By Randy Pospishil
NORFOLK, Neb. (July 29, 2023) – Variety was the operative word for Saturday night’s feature winners at Off Road Speedway.
Each of those winners would have had a descriptive story to hash over in any sort of late night, after competition conversation in the pit area before loading up their cars for the journey home.
Dylan Schmer, for example, probably felt like he won the IMCA Sunoco Late Models feature more than once after he had to overcome a number of challenges even after producing large leads on multiple occasions.
Three cautions, the last two with under eight laps remaining, along with twice catching up to and having to contend with lapped traffic on both the high and low lines, kept challengers within reach.
But in the end, Schmer simply had too much speed and power for the rest of the field, using the high line of the track to secure his first win at Off Road Speedway this season.
Chase Osborne came from a starting position in the sixth row within the first five laps to take over second place, then held off Alex Banks to finish in second.
Kyle Wilkinson took the lead from Tanner Cunningham with nine laps left in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car main.
Cunningham spun out three laps later while battling Chad Bruns for second. With Cunningham reporting to the rear of the field, Bruns began a back-and-forth competition with Ron Pettitt.
Wilkinson handled back-to-back restarts in a green, white, checkered finish for the win, while Bruns and Pettitt took second and third place, respectively.
Dakota Spann didn’t secure his IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock win until just three laps remained, and even then the race’s finish was interesting.
Jordan Uehling started on the pole but fell back to third early before getting the lead with 14 of the 18 laps left.
Uehling then defended the front spot from challenges by Spann and Jason Wilkinson until Wilkinson spun out with six laps remaining.
Spann eventually pulled alongside Uehling with three laps left, then took the lead coming out of turn four and finished the last two laps in front for the win.
Uehling, meanwhile, was in the midst of a late-race battle with Nate Buck and Dustin Jackson, which ended with Uehling sliding up into the wall just short of the flag stand, allowing Buck and Jackson to grab second and third, respectively.
And in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod feature, the five cars driven by Terry Kester, Tyler Afrank, Michael Wolfe, Jonathan Jensen and James Roebuck broke away to fight over the lead during the 15-lap race.
Roebuck, who was looking for his fifth Off Road Speedway victory of the season, started in the fourth of five rows, but on the ninth lap passed both Jensen and Afrank then, on the next, came out of turn four ahead of Kester with the lead.
Roebuck wrapped up his win, while Afrank took second and Kester finished third.
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