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Sabraski scores feature win at Challenge Series finale’ on opening night of 2024 WISSOTA 100, and Searing seals the title with third-place finish in Late Models

By Chris Stepan

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 11) - The Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series, powered by Momentum Truck Group, Freightliner, and Western Star, wrapped up its 26th season at I-94 emr Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minnesota Wednesday, during which fans saw Shane Sabraski race to the win and Cole Searing pick up the $10,000 Challenge Series Championship.

Jordan Tollakson started the night by setting fast time out of the 51-car field, with a lap of 16.296 seconds around the high banked oval.

Lee Grosz and Sabraski earned the front row for the night’s 40-lap, $2,600-to-win feature event. Sabraski had the upper hand on the initial start, leading the field into turn one on the opening circuit.

Cole Searing and Dave Mass (Cody Papke Photo)

Sabraski ran alone out front early, as Kollin Hibdon and Dave Mass battled for second during the first three circuits. The first caution of the event flew on lap four for a Shane Edginton spin.

On the restart, Sabraski took back off into the lead, only to have the pace slowed immediately on the restart for a Grosz and Budisalovich tangle on the frontstretch, eliminating Budisalovich from competition.

On the second restart, Searing moved in on Mass for third, with Hibdon in the mix as well. Grosz’s night ended one lap later with a breakdown in turn four, necessitating the third caution in the 40-lapper.

Once back underway, Hibdon raced to second as laps clicked off quickly with two- and three-wide battles the norm throughout traffic. There were entertaining races for third, as well as fifth, while Sabraski slipped away, building up a 7-second advantage out front.

Lee Grosz and Shane Sabraski (Cody Papke Photo)

As the field reached the halfway point, Sabraski led Hibdon, Sam Mars, Searing, and Mass in the top five.

The battle for second began to tighten among Hibdon, Mars, Searing, Mass and Don Shaw, until the final caution of the night flew on lap 30 for Johnny Broking, who rolled to a stop in turn four.

On that start, Sabraski again took flight and led the final 10 laps, while all eyes were on the battle behind him between Mars and Searing as they swapped the runner-up spot several times. Shaw and Mass were also in a great battle for fourth.

Sabraski raced to the decisive victory ahead of Mars, who held off Searing for the runner-up spot. Behind Searing, Shaw got Mass for fourth with Josh Zimpel, Hibdon, Jordan Tollakson, Tyler Peterson and Ryan Mikkelson rounding out the top 10.

Drivers accepting the top eight spots in the inside row for Saturday night’s Championship Feature included Shane Sabraski, Sam Mars, Cole Searing, Don Shaw, Dave Mass, Josh Zimpel, Ryan Mikkelson and Cole Schill.

In the fight to the series title, Searing’s third-place finish was just enough to wrap up his second career Challenge Series championship by a mere six points ahead of Peterson. Sabraski finished third in the final series point standings and picked up the GTX Rookie of the Year title in the process.

Heat race action earlier in the program set the starting field, along with three B features. In the first heat race, Hibdon started from outside the front row and led from start to finish, as Blake Boelens settled back into second from the pole. Danny Vang was steady in third.

Heat race two was led early on by polesitter Shane Edginton. Sam Mars moved into second before the end of the first lap, while Jordan Tollakson got by Shawn Kirwin into third about a lap later. Edginton took the win ahead of Mars and Tollakson in the top three.

In the third heat race, point chasers Tyler Peterson and Cole Searing started side by side from the front row, with Searing getting the advantage at the drop of the green. Josh Zimpel moved to third past Chad Becker in the first turn and pressured Peterson for second as the lap was completed. Peterson was able to pull away, however, and settled into second. As laps clicked off, the top three strung out a bit along the high side, with Searing driving on to the win. Peterson and Josh Zimpel completed the top three.

Father-and-son duo Todd and Gunner Frank led heat four to the green, but it was all Shane Sabraski, as he dove to the bottom in turn three and slid up to the top to garner the lead to complete the first lap. Fourth-starter Travis Budisalovich got by the Franks in the next turn for second. Sabraski cruised to the win along the high side, with Budisalovich holding off Gunner Frank to complete the top three.

Ryan Mikkelson and Trevor Anderson led the fifth heat race to the green flag, but Dave Mass was the man in charge as he moved to second in the first two turns, and took the lead from Anderson a lap later. Mikkelson continued to work his way forward, and moved past Anderson into second, while Cole Schill was fourth with five laps scored. Catastrophe struck with just two laps to go, as Shawn Meyer - who made his way past Schill and was racing for third with Anderson - made contact with the back end of Trevor Anderson’s car as they entered turn one, bringing them both to a halt with Meyer’s car firmly planted on top of Anderson’s. Both were able to continue, with Meyer heading to the back.

Out front, Mass felt the heat from Mikkelson to his outside in turns one and two following the restart, but changed his line and moved to the top in three and four to hold off Mikkelson’s charge and hang on for the win. Schill was third.

Kevin Burdick and Chase Gelling led the sixth and final heat race to the green flag. Burdick and Gelling raced side by side for the lead, ahead of Don Shaw and Lee Grosz, with Gelling having the slightest advantage at the stripe. With Burdick fighting Gelling along the low side of the track, Grosz swung his No. 4 along the top side and into the lead with four laps complete. Shaw followed through to second one lap later. Out front, Grosz took the heat win with Shaw settling for second, and Burdick nipping Gelling on the final lap for third.

B features were won by Chad Becker, Danny Vang and Joel Bennett.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Structural Buildings A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 28S-Sam Mars[9]; 3. 10-Cole Searing[5]; 4. 42S-Don Shaw[10]; 5. 2M-Dave Mass[3]; 6. 5-Josh Zimpel[13]; 7. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[6]; 8. 32-Jordan Tollakson[14]; 9. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[15]; 10. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[20]; 11. 28-Jeff Provinzino[21]; 12. 44-Cole Schill[11]; 13. 7-Joel Bennett[19]; 14. 21F-Gunner Frank[26]; 15. 47-Danny Vang[18]; 16. XXX-Jon Tollakson[22]; 17. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[25]; 18. 15X-Blake Boelens[16]; 19. (DNF) 45J-Johnny Broking[12]; 20. (DNF) 30-Kevin Burdick[23]; 21. (DNF) 6M-Jeff Massingill[24]; 22. (DNF) 12-Chad Becker[17]; 23. (DNF) 4J-Lee Grosz[1]; 24. (DNF) 71X-Cory Tammen[7]; 25. (DNF) 31-Travis Budisalovich[4]; 26. (DNF) 5E-Shane Edginton[8]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[2]; 2. 15X-Blake Boelens[1]; 3. 47-Danny Vang[3]; 4. 45J-Johnny Broking[8]; 5. 66X-Travis Saurer[5]; 6. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[6]; 7. 6M-Jeff Massingill[4]; 8. (DNF) 32H-Lindsey Hansen[9]; 9. (DQ) 07-Cory Crapser[7]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 5E-Shane Edginton[1]; 2. 28S-Sam Mars[3]; 3. 32-Jordan Tollakson[4]; 4. 71X-Cory Tammen[9]; 5. 7-Joel Bennett[6]; 6. 66-Sam Zender[5]; 7. 77-Corey Seckerson[8]; 8. 24-Mike Stearns[7]; 9. (DNF) 10K-Shawn Kirwin[2]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing[2]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 3. 5-Josh Zimpel[4]; 4. 27-Jared Zimpel[6]; 5. 12-Chad Becker[3]; 6. 28-Jeff Provinzino[5]; 7. 21X-Dustin Arthur[8]; 8. 18-Josh Rieck[9]; 9. 24H-Mike Hart[7]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 2. 31-Travis Budisalovich[4]; 3. 21F-Gunner Frank[2]; 4. XXX-Jon Tollakson[5]; 5. 11-Austin Kuehl[8]; 6. 21-Todd Frank[1]; 7. 3H-Jerry Hauge[7]; 8. 10X-Robert Bitz[6]

Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 2M-Dave Mass[3]; 2. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[1]; 3. 44-Cole Schill[6]; 4. 20-Trevor Anderson[2]; 5. 18X-Shawn Meyer[5]; 6. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[4]; 7. 50-Ben Wolden[7]; 8. 7L-Scott Lehn[8]

Heat 6 (10 Laps): 1. 4J-Lee Grosz[4]; 2. 42S-Don Shaw[3]; 3. 30-Kevin Burdick[1]; 4. 18G-Chase Gelling[2]; 5. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[5]; 6. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[7]; 7. 15-Laela Eisenschenk[8]; 8. (DNF) 85G-Jayson Good[6]

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 12-Chad Becker[4]; 2. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[1]; 3. 21F-Gunner Frank[2]; 4. 66-Sam Zender[7]; 5. 6M-Jeff Massingill[8]; 6. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[6]; 7. 18X-Shawn Meyer[5]; 8. 24-Mike Stearns[10]; 9. 50-Ben Wolden[9]; 10. 24H-Mike Hart[11]; 11. (DNS) 20-Trevor Anderson; 12. (DNS) 85G-Jayson Good

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 47-Danny Vang[1]; 2. 28-Jeff Provinzino[6]; 3. 30-Kevin Burdick[2]; 4. 07-Cory Crapser[11]; 5. 18G-Chase Gelling[3]; 6. 21-Todd Frank[7]; 7. 77-Corey Seckerson[8]; 8. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[5]; 9. 10X-Robert Bitz[10]; 10. 3H-Jerry Hauge[9]; 11. (DNF) 66X-Travis Saurer[4]; 12. (DNS) 10K-Shawn Kirwin

B Feature 3 (15 Laps): 1. 7-Joel Bennett[3]; 2. XXX-Jon Tollakson[2]; 3. 27-Jared Zimpel[1]; 4. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[6]; 5. 21X-Dustin Arthur[7]; 6. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[5]; 7. 15-Laela Eisenschenk[8]; 8. 32H-Lindsey Hansen[11]; 9. 7L-Scott Lehn[10]; 10. 18-Josh Rieck[9]; 11. (DNF) 11-Austin Kuehl[4]