9-16 Page 23 | ATD Racing News

Trantina tames Thursday’s Midwest Mod field and earns front-row starting spot for Championship Night at the 100

By Meghan Diemel, Editor
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 11) - James Trantina punched his ticket for the big show Saturday night following competition in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, as the multi-class racer scored the victory in the Qualifying Feature Thursday and secured the outside starting spot in Saturday’s Championship Feature.

Nick Koehler was the early leader in the feature ahead of Memphis Klassen and Trantina before an early caution regrouped the field with one lap in the books.

Back under green Koehler blasted away from the others, as Trantina took second, Joey Jensen followed through to third, Klassen slipped back to fourth and Kolby Kiehl was fifth. The battle for second began to heat up, with Jensen to the inside and Trantina along the outside line before a caution fell for Mario Berger.

With eight to go, Koehler held a near .8-second lead ahead of the fight for second between Trantina and Jensen. Klassen remained fourth, as Landyn Randt had moved into the top five.

As laps wound down, Trantina made large inroads in Koehler’s lead, using the high side of the speedway to catch the leader. Trantina slid Koehler, and Koehler couldn’t return the favor, with Trantina rolling onto the feature win. Jensen, Klassen, Randt, Tony Leiker, Tyler Vernon and Scott Tofte completed the remaining qualifying spots.

Following the program, Jensen, Vernon, Corey Storck and Zach Benson declined their starting spots and were set to try again on Friday. Those accepting the first eight spots along the outside row for Saturday’s feature included Trantina, Koehler, Klassen, Randt, Leiker, Tofte, Kolby Kiehl and Cole Elton.

Earlier in the evening, eight heat races set the stage for the Qualifying Feature. In heat one, Tanner Bitzan held the lead early ahead of Justin Bjorklund and Zach Reinke. Jensen raced his way toward the front, taking third with about five laps left and then second two laps later. Following a caution for debris, Jensen used the low side to slip past Bitzan on the final lap to score the victory. Bitzan and Bjorklund completed the top three.

Brennon Weight led from start to finish in heat two for the checkered flag. Vernon used a lap-two caution to net second, but couldn’t cut into the lead of Weight. Nick Thoreson completed the top three.

Dano Ostrander was the leader early on in heat three ahead of Kyle Anderson and Trantina. Following a caution, Trantina took advantage; he moved into second, raced side by side with the leader to the checkered and took the win. Ostrander and Anderson completed the top three, but Ostrander was later DQ’d. Anderson was elevated to a second-place finish and Koehler completed his charge from 10th into third.

Terry Reilly was the early leader in heat race four, with Tyler Bitzan in second and Tommy Nichols advancing one spot into third before halfway. After a yellow for debris, Nichols rocketed along the low side into second and on the final lap used a slider to muscle into the top spot for the victory. Reilly and Bitzan completed the top three.

Tofte led the way in heat race five, as a pair of No. 17s argued over second: Ashley Boyum passed Jaden Gannott before a caution for a Tate Kelderman spin regrouped the field. Back under green Tofte controlled the field out front, while Boyum suddenly struggled with the handling on her car, allowing 10th-starter Memphis Klassen to slip by. Arin Beyer held third. Boyum hit the wall during the final route, so the field was regrouped for one final lap: Tofte held on for the victory ahead of Beyer and Klassen in the top three.

Michelle Hutt led the sixth heat race early on, as Mike Nichols raced into second and Darren Engesser was third. With two laps scored Nichols slid into the top spot, as Hutt held second ahead of Kiehl. Kiehl continued his charge forward, displacing Hutt to second with three laps to go. A caution waved for a Stan Dueck spin, and another for a get-together among Hutt, Engesser, Chris Magistad and more. Nichols made his way to the checkered flag over the remaining two laps, but was later DQ’d. Kiehl was elevated to the win, Ryan Nash was second, and Hutt completed the top three.

Jason Grimes led heat race seven from green to checkered. Cole Elton felt some pressure from Ryan Flaten in the early stages, and again in the final few laps, but survived the challenges for runner-up honors. Flaten was third.

Tony Leiker led heat eight with heavy pressure from Randt for several laps. Leiker was able to turn back all advances and grabbed the checkered about .6 seconds ahead of Randt. Zach Benson improved five spots to third.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 19X-James Trantina III[4]; 2. 13X-Nick Koehler[1]; 3. 30-Joey Jensen[3]; 4. 47K-Memphis Klassen[2]; 5. 11R-Landyn Randt[14]; 6. 18-Tony Leiker[10]; 7. 41-Tyler Vernon[12]; 8. 28X-Scott Tofte[16]; 9. 57-Corey Storck[22]; 10. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[6]; 11. F43-Zach Benson[9]; 12. 24E-Cole Elton[18]; 13. 59-Kyle Anderson[13]; 14. 87S-Reise Stenberg[21]; 15. 28-Brennon Weight[15]; 16. 6-Alex Langland[11]; 17. 99-Jason Grimes[17]; 18. 22-Matt Heinzerling[23]; 19. 28T-Tommy Nichols[7]; 20. (DNF) 19-Lucas Rodin[19]; 21. (DNF) 73-Mario Berger[20]; 22. (DNF) 94R-Ryan Nash[5]; 23. (DNF) 4B-Arin Beyer[8]; 24. (DQ) 42B-Tanner Bitzan[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[6]; 2. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[1]; 3. 5C-Justin Bjorklund[3]; 4. 22Z-Zach Reinke[5]; 5. 12X-Jamie Norman[8]; 6. TS42-Scott Samuelson[2]; 7. 69-Ethen Waltz[10]; 8. 62-Aaron Michel[9]; 9. 94-Michael Rogers[7]; 10. 24X-Todd Stevens[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Brennon Weight[1]; 2. 41-Tyler Vernon[4]; 3. 69T-Nick Thoreson[2]; 4. 66-Kyle Langland[6]; 5. B4-Jory Berg[7]; 6. 29-Cylen Vargason[8]; 7. T3-Travis Soper[9]; 8. 10X-Robert Bitz[5]; 9. 13K-Brad King[10]; 10. H20-Nic Hiles[3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 19X-James Trantina III[8]; 2. 59-Kyle Anderson[4]; 3. 13X-Nick Koehler[10]; 4. 19-Lucas Rodin[7]; 5. 30N-Cole Neset[3]; 6. 10M-Noah McFarlane[6]; 7. 02-Brooke Hellerman[9]; 8. 81K-Casey Knabe[5]; 9. 19S-Darrin Lawler[1]; 10. (DQ) 5W-Dano Ostrander[2]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 28T-Tommy Nichols[4]; 2. 69R-Terry Reilly[1]; 3. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[3]; 4. 73-Mario Berger[7]; 5. 22-Matt Heinzerling[9]; 6. 73J-Onyx Johnson[6]; 7. 91-Andy Davey[2]; 8. 13-Tate Kostreba[8]; 9. 33-Jake Hagemann[10]; 10. (DNF) 11X-Kenny Watson[5]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 28X-Scott Tofte[1]; 2. 4B-Arin Beyer[6]; 3. 47K-Memphis Klassen[10]; 4. 6-Alex Langland[9]; 5. 21Z-Zach Kort[3]; 6. 110-Tate Kelderman[4]; 7. 17G-Jaden Gannott[2]; 8. (DNF) 17-Ashley Boyum[5]; 9. (DNS) 24-Mike Hart; 10. (DNS) 28K-Nick Preston

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[6]; 2. 94R-Ryan Nash[8]; 3. 97-Michelle Hutt[3]; 4. 82JR-Sophie Anderson[1]; 5. 16B-Tony Arneson[10]; 6. (DNF) 11S-Darren Engesser[5]; 7. (DNF) M2-Chris Magistad[2]; 8. (DNF) 77-Chance Kodet[9]; 9. (DNF) 07HD1-Stan Dueck[7]; 10. (DQ) 67-Mike Nichols[4]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Jason Grimes[1]; 2. 24E-Cole Elton[3]; 3. 15F-Ryan Flaten[4]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg[7]; 5. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[5]; 6. 23B-Charles Bistodeau[6]; 7. (DNF) M47-Malachi Klassen[2]; 8. (DNF) 36-Jaren Wibstad[9]; 9. (DNF) 13O-Scott Oeltjen[8]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Tony Leiker[2]; 2. 11R-Landyn Randt[4]; 3. F43-Zach Benson[8]; 4. 57-Corey Storck[7]; 5. 21-Wyatt Boyum[6]; 6. 15-MaKenna Romuld[1]; 7. 12S-Chad Switzenberg[9]; 8. 81-Dominick Dieken[5]; 9. (DNF) 07HD-Jesse Mckuski[3]