By Randy Pospishil
NORFOLK, Neb. (July 8, 2023) – Saturday night was a difficult night for the points leaders in the various divisions at Off Road Speedway.
Primarily due to issues beyond their control, which forced exits from the racing surface to the pits, none of those drivers finished anywhere near contention for a spot among the top three during the feature races in any of the five divisions.
Those circumstances, with just seven nights of points racing remaining this season, leaves the competition for track championships wide open.
In the Friesen Performance IMCA Late Model feature, for example, Cory Dumpert was forced to leave the track twice with fuel system problems, ending a performance that had the Newman Grove driver battling for the lead with Dylan Schmer for much of the race.
When Dumpert left for the first time with seven laps remaining, which required him to report to the rear of the field upon his return, three cars – Schmer, Chase Osborne, and Nelson Vollbrecht –continued the up front competition.
After several laps of back-and-forth lead exchanges during the next few trips around the track and two cautions that kept the leaders close, Vollbrecht, of Stanton, overtook Schmer once and for all with two laps left to secure his second Off Road Speedway win of the year.
Schmer held off Osborne to take second place.
Similarly, in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature, Kyle Wilkinson hoped to build on his point lead and was in position to do so for the first five laps.
But then, after spending the last three of those laps circling the track as part of a four-wide group – including Ron Pettitt, Chad Bruns, Troy Bruns – contact occurred on the front stretch as the group sped toward turn one.
A flat tire spun Pettitt’s car, flipping it onto its side and red flagging the race. Damage from the incident not only ended Pettitt’s night, but also Wilkinson’s.
The race began again with Troy Bruns at the front on the restart, but Austin Brauner squeezed past Bruns on the inside of turn two and pulled away from the field during the final 14 laps for the victory.
Eric Haase challenged Bruns in side-by-side racing for the last eight of those laps and, with a pass on the outside of turn two on the final lap, grabbed second.
Lance Mielke started the night with the points lead in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, but a collision with Mark Arduser led to the end of his presence in an “A” feature which included additional collisions accounting for five total cautions.
Despite those cautions, Jason Wilkinson took the lead with 13 laps left and eased to the win, while Nate Buck finished second and Anthony Bruhn took third.
Points leader Tyler Afrank had his Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod race end just five laps in, leaving along with his two-point advantage.
Cameron Meyer led the remaining 10 laps and earned the win while Colby Langenberg finished second. Michael Wolfe was third.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.