281 cars at Speedway for 40th Annual Stock Car Stampede

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John M. Steiner / The Sun Alex Zirbes of Kensal tightens the tire on a Street Stock prior to racing getting underway at the Jamestown Speedway. The 2-day Stock Car Stampede concludes tonight with racing beginning at 5 p.m.
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The 40th Annual Stock Car Stampede began Friday night at Jamestown Speedway. Some local drivers worked on their cars, while others had time to relax and talk before the action began.

Talk about it

The 40th running of the annual Jamestown Speedway Stock Car Stampede is underway, and it has reeled in an unofficial count of 281 cars and drivers when the first green flag waved on Friday night.

Jamestown Speedway track officials were hoping to break the Stampede record of 296 cars which was set back in 2007. The Stampede brought in 286 competitors last year.

The event kicked off with a pair of Bomber heat races, where it appeared as if last year’s Stampede champion in the Bomber ranks was going to have a hard time driving for two in a row.

Fullerton’s Lucas Rodin started the 10-lap, 12-car heat race way back in the 11th starting position, and he even spun out in corner No. 4 in the early going to bring out the caution. But Rodin punched his ticket back into this year’s feature by rallying from the tail-end to a second-place finish. The top four in the Bomber heat races advanced to today’s A-main, and Dale Wampler — the race’s winner — Keith Striefel and Matt Gumke will also be joining Rodin in the feature.

Gumke is also a past Stampede champion, winning the Bomber event back in 2008. Others qualifying for the A-main in the Bomber ranks included Chris Gussiaas, Ron Impola and Brandon Moser.

The Stampede concludes this evening, starting at 5 p.m. with consolation races followed by the feature events.

There were no surprises during WISSOTA Midwest Modified heat race No. 2 on Friday night. Two-time defending B-mod Stampede champion Travis Saurer, of Elizabeth, Minn., started on the pole and cruised into tonight’s B-mod A-main.

Saurer, the 2004 WISSOTA Midwest Modified national champion, will be going for his fifth Stampede title. Along with back-to-back titles the past two seasons, the driver piloted to B-Mod Stampede wins back in ’04 and ’06.

Carrington’s Rusty Kollman started outside the front row alongside Saurer and that’s where he finished. Jamestown’s Scott Bintz started ninth out of 10 cars and rallied to a third-place finish to also qualify for the feature.

Kollman (5) and Bintz (4) won a combined nine feature events this past season at Jamestown Speedway. Kollman hoisted the track championship in his first season piloting a B-mod.

Grand Forks’ Dustin Strand also made the B-mod feature by winning heat No. 1. Strand, the 2009 WISSOTA Midwest Modified national champion who will be gunning for his first Stampede win, started seventh and was leading after four of 10 laps.

Royce Jawaski finished second to Strand, while Scott Jacobson picked up the third and final transfer spot. A total of 58 Midwest Modifieds were in attendance.

After starting WISSOTA Street Stock heat race No. 1 seventh out of 10 cars, Jamestown’s Troy Nelson slung his way to a third-place finish to qualify for today’s feature event. Nelson won three features in Jamestown in 2011 and was crowned the track champ.

Duffy Froemke won the race, while Spence Johnson finished second. The top three advanced. The Street Stock class brought in 55 cars.

Other Street Stock drivers who advanced to the feature included Kelly Hagel, Casey Stangeland and Justin Kollman. Last year’s Streets champ, Jason Babcock, of Horace, N.D., had yet to run prior to press time.

There won’t be a back-to-back Stampede champion in the WISSOTA Modified division, as Mayville’s Jason Grimes was not in attendance on Friday, leaving the door wide open for two-time defending national champ Blake Jegtvig to possibly bring home his first Stampede title.

Jegtvig, from Hawley, Minn., started the second of five Modified heat races on the outside pole and led all 10 laps. Joining Jegtvig in today’s feature includes Allen Kent, Hank Berry, Robert Hellebust, Scott Ward and John Nord.

Berry, a native of Sidney, Mont., has four Stampede titles under his belt, two in the Late Model ranks and two in the Modifieds.

There’s plenty of firepower in the WISSOTA Late Model ranks present, including past WISSOTA national champs Ricky Weiss, Jeff Wildung, Brad Seng and Mitch Johnson.

Wildung won last year’s Late Model event at the Stampede and will be back in the feature after finishing second to Weiss in the first heat race of the evening. Seng finished just behind in third after starting last out of 10 cars.

In the WISSOTA Super Stock ranks, A-main qualifiers included Shane Brick, Scott Jacobson, Chris Walker, Ross Dixon, Kevin Robertson and Tony Provinzino.

There was still plenty of action left to run at the speedway Friday night at press time. Yet to run were four Street Stock and Midwest Modified heat races, three Modified heats, two Bomber heats, one Late Model and Super Stock heat and one Hornet feature.

40th Annual Stock Car Stampede

Friday Unofficial results (At press time)

Bombers

(Top 4 advance to feature) Heat 1: 1, Dale Wampler; 2, Lucas Rodin; 3, Keith Striefel; 4, Matt Gumke; 5, Shannon Schlenker; 6, Nick Ziegler; 7, Cody Ketterling; 8, Darren Kruger; 9, Larry Hanson. DNF: Ethan Mabus, Keith Kinzler, Taran Langland.

Heat 2: 1, Chris Gussiaas; 2, Ron Impola; 3, Brandon Moser; 4, Matt Miller; 5, Colten Ketterling; 6, Barton Ethan; 7, Mike Sahr; 8, Derik Eiter; 9, Chad Hausauer; 10, Matthew Kropp; 11, Aaron Aaseth.

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds

(Top 3 advance to feature)

Heat 1: 1, Dustin Strand; 2, Royce Jawaski; 3, Scott Jacobson; 4, Nate Reinke; 5, Adam Gajeski; 6, Chris Michaelsohn; 7, Shawn Nostdahl; 8, Bryce Kuska; 9, Andy Kapp. DNF: Ryan Lehr.

Heat 2: 1, Travis Saurer; 2, Rusty Kollman; 3, Scott Bintz; 4, Corey Wheeler; 5, Tony Konold; 6, Grant Hall; 7, Brandon Gussiaas; 8, Joel Larson; 9, Zack Reinke. DNS: Nick Thoreson.

WISSOTA Street Stocks

(Top 3 advance to feature)

Heat 1: 1, Duffy Froemke; 2, Spencer Johnson; 3, Troy Nelson; 4, Jake Emo; 5, Steven Grabow; 6, Ryan Hugelen; 7, Jim Geringer; 8, Kevin Oeder. DNF: Dusty Mund, Bob Banish Jr.

Heat 2: 1, Kelly Hagel; 2, Casey Stangeland; 3, Justin Kollman; 4, Randy Kollman; 5, Tyler Lambert; 6, Chris Ritter; 7, Josh Ganser; 8, Kyle Schell; 9, Greg Jose.

WISSOTA Super Stocks

(Top 6 advance to feature)

Heat 1: 1, Shane Brick; 2, Scott Jacobson; 3, Chris Walker; 4, Todd Carter; 5, Brian Bernotas; 6, Don Woehl; 7, Bill Wadeson; 8, Wylie Johnson; 9, Joe Pellman. DNF: Kevin Bliese, Mike Stearns.

Heat 2: 1, Ross Dixon; 2, Kevin Robertson; 3, Tony Provinzino; 4, Levi Babcock; 5, Stewart Schipke; 6, Shawn Malsam; 7, Cal Rossner; 8, Dusty Peterson. DNF: Dean Boychuk, Brennan Borg.

WISSOTA Modifieds

(Top 3 advance to feature)

Heat 1: 1, Robert Hellebust; 2, Scott Ward; 3, John Nord; 4, Rick Jacobson; 5, Ross Romdalvik; 6, Jayson Corell; 7, Mike Anderson; 8, Josh Eberhardt; 9, Tim Perkins. DNF: Ward Imrie.

Heat 2: 1, Blake Jegtvig; 2, Allen Kent; 3, Hank Berry; 4, Mike Greseth; 5, Scott Danzeisen; 6, Eric Edwards; 7, Drew Christianson; 8, Jamie Trautner; 9, Jordan Foster; 10, Ty Hanten.

WISSOTA Late Models

(Top 6 advance to feature)

Heat 1: 1, Ricky Weiss; 2, Jeff Wildung; 3, Brad Seng; 4, Corey Seckerson; 5, Scott Ward; 6, Harold Schill Jr.; 7, Paul Mueller; 8, Wayne Johnson; 9, Rich Thomas. DNF: Shawn Kerwin.

Heat 2: 1, Steven Pfeiffer; 2, David McDonald; 3, Chad Becker; 4, Ed Turnbull; 5, Jeremy Keller; 6, Dave Zimmerman; 7, Billy Michaelsohn; 8, Adam Fischer. DNF: Cole Schill, Josh Johnson.

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

Tags: auto racing, sports, speedway, stampede