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Brauer begins 2025 WISSOTA 100 with Wednesday night Qualifying Feature win in the Street Stocks

By Tony Steuck
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 10) - Defending race winner Kolton Brauer held off a late-race charge from Kyle Dykhoff to top Wednesday’s WISSOTA Street Stock Qualifying Feature. The victory also earned Brauer the pole for Saturday’s Championship Feature as he looks to defend his WISSOTA 100 crown.

Justin Vogel held a slim lead over Jeff Ekdahl early on in the 15-lap Qualifying Feature. Brauer was third before the first caution with only a lap scored for a melee in turn one.

Brauer kept his car glued to the inside of the speedway, and pulled ahead of Vogel for the lead on lap two. Eric Riley and Ekdahl diced it up for third, and Nick Traynor raced in fifth with three laps scored. Vogel slipped to fourth on the next circuit, and Riley had the edge on Ekdahl with five laps scored. Vogel tried to return to the front pack with a high-side rally, but the top three broke away in the low groove before the halfway mark. Riley kept the heat on Brauer with Ekdahl in close contention as well.

Vogel switched to the low groove and reeled in the lead trio with three laps to go. Ekdahl saw an opening for second with under three laps to go, but Riley shut the door and the two bumped wheels in turn two; Ekdahl spun and was sent to the tail for the restart with 12 of 15 laps complete.

When the race resumed, Vogel used the middle lane to pull to the outside of Brauer, and Parker Anderson charged around the cushion; they were nearly three wide off turn four with Riley in the mix as well. When they entered turn three, Anderson caught the rear end of Vogel and turned him around in front of the pack. Levi Randt made hard contact on the outside of turn one, and several more drivers piled in. Vogel retired from the event and Anderson was sent to the tail for the restart.

Kyle Dykhoff started the race in 12th and spent the opening half mired around 10th. With the misfortune of several other top-10 runners in the second half, Dykhoff restarted to the outside of Riley in the row behind the leader. When the green flag dropped for the final two-lap shootout, Dykhoff worked the middle groove to the outside of Brauer. He charged deep into the turns and nosed ahead briefly, but Brauer eased ahead in the middle of the turns. Dykhoff made one final bid in the last turns, but could only get to the No. 34 on Brauer’s door at the checkers. Dykhoff was a close second ahead of Riley, Trey Hess and Tommy Pogones in the top five. Cole Greseth, Andrew Hanson and Ty Schuler filled out the remaining transfer spots, however both Dykhoff and Greseth declined their positions to race again on Thursday. Kasey Ussatis, who finished ninth, and Ethan Beckler, 10th, accepted the final two transfers to the inside line for Saturday’s Championship Feature.

The Street Stocks were divided into seven heats races with the top 24 in passing points locked into the evening’s main event.

In the opening heat race, Vogel started fifth, but was into second by the end of lap one. He raced by Tony Smith on lap two and drove to the victory ahead of Smith in second. Levi Randt won a very physical race for third ahead of Andrew Hanson, with Alex Grinager fifth.

Colsten Schultz led the first lap-plus of heat two, but spun in the second turn to bring out a yellow. Hess started ninth on the original grid, and restarted third after lap one; he pressured Ussatis for the lead in the middle stages before Ussatis pulled away in the closing laps. Hess settled for second ahead of Ty Schuler, Ethan Iiams and Maverick Janssen.

Parker Anderson led all the way to capture heat three. Josh Long remained close for the first half, but lost touch and had to fend off Greseth to keep second. Michael Brockman and Darek Turner rounded out the top five.

Tommy Pogones started eighth in the fourth heat race, and was second in two laps. He grabbed the top spot from Brady Schultz on the next lap, while Brauer worked into contention from the fourth row. Brauer moved into second with two laps to go, and made it close at the line with Pogones. Brauer settled for second ahead of Cail Tinker, Joe Deede and Devan Schultz.

Dustin Erickson grabbed the top spot out of turn four to lead the opening lap of heat five, but Ekdahl stole the top spot after a restart with two laps scored. After another restart, Spencer Johnson picked off Erickson for second. Ekdahl earned the win over Johnson, Erickson, Tony Miller and Layla Chaplin.

Dykhoff was never challenged en route to his victory in heat six. Eric Riley navigated from sixth to second with Keith Tourville third, Cody Hatch fourth and Kegan Stueve fifth.

Coltyn Schuler held off a group of tough customers to earn the final heat race win. Things got wild after a mid-race restart, where Mike Jans, Cory Dykhoff and Traynor all made a bid for the lead. Traynor nosed ahead to lead down the back chute on the final lap, but Schuler pulled ahead to win by a nose at the checkers. Jans was third ahead of Ethan Beckler and Charlie Shiek.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 34J-Kolton Brauer[3]; 2. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[12]; 3. 51-Eric Riley[7]; 4. 4T-Trey Hess[4]; 5. 04-Tommy Pogones[6]; 6. 19G-Cole Greseth[9]; 7. 20-Andrew Hanson[24]; 8. 16S-Ty Schuler[16]; 9. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[5]; 10. 22B-Ethan Beckler[20]; 11. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[10]; 12. I7-Ethan Iiams[18]; 13. 80-Tony Miller[13]; 14. 148-Keith Tourville[17]; 15. (DNF) 10-Justin Vogel[1]; 16. (DNF) 11-Levi Randt[22]; 17. (DNF) 40-Nick Traynor[8]; 18. (DNF) 25-Mike Jans[23]; 19. (DNF) 9-Cody Hatch[14]; 20. (DNF) 27P-Parker Anderson[11]; 21. (DNF) 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[2]; 22. (DNF) 1SJ-Spencer Johnson[15]; 23. (DNF) 71-Josh Long[19]; 24. (DQ) #1-Tony Smith[21]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Justin Vogel[5]; 2. #1-Tony Smith[1]; 3. 11-Levi Randt[4]; 4. 20-Andrew Hanson[6]; 5. 44X-Alex Grinager[3]; 6. 44-Dylan Arndt[7]; 7. 27J-Jordan Johnson[10]; 8. 46-Cory Moser[9]; 9. 21H-Scott Huston[8]; 10. (DNF) X-Dexter Wipf[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[4]; 2. 4T-Trey Hess[9]; 3. 16S-Ty Schuler[5]; 4. I7-Ethan Iiams[7]; 5. 23-Maverick Janssen[1]; 6. 27-Trent Keller[8]; 7. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[3]; 8. 3-Ken Harmon[6]; 9. 511-Colsten Schultz[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 27P-Parker Anderson[1]; 2. 71-Josh Long[2]; 3. 19G-Cole Greseth[7]; 4. 4-Micheal Brockman[5]; 5. 10T-Darek Turner[3]; 6. 2*-Dustin Schultz[6]; 7. 21-Jim Gullikson[9]; 8. 07HD-Aiden McKuski[4]; 9. 30-Adam Dehne[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 04-Tommy Pogones[8]; 2. 34J-Kolton Brauer[7]; 3. 814-Cail Tinker[2]; 4. 77-Joe Deede[4]; 5. 10K-Devan Schultz[6]; 6. 16-Greg Platzer[3]; 7. 76-Braedyn Fleck[5]; 8. 52-Joe Arndt[9]; 9. 611-Brady Schultz[1]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[4]; 2. 1SJ-Spencer Johnson[3]; 3. 13-Dustin Erickson[2]; 4. 80-Tony Miller[8]; 5. 86-Layla Chaplin[1]; 6. E30-William Fisher[9]; 7. 49S-Rodney Hulst[7]; 8. 5F-Mike Flickinger[6]; 9. (DNF) 00-Ferlin Sheridan[5]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[1]; 2. 51-Eric Riley[6]; 3. 148-Keith Tourville[5]; 4. 9-Cody Hatch[8]; 5. 35S-Kegan Stueve[4]; 6. 19-Derek Zieske[9]; 7. 56J-Bryan Johnson[2]; 8. 4D-Scott Dillenburg[7]; 9. 43X-Chris Behrens[3]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[2]; 2. 40-Nick Traynor[5]; 3. 25-Mike Jans[4]; 4. 3C-Cory Dykhoff[6]; 5. 22B-Ethan Beckler[9]; 6. 19C-Charlie Shiek[7]; 7. 19K-Cole Kannegiesser[1]; 8. 7-Dustin Collins[8]; 9. 3D-Dale Louwagie[3]