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Johnson squatches the Super Stocks for Qualifying Feature win on Wednesday and will go from the pole Saturday night with big bucks on the line at the 100

By Meghan Diemel, Editor
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 11) - A field of 24 heavy hitters in the WISSOTA Super Stock class hit the track Wednesday for their first night of Qualifying Feature action at the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100. At the end of the 15-lapper, one of the class’s longtime and fiercest competitors took his place once again in victory lane.

Denis Czech and Tim Johnson led the field to green, and they battled side by side for the top spot for the first couple laps, with Johnson taking over out front with two laps scored. Dexton Koch and Trevor Nelson were side by side for third close behind. Koch and Nelson made contact, and in the next turn Koch slid to a halt to bring out the caution.

Johnson led the restart, with Nelson moving into second ahead of Czech. Dustin Nelson and Kolby Kiehl were side by side for fourth. Shane Sabraski split Nelson and Kiehl and they were three-wide for top five honors a lap later. Sabraski gained fourth, and then drove by Czech for third.

Denis Czech and Tim Johnson (Cody Papke Photo)

Out front, Johnson was under heavy pressure from Trevor Nelson, with Nelson driving about a lane up from Johnson, right next to the wall, as he tried to gain the advantage over the No. 1jr. With five laps scored, Johnson continued to lead Trevor Nelson, Sabraski, Dustin Nelson and now Ryan Kostreba in the top five.

One lap later, Trevor Nelson drew right to the bumper of Johnson, trying every which way to get by the Super Stock stalwart and former multi-time national champion. Nelson shot to the inside of Johnson down the backstretch during lap 11, but Johnson held the advantage. Sabraski began to reel them both in and was a car length behind with just four laps to go.

Bodie Smith, Curt Myers and William Lund (Cody Papke Photo)

Trevor Nelson continued to try to use his momentum from the high side to drop down low and make the pass to the inside of Johnson, but Johnson continued to pull away in his preferred lane down the front and backstretches. With the white flag in the air, Sabraski pulled even with Trevor in turns three and four, but Trevor escaped with the spot to head into the final four turns.

With the checkered flag in the air, Johnson took the win by a narrow advantage of .211 seconds ahead of Trevor Nelson, who himself had a slim advantage of .484 over Sabraski. Twelfth-starter Dylan Nelson finished fourth, while Kiehl was fifth. Dustin Nelson, Ryan Kostreba and James Trantina III were the remaining top eight finishers.

Dylan Kromschroeder and Kolby Kiehl (Cody Papke Photo)

Those finishers accepting the first eight spots for the inside starting row for Saturday night’s WISSOTA 100 Championship Feature included Tim Johnson, Trevor Nelson, Shane Sabraski, Kolby Kiehl, Dustin Nelson, Ryan Kostreba, Karter Reents and Andrew Hedtke.

Earlier in the program, six heat races set the field for the Qualifying Feature.

In the first heat race, Ryan Kostreba and Dustin Nelson battled each other side by side for the lead through the first five laps, before a caution for an incident between Jordan Henkemeyer and Casey Steffenson brought the caution out. Nelson led the field back to green, with pressure from Kostreba in second and Brayden Hedtke moving into third. Kostreba took the top spot once again with three to go and drove onto the win ahead of Nelson and Hedtke in the top three.

Dylan Nelson was the leader early in the second heat race from the pole, while seventh-starter Trevor Nelson was on the charge along the high line, taking second with just three laps complete. Trevor Nelson began to cut into Dylan’s lead, but came up just short at the finish line, settling for second behind Dylan. Bodie Smith improved three spots to third.

Ryan Satter started heat three from the pole, as Dalton Carlson took second and Andrew Hedtke was third. Dexton Koch got around Hedtke and Carlson with four laps scored, bringing Hedtke with him into third. Koch cut into Satter’s lead, but it wasn’t enough and time ran out, as Satter took the victory. Hedtke completed the top three.

Tim Johnson took the lead from the get-go in the fourth heat race, with Shane Sabraski blasting from fourth into second along the high side ahead of Matt Johnson. Sabraski immediately pressured Tim Johnson for the top spot, as Doug Koski moved into third one lap later. At the halfway point, Johnson’s lead was less than a half second, with Sabraski cutting into the advantage each lap. Meanwhile, Koski continued to hold off James Trantina and Curt Myers in the top five, before Trantina slid Koski for the spot with one lap to go. Sabraski narrowed the gap to a little more than .2 seconds during the white flag lap, but Johnson hung on and grabbed the win. Sabraski and Trantina rounded out the top three.

William Lund led heat five early on from his front-row starting spot, as Kolby Kiehl made his way to the front from the second row, taking second from Matt Sparby to complete the lap two. Kiehl moved in and challenged Lund for the top spot, garnering the position with three to go, as eighth-starter Dylan Kromschroeder drove by Sparby for third. Kiehl hung on for the heat race victory, as Lund turned back Kromschroeder’s advances for second.

In the sixth and final heat race of the night, Austin Niemeyer was the early leader ahead of a side-by-side battle for second between Denis Czech and Bailey Rosch. Andrew Johnson got by Rosch into third the next lap, as Czech began to chip away at Niemeyer’s advantage out front. Czech used his high side momentum to sling past Niemeyer into the lead with four laps complete, and took his No. 2 Super Stock into victory lane a few laps later, holding off Niemeyer for the victory. Johnson was third.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 1JR-Tim Johnson[2]; 2. 71N-Trevor Nelson[3]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[8]; 4. 25-Dylan Nelson[12]; 5. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[4]; 6. 46-Dustin Nelson[7]; 7. 17-Ryan Kostreba[11]; 8. 19X-James Trantina III[15]; 9. 33-Curt Myers[16]; 10. 33N-Austin Niemeyer[19]; 11. 2-Denis Czech[1]; 12. 14-Russell Kostreba[18]; 13. 54-William Lund[17]; 14. 1-Karter Reents[20]; 15. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[21]; 16. 19XH-Brayden Hedtke[14]; 17. 71X-Travis Scott[22]; 18. 57-Dalton Carlson[24]; 19. 67S-Ryan Satter[13]; 20. 32*-Bodie Smith[9]; 21. 77-Carson Miller[23]; 22. (DNF) 78K-Dexton Koch[5]; 23. (DNF) 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[6]; 24. (DNF) L1-Andrew Johnson[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Ryan Kostreba[1]; 2. 46-Dustin Nelson[4]; 3. 19XH-Brayden Hedtke[5]; 4. 1-Karter Reents[6]; 5. 2XL-Jason Garner[2]; 6. 5-Brad Kopecky[3]; 7. 8T-Nick Schultz[9]; 8. (DNF) 67-Casey Steffenson[8]; 9. (DNF) 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Dylan Nelson[1]; 2. 71N-Trevor Nelson[7]; 3. 32*-Bodie Smith[6]; 4. 77-Carson Miller[4]; 5. 71-Justin Tammen[3]; 6. 79M-Josh Roggatz[2]; 7. 333-Stewart Schipke[5]; 8. 99-Shawn Fernkes[9]; 9. 27C-Cameron Labelle[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 67S-Ryan Satter[1]; 2. 78K-Dexton Koch[6]; 3. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[3]; 4. 57-Dalton Carlson[4]; 5. 14-Russell Kostreba[9]; 6. 1M-Alex Myers[7]; 7. 14J-Jayden Friauf[5]; 8. 31W-Chris Winter[2]; 9. 4A-Anna Cleveland[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 1JR-Tim Johnson[2]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 3. 19X-James Trantina III[5]; 4. 33-Curt Myers[7]; 5. 76-Doug Koski[3]; 6. 17J-Matt Johnson[1]; 7. 10X-Josh Schmidt[8]; 8. 6SIX-Forrest Foster[6]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[3]; 2. 54-William Lund[2]; 3. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[8]; 4. 81X-Matt Sparby[1]; 5. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[5]; 6. 2B1-Matt Fester[4]; 7. 85-Patrick LaMere[7]; 8. 31-Rob Revermann[6]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Denis Czech[4]; 2. 33N-Austin Niemeyer[1]; 3. L1-Andrew Johnson[6]; 4. 28*-Bailey Rosch[3]; 5. 71X-Travis Scott[7]; 6. 3T-Jon Tribble[5]; 7. 28-Kaden Woodie[8]; 8. 11-Riley Groshong[2]