to the spot.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[1]; 2. 71-Nate Reinke[3]; 3. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[8]; 4. 62-Aaron Michel[2]; 5. 42X-Travis Saurer[12]; 6. 27-Corey Mehrwerth[7]; 7. 1X-Travis Engebretson[4]; 8. 36-Jaren Wibstad[6]; 9. 73-Onyx Johnson[5]; 10. 69T-Nick Thoreson[11]; 11. 99-Doyle Erickson[10]; 12. 67-Mike Nichols[15]; 13. 39-Jamie Dietzler[19]; 14. 980-Kaden Woodie[23]; 15. 19X-James Trantina III[24]; 16. 4-Phil Christlieb[18]; 17. 2291-Andy Davey[20]; 18. 81K-Casey Knabe[13]; 19. 28T-Scott Tofte[22]; 20. 11S-Darren Engesser[14]; 21. (DNF) 40-Colton Kramer[17]; 22. (DNF) 9M-Jake Molitor[16]; 23. (DNF) 77-Jarod Klein[21]; 24. (DNF) 34J-Derek Rieck[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[8]; 2. 73-Onyx Johnson[5]; 3. 2291-Andy Davey[3]; 4. 97-Michelle Hutt[4]; 5. 81K-Casey Knabe[10]; 6. 4C-Travis Shumate[2]; 7. 15-Jayme Peterson[9]; 8. 79K-Nick Kramer[1]; 9. (DNF) 20-Brayden Kunze[6]; 10. (DNF) T3-Travis Soper[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Nate Reinke[8]; 2. 9M-Jake Molitor[1]; 3. 980-Kaden Woodie[2]; 4. 11S-Darren Engesser[7]; 5. 94-Michael Rogers[4]; 6. 9W-Hunter Weeks[9]; 7. (DNF) 3T-Tucker Tschakert[3]; 8. (DNF) 3-John Johnson[10]; 9. (DNF) 4B-Arin Beyer[5]; 10. (DNF) 30-Cole Neset[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Corey Mehrwerth[2]; 2. 40-Colton Kramer[1]; 3. 77-Jarod Klein[3]; 4. 19X-James Trantina III[5]; 5. 13O-Scott Oeltjen[6]; 6. 28T-Scott Tofte[10]; 7. 94R-Ryan Nash[4]; 8. 12X-Jamie Norman[7]; 9. 1M-Jon McCain[9]; 10. (DNF) 873-Taven Woodie[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[2]; 2. 69T-Nick Thoreson[4]; 3. 1X-Travis Engebretson[8]; 4. 13-Tate Kostreba[3]; 5. 28S-Ryan Schow[5]; 6. 1S-Scott Bintz[7]; 7. 11R-Landyn Randt[9]; 8. 29-Ty Miller[10]; 9. 10X-Robert Bitz[1]; 10. 2HH-Oren Hoeper[6]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 34J-Derek Rieck[2]; 2. 42X-Travis Saurer[3]; 3. 4-Phil Christlieb[4]; 4. 39-Jamie Dietzler[6]; 5. 67-Mike Nichols[9]; 6. 30X-Joey Jensen[7]; 7. #1-Tony Smith[8]; 8. 19S-Darrin Lawler[5]; 9. (DNF) 29A-Payton Asche[1]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Doyle Erickson[2]; 2. 36-Jaren Wibstad[7]; 3. 62-Aaron Michel[8]; 4. 11X-Kenny Watson[5]; 5. 70JR-David Simpson[6]; 6. 28K-Nick Preston[4]; 7. (DNF) 24X-Ryan Ost[3]; 8. (DNS) 19M-Gage Myers; 9. (DQ) 47-Memphis Klassen[1]