Points leaders in good shape with 3 weeks left

All of the current season point leaders at Jamestown Speedway are sitting relatively pretty with just three nights of racing left before track championships are handed out.

Heading into Saturday’s night of action, no driver in the speedway’s field of five regular classes of cars leads their respective standings by less than 13 points.

Current point leaders with the largest amount of breathing room are Jamestown’s Steven Nicholson in the Hornets division and Carrington’s Rusty Kollman in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified ranks.

Nicholson has rifled off five feature wins this season in 10 nights of racing — including winning the last Hornets feature event on July 30 — and holds a commanding 44-point lead over Jamestown’s Alex Kelstrom with 339 points.

Kollman has been a tough customer in the B-mod ranks, winning two features on the year and building up a 26-point advantage over Jamestown’s Scott Bintz with 538 points. Bintz, however, has been heating up as of late, winning the last two Midwest Modified feature events in Jamestown and has posted four victories at his hometown track this season.

But, with that said, Kollman is either going to have to miss a night or have extremely bad luck down the stretch for Bintz to make up the 26-point deficit, while Nicholson all but has things locked up.

Breaking down the Jamestown Speedway point system, drivers are awarded 10 points for a heat win, nine points for second and so on. In the feature events, the winner is awarded 35 points, while the second-place finisher is awarded 33 points, third-place gets 32 and so on down the line.

So, basically, Bintz would need to either win or finish near the top of each of the final three feature events, while Kollman would have to finish outside the top 10, in order for Bintz to make up 30 points on the leader.

Drivers typically make small, two- or three-point gains, during heat races. It’s in the features where most of the catching up can be done.

Drivers are also awarded show points. Each driver in their respective class is awarded 10 points if the class has 10 or fewer cars, while drivers are awarded 11 points if the class produces 11 or more cars.

Jamestown Speedway has produced a 20-car Midwest Modified feature race each night this season, and with the way Kollman — who’s driving his first full-season in a B-mod after bumping up from the WISSOTA Street Stock class — is running, making large points gains on the leader will be a tall order barring a no-show or mechanical failure.

Kollman and Bintz are also, as they normally do, representing North Dakota well in the national point standings. As of Aug. 4, Kollman was eighth in the national WISSOTA Midwest Modified standings with 1,581 points, while Bintz sat ninth with 1,553 markers.

The most points a driver can make on any given night is 56 points, proving that just showing up is half the battle.

That testament rang true during Jamestown Speedway’s most recent night of racing on July 30, where Jamestown’s Randy Tarno made up 51 points on Jamestown’s John Corell, wiping out a 38-point lead Corell had over Tarno for the top spot in the WISSOTA Modified standings.

Corell was absent, as he was participating in the inaugural World Modified Dirt Track Championship being held at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., where Brad Waits, of Rochester, Minn., won the $20,000-to-win, 50-lap main event.

Tarno now has a 13-point lead over Corell in the standings with 381 points.

After winning three WISSOTA Street Stock features at the track this summer, Jamestown’s Troy Nelson has a comfortable 21-point advantage over Carrington’s Kelly Hagel in the standings with 430 points, while Marion’s Jeff Vogel leads the Bomber track standings by 16 points over Jamestown’s Bryan Wolf with 498 points.

Vogel has notched four feature victories at the track this season.

After last week’s breather, the speedway resumes action this Saturday night at 7 p.m. with all classes running, while also playing host for the second time this summer to the Northern Late Model Racing Association’s (NLRA) cars and drivers.

Winnipeg’s Mike Balcaen notched the feature win the last time the NLRA Late Models were on the track back on June 25.

Once the night is over, two nights will remain for any driver vying for a season title to either cement their lead or make up ground before the checkered flag waves over Season Championship Night on Aug. 27.

Jamestown Speedway

Point standings

Top 10

Bombers

1, Jeff Vogel, Marion, 498; 2, Bryan Wolf, Jamestown, 482; 3, Lucas Rodin, Fullerton, 471; 4, Leann Christensen, Spiritwood, 469; 5 (tie), Chris Gussiaas, Carrington, 464; Shawn Becker, Jamestown, 464; 7, Matt Miller, Valley City, 413; 8, Tyler Hintz, Buchanan, 344; 9, Keith Striefel, Jamestown, 327; 10, Mike Sahr, Jamestown, 314.

Hornets

1, Steven Nicholson, Jamestown, 339; 2, Alex Kelstrom, Jamestown, 295; 3, Andrew Michel, Jamestown, 277; 4, Sean/Dylan Johnson, Fargo, 269; 5, Bud Cruff, 262; 6, Dylan Wiesz, Carrington, 252; 7, Mark Miller, Valley City, 219; 8 (tie), Anthony Clark, LaMoure, 185; Sam Gray, Jamestown, 185; 10, Aaron Michel, Jamestown, 178.

WISSOTA Modifieds

1, Randy Tarno, Jamestown, 381; 2, John Corell, Jamestown, 368; 3, Bob Sagen, Arthur, 356; 4, Eric Edwards, Edgeley, 344; 5, Jerry Lamb, Lisbon, 328; 6, John Nord, Enderlin, 310; 7, Dwight Wegner, Jamestown, 307; 8, Tim Compson, Valley City, 303; 9, Blake Jegtvig, 291; 10, Ryan Fike, Jamestown, 285.

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds

1, Rusty Kollman, Carrington, 538; 2, Scott Bintz, Jamestown, 512; 3, Lyn Lamb, Lisbon, 490; 4, Josh Eberhardt, Jamestown, 484; 5, Kelly Hagel, Carrington, 461; 6, Ryan Lehr, Jamestown, 424; 7, Jeremy Forester, Jamestown, 417; 8, Eric Edwards, Edgeley, 402; 9, Greg Friestad, Valley City, 387; 10, Tony Konold, Clear Lake, S.D., 367.

WISSOTA Street Stocks

1, Tory Nelson, Jamestown, 451; 2, Kelly Hagel, Carrington, 430; 3, Bob Banish Jr., Milnor, 420; 4, Randy Kollman, Fargo, 409; 5, Rory Opp, Hannaford, 405; 6, Royce Jawaski, Adrain, 401; 7 (tie), Trent Grager, Syketson, 355; Jake Emo, Jamestown, 355; 9, Dustin Erickson, Jamestown, 350; 10, Justin Kollman, Aberdeen, S.D., 346.

Feature wins

Bombers: Jeff Vogel 4; Chris Gussiaas 3; Bryan Wolf 1; Shawn Becker 1; Cory Rodin, Marion, 1.

Hornets: Steven Nicholson 5; Sean/Dylan Jonson 5.

WISSOTA Modifies: Blake Jegtvig 3; John Corell 1; Jayson Corell, Jamestown, 1; Ward Imrie, Winnipeg, 1; Ben Mickelson, Jamestown, 1; Mike Greseth, Harwood, 1; Ryan Gustin, Marshalltown, Iowa, 1.

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds: Scott Bintz 4; Rusty Kollman 2; Lyn Lamb 1; Kelly Hagel 1; Bobby Eckerdt, Grand Forks, 1, Dustin Strand, Grand Forks, 1.

WISSOTA Street Stocks: Troy Nelson 3; Rory Opp 3; Spencer Johnson, Jamestown, 2; Kelly Hagel 1.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com

Tags: auto racing, sports, speedway