By Jason D Searcy

Aug 18, 2018 – Elko, MN

It was a night to pay homage to the history of the track and a night to make some new memories during Tribute night with racing in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at Elko Speedway presented by The Car Lot in New Prague (MN). It was the 25th annual Dwain Behrens memorial Hiway Federal Credit Union Late Model event, Behrens was an ELKO Champion who died in a snowmobile accident in 1994.

The event is scored in three parts, the first being Qualifying. Jacob Goede #72 from Carver (MN) was the fast qualifier with a time of 14.685, Nick Murgic #12 was second, #14 Devyn Stocker third and #75 Joe Neisius fourth, #7 Paul Paine fifth and #3 Chris Marek sixth of the 19 cars competing. Goede was given one point for qualifying first, Murgic two points for second and so on down the score sheet. The person with the fewest amount of points at the end of the night is the overall winner, whoever finishes the highest in the final feature is the tie-breaker.

The second part of the event is the first Feature. Chad Walen #52 had a big lead early in the 30 lap feature, Chris Marek #3 challenged Walen on lap twenty and finally slipped past him on the inside with two laps to go in the race. It was the fourth win of the season for Marek. Walen finished second, Nick Murgic #12 moved his way up from the tenth starting spot to finish third, #75 Joe Neisius was fourth, #13 Bryan Wrolstad fifth and fast qualifier #72 Jacob Goede was sixth. So, after the first two parts of the event the points had Murgic leading with 5, Chris Marek and Jacob Goede were tied with 7 and Joe Neisius was right behind them with 8 total points.

The final part of the event is the second Feature. Devyn Stocker was leading early in the race when a multi-car wreck happened down the backstretch on lap four. Two of the front runners, Chris Marek and Nick Murgic, were involved and were not able to continue. That put the overall event race between Joe Neisius and Jacob Goede, who were lined up next to each other on the track, the driver who finished ahead of each other would be declared the overall winner. Veteran driver Paul Paine #7 took over the lead but was nudged out of the top spot on lap 17 and Devyn Stocker regained the point. Meanwhile Jacob Goede worked his way through the field and passed Stocker on the outside with six laps remaining in the race and held on to win by .681 seconds to win for the sixth time this season. Stocker finished second, Ryan Varner #31 was third, Joe Neisius finished fourth and Paul Paine recovered to finish fifth.

Goede was declared the overall winner with 8 points, Joe Neisius was second with 12 points and Devyn Stocker was third with 16 points total.

This was the fourth time Goede has won the Historic Dwain Behrens memorial race, tying Elko Speedway legend Jeff Martin for the same amount of memorial race wins.

It was the sixth annual Scott Kingery memorial Genz-Ryan Thunder Car event at Elko Speedway, the scoring is the same as the Late Model event.

Brent Kane #99 from Lonsdale (MN) was the fastest in qualifying with a time of 15.906, Bryce Blohm #37 was second, Eric Campbell #25 was third, #32 Jeremy Wolff was fourth.

Brandon Petersen #7 is the step-son of Scott Kingery, he led the First twenty lap Feature race early until #15 Paul Neisius from Hastings (MN) took over the top spot on lap eight and held on for the win by 1.211 seconds, it was his first win of the season. Ted Reuvers #8, a former winner of this event, finished second and it was a furious battle behind him with cars racing three wide at times. Eric Campbell #35 edged #99 Brent Kane by .058 seconds at the line to finish third and another former winner of this event #32 Jeremy Wolff was fifth.

So, the points going into the third and final segment of the event had Brent Kane leading with 5 points, Eric Campbell was second with 6 points and Bryce Blohm and Ted Reuvers were tied for third with 8 points.

The second 20 lap Thunder Car feature had #19 Michael Hanson and #28 Michael Homan take turns leading early until #37 Bryce Blohm from Lakeville (MN) grabbed the lead on lap nine. Blohm then set sail and won by .887 seconds, it was his fifth win of the season. Brent Kane knew he just had to stay right behind Blohm and just ahead of Campbell to get the overall win and that’s just what he did finishing second. Jeremy Wolff was third, Ted Reuvers was fourth and Paul Neisius was fifth of the 20 cars competing.

Brent Kane has now won the Scott Kingery memorial event three of the six times it has been held. Kane finished with 7 points, Blohm was second with 9 points and three cars tied with 12 points but with the tie-breaker it was Jeremy Wolff in third, Ted Reuvers fourth and Eric Campbell fifth.

In the first 20 lap Pepsi Power Stock feature event it was #27 Darin Patnode of Lonsdale (MN) taking the early lead but he was quickly pounced on by #56 Paul Hamilton and #6 Joey Prusak making it three-wide racing. Prusak took the lead with lots of great racing happening behind him, at one point #41Jason Michaud was forced to pit when his back bumper became dislodged. Prusak crossed the finish line first but was disqualified post-race. The win was awarded to Darin Patnode, it was his first win of the season and the second win of his career at Elko Speedway, 12 different drivers have now won a race this year in the Power Stock division. Taylor Goldman #8 was awarded second, #83 Julie Jorgenson third, #08 Michael Stoer fourth and fast qualifier #88 Nick Oxborough was fifth of the sixteen cars competing.

The second Pepsi Power Stock feature at ELKO had #56 Paul Hamilton take the lead until the #10 car driven by Terry Mann grabbed the top spot on lap 5 of 20. Mann was then challenged by #08 Michael Stoer from Prior Lake (MN) and then Paul Hamilton was back in the mix when the trio went three-wide, unfortunately for Hamilton he tagged the wall and dropped back. Michael Stoer then took over the lead and beat Terry Mann to the stripe by 1.439 seconds, #8 Taylor Goldman made some impressive evasive maneuvers to finish third, #83 Julie Jorgenson was fourth and #88 Nick Oxborough was fifth. It was the second win of the season for Stoer.

The updated unofficial standings have Taylor Goldman leading Michael Stoer by 114 points and Nick Oxborough 117 points behind in third.

The Eternity Homes Great North Legends first 20 lap feature saw #47 Austin Jahr lead until #12 Sammy Smith take over on lap five. A big wreck causing a red flag condition happened on lap ten with many racers dropping out with damaged cars including: #33 Luke Allen, #21 Hans Roeschli, #90 Travis Warling and #71 Jon Lemke. Robby Carter #2 later had mechanical problems resulting in contact with Sammy Smith dropping both of those cars out of the race as well. After all the attrition, fast qualifier #75 Baiden Heskett from Savage (MN) took over the top spot and just barely beat #91Tristan Swanson to the finish line by .222 seconds, #26 Will McCully was third, #16 Matt Allen fourth and Austin Jahr finished fifth of the sixteen cars entered. It was the 9th win of the season for Baiden Heskett.

The second Great North Legends feature had #03 Robby Carter take the lead until #8 Cole Klein from Rogers (MN) grabbed the top spot on lap ten. On lap seventeen the #91 of Tristan Swanson and Cole Klein had contact while racing for the lead and bringing out the caution flag, Swanson took responsibility for the spin with the “Gentlemans Tap Out Rule” sending Swanson to the back of the pack and giving Klein his position back at the front of the field. Baiden Heskett and Klein then had an epic battle as they ran for the checkers, it was a single file restart and Klein held the advantage until getting a tiny bit loose coming out of the final corner and racing to the finish line. Heskett pulled up wheel to wheel down the front stretch but Cole Klein held on by .009 seconds to win his first race of 2018 at Elko Speedway and his second career win. Heskett was second, #47 Austin Jahr third, #12 Sammy Smith fourth and Robby Carter fifth.

The unofficial standings now have Baiden Heskett leading Robby Carter by 208 points in the race for the Elko Speedway Championship.

An impressive field of fourteen Brock’s Flooring Bandolero’s raced at Elko Speedway with #901 Alex Hartwig from Portage (WI) winning for the third time this year, Hartwig led the entire race but had to hold off numerous challenges by defending champion #8 Colin Stocker who finished second by .420 seconds. Teddy Kottschade #07 was third, #99 Max Mabee fourth and #13 Ayrton Brockhouse finished fourth in this twelve lap race that had only one caution period.

The updated unofficial standings now have Max Mabee leading Colin Stocker by 6 points in the race for the Championship at ELKO.

The Jeremy Johnson “Tire Guy” memorial Sportsmanship award was presented to Taylor Goldman who races #8 in the Power Stock division. Jeremy Johnson was a good natured crew member for numerous drivers who was killed at the age of 24 by a drunk driver in 2003.

All results and points are unofficial until midweek, they will be posted at ElkoSpeedway.com

Up next at ELKO is the Bandit Big Rig series, gates open at 2pm with Qualifying at 4pm, Meet and Greet at 5pm and Racing beginning at 7pm. Get more information at ElkoSpeedway.com or follow Elko Speedway on Social Media or download our free app by searching Elko Racing.

Elko Speedway is a NASCAR sanctioned 3/8th mile asphalt oval race track with stadium seating located 30 minutes South of the Twin Cities in Elko-New Market (MN).