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Kevin Burdick (Contributed Photo)

Burdick holds off surging Shaw for Challenge Series win at I-94 and Saurer tops Mods in a feature that came down to final lap; Bitten, Riley and Rohner also roll on Friday

By Ron Krog & Chris Stepan

FERGUS FALLS, MN (May 9) - Race fans in Fergus Falls were treated to a very entertaining night of action, as 100 cars in five classes came out cooking. The evening’s program also included a stop on the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series tour.

Kevin Burdick held off Don Shaw in a wild feature that had plenty of action, while the Modified feature came down to the final lap as well, as Travis Saurer took that win. Other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners during a fun night at the race track included Tyler Bitzan, Eric Riley and Jeff Rohner.

Cory Dykhoff grabbed the early lead in the WISSOTA Street Stock feature, with Eric Riley charging to second. As the race progressed, a late caution reset the field and 12th-starter Kyle Dykhoff moved into third. Cory Dykhoff then spun, which sent him to the back of the pack and allowed Kyle Dykhoff to move into second. He and Riley went back and forth for the lead, with Riley hanging on for a hard-fought win. Nick Shumansky, Braedyn Fleck and Greg Platzer completed the top five.

The 20-car WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature started out with a couple of cautions until things settled down. Scott Oeltjen was the early leader and on the third restart, Tyler Bitzan overtook him and the chase was on. A very fast Ron Saurer moved into second close behind. On lap seven Onyx Johnson got by Oeltjen for third, but he was supplanted back to fourth by Tanner Bitzan a few laps later. As the race came to an end, Tyler Bitzan drove on to his first career win, with a very excited crew and family joining him in victory lane. Saurer was second, with Tanner Bitzan third. Johnson and Oeltjen completed the top five.

A solid field of 18 WISSOTA Modifieds hit the track, with Tyler Peterson exploding into the lead. Shane Sabraski, Landon Atkinson and Travis Saurer were close behind, swapping spots lap after lap. With 10 laps to go Saurer came flying off the top of turn two and overtook Peterson for the lead. From there on it was his race, as he picked up the win, with Peterson grabbing second followed by Sabraski, Atkinson and Joe Thomas.

It was the opening night of a three-race Minnesota swing to start the season for the WISSOTA Challenge Series for the Late Model racers on hand. Proctor, Minnesota’s Kevin Burdick bested a stout field of 37 WISSOTA Late Models to win the 40-lap feature, surviving a slide job during the final lap to get the victory.

Burdick and Don Shaw earned the front row for the night’s $3,000-to-win event, with Shaw getting the upper hand on the initial start and leading the field into turn number one. Shaw held that lead for the first two laps, with Burdick and Shane Sabraski in tow.

The first caution of the 40-lapper flew on lap two when Todd Frank and Cole Searing got together in turn two while battling inside the top 10.

On the restart, Shaw again took off out front, but the run was short-lived, as the second caution flew one lap later for a four-car crash in turns one and two.

As the race kicked back into action, Shaw continued in the lead but was under heavy pressure from Sabraski, Burdick, Cole Schill and Sam Mars. Sabraski slipped by Shaw into the lead at the halfway point, but his time out front was short as Burdick went rocketing by into the top spot two circuits later.

Laps clicked off smoothly with Burdick and Shaw stretching their advantage on the field, before Sam Mars began to reel in the leaders. Mars got to third and after several laps of wild action throughout lapped traffic, Mars made a big move to the inside of Shaw, sending Shaw into the turn-three wall. Shaw was able to continue while Mars took his No. 28 pit side.

Burdick and Shaw drove off during what was the final restart, while Provinzino, Sabraski and Searing ran inside the top five. Shaw got to the rear deck lid of Burdick on the final lap, and was able to throw a monster slider as the field rumbled into turns one and two, but Burdick drove back under Shaw and raced to his second career Challenge Series victory for his efforts, by 0.1790 seconds.

Provinzino, Sabraski and Searing completed the top five.

A nice field of 13 WISSOTA Hornets were led from start to finish by defending track champ Jeff Rohner. Christian Kast was second, while Hunter Goulet charged from eighth at the start to finish third. Brady Fosso and Lincoln Miller were also top-five finishers.

I-94 thanks Scots Machine Shop of Fergus Falls for sponsoring the evening.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[1]; 2. 42S-Don Shaw[2]; 3. 28-Jeff Provinzino[6]; 4. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 5. 10-Cole Searing[11]; 6. 2M-Dave Mass[13]; 7. 73-Zach Johnson[7]; 8. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[23]; 9. 21F-Gunner Frank[10]; 10. 8R-Travis Robertson[9]; 11. 15X-Blake Boelens[19]; 12. 7-Joel Bennett[20]; 13. 11-Pat Doar[14]; 14. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[16]; 15. 4-Cory Bruggeman[22]; 16. 50C-Cody Lee[18]; 17. (DNF) 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[12]; 18. (DNF) 28S-Sam Mars[8]; 19. (DNF) 22E-Kevin Eder[24]; 20. (DNF) 21X-Travis Saurer[17]; 21. (DNF) 23-Matt Gilbertson[21]; 22. (DNF) 44-Cole Schill[5]; 23. (DNF) 7L-Scott Lehn[25]; 24. (DNF) 32-Jordan Tollakson[4]; 25. (DNF) 21-Todd Frank[15]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 32-Jordan Tollakson[1]; 2. 28-Jeff Provinzino[3]; 3. 2M-Dave Mass[2]; 4. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 5. 21X-Travis Saurer[6]; 6. 7-Joel Bennett[9]; 7. 23-Matt Gilbertson[5]; 8. 47-Danny Vang[7]; 9. 15-Devin Fouquette[8]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 42S-Don Shaw[4]; 3. 10-Cole Searing[3]; 4. XXX-Jon Tollakson[1]; 5. 50C-Cody Lee[6]; 6. 15X-Blake Boelens[5]; 7. 50-Ben Wolden[7]; 8. 18-Josh Rieck[8]; 9. 24-Mike Hart[9]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[6]; 2. 21F-Gunner Frank[2]; 3. 8R-Travis Robertson[5]; 4. 21-Todd Frank[3]; 5. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[7]; 6. 4-Cory Bruggeman[1]; 7. (DNF) 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[4]; 8. (DNS) 18X-Shawn Meyer; 9. (DNS) 22E-Kevin Eder

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 44-Cole Schill[1]; 2. 73-Zach Johnson[3]; 3. 28S-Sam Mars[4]; 4. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[6]; 5. 22-Jack Koranda[2]; 6. 53-Chris Mensen[8]; 7. 21XX-Joel Collins[7]; 8. 7L-Scott Lehn[9]; 9. (DNF) 4J-Lee Grosz[5]; 10. (DNF) 26-Tim Johnson[10]

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 21X-Travis Saurer[2]; 2. 15X-Blake Boelens[4]; 3. 23-Matt Gilbertson[5]; 4. XXX-Jon Tollakson[1]; 5. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[9]; 6. 47-Danny Vang[7]; 7. 53-Chris Mensen[3]; 8. 15-Devin Fouquette[8]; 9. 18X-Shawn Meyer[11]; 10. 26-Tim Johnson[10]; 11. (DNF) 21XX-Joel Collins[6]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 50C-Cody Lee[2]; 2. 7-Joel Bennett[1]; 3. 4-Cory Bruggeman[4]; 4. 22-Jack Koranda[3]; 5. 50-Ben Wolden[5]; 6. 4J-Lee Grosz[9]; 7. 24-Mike Hart[8]; 8. 18-Josh Rieck[7]; 9. 7L-Scott Lehn[6]; 10. (DNF) 22E-Kevin Eder[10]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 21X-Travis Saurer[1]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[2]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 4. 18A-Landon Atkinson[3]; 5. 6T-Joseph Thomas[8]; 6. 428-Kaden Blaeser[5]; 7. 51T-Josh Thoennes[6]; 8. 26G-Ryan Gierke[7]; 9. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[9]; 10. 6X-Bryce Sward[10]; 11. 52-Jason Thoennes[11]; 12. 10X-Dustin Bitzan[15]; 13. 7-Bryce Borgen[13]; 14. 5C-John Corell[14]; 15. 121-Dano Ostrander[16]; 16. (DNF) 51-Avery Anderson[12]; 17. (DNF) 2X-Brady Gerdes[17]; 18. (DNS) 26-Brent Pulskamp

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 3. 428-Kaden Blaeser[5]; 4. 6X-Bryce Sward[4]; 5. 7-Bryce Borgen[3]; 6. 10X-Dustin Bitzan[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 2. 51T-Josh Thoennes[3]; 3. 6T-Joseph Thomas[4]; 4. 52-Jason Thoennes[6]; 5. 5C-John Corell[5]; 6. 121-Dano Ostrander[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 21X-Travis Saurer[4]; 2. 26G-Ryan Gierke[1]; 3. 18A-Landon Atkinson[5]; 4. 51-Avery Anderson[3]; 5. (DNF) 2X-Brady Gerdes[2]; 6. (DNF) 26-Brent Pulskamp[6]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[2]; 2. 42-Ron Saurer[4]; 3. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[6]; 4. 73-Onyx Johnson[3]; 5. 13-Scott Oeltjen[1]; 6. M-Kevin Yeager[8]; 7. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[7]; 8. 66-Kyle Langland[5]; 9. 12X-Jamie Norman[12]; 10. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[11]; 11. 110-Tate Kelderman[10]; 12. 10M-Noah McFarlane[9]; 13. 28K-Nick Preston[18]; 14. 5X-Dylan McManigle[16]; 15. 2D-Jonathan Dulas[13]; 16. (DNF) 15-Andrew DeNoble[19]; 17. (DNF) 21Z-Zach Kort[14]; 18. (DNF) 13K-Brad King[15]; 19. (DNF) 75JR-Jacob Karch[20]; 20. (DNS) 71-Nate Reinke

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 42-Ron Saurer[6]; 2. 73-Onyx Johnson[7]; 3. M-Kevin Yeager[3]; 4. 110-Tate Kelderman[4]; 5. 2D-Jonathan Dulas[2]; 6. 13K-Brad King[1]; 7. (DNF) 15-Andrew DeNoble[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 13-Scott Oeltjen[2]; 2. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[6]; 3. 10M-Noah McFarlane[4]; 4. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[5]; 5. 21Z-Zach Kort[1]; 6. 5X-Dylan McManigle[3]; 7. 75JR-Jacob Karch[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Kyle Langland[5]; 2. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[3]; 3. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[6]; 4. 12X-Jamie Norman[1]; 5. (DNF) 71-Nate Reinke[4]; 6. (DNF) 28K-Nick Preston[2]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 51-Eric Riley[4]; 2. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[12]; 3. 17-Nick Shumansky[3]; 4. 76-Braedyn Fleck[8]; 5. 16-Greg Platzer[10]; 6. 80-Tony Miller[5]; 7. 30B-Wade Bergerud[1]; 8. 57-Jason Fechtner[9]; 9. 12-Joshua Schroeder[6]; 10. (DNF) 3C-Cory Dykhoff[2]; 11. (DNF) 78-Josh Lawson[7]; 12. (DNS) 18J-Justin Peterson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3C-Cory Dykhoff[2]; 2. 76-Braedyn Fleck[1]; 3. 17-Nick Shumansky[4]; 4. 12-Joshua Schroeder[5]; 5. (DNF) 18J-Justin Peterson[3]; 6. (DNF) 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 51-Eric Riley[2]; 2. 80-Tony Miller[3]; 3. 78-Josh Lawson[4]; 4. 30B-Wade Bergerud[6]; 5. 57-Jason Fechtner[1]; 6. 16-Greg Platzer[5]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[1]; 2. 03-Christian Kast[3]; 3. 701-Hunter Goulet[8]; 4. 27-Brady Fosso[5]; 5. 988L-Lincoln Miller[2]; 6. 988A-Ayden Muchow[7]; 7. 20-Chase Golliet[4]; 8. 18K-Wayne Preston[10]; 9. 988E-Emma Nelson[6]; 10. 35P-Tylar Pourrier[9]; 11. (DNF) 17-Nick Shirley[12]; 12. (DNF) 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[11]; 13. (DNS) 35-Chase Pourrier

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 03-Christian Kast[1]; 2. 27-Brady Fosso[3]; 3. 988A-Ayden Muchow[2]; 4. 988L-Lincoln Miller[6]; 5. 35P-Tylar Pourrier[4]; 6. (DNS) 17-Nick Shirley; 7. (DNS) 35-Chase Pourrier

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 08-Jeff Rohner[3]; 2. 701-Hunter Goulet[5]; 3. 20-Chase Golliet[4]; 4. 988E-Emma Nelson[1]; 5. 18K-Wayne Preston[6]; 6. (DNF) 78-Zander Zuehlsdorff[2]