A win for Grimes

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John M. Steiner / The Sun Trent Grager (71) leads a group of WISSOTA Street Stocks drivers during the 38th Annual Stock Car Stampede on Saturday at the Jamestown Speedway.

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Jason Grimes capped off a big and busy season at the Jamestown Speedway with a feature victory in the final WISSOTA Modified feature of the 2009 campaign.

Grimes, who started in the third row for the 25-lap final at the 38th annual Stockcar Stampede, successfully completed a march all the way to the front to close the season with a victory.

The last chance to run at the popular quarter-mile dirt track brought 265 cars out to the two-day event with machines in attendance from six states and two Canadian provinces.

A whopping 57 Mods turned out for the Stampede with 24 advancing to the feature.

Grimes and Mitch Johnson were side-by-side on row three to start. His ascent to the top took time, getting to fourth on lap 10, third after 16 and second to Ward Imrie, who started in row 1, 19 laps in.

Finally on lap 21, Grimes made the move past Johnson to take the lead. A restart on lap 23 set up a one-on-one dual with Johnson, but Grimes was up to the task.

The Stampede has been very good to Valley City’s Luke Nelson, and was again Saturday night.

One of 45 Streets in the house, Nelson used a miscue by Tony Konold on lap 9 to get in front.

Running second with Barrett Berg in third, Nelson scooted into the lead when Konold got too high on turn 4 of lap 9 and allowed both Nelson and Berg to slide under and into the top two spots.

One more yellow on lap 15 restarted the field, but it was Nelson who held off Berg for his third career Stampede feature victory.

The Midwest Mods had 55 cars out Friday with 20 transitioning into the feature. Travis Saurer started in the second row, but an early yellow shuffled Shayne Laske to the back and allowed Saurer to slide up.

Once out front Saurer never gave it up. Two yellows came out along the way, but the Dalton, Minn., driver stayed on the point, despite getting a good push from Steve Ost, who also ran well and ended second.

Kent Arment started in the first row for the Late Model final and stayed on top early until fellow front-row starter Shawn Malsam found a crease and drove into the lead on lap 3.

It stayed Malsam and Arment 1-2 until a yellow on 7 gave Arment a shot and he took it, taking the lead back on turn 2. A couple of back-to-back cautions waved on lap 9, but Arment never relented, leading the rest of the way to the checkered.

After some early back-and-forth in the Super Stocks feature, it came down to a 2-lap shootout for the win.

Kevin Robertson, Dave Mass and Ross Dixon were the principles in the late run, which came down to a restart on lap 18.

Mass got the strong run and the lead off the restart and held on the rest of the way, leading Robertson and Dixon to the line as 31 Super Stocks turned out for the heat races Friday and were paired down to 20 for the feature.

Justin Kollman capped off a big year in the Bombers with a dominant win Saturday night. The Aberdeen driver, who won the points championship in the class, grabbed the lead at the drop of the green and was gone, going wire-to-wire for the win.

With the 2009 season in the books, the annual awards banquet will be held Oct. 24 at the Gladstone Inn.

38th Annual Stock Car Stampede

Friday-Saturday at Jamestown Speedway

WISSOTA Late Models

Feature: 1, Kent Arment; 2, Chad Becker; 3, David McDonald; 4, Jeff Wildung; 5, Jeremy Keller; 6, Hank Berry; 7, Shawn Malsam; 8, Curt Gelling; 9, Pat Doar; 10, Steven Pfeifer.

Heat winners: Malsam; Becker; Don Shaw; Gelling; Arment.

B-Main winners: Mike Johnson; Scott Greer.

WISSOTA Modifieds

Feature: 1, Jason Grimes; 2, Mitch Johnson; 3, Mike Greseth; 4, Hank Berry; 5, Chad Ohnstad; 6, John Corell; 7, Kent Arment; 8, Scott Danzeisen; 9, Allen Kent; 10, John Nord.

Heat winners: M.Johnson; Corky Thomas; Ward Imrie; Ohnstad; Greseth; Grimes.

B-Main winners: Corey Seckerson; Nord; Mark Dahl; Bryan Bettcher.

WISSOTA Super Stocks

Feature: 1, Dave Mass; 2, Kevin Robertson; 3, Ross Dixon; 4, Bill Wadeson; 5, Dusty Peterson; 6, Todd Carter; 7, Tim Compson; 8, Don Shaw; 9, Ty Hanten; 10, Scott Jacobson.

Heat winners: K.Robertson; Dale Ames; Dixon; Brian Bernotas.

B-Main winners: Hanten; Shane Brick.

WISSOTA Street Stocks

Feature: 1, Luke Nelson; 2, Barrett Berg; 3, Tony Konold; 4, Rick Schulz; 5, Travis Ulmer; 6, John Kallas; 7, Brian Swenson; 8, Jason Babcock; 9, Royce Jawaski; 10, Trent Grager.

Heat winners: Konold; Nic Klein; Jordan Zillmer; Nelson; Babcock.

B-Main winners: Bob Banish Jr.; Swenson; Grager.

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds

Feature: 1, Travis Saurer; 2, Steve Ost; 3, Scott Bintz; 4, Dustin Strand; 5, Cale Arneson; 6, Rich Pavlicek; 7, Brock Gronwold; 8, Josh Eberhardt; 9, Brent Perleberg; 10, Brett Hoium.

Heat winners: Perleberg; Saurer; Hoium; Shayne Laske; Ost; Bintz.

B-Main winners: Gronwold; Zach Naastad; Pavlicek; Jerry Theis.

Bombers

Feature: 1, Justin Kollman; 2, Derek Eiter; 3, Tyler Michel; 4, Lucas Rodin; 5, Brandon Gussiaas; 6, Norman Olson; 7, Brad Orvedal; 8, Shawn Becker; 9, Josh Ganser; 10, Brent Vetter.

Heat winners: Kollman; Jon VanBruggen; Becker; Ganser.

B-Main winners: Tim Sheik; Jake Emo.

Tags: auto racing, sports, cars, stampede, speedway