Interestingly, the feature races at Off Road Speedway’s regular program of racing on Saturday night were anything but regular with an abundance of collisions, cautions and curious finishes.
There was, perhaps not coincidentally, a full moon looming in the hazy eastern sky.
Four attempts were necessary, for example, to begin the first “A” feature of the evening — the IMCA Stock Cars race.
O’Neill driver Cole Rosencrans, the pole-sitter, promptly took the lead, but Neligh’s Cameron Wilkinson — with five wins already this season — quickly became a contender by moving up from the fourth row into second place.
Within the first six laps, Norfolkan Tejay Mielke also joined Rosencrans and Wilkinson in what soon became a three-car battle.
Wilkinson finally seized the lead coming out of turn four midway through the 18-lap race, while Mielke looked for chances to pass and Rosencrans remained a close third.
The opportunity presented itself briefly when the trio caught up to lapped traffic entering turn three. Wilkinson appeared trapped on the low side of the track but moved up to hinder Mielke’s attempted pass and maintained the lead as the cars exited turn four above the lapped car.
Mielke then used momentum from turn two to pull alongside Wilkinson on the back stretch and remained there as the cars rounded turns three and four and headed to the finish line.
As the pair approached the flag stand, Wilkinson’s engine blew, with Mielke securing the win by less than a car length and Wilkinson maintaining second place ahead of Rosencrans.
The unique circ*mstances continued in the IMCA Late Models “A” feature, where Newman Grove’s Cory Dumpert was assigned responsibility for causing a caution early in the race and was sent to the rear of the 19-car field on the restart.
Meanwhile, Alex Banks, also of Newman Grove, used his starting position on the pole to lead the initial eight laps of the 25-lap event.
But soon, during a caution and restart with 16 laps remaining, Dumpert had made his way to Banks’ rear bumper.
Dumpert pulled alongside Banks coming out of turn two and within the next two laps had taken the lead. Banks held onto second place until being passed by Bellevue’s Zach Zeitner three laps later.
By the time the feature’s fifth and final caution occurred, with seven laps remaining, only 10 of the initial 19 cars in the starting grid were still competing.
Dumpert and Zeitner continued to lead and finished in first and second, respectively, while Bloomfield’s Devin Johnson came out on top of a three-car battle with Banks and Beau Johnson of Plainview to take third place.
The top three finishers in the IMCA Hobby Stocks “A” feature all came from starting positions among the back half of the eight rows of cars that began the race.
Once again, the initial race leader — in this case, Bancroft’s Seth Steinmeyer — converted the position into the race lead for nearly the first half of the race, but Trevor Frisch of Norfolk passed Steinmeyer on the outside of turn two during the feature’s third caution to take the lead.
Five laps later, following the race’s fourth and last caution, Albion’s Travis Landauer got inside position on Frisch exiting turn four and, by the time the two were leaving turn two, took over the lead.
Landauer held off Frisch as the pair finished in first and second place, respectively, with Neligh’s Nate Buck moving steadily through the pack to earn third.
Genoa racer James Roebuck grabbed his third Off Road Speedway IMCA SportMods win of the season as, once again, collisions and engine issues caused the “A” feature field to dwindle — from 13 cars to seven by race’s end.
Roebuck took the lead from Norfolk’s Stephanie Reynolds three laps into the feature while Norfolkan Colby Langenberg and Neligh’s Kyle Wilkinson competed for second place behind him.
Kyle Wilkinson won that battle by catching Langenberg with nine laps remaining, then beginning a pass on the inside of turn two that concluded with his securing second place coming out of turn four at the end of the lap.
At race’s end, five laps later, Roebuck finished in first place with Kyle Wilkinson in second and Langenberg taking third.
In the Pro Stock 4 division, Kiegen Werner of Pierce won his first “A” feature of the season.
It took just one lap for Werner to move from a starting position on the outside of the third row into the lead and, while the cars spread out behind him, Werner was never threatened as he recorded the win.
Trent Reed of Mondamin, Iowa, finished second, while Zach Cordner of Norfolk was third.
Off Road Speedway
(All drivers from Norfolk unless indicated)
IMCA Late Models: (19 cars) (“A” feature) 1. Cory Dumpert, Newman Grove; 2. Zach Zeitner, Bellevue; 3. Devin Johnson, Bloomfield; 4. Beau Johnson, Plainview; 5. Alex Banks, Newman Grove; 6. Nelson Vollbrecht, Stanton; 7. Jordan Krug, Council Bluff, Iowa; 8. Drew Baker, Omaha; 9. JR Coover; 10. Dylan Schmer, Aurora; 11. Brock Carlson, Winside; 12. Kaleb Jasperson; 13. Ben Sukup; 14. Eric Vanosdall, Hoskins; 15. Anthony Roth, Columbus; 16. Joey Haase; 17. Matt Haase; 18. Chase Osborne; 19. Jaymson Coffelt, McClelland, Iowa. (Heat 1) 1. Banks, 2. Osborne. (Heat 2) 1. Schmer, 2. Roth. (Heat 3) 1. Dumpert, 2. Zeitner.
IMCA Stock Cars: (16 cars) (“A” feature) 1. Tejay Mielke; 2. Cameron Wilkinson, Neligh; 3. Cole Rosenkrans, O’Neill; 4. Justin Bertschinger; 5. Chuck Sands, Neligh; 6. Kyle Wilkinson, Neligh; 7. Derek Sehi, Neligh; 8. Chad Bruns, Wayne; 9. Neil Bruns; 10. Nate DeSive, O’Neill; 11. Chad Heater, Waco; 12. Jeremy Hoskinson; 13. Tanner Pettitt; 14. Ron Pettitt; 15. Fred DeSive, O’Neill; 16. Rick Pendergast. (B Feature) 1. Hoskinson, 2. C. Bruns, 3. N. Bruns, 4. T. Pettitt. (Heat 1) 1. Bertschinger, 2. Mielke. (Heat 2) 1. Rosenkrans, 2. R. Pettitt. (Heat 3) 1. Sands, 2. K. Wilkinson.
IMCA Hobby Stocks: (16 cars) (“A” feature): 1. Travis Landauer, Albion; 2. Trevor Frisch; 3. Nate Buck, Neligh; 4. Jason Wilkinson, Neligh; 5. Wyatt Lehman; 6. Mark Arduser, Battle Creek; 7. Joe Beller; 8. Gage Koch; 9. Seth Steinmeyer, Bancroft; 10. Nic Kimmel, Hoskins; 11. Jordan Uehling; 12. Jim Kimmel; 13. Jace Malasek, Emerson; 14. Shannon Pospisil; 15. Landyn Roebuck, Genoa; 16. Dakota Spann, Wayne. (B Feature) 1. Spann, 2. Arduser, 3. Lehman, 4. Koch. (Heat 1) 1. Pospisil, 2. Frisch. (Heat 2) 1. Beller, 2. Roebuck. (Heat 3) 1. J. Kimmel, 2. Buck.
IMCA SPORTMODS: (13 cars) (“A” feature) 1. James Roebuck, Genoa; 2. Kyle Wilkinson, Neligh; 3. Colby Langenberg; 4. Shawn Kelley, Albion; 5. Tim Swartz, Lincoln; 6. Aiden Gnat; 7. Stephanie Reynolds; 8. Cameron Meyer, Pierce; 9. Logan Fernau, Creighton; 10 Michael Wolfe, Hartington; 11. Terry Kester, Oakdale; 12. Tyler Afrank; 13. Wes Hochstein, Randolph. (Heat 1) 1. Meyer, 2. Wilkinson. (Heat 2) 1. Langenberg, 2. Roebuck.
PRO STOCK 4: (10 cars) (“A” feature): 1. Kiegen Werner, Pierce; 2. Trent Reed, Mondamin, Iowa; 3. Zach Cordner; 4. Christian Kruger, Pierce; 5. Grayson Stobbe, Leigh; 6. Brian Carr, Oakdale; 7. Dylan Curry; 8. Kyle Reed; 9. Bentley Freeman; 10. (DNS) Brenen Flemming. (Heat 1) 1. Werner, 2. Freeman. (Heat 2) 1. Kruger, 2. Cordner.
