The Devils Lake Speedway hosted their season opener Saturday May11th. With a mild winter the Devils Lake Speedway was looking forward to a potential early start. But mother nature had other plans. “We had a race scheduled for early April. Weather turned out to be beautiful but the future cast early in the week of April 13th wasn’t looking to great. It was good enough for a test n tune. But not quite good enough for the fans in the stands. So we moved it make it a test n tune. Turns out we could have probably raced as the weather was much nicer then we anticipated.” Said Promoter/Co-Owner Nolan Olmstead. Olmstead went on to say. “When you make your schedule in the winter months and working with all the different organizations it’s hard to anticipate what the weather will do come spring. You can always schedule a race and cancel it because of the weather. It’s hard to add a race to the schedule last minute and get the word out to the masses. But schedule wise we started about this time last year. Some years we get an early start sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we are the 1st track to open and sometimes all of us tracks end up opening together.”
The Northern Late Model Racing Association came out in full force for their Season Opener. With 25 cars checked in. Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks MN, Steve Anderson of Devils Lake ND, Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks ND, and Shane Edginton of East St. Paul MB were all Heat winners. With a lot side by side racing action between Troftgruben and Anderson. Strand was able to sneak by Anderson and Troftgruben to take an early lead. Where he cruised to his 1st Late Model win for the 2024 season. Shane Edginton maneuvered through the field to finish 2nd. Veteran driver Kevin Robertson rounded out the podium to finish 3rd. Some honorable mentions are Josh Skorczewski of Aberdeen SD and Jesse Teunis of Lockport MB both moved up 10 positions respectively.
17 Midwest Mods were checked in for the night. Lucas “the nightmare” Rodin of Marion ND wins the season opener in Devils Lake. Rodin redraw the pole position for the feature. But he had his work cut out for him as Scott Bintz of Jamestown ND took an early lead and led a good portion of the race. Rodin did eventually get past him to capture another win at the Devils Playground. Scott Bintz would settle for a 2nd place finish and Austin Hunter would finish 3rd to round out the podium. Jory Berg of Grand Forks spun out half way through the feature and was called for the caution. Which sent him to the tail of the field for him to rebound to a 4th place finish. Jamie Dietzler of Larimore moved up 3 spots to finish 3rd. Rookie Driver MaKenna Romuld moved up 8 positions to finish 9th. Heat winners were Austin Hunter and Jory Berg for the night.
11 Street Stocks were in attendance for the season opener. Trey Hess of Grand Forks ND was the Heat 1 winner. Greg Jose of Grand Forks ND was the heat 2 winner. Trey Hess stormed to the front of the field and never looked back. Greg Jose moved on up the field and settled into the 2nd place position early into the race to finish 2nd. The battle of the night was for 3rd place. Where Seth Klostreich of Grand Forks and Jayden Michaelsohn of Aberdeen SD had a side by side battle changing positions at every turn of the race. Klostreich came out with the 3rd place finish with Michaelsohn finishing 4th. Josh Barker of Thompson ND finished 5th.
The rookie Driver Kyle Charette of Belcourt takes the win in the Purestocks driving past Veteran Joe Armstrong of Crary ND for his 1st feature win. Kyle Charette took to the field for his 1st race and came out with his 1st Feature win. Not only did Charette have to get ahead of Armstrong. He had to get past 2nd year driver Erik Wenstad of Overly ND. Armstrong started towards the end of the field drove up to the front spun out and drew the caution was sent to the tail of the field, to drive back through the field to finish 3rd. Joe Ree of Belcourt finished 4th and Thayne Harris of Belcourt finished 5th.
The Devils Lake Speedway will be back in action this week Saturday May 18th with the Western Renegade Non-Wing Sprints making their season debut for the 2024 season. Along with Wissota Midwest Mods, Wissota Street Stocks, Hometrack Rules Purestocks and Trophy Class. Gates will open at 4pm, draw cut off will be at 6pm sharp, not laps at 6pm with racing action starting at 7pm.
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Photo credit Steven Young with Speedway Shots.
