Ulmer wins Street Stocks feature on birthday

• Dale Burwick

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson’s Dale Burwick, front, comes around a turn ahead of Tracey Domagala, middle, as well as Ryan Harris, back left, and Tim Perkins, back right, on Saturday night in an IMCA Modifieds heat race at the Southwest Speedway.

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Travis Ulmer had to wait more than an hour to get his birthday present. But, the wait was well worth it.

The Dickinson native turned 29 Saturday. His presents to himself were wins in the Southwest Speedway’s Wissota Street Stocks feature and heat races a day after finishing at the front of the feature at the Dacotah Speedway in Mandan.

“It’s been a good weekend,” Ulmer said with a smile.

It didn’t come without controversy though. Officials ruled the race a white-yellow-checkered flag finish after a caution caused by Darin Terrel on the front straightaway of the final lap of the 20-lap race.

Ulmer and Dickinson’s Josh Olheiser were locked in a close battle for the lead when they came up behind Tarrel, who was in the middle of the track. Ulmer went high side to avoid him while Olheiser went low.

Ulmer found a gap and sped to first. Olheiser got spun out. He was awarded his spot after the race. T.C. Shelhamer, who had been chasing them, took third.

“That’s a good thing they gave Josh his spot back,” Ulmer said. “It just goes to show how one car can make a mess.”

Rain showers threatened to make a mess and even cancel racing following the completion of the heat races.

There was more than an hour rain delay after two different rain showers moved through the area. The Pure Stocks had raced to the track in an attempt to start their feature and nearly had the green light when the delay started.

When they finally got going again, Roye Erickson took advantage.

Erickson has spent the past six years racing at the Dacotah Speedway in Mandan. Last year, he won the track title in the Hobby Stocks there.

Now, the veteran from Bismarck has brought his car to the Southwest Speedway’s Pure Stocks class and, so far, it looks like a perfect fit.

Erickson passed Chad Jahner early and held off both Jahner and Cole Lewis before encountering lap traffic and holding on for the win in the Pure Stocks class.

“The car has always been a mud digger,” Erickson said with a grin. “It loves the mud, this old Dodge.”

Erickson said the rain showers nearly chased him away from the track.

“We were getting ready to go home,” he said. “I’m glad I stayed now.”

In the IMCA Modifieds feature race, Darrell Bauer of Mandan held a tight line in his hand-built car to secure a fast win over Dickinson’s Jeff Decker.

Bauer, a veteran driver, held out his hands after the race. They were still shaking.

“That’s when it’s fun,” he said.

“It was a great. The car was hooked up and working. I had a great setup and I rode the wheels off.”

Derek Nitschke took the Thunder 4’s feature with ease after fighting off Cody Hulse.

“It was tacky. It was slippery,” Nitschke said. “It was back and forth for a couple of laps and all of a sudden I got out front.”

One of the better races of the show was the first heat of the evening in the Pure Stocks.

Jahner, the track’s defending champion, came in ahead of Kendall Booke, a second-year driver in his first year in the class, by .019 seconds.

Southwest Speedway

Thunder 4’s

Heat 1: 1, Derek Nitschke. 2, Nylee Boyce. 3, Cody Hulse. 4, Cory Reisenauer. 5, Scott Hagemeister. 6, Gary Barnett. 7, Lucas Preston. 8, Khord Christie. 9, Steve Jahner, DNF.

Feature: 1, Nitschke. 2, Hulse. 3, Reisenauer. 4, Barnett. 5, Hagemeister. 6, Christie. 7, Jahner, DNF. 8, Preston, DNF.

Pure Stocks

Heat 1: 1, Chad Jahner. 2, Kendall Booke. 3, Roye Erickson. 4, Cole Lewis. 5, Deryk Voller. 6, John Wells. 7, Casey Vernon.

Heat 2: 1, Shaun Olheiser. 2, Brandon Deavy. 3, Mark Selle. 4, Darren Kruger. 5, Devon Wandler. 6, Tyler Bartholomew. 7, Dion Makowski. 8, Donn Olstad.

Feature: 1, Erickson. 2, Jahner. 3, Lewis. 4, Deavy. 5, Voller. 6, Olheiser. 7, Selle. 8, Vernon. 9, Wells. 10, Makowski. 11, Booke. 12, Kruger. 13, Olstad. 14, Wandler. 15, Bartholomew.

Wissota Street Stocks

Heat 1: 1, Zach Frederick. 2, Allan Frederick. 3, Jim Heaton. 4, Monte Gawryluk. 5, Ryan Hugelen. 6, Mike Miller. 7, Terry Zastoupil. 8, Kelly Wanner.

Heat 2: 1, Travis Ulmer. 2, Josh Olheiser. 3, T.C. Shelhamer. 4, Darin Tarrel. 5, Paul Decker, DNF. 6, Hailey Jordan, DNF.

Feature: 1, Ulmer. 2, Olheiser. 3, Shelhamer. 4, A. Frederick. 5, Gawryluk. 6, Heaton. 7, R. Jordan. 8, Hugelen. 9, Wanner. 10, Tarrel. 11, Z. Frederick. 12, Zastoupil. 13, Miller. 14, H. Jordan.

IMCA Modifieds

Heat 1: 1, Dwight Burwick. 2, Randy Burwick. 3, Travis Ulmer. 4, Lenny Malkowski. 5, Jim Harris. 6, Wyatt Dinius. 7, Josh Jones.

Heat 2: 1, Dale Burwick. 2, Jeff Decker. 3, Tracey Domagala. 4, Tim Perkins. 5, Eric Paul. 6, Rusty Corneliusen. 7, Ryan Harris.

Heat 3: 1, Bill Miller. 2, Darrell Bauer. 3, Tyler Wagner. 4, Brian Miller. 5, Travis Olheiser. 6, Mike White.

Feature: 1, Bauer. 2, Decker. 3, Dale Burwick. 4, J. Harris. 5, Domagala. 6, Perkins. 7, Olheiser. 8, Wagner. 9, Paul. 10, Corneliusen. 11, R. Burwick. 12, Brian Miller. 13, R. Harris. 14, Ulmer, DNF. 15, Dw. Burwick, DNF. 16, Jones, DNF. 17, Bill Miller, DNF. 18, Makowski, DNF.

Tags: auto racing, southwest speedway, sports