By Mike Spieker
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 16, 2022) – The 2022 Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints season came to an end on Friday night at River Cities Speedway with a lot on the line. The Blazin’ Challenge title and the big payday that goes with it was up for grabs, along with the 2022 River Cities Speedway Buffalo Wild Wings Sprint Car track championship.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 16, 2022) – The 2022 Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints season came to an end on Friday night at River Cities Speedway with a lot on the line. The Blazin’ Challenge title and the big payday that goes with it was up for grabs, along with the 2022 River Cities Speedway Buffalo Wild Wings Sprint Car track championship.
By starting Friday night’s event, Mark Dobmeier earned his third NOSA Sprint Car series title and his first since 2004.
The field of 17 was split into two heats based on Blazin’ Challenge qualifying points. The first heat had the back half of the field in qualifying points and took the top two into the King of the Hill dash. Heat two took the top six of eight drivers directly into the King of the Hill.
Jordan Adams and Brendan Mullen took the heat wins.
After drawing the eight pill, Mark Dobmeier had to win all seven rounds if he wanted to start at the tail of the field for a chance to win $5,000.
And he did just that.
As the green flag flew on the 35-lapper, Jade Hastings grabbed the early lead over Zach Omdahl. Meanwhile, Dobmeier gained 10 spots on the opening lap and rode 8th on lap two.
Afternoon rains made for an extremely fast and tacky track all night long, which put Hastings into lapped traffic in a matter of a few laps.
The race ran caution free until lap 22 when second place runner Tim Estenson grenaded his Mission Foods No. 14 machine. Estenson went up in a fall of fire in turn four. The flash fire went out quickly and Estenson was okay.
The red flag erased a six-second lead for Hastings and put Dobmeier alongside Hastings for the final 13 laps.
Hastings held the point as the race resumed and opened up a six car length lead. As Hastings began to approach traffic once again, Dobmeier closed in.
Dobmeier took the lead in turns three and four coming to six to go, but Hastings did not surrender.
Dobmeier wasn’t able to pull away from from the No. 8H of Hastings and Hastings was right on the tail tank of Dobmeier coming to the white flag. The lead duo split lapped traffic in turns three and four with Hastings holding the edge off of turn four.
Dobmeier pulled even on the front stretch and it was a dead heat at the checkers.
Hastings was originally given the win based off of timing and scoring results.
However, a scoring error occurred on lap 22 that affected the timing and scoring data for the remainder of the race. Hastings was scored as the only driver on the lead lap during the red flag and attempts to fix that issue were not met. When Dobmeier took the lead on lap 29, he was still shown in second on the live timing.
A review was initiated internally by NOSA series officials only immediately after the checkered flag. The review was not initiated via protest by any driver, team, or any media (photo or video,) but to certify the entirety of the result, not just the finish for the win, but for every spot in the running order due to, at that point, the then potential error on lap 22.
After reviewing timing and scoring from lap 22 to the finish, it was determined that Dobmeier was the winner, which was consistent with photo and video evidence.
Dobmeier and Hastings were tied for the track championship point standings heading into the feature. Dobmeier’s win also gave him the 2022 Sprint Car track title.
RESULTS:
A Feature (35 Laps): 1. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[17]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[2]; 3. 26-Blake Egeland[15]; 4. 11M-Brendan Mullen[14]; 5. 31-Shane Roemeling[4]; 6. 20A-Jordan Adams[16]; 7. 17-Zach Omdahl[1]; 8. 2A-Austin Pierce[11]; 9. 0-Nick Omdahl[10]; 10. 99-Jordan Graham[3]; 11. 8-Jack Croaker[12]; 12. 9N-Wade Nygaard[13]; 13. 41-Travis Strandell[6]; 14. 42-Rick Bates[7]; 15. (DNF) 14T-Tim Estenson[5]; 16. (DNF) 4-Colton Young[8]; 17. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland[9]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 20A-Jordan Adams[1]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[2]; 3. 99-Jordan Graham[3]; 4. 31-Shane Roemeling[4]; 5. 14T-Tim Estenson[6]; 6. 41-Travis Strandell[7]; 7. 42-Rick Bates[8]; 8. 4-Colton Young[9]; 9. (DNS) 14-Tom Egeland
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 11M-Brendan Mullen[2]; 2. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[3]; 3. 9N-Wade Nygaard[1]; 4. 8-Jack Croaker[7]; 5. 0-Nick Omdahl[5]; 6. 26-Blake Egeland[8]; 7. 17-Zach Omdahl[6]; 8. (DNF) 8H-Jade Hastings[4]
King of the Hill 1: Dobmeier over N. Omdahl
King of the Hill 2: Dobmeier over Pierce
King of the Hill 3: Dobmeier over Croaker
King of the Hill 4: Dobmeier over Nygaard
King of the Hill 5: Dobmeier over Mullen
King of the Hill 6: Dobmeier over B. Egeland
King of the Hill 7: Dobmeier over Adams
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