By Randy Pospishil
NORFOLK, Neb. (June 18) – Multiple drivers experienced a ‘big night’ of racing at Off Road Speedway Saturday night but none more so than Ramsey Meyer.
Meyer, the IMCA Mach-1 Sport Compact national points leader, won for the second straight week at Norfolk but this win was even more special as the Pierce driver recorded his 100th career victory in the division.
“I’ve been fighting for that for the last, I don’t know how many, races,” Meyer said. “To finally get that, hopefully we can get some momentum going now.”
Starting on the inside of the third row, Meyer immediately squeezed through the midst of the four cars in front of him to get the lead early, then maintained it during two cautions for his fifth win in seven starts this season at Off Road.
With a second-place showing, Kandie Smidt managed her first top five finish while Brooke Fluckiger’s race-long progress through the 12-car field ended with a didn’t-quite-get-there effort at the finish line as Dustin Jackson, in a borrowed car, hung on for third place.
Meyer was IMCA’s national champion in the 4-cylinder class in 2013.
Another driver who experienced a big night was Wes Hochstein, who opened the night of racing by notching his first “A” feature win in the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod division.
Hochstein parlayed his front row outside starting position into a wire-to-wire win, holding off Matt Haase for 12 laps before also having to deal with a late charge by Kyle Prauner, who took second place away from Haase with just three laps remaining.
Hochstein described the battle against track and competition as being on edge “every single second on every single lap, it was just bouncing, that’s all it could do.”
“It feels very good … my first win in the SportMod division,” he said, before dedicating the win to his ailing grandfather.