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Koch claims final Qualifier and will start in the middle of row one for Saturday’s WISSOTA 100 Super Stock feature

By Ryan Schmitz
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 12) - Dexton Koch returned to a place he knows well - victory lane at I-94 emr Speedway - as the highly decorated racer garnered the win in the Qualifying Feature Friday at the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100.

Alex Myers shared the front row of the WISSOTA Super Stock Qualifying Feature with Jon Tribble. With the green flag out, Rick Simpson raced to the early lead from his fourth starting spot. As the field raced down the back chute on lap one, the caution flew for an incident among Karter Reents, Tim Johnson, and Shawn Fernkes. All three drivers headed to the pits and their nights were finished.

Simpson led Myers and Tribble back to the green; Simpson once again flexed his muscle and had the early advantage with Koch moving around Myers into the second on lap three. Koch began to challenge Simpson on the ensuing lap, while Myers fell into a battle with Dylan Kromschroeder and Bailey Rosch.

At the midway point Simpson continued to lead, with Koch applying heavy pressure as the duo circled the speedway. On lap 11, Koch made a power move to the low side of Simpson and raced into the top spot as the leaders crossed the stripe side by side. Meanwhile, back in traffic, Tribble, Justin Tammen, and William Lund were locked in a three-car battle for eighth, with each driver holding the position at one point.

Out front, Koch, the defending WISSOTA 100 champion, raced to the win ahead of Simpson, Myers, Kromschroeder, Rosch, Ryan Kostreba, Tribble, and 15th-starter Tammen in the top eight.

Thirty-six WISSOTA Super Stocks registered to fight for the middle eight spots earlier in the program Friday, split into four heat races for the evening’s festivities.

Lund was the early leader of the first heat. He was quickly joined by Alex Myers, who moved into second early in the eight-lap event. Behind the lead duo, Montana travelers Braidyn LaMere and Tribble battled for third as the laps ticked down. Lund held off Myers for the win with LaMere in third. Unfortunately, LaMere was disqualified for a wheelbase infraction in post-race tech, giving third to Tribble.

Ryan Kostreba and Jayden Friauf paced the second heat race to the green, with Kostreba moving his familiar orange machine to the low side of the speedway and into the lead. Behind Kostreba, Friauf began to slip back as Rosch, Shawn Fernkes, and Russell Kostreba raced by on the low side. Out front, Ryan Kostreba hit his marks and raced to the heat race win ahead of Rosch and Fernkes in the top three.

Eight of the scheduled nine starters came to the track for heat three, with Tahoe Norris unable to make the call. Thunder Bay, Ontario driver Rick Simpson jumped out to the early lead as heavy hitters Koch, Tim Johnson, and Trevor Nelson waged a battle behind him. Simpson continued to work the low side of the speedway, with Johnson and Koch doing the same behind him. Meanwhile, Nelson searched the high side for some traction to no avail, and ended up hitting the wall with a handful of laps remaining. Simpson led the final laps and Koch made a last-corner pass on Johnson to claim second, rounding out the top three.

The fourth and final heat race of the week for the Super Stocks started off with a surprise, as scheduled polesitter Ryan Satter was unable to make the call for the event, crisscrossing the field. Tammen used the reset lineup to his advantage, racing to the early lead ahead of Karter Reents and Dylan Kromschroeder fighting for second. The caution flew over the speedway on a couple of occasions, with Tammen continuing to lead each time until the final restart of the event. On the restart, both Kromschroeder and Reents were able to sneak by Tammen to claim the top two spots, with Tammen settling for third at the checkered flag.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[6]; 2. 77K-Rick Simpson[4]; 3. 21M-Alex Myers[1]; 4. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[5]; 5. 28*-Bailey Rosch[3]; 6. 17-Ryan Kostreba[9]; 7. 3T-Jon Tribble[2]; 8. 71J-Justin Tammen[15]; 9. 54-William Lund[7]; 10. 14-Russell Kostreba[8]; 11. 511-Zach Schultz[13]; 12. 32*-Bodie Smith[20]; 13. 19-Brayden Hedtke[21]; 14. 711-Kenneth Clements[17]; 15. 6F-Matt Fester[19]; 16. 8T-Nick Schultz[16]; 17. 14J-Jayden Friauf[23]; 18. 85-Patrick LaMere[24]; 19. X81-Alexa Sparby[18]; 20. 4A-Allan Cleveland[22]; 21. (DNF) 27C-Cameron Labelle[12]; 22. (DNF) 1-Karter Reents[10]; 23. (DNF) 99-Shawn Fernkes[14]; 24. (DNF) 1JR-Tim Johnson[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 54-William Lund[2]; 2. 21M-Alex Myers[6]; 3. 3T-Jon Tribble[7]; 4. 8T-Nick Schultz[5]; 5. 4A-Allan Cleveland[3]; 6. (DNF) 81X-Matt Sparby[4]; 7. (DNF) 4-Jay Hedtke[1]; 8. (DNF) 24-Dustin Zieske[8]; 9. (DQ) 185-Braidyn LaMere[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Ryan Kostreba[1]; 2. 28*-Bailey Rosch[5]; 3. 99-Shawn Fernkes[3]; 4. 14-Russell Kostreba[9]; 5. 19-Brayden Hedtke[6]; 6. 14J-Jayden Friauf[2]; 7. 85-Patrick LaMere[7]; 8. (DNF) 10X-Josh Schmidt[8]; 9. (DNF) 936-Kris Fielding[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 2. 78K-Dexton Koch[6]; 3. 1JR-Tim Johnson[5]; 4. 27C-Cameron Labelle[7]; 5. 511-Zach Schultz[8]; 6. X81-Alexa Sparby[9]; 7. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[4]; 8. (DNF) 71-Trevor Nelson[1]; 9. (DNS) 9T-Taohe Norris

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[5]; 2. 1-Karter Reents[3]; 3. 71J-Justin Tammen[2]; 4. 32*-Bodie Smith[4]; 5. 711-Kenneth Clements[7]; 6. 6F-Matt Fester[9]; 7. 65-Luis Chavez[6]; 8. (DNS) 67-Ryan Satter; 9. (DQ) 19X-James Trantina III[8]