Pierce Wins Sprint Car Thriller at Devils Lake Speedway

By Mike Spieker

CRARY, N.D. (July 14, 2018) – The Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints, along with the Canadian-American Outlaw Sprints, were back at Devils Lake Speedway on Saturday night. Solid car counts in each of the five classes made for a great night of racing at the high-banked quarter-mile oval. 

In one of the best finishes of the year at Devils Lake Speedway, Austin Pierce claimed the Sprint Car win with a last lap, last corner pass coming to the checkers. Thomas Kennedy started in row two and led every lap during the feature, expect the last one. After establishing over a half lap lead over the rest of the field, the lone caution of the race was displayed after Shane Roemeling slid off the track in turn two.

Pierce lined up behind Kennedy for the restart, but Kennedy powered away as the green flag flew. Pierce ran in the moisture on the low side of the speedway and was able to reel in the No. 21K of Kennedy. As the white flag flew, Pierce threw a slide job in turn one and momentarily took the lead. Kennedy countered with a crossover move to regain the lead down the back straightaway. Kennedy ran low in turns three and four to take Pierce’s line away, but he missed the moisture exiting the corner, which allowed Pierce to make the winning pass at the flag stand.

After claiming the NLRA season opener at Devils Lake back in May, Mike Balcaen returned to victory lane for his second win of the season at Devils Lake. It looked as though Brad Seng had the car to beat early on, but a caution put Balcaen and Dustin Strand right behind him for the restart. As the race resumed Seng was quickly passed by both Balcaen and Strand. Seng then retired his machine to the pit area with an apparent mechanical failure.

Strand gave Balcaen everything he had in the final laps. Strand was able to reach the right rear quarter panel of Balcaen, but was never able to get any closer. Balcaen ran his patented low line all the way to the win.

Ryan Schroeder picked up a wild WISSOTA Midwest Modified win. After taking the lead on lap two, Schroeder had his hands full with Lance Schill. Schill put a big slide job on Schroeder for the lead exiting turn four and the two made contact. Schroeder was able to regain the lead with a crossover move, but Schill remained within striking distance.

Preston Carr made his way up to the second spot with six laps to go until he looped his No. 5C machine in turn two. Several cautions plagued the final laps. During the green-white-checkered finish, Nate Reynolds, who charged from the tail of the field after being called for a caution earlier, came up to challenge Schroeder for the lead. Reynolds appeared to have enough to steal the win from Schroeder on the lap, but another caution was displayed and the race was called after exceeding the time limit. Schroeder was credited with his first win of the season.

Kyle Dykhoff collected the WISSOTA Street Stock win. Dkyhoff was challenged by Daniel Aberle at the midpoint of the race. Just as Aberle took the lead, he slid off the banking on the back stretch to bring out the yellow. In the closing laps, Steven Richards closed in on Dykhoff, but ran out of time as Dykhoff secured the win.

Bailey Cousins claimed the Pure Stock feature win, but was later DQ’d after coming in light at the scales. Tony Bundy was credited with the win.

RESULTS:
NOSA Sprints:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce, 09:04.923[5]; 2. 21K-Thomas Kennedy, 09:05.273[3]; 3. 0-Nick Omdahl, 09:07.082[7]; 4. 9N-Wade Nygaard, 09:08.068[1]; 5. 8H-Jade Hastings, 09:08.412[2]; 6. 6N-Greg Nikitenko, 09:08.540[4]; 7. 26-Blake Egeland, 09:09.398[6]; 8. 21-Ryder Olson, 09:09.573[8]; 9. 8BALL-Jack Croaker, 09:10.603[10]; 10. 55-Nick Ranten, 09:10.709[17]; 11. 99-Jordan Graham, 09:11.411[15]; 12. 10TRB-Bob Martin, 09:11.474[12]; 13. 20L-Dusty Lawson, 09:12.428[9]; 14. 20-Kevin Lawson, 09:14.094[14]; 15. 31-Shane Roemeling, 09:14.301[13]; 16. 55T-Sam Miller, 09:15.005[18]; 17. 12-Brayden Pengilly, 09:15.616[16]; 18. 4-Colton Young, 09:08.346[19]; 19. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland, 02:52.876[11]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard, 02:13.500[5]; 2. 26-Blake Egeland, 02:15.421[1]; 3. 20L-Dusty Lawson, 02:23.439[2]; 4. 14-Tom Egeland, 02:24.727[4]; 5. 8BALL-Jack Croaker, 02:25.157[7]; 6. 12-Brayden Pengilly, 02:18.424[6]; 7. 55T-Sam Miller, 02:20.315[3]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 21K-Thomas Kennedy, 02:06.867[3]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl, 02:09.903[1]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce, 02:14.547[5]; 4. 10TRB-Bob Martin, 02:15.776[4]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham, 02:20.228[2]; 6. 4-Colton Young, 02:24.095[6]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings, 02:35.287[4]; 2. 21-Ryder Olson, 02:37.897[1]; 3. 6N-Greg Nikitenko, 02:40.736[6]; 4. 31-Shane Roemeling, 02:40.767[2]; 5. 20-Kevin Lawson, 02:47.221[3]; 6. 55-Nick Ranten, 02:47.964[5]

WISSOTA Late Models:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 10-Mike Balcaen, 15:32.010[4]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand, 15:33.193[6]; 3. 44-Cole Schill, 15:33.436[7]; 4. 1R-Travis Robertson, 15:36.136[2]; 5. 4-Shane Edginton, 15:36.714[11]; 6. 14-Brody Troftgruben, 15:36.858[1]; 7. 11JR-Shane Holden, 15:37.397[8]; 8. 70-Jesse Teunis, 15:38.005[10]; 9. (DNF) 6X-Bryce Beck, 09:28.469[9]; 10. (DNF) 12S-Brad Seng, 09:15.300[3]; 11. (DNF) 25-Dylan Barnhardt, 00:45.750[5]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Dustin Strand, 02:35.990[3]; 2. 1R-Travis Robertson, 02:40.038[4]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben, 02:42.441[1]; 4. 25-Dylan Barnhardt, 02:46.207[5]; 5. 6X-Bryce Beck, 02:46.827[6]; 6. (DNF) 4-Shane Edginton, 02:24.873[2]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 44-Cole Schill, 04:41.800[2]; 2. 12S-Brad Seng, 04:42.050[3]; 3. 10-Mike Balcaen, 04:43.964[4]; 4. 11JR-Shane Holden, 04:44.112[1]; 5. 70-Jesse Teunis, 04:45.653[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 77R-Ryan Schroeder, 25:05.660[2]; 2. 17-Lance Schill, 25:06.436[8]; 3. 6R-Nate Reynolds, 25:05.997[9]; 4. 111-Jason Halverson, 25:07.114[1]; 5. 17K-Stoney Kruk, 25:07.667[7]; 6. 8-Jason Schuh, 25:07.617[16]; 7. 23-Scott Vasichek, 25:08.056[18]; 8. 87-Chris Kruk, 25:08.643[14]; 9. 735-Tanner Theis, 25:11.556[15]; 10. 16-Randy Thompson, 25:09.263[4]; 11. (DNF) 4-Kori McIntyre, 18:46.096[11]; 12. (DNF) 44-Austin Hunter, 18:41.382[10]; 13. (DNF) 32-Eric Haugland, 18:42.561[6]; 14. (DNF) 96-Jeremy Lizakowski, 18:43.056[12]; 15. (DNF) 5C-Preston Carr, 18:26.621[5]; 16. (DNF) 12-Jaden Varnson, 18:11.114[3]; 17. (DNF) 57-Nathan Raasakka, 13:57.386[17]; 18. (DNF) 11X-Tanner Armstrong, 04:04.109[13]; (DNS) 21-Todd Johnson, 04:04.109

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 111-Jason Halverson, 03:34.260[2]; 2. 77R-Ryan Schroeder, 03:34.287[5]; 3. 17K-Stoney Kruk, 03:34.781[6]; 4. 44-Austin Hunter, 03:35.228[1]; 5. 11X-Tanner Armstrong, 03:36.438[3]; 6. 735-Tanner Theis, 03:36.873[4]; 7. 57-Nathan Raasakka, 03:37.448[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill, 02:15.307[1]; 2. 32-Eric Haugland, 02:16.071[6]; 3. 12-Jaden Varnson, 02:19.819[4]; 4. 4-Kori McIntyre, 02:15.507[5]; 5. (DNF) 23-Scott Vasichek, 00:35.182[3]; (DNS) 21-Todd Johnson, 00:35.182

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 6R-Nate Reynolds, 03:58.306[2]; 2. 5C-Preston Carr, 03:58.604[6]; 3. 16-Randy Thompson, 03:59.227[1]; 4. 96-Jeremy Lizakowski, 03:59.952[3]; 5. 87-Chris Kruk, 04:00.839[5]; 6. 8-Jason Schuh, 04:01.322[4]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Kyle Dykhoff, 24:36.470[1]; 2. 3-Steven Richards, 24:37.440[7]; 3. 24T-Tiffany Noreikis, 24:39.185[2]; 4. 29D-Dan McNamee, 24:39.392[4]; 5. 10-Thomas Neihart, 24:39.914[15]; 6. 99-Josh Barker, 24:40.401[10]; 7. 91-Shane Swenson, 24:41.231[5]; 8. 7B-David Barker, 24:41.455[13]; 9. 100-Brodee Eckerdt, 24:53.588[17]; 10. 92-Megan McNamee, 24:41.166[16]; 11. (DNF) 5-Bradon Miller, 24:38.637[8]; 12. (DNF) 33-Daniel Aberle, 22:01.499[9]; 13. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose, 21:39.197[3]; 14. (DNF) 1J-Joe Armstrong, 14:33.268[11]; 15. (DNF) 4-Trey Hess, 07:34.433[12]; 16. (DNF) 21J-Brian Johanson, 00:58.951[14]; 17. (DNF) 7M-James Meagher, 00:56.016[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24T-Tiffany Noreikis, 06:15.976[1]; 2. 11-Kyle Dykhoff, 06:16.256[5]; 3. 5-Bradon Miller, 06:17.156[3]; 4. 99-Josh Barker, 06:21.241[6]; 5. 7B-David Barker, 06:30.392[2]; 6. (DNF) 100-Brodee Eckerdt, 00:45.580[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Daniel Aberle, 02:24.583[3]; 2. 91-Shane Swenson, 02:25.983[1]; 3. 29D-Dan McNamee, 02:27.246[6]; 4. 1J-Joe Armstrong, 02:28.517[2]; 5. 21J-Brian Johanson, 02:31.611[4]; 6. 92-Megan McNamee, 02:24.963[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7M-James Meagher, 02:26.885[2]; 2. 28-Greg Jose, 02:27.825[1]; 3. 3-Steven Richards, 02:28.499[4]; 4. 4-Trey Hess, 02:29.315[3]; 5. 10-Thomas Neihart, 02:39.868[5]

Pure Stocks:
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 57-Tony Bundy, 09:04.767[3]; 2. 1CJ-Cody Armstrong, 09:04.810[5]; 3. 16-MiKara Johanson, 09:08.496[7]; 4. 850-Colten Laber, 09:05.928[4]; 5. 21B-Lane Bachmeier, 09:07.754[8]; 6. 43-Dan Arends, 09:08.496[2]; 7. 12-Darin Thomas, 09:08.770[6]; (DQ) 7B-Bailey Cousins, 09:08.770[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 850-Colten Laber, [7]; 2. 43-Dan Arends, [6]; 3. 1CJ-Cody Armstrong, [5]; 4. 57-Tony Bundy, [8]; 5. 7B-Bailey Cousins, [3]; 6. 12-Darin Thomas, [2]; 7. (DNF) 16-MiKara Johanson, [1]; 8. (DNF) 21B-Lane Bachmeier, [4]