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Nelson nabs $5k for Late Model win, VandeKamp gets MidMod victory, and Folstad fastest of Hibbing’s Hornets

By Jackson Braun

HIBBING, MN (July 1) - It was a night of strength during the return of the Iron Man Late Model Invitational to Hibbing Speedway Tuesday, July 1. A strong field of three WISSOTA divisions, fan count, and night of competitive racing on the track made for a great night at the races. A 50-lap, $5,000-to-win WISSOTA Late Model feature headlined the evening, with former NASCAR great Ryan Newman in competition in a race car prepared by Jeff Provinzino.

Darrell Nelson, Jason VandeKamp and McKenna Folstad pocketed the mid-week victories at the oval.

The night started with the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds on tap for 20 laps, represented by a 23-car field. In a race that ran without caution, Michael Blevins, Sr. took the lead early from outside of the front row. He led until cutting a tire and retiring from the event.

Jason VandeKamp (Jennifer Tomczyk Photo)

Longtime WISSOTA Auto Racing hotshoes VandeKamp and Joey Jensen started the Mid Mod feature eighth and ninth, respectively. VandeKamp inherited the lead when Blevins ran into his issues, while Jensen was second and gained ground among lapped traffic each tour of the speedway. Jensen tried to nose his way past VandeKamp on a racy Hibbing Speedway, but VandeKamp prevailed. Jensen and Hibbing regular Chris Magistad completed the podium.

The $5,000-to-win Iron Man Late Model Invitational entered the track next, lined up via passing points from two rounds of heat races earlier in the evening. Darrell Nelson and Jeff Massingill shared the front row for the contest. Nelson jetted out to the lead early, and the packed grandstand was rewarded with great racing action throughout the field early on in the 50-lapper.

Nelson held steady through the middle of the race, but Johnny Broking did not let Nelson out of his view. Kevin Burdick, Kyle Peterlin and Jeff Massingill also kept pace behind Nelson and Broking. Through a few caution periods and lapped traffic, Nelson continued to look strong in his navigation of the Hibbing Speedway, which was his first appearance of 2025. The track became mostly dominant around the bottom of turns one and two and the top of turns three and four toward the end of the race. Nelson faced no issues in coming to the checkered flag, leading all 50 laps to claim his first Late Model victory since September 2023 at Cedar Lake Speedway. Broking and Burdick completed the podium.

The WISSOTA Hornets were the nightcap and darn near stole the show once again. Saturday winner Nikota Larson started from the point, but faced furious pressure from the likes of Jada Lore, McKenna Folstad, Trenton Beel, Bobie Arnes, and Russell Kiker, Jr. Larson was the meat in an Arnes and Folstad sandwich, as all three battled it out for the win. Beel was right behind waiting to pounce if any shenanigans happened, but a nice clean race to the checkered flag brought Folstad back to Hibbing Speedway victory lane in a photo finish over Larson. Arnes completed the podium.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature (50 Laps): 1. 44-Darrell Nelson[1]; 2. 45J-Johnny Broking[4]; 3. 30-Kevin Burdick[3]; 4. 23-Kyle Peterlin[12]; 5. 6M-Jeff Massingill[2]; 6. 7A-Shane Sabraski[7]; 7. 37X-Skeeter Estey[5]; 8. 44N-Cade Nelson[16]; 9. 71-Zach Wohlers[9]; 10. 07-Cory Crapser[8]; 11. 99-Billy Kendall[6]; 12. 16-Derek Vesel[27]; 13. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[15]; 14. 12X-Ben Heinle[20]; 15. 12-Mark Heinle[25]; 16. 13-Roger Paolo[24]; 17. 34-Taylor Madrinich[23]; 18. (DNF) 79-Kevin Carlson[10]; 19. (DNF) 39-Ryan Newman[18]; 20. (DNF) 14N-Keith Niemi[17]; 21. (DNF) 28-Jeff Provinzino[22]; 22. (DNF) F15-Devin Fouquette[14]; 23. (DNF) 2-Todd Gehl[13]; 24. (DNF) 54-Rick Niemi[11]; 25. (DNF) 35-George Ledin Jr[21]; 26. (DNF) 31-Travis Budisalovich[19]; 27. (DNS) 24-Eric Lillo

Round 1 Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 37X-Skeeter Estey[3]; 2. 2-Todd Gehl[5]; 3. 44-Darrell Nelson[8]; 4. 31-Travis Budisalovich[7]; 5. 07-Cory Crapser[4]; 6. 13-Roger Paolo[2]; 7. 39-Ryan Newman[9]; 8. 35-George Ledin Jr[1]; 9. 16-Derek Vesel[6]

Round 1 Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Zach Wohlers[3]; 2. 6M-Jeff Massingill[2]; 3. 23-Kyle Peterlin[4]; 4. 45J-Johnny Broking[9]; 5. F15-Devin Fouquette[6]; 6. 44N-Cade Nelson[7]; 7. 34-Taylor Madrinich[8]; 8. 28-Jeff Provinzino[5]; 9. 12-Mark Heinle[1]

Round 1 Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 79-Kevin Carlson[1]; 2. 54-Rick Niemi[3]; 3. 30-Kevin Burdick[4]; 4. 99-Billy Kendall[6]; 5. 7A-Shane Sabraski[7]; 6. 14N-Keith Niemi[8]; 7. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[5]; 8. 24-Eric Lillo[2]; 9. 12X-Ben Heinle[9]

Round 2 Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Darrell Nelson[2]; 2. 99-Billy Kendall[4]; 3. 12X-Ben Heinle[1]; 4. 44N-Cade Nelson[3]; 5. 23-Kyle Peterlin[6]; 6. 54-Rick Niemi[7]; 7. 2-Todd Gehl[5]; 8. 12-Mark Heinle[9]; 9. 13-Roger Paolo[8]

Round 2 Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 45J-Johnny Broking[1]; 2. 07-Cory Crapser[6]; 3. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[5]; 4. F15-Devin Fouquette[4]; 5. 14N-Keith Niemi[2]; 6. 71-Zach Wohlers[7]; 7. 35-George Ledin Jr[9]; 8. 31-Travis Budisalovich[3]; 9. 24-Eric Lillo[8]

Round 2 Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 2. 30-Kevin Burdick[6]; 3. 6M-Jeff Massingill[8]; 4. 39-Ryan Newman[1]; 5. 37X-Skeeter Estey[7]; 6. 28-Jeff Provinzino[5]; 7. 79-Kevin Carlson[9]; 8. 34-Taylor Madrinich[2]; 9. (DNS) 16-Derek Vesel

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16-Jason VandeKamp[8]; 2. 30-Joey Jensen[9]; 3. M2-Chris Magistad[1]; 4. 15-Sam Blevins[3]; 5. 91-Andy Davey[12]; 6. 10JR-Mikey Blevins[11]; 7. 28-Paul Ripley[7]; 8. 7A-Eric Anderson[4]; 9. 10X-Matthew Cunha[6]; 10. 76-Keith Koski[10]; 11. 14G-Brant Gruba[5]; 12. 14*-Adam Shinn[14]; 13. 31-Randy Haupt[16]; 14. 12A-Alex O'Dell[19]; 15. 44-Brayden Rewertz[15]; 16. 26K-Sam Kolar[13]; 17. 22E-Ethan Elhardt[23]; 18. 62K-Ryan Kough[17]; 19. 22-Chad VanDuker[18]; 20. 1-Joe Pangrac[20]; 21. 62-Jerry Morgan[21]; 22. 68G-Eric Gruba[22]; 23. (DNF) 10-Michael Blevins Sr[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[2]; 2. 10X-Matthew Cunha[4]; 3. 14G-Brant Gruba[1]; 4. 76-Keith Koski[3]; 5. 26K-Sam Kolar[5]; 6. 31-Randy Haupt[7]; 7. 12A-Alex O'Dell[8]; 8. 68G-Eric Gruba[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[1]; 2. 7A-Eric Anderson[3]; 3. 28-Paul Ripley[4]; 4. 10JR-Mikey Blevins[7]; 5. 14*-Adam Shinn[6]; 6. 62K-Ryan Kough[5]; 7. 1-Joe Pangrac[2]; 8. 22E-Ethan Elhardt[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 15-Sam Blevins[1]; 2. M2-Chris Magistad[4]; 3. 16-Jason VandeKamp[7]; 4. 91-Andy Davey[2]; 5. 44-Brayden Rewertz[6]; 6. 22-Chad VanDuker[3]; 7. 62-Jerry Morgan[5]

WISSOTA Hornets:

A Feature (12 Laps): 1. 25K-McKenna Folstad[4]; 2. 26N-Nikota Larson[1]; 3. 94A-Bobie Arnes[7]; 4. 96-Trenton Beel[5]; 5. 13K-Russell Kiker Jr[8]; 6. 27-Brady Fosso[9]; 7. 11-Tucker Smith[6]; 8. 79JR-Mikayla LaBarge[16]; 9. 188-Ian Vanvickle[13]; 10. 9-Nick Ruzich[12]; 11. 47F-Raeann Hanson[3]; 12. 21L-Colton Lodermeier[18]; 13. 81R-Ryker Larson[19]; 14. 4-Brian Barker[15]; 15. 74-Jacob Petrich[14]; 16. 21-Tiffani Hauta Sanders[17]; 17. 13TB-Anastashia Chavez[11]; 18. (DNF) 24JR-Jada Lore[2]; 19. (DNF) 7L-Tim Larson[10]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 26N-Nikota Larson[2]; 2. 25K-McKenna Folstad[3]; 3. 27-Brady Fosso[6]; 4. 7L-Tim Larson[1]; 5. 188-Ian Vanvickle[4]; 6. 79JR-Mikayla LaBarge[7]; 7. 81R-Ryker Larson[5]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 24JR-Jada Lore[1]; 2. 11-Tucker Smith[2]; 3. 47F-Raeann Hanson[4]; 4. 13TB-Anastashia Chavez[6]; 5. 74-Jacob Petrich[5]; 6. 21-Tiffani Hauta Sanders[3]

Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 13K-Russell Kiker Jr[6]; 2. 96-Trenton Beel[2]; 3. 94A-Bobie Arnes[5]; 4. 9-Nick Ruzich[4]; 5. 4-Brian Barker[3]; 6. 21L-Colton Lodermeier[1]