Ryan Pommerer must have started to wonder if he'd ever win a feature race at Jamestown Speedway.
The 42-year-old WISSOTA Street Stock driver from Oriska had been trying for 13 years. But he was finally able to slay the beast on Saturday, releasing over a decade's worth of weight from the man's shoulders.
"To come over here and win a feature, it's probably one of the best moments of racing right now," a clearly relieved Pommerer said. "It would have been nice to be racing with somebody and get the win, and not just get out to the front and not know where everybody is at, but we'll take it any way we can get it over here."
Pommerer started the 20-lap Street Stock feature from the outside of the third row, bolting to the front on the high side of the track. After just one lap, the driver and his No. 5P were to the outside of the pole sitter, Mapleton's Nic Klein.
Klein led the first pair of circuits by protecting the bottom. But that left the high side vulnerable to Pommerer.
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"We started sixth and we were running second coming out of turn two on the first lap," Pommerer said. "It pushed up a little bit on the first lap in turn two, and I thought, 'Well, hopefully when we go back into three and four I can get by Nic.
"The car turned so easy in three and four I never had to lift off the gas."
Pommerer charged past Klein and into the lead off the top of corner No. 4 to complete the third lap. The race stayed green from start to finish, with Pommerer eventually leading 18 of the 20 circuits.
Pommerer was able to put some distance on the rest of the field, until Moorhead's Travis Robertson moved into second place with seven laps to go after starting seventh. Robertson closed in slightly, and may have had something for the leader if a caution flag were to have eliminated Pommerer's advantage.
But no such break in the action occurred. Robertson finished second, while Jamestown's Dustin Erickson captured third and Hannaford's Rory Opp came from the 14th starting spot to finish fourth.
Klein ended up rounding out the top five. Lisbon's Jonny Carter, who won the first two Street Stock features here to start the season, pulled off the track with 11 laps left and was scored last in 17th place with a DNF.
"Jonny Carter has been pretty dominant over here, and Travis Robertson has been running pretty good everywhere he goes and we race with him quite often," Pommerer said. "Knowing those guys are back there it was just a matter of time. And, you can't forget about the Jamestown regulars."
It was Pommerer's second feature win of the season. He also won at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn., on May 22.
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Jamestown Speedway
Saturday's results
WISSOTA Street Stocks
Feature: 1, Ryan Pommerer; 2, Travis Robertson; 3, Dustin Erickson; 4, Rory Opp; 5, Nic Klein; 6, Jeff Vogel; 7, Billie Christ; 8, Eric Harpole; 9, Jeremy Willman; 10, Scott Gartner; 11, Troy Nelson; 12, Kyle Anderson; 13, Matthew Lesmeister; 14, Jake Emo; 15, Josh Ganser (DNF); 16, Chris Ritter (DNF); 17, Jonny Carter (DNF).
Heat 1: 1, Carter; 2, Christ; 3, Klein; 4, Pommerer; 5, Vogel; 6, Harpole; 7, Opp (DNF); 8, Gartner (DNF); 9, Ganser (DNF).
Heat 2: 1, Robertson; 2, Lesmeister; 3, Nelson; 4, Erickson; 5, Emo; 6, Anderson; 7, Willman; 8, Ritter (DNF).
