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Eischens dominates final round of Modified qualifying at the 2024 WISSOTA 100 and will sit on front row Saturday

By Ryan Schmitz
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 13) - Don Eischens turned his week around Friday night, as he took the Qualifying Feature victory in the WISSOTA Modifieds and planted himself in the middle of the front row for Saturday night’s Championship Feature of the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 at I-94 Speedway.

Eischens, who had a rocky start to his WISSOTA 100 week efforts, led the field to green to the outside of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin’s Kennedy Swan. Mike Blom, head flagman, brought the 24-car field to life. Eischens was the early leader along the high side of the track, while Swan locked horns with Brandon Dolman for second. Dolman completed the pass for second on lap four, and Blake Jegtvig followed through to third. Swan had Sabraski hot on her heels in fourth. The first of two yellow flags flew over the speedway with seven laps to go when Corky Thomas lost the bite on his No. 6T machine and spun in turn four.

Eischens paced the field back to the green, but as the field came through turn four they bunched up, contact was made in the first two rows, and Eischens spun to the inside of the speedway, along with eighth-running Jason Thoennes and Brett Hoium farther back in the field. After some lengthy discussion officials determined Dolman initiated the contact.

Brett Hoium and Ryan Gierke (Cody Papke Photo)

Eischens reassumed the point with Jegtvig and Sabraski in row two. Eischens once again moved out a comfortable lead. The main battle on the track at this point was among Tyler Peterson, Jason Thoennes, Justin Froemming, and Mike Stearns for the eighth and final transfer spot. With a few laps remaining Peterson was able to clear Thoennes and take seventh, while Froemming challenged Thoennes for eighth.

Eischens went on to claim the feature win, with Jegtvig holding off Sabraski for second. Swan was fourth, Brandon Copp was fifth, Zach Johnson finished sixth, Peterson was seventh, and Thoennes held on for the eighth and final transfer spot in the middle of the three-wide rows for Saturday’s Championship Feature.

Cayden Schmeling and Brock Gronwold (Cody Papke Photo)

Earlier in the night, three heat races set the 24-car grid for the Qualifying Feature.

Having a front-row starting spot for the first heat race proved to be bad luck on Friday the 13th. Polesitter Dano Ostrander retired to the pits with mechanical issues before the green flag flew, and on the opening lap his dancing partner Bryce Borgen pounded the wall in turn three, ending his night as well.

Back under green Travis Saurer raced to the lead with Don Eischens close behind, as the field completed the first two laps. Eischens worked to the inside of Saurer on lap three and completed the pass for the lead. Back in traffic Kennedy Swan and Brandon Dolman began their march to the front, as both moved into the top five after starting in row four. Out front, Eischens raced to the win, with Saurer second and Swan third.

The second heat was a who’s who of Modified racing, with veteran Corky Thomas and multi-time WISSOTA National Champion Tyler Peterson on the front row. Peterson took to the high side of the speedway and drove into the lead, with Shane Sabraski in second. Local racer Jason Thoennes settled into third on the opening circuit, moving Thomas back to fourth. Lap after lap Sabraski continued to drive hard down to the low side of the speedway, pulling alongside Peterson. Sabraski was able to complete the pass on lap five and set sail to the heat race win. Peterson settled for the runner up-spot, while Thoennes was third.

Young driver Taylor Gaberich and two-time WISSOTA National Champion Blake Jegtvig led the final heat race to the green, with Jegtvig blasting out into the top spot. Zach Johnson and Justin Froemming began to battle for second, as the field jockeyed for position. With the top three then locked in their spots, Brandon Copp and Mike Stearns fought for fourth.

As the laps ticked down Jegtvig continued to lead and raced to the heat race win ahead of Johnson and Froemming in the top three.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 9E-Don Eischens[2]; 2. 2J-Blake Jegtvig[3]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 4. 18S-Kennedy Swan[1]; 5. 22C-Brandon Copp[6]; 6. 6X-Zach Johnson[8]; 7. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[9]; 8. 52-Jason Thoennes[10]; 9. 33X-Justin Froemming[11]; 10. 12D-Mike Stearns[13]; 11. 21X-Travis Saurer[7]; 12. 40-Kevin Adams[21]; 13. 11X-Austin Chyba[12]; 14. 2G-Brock Gronwold[22]; 15. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[16]; 16. 22-Tyler Kintner[24]; 17. 40F-John Farrington[17]; 18. 6T-Corky Thomas[15]; 19. 18-Taylor Garberich[23]; 20. 13-Cayden Schmeling[18]; 21. (DNF) 26G-Ryan Gierke[19]; 22. (DNF) 24-Brandon Dolman[4]; 23. (DNF) 5H-Brett Hoium[14]; 24. (DNF) 33C-Cole Chernosky[20]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9E-Don Eischens[4]; 2. 21X-Travis Saurer[3]; 3. 18S-Kennedy Swan[8]; 4. 24-Brandon Dolman[10]; 5. 11X-Austin Chyba[7]; 6. 40F-John Farrington[6]; 7. (DNF) 15T-Jeff Flaten[9]; 8. (DNF) 7R-Mike Rohwedder[5]; 9. (DNF) 7-Bryce Borgen[2]; 10. (DNF) 121-Dano Ostrander[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[2]; 3. 52-Jason Thoennes[4]; 4. 6T-Corky Thomas[1]; 5. 5H-Brett Hoium[6]; 6. 26G-Ryan Gierke[5]; 7. 33C-Cole Chernosky[8]; 8. 40-Kevin Adams[9]; 9. 2G-Brock Gronwold[10]; 10. 22-Tyler Kintner[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2J-Blake Jegtvig[2]; 2. 6X-Zach Johnson[3]; 3. 33X-Justin Froemming[4]; 4. 22C-Brandon Copp[8]; 5. 12D-Mike Stearns[7]; 6. 13-Cayden Schmeling[6]; 7. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[9]; 8. 18-Taylor Garberich[1]; 9. (DNF) 51A-Avery Anderson[5]