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Oelrich one of Sunday’s speediest at Bemidji; first time winner joined by Blevins, Puffe, Kicker, Brauer and Carlson

By Dennis Peterson

BEMIDJI, MN (July 20) - Sunday night at Bemidji Speedway was “First National Bank/Great River Rescue Night” with all fans bringing a pet related item or donation getting a reduced admission to the races.

A total of 84 cars were in the pits ready to race in seven classes. WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Dustin Puffe, Michael Blevins, Sr., Russell Kiker, Jr., Kolton Brauer, Dawson Oelrich, and Dalton Carlson.

Josh Berg and Landon Weeks led the field of 13 WISSOTA Pure Stocks onto the track in turn four, with Berg taking the initial lead ahead of Weeks, Alex Berg, Austin Carlson, and Billy Binkley in the top five. Carlson moved alongside Alex Berg, creating a four-car battle for the fourth spot. Contact was made and Alex Berg was sent tailback for a restart.

The restart was a battle, with five cars all fighting for position led by Josh Berg, Weeks, Carlson, Kade Leeper and Dustin Puffe in the top five. Down the back straight, Puffe raced to the outside into third.

Following another caution, Berg and Puffe dueled door to door with Puffe making the pass for the win, his fourth of the year. Berg, Carlson, Mason Smith, and Leeper took home top-five honors.

Hunter Weeks and Noah Bitz led the 14-car field of WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds down the front straight, with second-row starter Mike Blevins, Sr. powering up into the lead ahead of Weeks, Gary James Nelson, Sam Blevins and Travis Klein in the top five. Weeks and Nelson raced side by side, before Nelson moved into second behind Blevins.

Following a restart, Blevins stayed strong out front and took the win, his second of the season, ahead of Nelson, Weeks, Sam Blevins, and Landon Gross in the top five.

The WISSOTA Hornets were up next with Aiden Kessler and Adam Kessler in row one. Adam grabbed the lead with Aiden, Russell Kiker, Jr., Ryker Larson, Jayme Gordon trailing in the top five. Aiden Kessler made contact with Kiker, with Kiker going over the top of the track; Aiden Kessler was sent tailback.

Adam Kessler held his lead with Kiker and Chad Reller chasing him. In turn four, Aiden Kessler lost a tire flying over the turn ending his night. The restart was led by Adam Kessler with Kiker, Reller, Gordon and Brady Fosso in the top five. The top four raced bumper to bumper, as Kessler and Kiker were side by side to the finish line. Kiker won by a nose in a fantastic race to the flag. Kessler, Reller, Fosso, and Gordon completed the top five.

Ten WISSOTA Street Stocks entered the track with Deryk Weleski and Doug VanMill leading the way. Weston Ramsrud raced the high side and into second behind VanMill in the lead, with Weleski, Kolton Brauer and Trey Hess in the top five. Brauer raced to the inside of Ramsrud for second, before Weleski spun and was sent to the rear.

Back under green, Brauer jumped to the high side and rode the top around the track to take the lead on the back straightaway. Scotty Messner was on the move, making his way to third.

Following another caution Messner passed VanMill for second. Three straight cautions slowed the action late in the race. Brauer cruised to his third feature win and maintained his quest for the national championship. Messner, VanMill, Hess and Chris Dudley rounded out the top five.

Chris Roller and Dawson Oelrich led the field of WISSOTA Mod Fours to the green flag, with Oelrich the early leader ahead of Roller, Conrad Schwinn, Ashton Schwinn, and Brooke Erickson in the top five. Oelrich built a sizable lead on the field as Ashton Schwinn dueled with Roller for second; Roller held his position after several attempts. Schwinn was finally able to make the pass and looked ahead to Oelrich. Oelrich’s lead was too much to overcome, and to a cheering crowd the young Bemidji driver picked up his first-ever feature win in the Mod Four class. Ashton Schwinn, Roller, Conrad Schwinn and Conner Bruss completed the top five.

Brandon Bahr and Dalton Carlson led the field of WISSOTA Super Stocks to the green, with Bahr taking the lead followed by Carlson, Matt Sparby, Justin Barsness and John Sharpnack in the top five. The track was fast and the laps ticked off quickly with Bahr in control of the lead. Carlson tried high and low on the leader, with Sparby moving alongside Carlson to make it a tight three-car battle for the lead in fantastic racing action.

Following a pair of cautions and just a handful of laps to go, Bahr was spun, creating a mass of carnage on the front straight. The lead was handed over to Carlson with Sharpnack, Barsness, Lewis and Cameron Labelle in the top five where they finished.

In the Mini Stocks, Conrad Schwinn took the checkered flag for his fourth feature win of the year.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 57-Dalton Carlson[2]; 2. 69X-John Sharpnack[3]; 3. 47J-Justin Barsness[6]; 4. T26-Nic Lewis[8]; 5. 27C-Cameron Labelle[5]; 6. 17-Faye Lewis[11]; 7. 40-Ellen Lange[9]; 8. 72-Mike Johnson[12]; 9. (DNF) 29X-Brandon Bahr[1]; 10. (DNF) X81-Alexa Sparby[10]; 11. (DNF) 81X-Matt Sparby[4]; 12. (DNF) 65-Ron Reed[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Dalton Carlson[1]; 2. 29X-Brandon Bahr[2]; 3. 27C-Cameron Labelle[6]; 4. 81X-Matt Sparby[4]; 5. 40-Ellen Lange[3]; 6. X81-Alexa Sparby[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 69X-John Sharpnack[1]; 2. T26-Nic Lewis[5]; 3. 47J-Justin Barsness[4]; 4. 65-Ron Reed[3]; 5. 72-Mike Johnson[6]; 6. 17-Faye Lewis[2]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[3]; 2. 74-Gary James Nelson[4]; 3. 9W-Hunter Weeks[1]; 4. 15S-Sam Blevins[6]; 5. 15-Landon Gross[7]; 6. 6-Dean Eggebraaten[9]; 7. 07-Carter Matthews[8]; 8. 10JR-Mikey Blevins[12]; 9. 16-Skyler Smith[10]; 10. 11K-Travis Klein[5]; 11. 6K-Noah Bitz[2]; 12. 7P-Cory Peterson[11]; 13. (DNF) 33L-Cejay LaValley[13]; 14. (DNS) 26-Connor Drewry

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15S-Sam Blevins[2]; 2. 74-Gary James Nelson[1]; 3. 15-Landon Gross[4]; 4. 9W-Hunter Weeks[3]; 5. 6-Dean Eggebraaten[5]; 6. 7P-Cory Peterson[7]; 7. 33L-Cejay LaValley[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[4]; 2. 07-Carter Matthews[3]; 3. 6K-Noah Bitz[2]; 4. 11K-Travis Klein[6]; 5. 16-Skyler Smith[7]; 6. 10JR-Mikey Blevins[5]; 7. (DNF) 26-Connor Drewry[1]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 34J-Kolton Brauer[6]; 2. 18-Scotty Messner[5]; 3. 8T-Doug VanMill[2]; 4. 4-Trey Hess[8]; 5. 70-Chris Dudley[7]; 6. 50-Nick McCann[3]; 7. 96-Jeremy Gust[9]; 8. 34-Billy Binkley[10]; 9. (DNF) 67-Weston Ramsrud[4]; 10. (DNF) 39-Deryk Weleski[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Trey Hess[3]; 2. 34J-Kolton Brauer[5]; 3. 67-Weston Ramsrud[1]; 4. 39-Deryk Weleski[2]; 5. 96-Jeremy Gust[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 70-Chris Dudley[3]; 2. 50-Nick McCann[1]; 3. 8T-Doug VanMill[4]; 4. 18-Scotty Messner[5]; 5. 34-Billy Binkley[2]

WISSOTA Mod Fours:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 4-Dawson Oelrich[2]; 2. 18-Ashton Schwinn[5]; 3. T34-Christopher Roller[1]; 4. 6-Conrad Schwinn[3]; 5. 20-Connor Bruss[8]; 6. 99JR-Brooke Erickson[4]; 7. 99-Blake Erickson[7]; 8. 29-Kevin Bahr[6]; 9. 29J-Jayden Bahr[9]; 10. 26L-Lily Knute[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Ashton Schwinn[5]; 2. 6-Conrad Schwinn[2]; 3. 4-Dawson Oelrich[1]; 4. 99JR-Brooke Erickson[3]; 5. 29J-Jayden Bahr[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Connor Bruss[2]; 2. 99-Blake Erickson[3]; 3. T34-Christopher Roller[1]; 4. 29-Kevin Bahr[4]; 5. 26L-Lily Knute[5]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 21X-Dustin Puffe[5]; 2. 35B-Josh Berg[1]; 3. 57-Austin Carlson[6]; 4. 21-Mason Smith[12]; 5. 3-Kade Leeper[10]; 6. 9L-Landon Weeks[2]; 7. 70-Chris Dudley[9]; 8. 25-Billy Binkley[3]; 9. 15-Caylyn Binkley[7]; 10. 18B-Alex Berg[4]; 11. (DNF) 88B-Brandon Puschinsky[11]; 12. (DNF) 47-Dusty Caspers[8]; 13. (DNF) 7K-Quintyn Karl[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Billy Binkley[2]; 2. 18B-Alex Berg[4]; 3. 15-Caylyn Binkley[1]; 4. 35B-Josh Berg[5]; 5. 70-Chris Dudley[6]; 6. 88B-Brandon Puschinsky[3]; 7. 7K-Quintyn Karl[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21X-Dustin Puffe[1]; 2. 57-Austin Carlson[2]; 3. 47-Dusty Caspers[4]; 4. 9L-Landon Weeks[3]; 5. 3-Kade Leeper[5]; 6. (DNF) 21-Mason Smith[6]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature (12 Laps): 1. 13K-Russell Kiker Jr[3]; 2. 8X-Adam Kessler[2]; 3. 28R-Chad Reller[6]; 4. 27-Brady Fosso[8]; 5. 7G-Jayme Gordon[5]; 6. 28-Logan Delaney[7]; 7. 40-William Lange[9]; 8. 7M-Mateja Dreyer[11]; 9. (DNF) 24JR-Jada Lore[10]; 10. (DNF) 72-Aiden Kessler[1]; 11. (DNF) 81R-Ryker Larson[4]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7G-Jayme Gordon[4]; 2. 81R-Ryker Larson[2]; 3. 28-Logan Delaney[1]; 4. 27-Brady Fosso[6]; 5. 40-William Lange[5]; 6. 7M-Mateja Dreyer[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 13K-Russell Kiker Jr[4]; 2. 28R-Chad Reller[1]; 3. 8X-Adam Kessler[3]; 4. 72-Aiden Kessler[2]; 5. 24JR-Jada Lore[5]

Mini Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 6-Conrad Schwinn[3]; 2. 77-Hayden Engen[5]; 3. 50-Nick McCann[4]; 4. 11C-Cody Bush[2]; 5. 19-Troy Foster[6]; 6. 7-Karlie Feda[11]; 7. 87-Malachi Albrecht[9]; 8. 26-Brooke McCann[12]; 9. 5H-Ethan Hunter[10]; 10. (DNF) 14-Cooper Francis[7]; 11. (DNF) 3-Cody Meyers[1]; 12. (DNF) 94-Cameron Schwinn[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Hayden Engen[6]; 2. 19-Troy Foster[2]; 3. 11C-Cody Bush[3]; 4. 14-Cooper Francis[5]; 5. 87-Malachi Albrecht[4]; 6. 7-Karlie Feda[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Nick McCann[2]; 2. 6-Conrad Schwinn[6]; 3. 94-Cameron Schwinn[1]; 4. 3-Cody Meyers[5]; 5. 5H-Ethan Hunter[4]; 6. 26-Brooke McCann[3]