By Mike Spieker
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 8, 2020) - If you were a Sprint Car fan on Friday night at River Cities Speedway, you got your money's worth. A total of 49 Sprint Cars were on hand between the 30 Northern & Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints and 19 Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA 410 Sprints.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 8, 2020) - If you were a Sprint Car fan on Friday night at River Cities Speedway, you got your money's worth. A total of 49 Sprint Cars were on hand between the 30 Northern & Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints and 19 Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA 410 Sprints.
Defending NOSA and River Cities Speedway champion, Nick Omdahl seemed to have the car to beat early on in the 25-lap Buffalo Wild Wings main event. However, current River Cities Speedway track point leader and former NOSA champion Austin Pierce found his groove around the midway point of the race.
After one of many restarts, Pierce and Omdahl engaged in a thrilling battle for the lead. The two traded slide jobs at each end of the speedway, swapping the lead four different times in three laps. In the end, Pierce took the point and was scored the leader just before a caution.
With 10 to go, Shane Roemeling and Wade Nygaard were fighting hard for the fourth position when the two made contact in turn one. They both spun simultaneously with Roemeling able to keep the engine fired and drive away, while Nygaard did a huge wheelstand and nearly tipped over. Nygaard had to restart at the tail of the lead lap in 13th, but rallied back to finish eighth.
After four laps were completed the red flag was displayed after Brendan Mullen got upside down in turn two. It was a relatively light tip over for the driver of the No. 11M as the car was able to be rolled back to the trailer. He was okay.
Things got interesting on the final lap as Pierce was slowed by lapped traffic in turns one and two. That allowed Jade Hastings to get a run on him down the back straightaway. Hastings looked to put a slider on Pierce in turns three and four, but couldn’t clear Pierce or the lapped car running in the middle groove.
Pierce put his No. 2A machine up on the cushion and was able to power around Hastings to win the drag race back to the line to claim his seventh win of the season.
“It feels good to get lucky number seven,” said an excited Pierce after the race. “We’ve got all seven of our wins at our home track in our hometown so I couldn’t ask for a better place to win.”
“It got tough towards the end,” said Pierce of trying to keep the drivers behind him guessing on restarts. “Once I had Jade (Hastings) behind me… he was reading the restarts a lot better than the other guys. He about had me on that last lap in lapped traffic. I think if it had gone a few more laps in lapped traffic, I think he would have gotten by me. He was a little bit better in traffic.”
The hard charger of the race was Tom Egeland, who kept his nose clean and passed several cars running the extreme low side of the speedway. Egeland started 19th, ran as high as third, and took the checkers in fourth.
RZS Enterprises Quick Time: No time trials due to Track Championship night. Heat lineups were based off track points.
Hard Charger: Tom Egeland (+15)
Lap Leaders: Nick Omdahl (1-11), Austin Pierce (12-25)
RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 3. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[8]; 4. 14-Tom Egeland[19]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham[12]; 6. 31-Shane Roemeling[9]; 7. 0-Nick Omdahl[2]; 8. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 9. 35-Brenden Wilde[14]; 10. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 11. 22-Tanner Wisk[16]; 12. 6-Zach Wilde[15]; 13. 10S-Josh Swangler[13]; 14. 41T-Travis Strandell[18]; 15. 17-Zach Omdahl[11]; 16. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[17]; 17. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]; 18. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[10]; 19. (DNF) 20A-Jordan Adams[7]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 4. 20A-Jordan Adams[4]; 5. 31-Shane Roemeling[3]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 7. 10S-Josh Swangler[8]; 8. 6-Zach Wilde[9]; 9. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[10]; 10. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland[6]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 0-Nick Omdahl[2]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]; 4. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[3]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[5]; 6. 99-Jordan Graham[6]; 7. 35-Brenden Wilde[8]; 8. 22-Tanner Wisk[9]; 9. 41T-Travis Strandell[7]
After one of many restarts, Pierce and Omdahl engaged in a thrilling battle for the lead. The two traded slide jobs at each end of the speedway, swapping the lead four different times in three laps. In the end, Pierce took the point and was scored the leader just before a caution.
With 10 to go, Shane Roemeling and Wade Nygaard were fighting hard for the fourth position when the two made contact in turn one. They both spun simultaneously with Roemeling able to keep the engine fired and drive away, while Nygaard did a huge wheelstand and nearly tipped over. Nygaard had to restart at the tail of the lead lap in 13th, but rallied back to finish eighth.
After four laps were completed the red flag was displayed after Brendan Mullen got upside down in turn two. It was a relatively light tip over for the driver of the No. 11M as the car was able to be rolled back to the trailer. He was okay.
Things got interesting on the final lap as Pierce was slowed by lapped traffic in turns one and two. That allowed Jade Hastings to get a run on him down the back straightaway. Hastings looked to put a slider on Pierce in turns three and four, but couldn’t clear Pierce or the lapped car running in the middle groove.
Pierce put his No. 2A machine up on the cushion and was able to power around Hastings to win the drag race back to the line to claim his seventh win of the season.
“It feels good to get lucky number seven,” said an excited Pierce after the race. “We’ve got all seven of our wins at our home track in our hometown so I couldn’t ask for a better place to win.”
“It got tough towards the end,” said Pierce of trying to keep the drivers behind him guessing on restarts. “Once I had Jade (Hastings) behind me… he was reading the restarts a lot better than the other guys. He about had me on that last lap in lapped traffic. I think if it had gone a few more laps in lapped traffic, I think he would have gotten by me. He was a little bit better in traffic.”
The hard charger of the race was Tom Egeland, who kept his nose clean and passed several cars running the extreme low side of the speedway. Egeland started 19th, ran as high as third, and took the checkers in fourth.
RZS Enterprises Quick Time: No time trials due to Track Championship night. Heat lineups were based off track points.
Hard Charger: Tom Egeland (+15)
Lap Leaders: Nick Omdahl (1-11), Austin Pierce (12-25)
RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 3. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[8]; 4. 14-Tom Egeland[19]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham[12]; 6. 31-Shane Roemeling[9]; 7. 0-Nick Omdahl[2]; 8. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 9. 35-Brenden Wilde[14]; 10. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 11. 22-Tanner Wisk[16]; 12. 6-Zach Wilde[15]; 13. 10S-Josh Swangler[13]; 14. 41T-Travis Strandell[18]; 15. 17-Zach Omdahl[11]; 16. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[17]; 17. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]; 18. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[10]; 19. (DNF) 20A-Jordan Adams[7]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 3. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 4. 20A-Jordan Adams[4]; 5. 31-Shane Roemeling[3]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 7. 10S-Josh Swangler[8]; 8. 6-Zach Wilde[9]; 9. 47-Sabrina Hockenson[10]; 10. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland[6]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 0-Nick Omdahl[2]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]; 4. 8BALL-Jack Croaker[3]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[5]; 6. 99-Jordan Graham[6]; 7. 35-Brenden Wilde[8]; 8. 22-Tanner Wisk[9]; 9. 41T-Travis Strandell[7]
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