Fitzpatrick Wins I-90 Hobby Stock Nationals

HARTFORD, SD — Dylan Fitzpatrick’s first career win at I-90 Speedway was worth $500 as he bested a 24 car field in this year’s edition of the Hobby Stock Nationals. Fitzpatrick assumed the lead when Dustin Gulbrandson had a tire go down with only three laps to go.

Chad Kuhnert led the first five laps but lost his chance to win when he got tangled up with a slower car while trying to make a pass on the outside. Gulbrandson took the lead while Fitzpatrick dueled with last year’s winner Shane Klaassen. Fitzpatrick surprised quite a few fans when he not only passed Klaassen, but held him off over the race’s final three laps after the last restart for the caution brought out for Gulbrandson.

Fitzpatrick was fourth in passing points after winning his heat. He started third in the feature after the redraw.

The Hard Core Speed Shop IMCA 360 Sprint Car main event was red flagged twice. The first of which was for a scary accident that saw Luke Nagel roll his car several times off the third turn. Johnn Cressman was correcting a slide when he made tire contact with Ryan Bickett on the backstretch. Nagel and Dustin Beenken both went off the top of turn three while trying to avoid Cressman and Bickett. Amazingly, all of the drivers were okay. The second red flag flew after Justin Glaser and Brock Dump got together, sending Dump for a ride off of turn two.

Jordan Martens dominated the feature and led the last 18 laps for his first I-90 Speedway win in over two years. Martens passed Terry Chester on the third lap and drove away from Dusty Ballenger late in the race.

Ballenger’s second place finish paired with DNF’s for Bickett and Dump means that Ballenger now has a 16-point lead in the standings. Prior to Saturday, Dump trailed Ballenger by just two points while Bickett was only five points out.

Tyler Johnson, who was crowned track champion at Rapid Speedway on Friday, brought everyone to their feet as he powered by Dave Kennedy on the outside in the race’s final corner to win an exciting USRA B-Modified feature. Kennedy had led the entire race while Tyler and Tracy Johnson, Kenny Scholten and Brad Haas were putting on a thrilling show for second through fifth. Points leader Tracy Johnson, however, had to drop out due to mechanical problems.

Matt Steuerwald passed Craig Hanisch on the eighth lap of the Express Copy and Printing Late Model Streeet Stock A-Main en route to his fifth win this season. Hanisch, who had earlier taken the lead from Jim Hoing, never faded though and stayed close to Steuerwald throughout the rest of the feature to finish second. In victory lane Steuerwald had high praise for Hanisch and talked about how much fun he had racing against him.

Laura Ebbesen ran her best race of the season for her first Fast Auto Wash Super Chargers win since opening night. Tyler McFarland had another strong race finishing second.

IMCA 360 SPRINT CARS

Heat Winners: Jordan Martens, Troy Schreurs, Mike Young

B Feature Winner: Brock Dump

Feature: 1. Jordan Martens, 2. Dusty Ballenger, 3. Troy Schreurs, 4. Lane Brenden, 5. Terry Chester, 6. Randy Droescher, 7. Dave Ekern, 8. Justin Glaser, 9. Kevin Flowers, 10. Zeb Larsen, 11. Brandt O’Banion, 12. Mitch Runge, 13. Johnn Cressman, 14. Trisha Underberg, 15. Mike Young, 16. Brock Dump, 17. Rex Stark, 18. Dustin Beenken, 19. Luke Nagel, 20. Ryan Bickett

LATE MODEL STOCK CARS

Heat Winners: Jim Hoing, Craig Hanisch, Jesse Akkerman

Feature: 1. Matt Steuerwald, 2. Craig Hanisch, 3. Eric Moser, 4. Jesse Akkerman, 5. Jim Hoing, 6. John Hoing, 7. Kipp De Groot, 8. Scott Borkowski, 9. Marshall Pater, 10. Dan Jensen, 11. Brandon Ferguson, 12. Don Bickett, 13. Fred Konechne, 14. Brylee Gough, 15. Dale Furby, 16. Brett Larsen, 17. Terry Prouty, 18. Cory Yeigh, 19. Billy Prouty

USRA B-MODIFIEDS

Heat Winners: Brad Haas, Greg Eden

Feature: 1. Tyler Johnson, 2. Dave Kennedy, 3. Kenny Scholten, 4. Tim Dann, 5. Brad Haas, 6. Greg Eden, 7. Jesse Ebbesen, 8. Andy Wieczorek, 9. Tyler Tesch, 10. Danny Harmon, 11. Tracy Johnson, 12. Jared Nytroe

HOBBY STOCKS

Heat Winners: Dylan Fitzpatrick, Travis Schreurs, Shane Klaassen

B Feature Winner: Jordan Kott

Feature: 1. Dylan Fitzpatrick, 2. Shane Klaassen, 3. Mike Chaney, 4. Travis Schreurs, 5. Greg Brandt, 6. Tim Waltner, 7. Don Brady Jr., 8. Jordan Kott, 9. Zach Olivier, 10. Ryan Korthals, 11. Brad Hallem, 12. Jim Baartman, 13. Dustin Gulbrandson, 14. Brady Van Beek, 15. Mike Dahler, 16. Brian Hoing, 17. Chad Kuhnert, 18. Justin Smith, 19. Dereck Vanderbrink, 20. Brian Campbell

SUPER CHARGERS

Heat Winners: Keith Johnson, Tyler McFarland

Feature: 1. Laura Ebbesen, 2. Tyler McFarland, 3. Harley Bauman, 4. Joe Blake, 5. Keith Johnson, 6. Jessica Brandt, 7. Tyler Martin, 8. Scott Ecklund, 9. Kelsey Hennings