Easy riders win on night of wild races

• Sliding accident

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson’s Jeff Decker, top left, and Dickinson’s Wyatt Dinius, right, slide into Jim Harris of Estevan, Saskatchewan, during an IMCA Modifieds heat race Saturday night at the Southwest Speedway. Many of the night’s races were filled with accidents and cautions.

Talk about it

The moon wasn’t quite full, but that didn’t keep drivers at the Southwest Speedway from getting a little wild Saturday night.

The race track may be in the market for a new yellow flag after a set of caution-fueled features, including in the typically even-tempered Wissota Street Stocks.

Hebron’s Allan Frederick had the pole position in the feature and held on to win a race that saw two drivers disqualified, one for unsportsmanlike driving, and numerous cautions that made the 20-lap race to last more than 24 minutes.

“That’s the best place to be, right up front,” Frederick said with a smile. “I thought I was going to run out of gas.”

Frederick was the only one at the track not to witness the show going on behind him.

After 13 laps of clean racing, a simple caution involving Jim Heaton and Terry Zastoupil on the first turn became the flashpoint for high tempers and rough racing.

Officials ruled that each driver had to go to the back of the field, which led to Heaton taking a hard charge on a restart. That hard charge put his right front tire onto the rear end of Kelly Wanner’s car.

Heaton was disqualified by officials for unsportsmanlike conduct and track officials said later that he will likely be suspended after unsportsmanlike interactions with officials in the pit area.

Following that run-in, Mike Miller was disqualified for not adhering to instructions from officials to go to the back of the pack after causing a caution.

Frederick, meanwhile, held his spot easily and got his second feature win of the season.

“I just didn’t look back,” Frederick said.

In a 25-car IMCA Modifieds feature, it was the man who has been most successful at the track all year who found himself in front at the finish.

Tracey Domagala moved into the season point standings lead in a race that started with four cautions in the first four laps and then took just under 7 minutes to complete the final 21 laps.

The Bismarck driver said his sixth year in the Modifieds has been his best.

“It’s just been a phenomenal year,” said Domagala, who is in a first-year car. “It’s good to have those once in a while.”

He entered the night tied with Jeff Decker for the points lead but pulled ahead as the Dickinson driver finished fourth in the feature.

“It could end up being the one I need to win the points,” Domagala said.

Dickinson’s Schaun Olheiser won what he called a fun race in the Pure Stocks feature that saw him move to the lead following a caution caused by leader Scott Gartner, who had problems after running into lap traffic on the eighth of 15 laps.

Deryk Voller took over Gartner’s position but quickly lost his lead to Olheiser. The two battled back and forth, even going around the final turn together before Olheiser pulled ahead just before the finish line.

Olheiser said he was glad to have a mostly clean race.

“I like it when you can run clean without banging off of people,” Olheiser said. “That’s fun to me.”

Cory Reisenauer won the Thunder 4 feature, the only feature not to include a caution.

Southwest Speedway

Pure Stocks

Heat 1: 1, Scott Gartner. 2, Schaun Olheiser. 3, Cole Lewis. 4, Brandon Deavy. 5, Kendall Booke. 6, Deen Brecht. 7, Mark Selle. 8, Devon Wandler.

Heat 2: 1, Deryk Voller. 2, Casey Vernon. 3, Alex Braun. 4, Jeremey Binstock. 5, Darren Kruger. 6, Carl Johanson.

Heat 3: 1, Jon Wells. 2, Dana Welder. 3, Terin Gawryluk. 4, Thayne Olstad. 5, Dion Makowski. 6, Tyler Bartholoew. 7, Blake Prado, DNF. 8, Chad Jahner, DNF. 9, Hunter Domagala, DNF.

Feature: 1, Olheiser. 2, Voller. 3, Wells. 4, Binstock. 5, Deavy. 6, Selle. 7, Wandler. 8, Gartner. 9, Braun. 10, Johanson. 11, Bartholomew. 12, Booke. 13, Maher. 14, Kruger. 15, Prado. 16, Vernon. 17, Domagala, DNF. 18, Makowski, DNF. 19, Lewis, DNF. 20, Brecht, DNF. 21, Gawryluk, DNF. 22, Welder, DNF. 23, Jahner, DNS.

Wissota Street Stocks

Heat 1: 1, Allan Frederick. 2, T.C. Shelhamer. 3, Mike Miller. 4, Zach Frederick. 5, Brad Schmidt. 6, Richard Jordan. 7, Hailey Jordan.

Heat 2: 1, Josh Olheiser. 2, Jim Heaton. 3, Travis Ulmer. 4, Terry Zastoupil. 5, Darin Terrel. 6, Kelly Wanner. 7, Monte Gawryluk.

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

Thunder 4

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

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

IMCA Modified

Heat 1: 1, Jeff Decker. 2, Jim Harris. 3, Tyler Wagner. 4, Bill Miller. 5, Wyatt Dinius. 6, Rusty Corneliusen, DNF. 7, Steven Kuntz, DNF.

Heat 2: 1, Eric Paul. 2, Tracey Domagala. 3, Dwight Burwick. 4, Dylan Barnhardt. 5, Travis Ulmer. 6, Cole LaMontagne.

Heat 3: 1, Travis Olheiser. 2, Troy Kittler. 3, Dale Burwick. 4, Randy Burwick. 5, Dave Aberle. 6, Kirk Wojahn, DNF.

Heat 4: 1, Troy Butz. 2, Darrell Bauer. 3, Troy Speten. 4, Tim Perkins. 5, Lenny Makowski. 6, Jerad Thelen, DNF.

Feature: 1, Domagala. 2, Harris. 3, Paul. 4, Decker. 5, Kittler. 6, Bauer. 7, Perkins. 8, Thelen. 9, Dinius. 10, Butz. 11, Miller. 12, Wagner. 13, Corneliusen. 14, Ulmer. 15, R. Burwick. 16, Dale Burwick. 17, Kuntz. 18, Dw. Burwick. 19, Barnhardt. 20, Aberle. 21, Makowski. 22, Wojahn. 23, LaMontagne, DNF. 24, Olheiser, DNF. 25, Speten, DNF.

Tags: southwest speedway, auto racing, imca modifieds, wissota street stocks, pure stocks, sports