WISSOTA’s newest post season special event crowned three champions during the second running of the NAPA WISSOTA MPH Invitational, held on Sunday, September 9th at the Bemidji Speedway in Bemidji, MN. St. Cloud, Minnesota’s Dustin Holtquist raced to the $2,000 payday by topping the WISSOTA Mod Four division, while Prentice, Wisconsin’s Brent Mindock came out on top of the $750 to win WISSOTA Pure Stock main event and Fort Ripley, Minnesota’s Jenna Hagemann took the checkered flag in the WISSOTA Hornet division to take home the $750 top prize for the second year in a row.
Sixty eight competitors signed in for the second annual event on a beautiful fall Sunday evening at the Northern Minnesota track, most famously known for their Chicken Shack, which keeps the local race fans fed throughout the summer months each week.
Starting the night, Holtquist set a new Bemidji Speedway Mod Four Track Record with a lap of 16.213 around the banked track, topping the 24-car field to earn the $100 FYE Motorsports Fast Time Award.
After qualifying was completed, all three divisions were broken up into their three respective heat races, which set up the night’s championship feature races.
Each of the nine heat race winners earned a $50 cash bonus for the efforts and included: Trenton Beel, Bobie Arnes and Chase Pourrier in the Hornets, Dustin Puffe, Kade Leeper and Brent Mindock in the Pure Stocks and Luke Erlandson, Patrick Specht and Dean Larson in the Mod Fours.
After the parade of champions was conducted, Beel and Russell Kiker Jr paced the field to the green flag in the 20-lap Hornet feature event. Kiker Jr took off into the lead with Beel a close second early on.
After a lap one crash, the race for the lead was intense for the majority of the event with Kiker Jr, Beel, Pourrier, Hagemann and Arnes in a tight five car tussle for the top spot for the first fifteen laps, with several two and three wide battles occurring throughout the first half of the main event, including a very intense one for the lead. Kiker and Arnes were both trying to overtake Hagemann for the top spot on lap seventeen, when contact was made, sending both spinning and relegating Kiker Jr to the tail for the restart with just three laps remaining.
On the restart, Hagemann took off again in the lead until the third and final caution of the event flew a lap later, setting up a 2-lap dash to the checkered. Hagemann raced the final two laps out front for her second consecutive victory in this event. Pourrier ran a close second with Tony Jensen rounding out the podium. Nikota Larson and Chad Reller rounded out the top five with Arnes, Mateja Dreyer, Jayme Gordon, Adan VanDerostyne and Josh Backstrom completed the top ten.
The Pure Stocks were up next for their 20-lap feature race with Mindock and defending race winner Puffe sharing the front row on the start. Just like the start of the 2023 event, Puffe jumped out to the initial lead on the opening green flag of the night and was able to pace the opening lap with Mindock and Berg in tow and Kade Leeper just behind in third. The trio raced nose to tail in tight formation out front with Chaston Finckbone also inside the top five throughout the middle part of the race.
The race was slowed by a pair of early cautions, which kept the field tight on each restart, but the lead group picked up their battles immediately on each fresh green flag. Mindock was able to take the lead on the second restart from Puffe with Berg and Finckbone side by side just behind.
After several more hard fought laps, the third caution flew on lap 8, which then saw a three wide battle for the lead on the next restart with Mindock, Berg and Puffe three deep around the speedway for the top spot. The trio raced out front in tight formation for several laps with Leeper in the mix on several occasions as well.
The final caution of the race flew on lap 13 when Leeper and Berg got together battling for the top spot, sending Leeper to the pits with damage on his #3 machine. On the final restart of the race, Mindock was able to once again hold off Berg, Finckbone and Puffe to race away the final seven laps for the victory in his first visit to the speedway. Berg finished with runner up honors, with Finckbone in third. Fourth was Puffe and Justin Barsness was fifth, but he was later disqualified in post-race tech, elevating Deryk Weleski in to the top five. Mason Smith, Alex Berg, Billy Binkley, Alexa Sparby and Austin Fencl rounded out the top ten finishers.
Erlandson and Larson sat on the front row for the night’s final event as the 25-lap, $2,000 to win Mod Four feature roared to life off of turn four. Erlandson got the jump on fellow front row starter Larson and set sail into the Northern Minnesota night before an early race crash slowed the action with just one lap in the books. A second crash on the second start, kept the field tight once again as they worked back to the green once again.
On the restart, Holtquist was able to roar around the outside of Erlandson and pull along side of him for the top spot until a red flag for an upside down Doug Frederick on lap four stopped action early in the going again, but after the field raced back to life, Holtquist again pulled alongside Erlandson and raced side by side for the lead, taking command of the top spot until a lap nine caution bunched the field once again.
With Holtquist out front, Larson, Patrick Specht, Chad Funt and Erlandson put on a great show for second until the final caution of the event flew on lap 18, setting up a seven-lap dash to the finish for the $2,000 payday.
Holtquist took advantage of his top restarting spot to take back off in the lead and race the final seven circuits uncontested for his 150th career victory ahead of Erlandson, Funt, Specht and his dad Bob Holtquist, who charged from his 23rd starting spot into the top five. Competing the top ten were Ashton Schwinn, Blake Hawker, Rob Arlaud, Rowan Tramm and Dean Larson.
Rob Arlaud (Mod Fours), Brent Mindock (Pure Stocks) and Bradley Rossow (Hornets) earned the Reed & Reed Well Drilling Long Tow Awards for traveling the farthest to compete in each division and each picked up a $100 cash bonus.
Bob Holtquist (Mod Fours), Alexa Sparby (Pure Stocks) and Josh Backstrom (Hornets) earned the Foster’s Custom Rods Hard Charger Awards for passing the most cars in their respective feature races and each picked up a $100 cash bonus as well.
The event, for three WISSOTA-sanctioned divisions, the Mod Fours, Pure Stocks and Hornets and took place of the three divisions’ attendance at the annual Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100.
Full results cand be found on MyRacePass.com. For more information, log on to www.WISSOTA.org.