6-3 Page 31 | ATD Racing News

KRA finally dries out and opens up, and Searing sprints to $3K Challenge Series Willmar win

By Ron Krog & Chris Stepan

WILLMAR, MN (May 29) - After KRA Speedway had half of its shows rained out in 2024, and lost the first two to weather in 2025, race fans were very excited to welcome the new season Thursday night, as well as the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series to town.

Cole Searing is looking like the man to beat in the series, as he fought off a tremendous challenge from Dave Mass and Kevin Eder to win the lightning-fast 40-lap feature. Other winners in WISSOTA Dirt Track Series action included Kolton Brauer and Shane Sabraski.

Searing and Eder earned the front row for the night’s $3,000-to-win, 40-lap WISSOTA Late Model feature event, with Searing getting the upper hand on the initial start.

The first caution of the 40-lapper flew on lap one when Jon Tollakson was turned around in turn two, slowing the field and ending his night early.

On the restart, Searing blasted around the 3/8-mile oval with Eder in tow. Mass, Shane Sabraski and Jeff Provinzino settled into the top five early on and ran that way until the second caution flag waved on lap five for Joel Bennett, who suffered a mechanical issue.

As the leaders raced off into the central Minnesota night, several great battles were ongoing for the runner-up spot between Mass and Eder, and for fifth between Provinzino and Sabraski.

Searing led Mass, Eder, Provinzino and Sabraski at the halfway point.

After the third and final caution for a Scott Lehn spin, the remainder of the race ran nonstop with great action throughout the field. It looked as if Searing was going to run off with the win, but on the final lap, Mass mounted one final challenge and was close enough to dart to the outside of Searing in the final corner as Searing dealt with lapped traffic. Searing was able to hold on for the victory by 0.330 seconds at the line for his second straight KRA victory. Mass and Eder rounded out the podium, with Sabraski and Provinzino finishing in the top five.

A nice field of 18 WISSOTA Street Stocks were led early by Coltyn Schuler, who jumped out front as Kolton Brauer moved quickly from sixth to second. With four laps in the books, Brauer drove by Schuler for the lead and opened up a nice advantage on the field.

The battle for second was pretty wild as Schuler, Justin Vogel, Zachary Flickinger, Trey Hess and Joe Martin all went at it hard for the position.

As the laps counted down, Vogel took over second and chased Brauer, but was not able to catch him. Brauer took his second win of the early weekend, with Vogel second. Flickinger was third ahead of Kegan Stueve in fourth, and Hess in fifth.

In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, Sabraski drew the pole and led the entire race, but Zach Schultz stayed close. Behind Schultz, Dexton Koch and Shawn Fernkes went at it for third.

As the checkered flew, Sabraski grabbed his 963 win ahead of Schultz, Fernkes, Brayden Hedtke and ninth-starter Jayden Friauf in the top five.

In the track’s Pure Stock class, Carter Rice picked up the win with a young Mason Fester taking second in his first race.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing[1]; 2. 2M-Dave Mass[3]; 3. 22E-Kevin Eder[2]; 4. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 5. 28-Jeff Provinzino[7]; 6. 15-Devin Fouquette[11]; 7. 85G-Jayson Good[12]; 8. 21F-Gunner Frank[8]; 9. 42S-Don Shaw[5]; 10. 32-Jordan Tollakson[15]; 11. 85-John Kaanta[9]; 12. 73-Zach Johnson[17]; 13. 21-Todd Frank[14]; 14. 55S-Ryan Schaufler[13]; 15. (DNF) 7L-Scott Lehn[16]; 16. (DNF) 7-Joel Bennett[10]; 17. (DNF) 14-Chase Alves[18]; 18. (DNF) XXX-Jon Tollakson[6]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing[4]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 3. 85-John Kaanta[2]; 4. 15-Devin Fouquette[5]; 5. 55S-Ryan Schaufler[6]; 6. (DNF) 14-Chase Alves[1]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 2M-Dave Mass[2]; 2. XXX-Jon Tollakson[1]; 3. 21F-Gunner Frank[3]; 4. 7-Joel Bennett[4]; 5. 32-Jordan Tollakson[5]; 6. 73-Zach Johnson[6]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 22E-Kevin Eder[4]; 2. 42S-Don Shaw[2]; 3. 28-Jeff Provinzino[3]; 4. 85G-Jayson Good[1]; 5. 21-Todd Frank[5]; 6. 7L-Scott Lehn[6]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 2. 511-Zach Schultz[3]; 3. 99-Shawn Fernkes[5]; 4. 19-Brayden Hedtke[6]; 5. 14-Jayden Friauf[9]; 6. (DNF) 5*-Andrew Hedtke[10]; 7. (DNF) 71X-Travis Scott[4]; 8. (DNF) 24M-Eric Martini[8]; 9. (DNF) 78K-Dexton Koch[7]; 10. (DNF) 42-Jake Luark[2]; 11. (DNF) 31R-Rob Revermann[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[1]; 2. 511-Zach Schultz[5]; 3. 71X-Travis Scott[3]; 4. 24M-Eric Martini[2]; 5. 14-Jayden Friauf[4]; 6. 31R-Rob Revermann[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 2. 19-Brayden Hedtke[2]; 3. 42-Jake Luark[3]; 4. 99-Shawn Fernkes[5]; 5. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[4]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 34J-Kolton Brauer[6]; 2. 10-Justin Vogel[4]; 3. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[3]; 4. 35S-Kegan Stueve[5]; 5. 4-Trey Hess[2]; 6. 3-Austin Hamre[8]; 7. I7-Ethan Iiams[9]; 8. 2-Joe Martin[7]; 9. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[1]; 10. 19-Derek Zieske[10]; 11. 23-Chris Isdal[14]; 12. 52-Joe Arndt[11]; 13. 76-Braedyn Fleck[13]; 14. 7X-Peter Martin[15]; 15. 5F-Mike Flickinger[16]; 16. 18-Dan Lorensen[18]; 17. (DNF) 611-Brady Schultz[12]; 18. (DNF) 12-Merlyn Flickinger Jr[17]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Justin Vogel[2]; 2. 34J-Kolton Brauer[3]; 3. 3-Austin Hamre[5]; 4. 19-Derek Zieske[6]; 5. 76-Braedyn Fleck[1]; 6. 5F-Mike Flickinger[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[3]; 2. 35S-Kegan Stueve[1]; 3. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[5]; 4. 52-Joe Arndt[4]; 5. 23-Chris Isdal[2]; 6. 12-Merlyn Flickinger Jr[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[1]; 2. 2-Joe Martin[3]; 3. I7-Ethan Iiams[2]; 4. 611-Brady Schultz[6]; 5. 7X-Peter Martin[5]; 6. 18-Dan Lorensen[4]

Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 2-Carter Rice[3]; 2. 6F-Mason Fester[2]; 3. 71-Matt Wartman[4]; 4. (DNF) 20-Ashton Martin[1]; 5. (DNS) 511-Colsten Schultz

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 2-Carter Rice[1]; 2. 6F-Mason Fester[5]; 3. 20-Ashton Martin[4]; 4. 71-Matt Wartman[3]; 5. (DNF) 511-Colsten Schultz[2]