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Action packed racing

Locals fend off Thornton Jr. in the third week at Nodak

AP Photo Robby Rosselli (yellow) brings Heat 2 of the IMCA Sports Mods to the green flag Sunday evening at Nodak Speedway in Minot. Rosselli won the heat and placed second in the main feature.

Rain washed away the debut of the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) at the Devils Lake Speedway on Saturday night. Their loss was Nodak Speedway’s gain on Sunday, as the central region points leading Ricky Thornton Jr. brought his No. 20rt modified machine into Minot.

However, the locals weren’t going to back down and provided some of the best racing all season at Nodak Speedway in week three of the weekly points racing.

After finishing fourth in his heat race, Thornton Jr. spiced up the IMCA Modifieds main event by storming from behind to take fifth behind winner Jason Wolla. He also took second-place between the Flory father-son duo in an exciting ICMA Stock Cars A feature.

Other feature winners including Kevin Tvedt in the IMCA Hobby Stocks, Robbie Conway in the IMCA Sport Mods and Joe Flory in the IMCA Stock Cars.

Points leader going into the day in the Modifieds was Robert Hellebust. After a sixth-place finish in his heat, Hellebust convincingly won the B feature ahead of Roy Spielman and Trent Guest to make the main event.

Modifieds main pole-sitter Chase Conway broke away from the field in the first five of the 25-lap race before getting pulled back by a caution. Wolla powered his way into the lead on lap 11.

That looked like the decisive winning move until Chase Conway spun around with four laps left. Yet, Wolla held off Travis Hagen for his second win of the season at Nodak.

In the Hobby Stocks main feature, a trio of Tvedt, Jason Olson and Dustin Hoffert broke free from the pack early. But, after a caution with seven and then five laps to go, everyone was grouped back together and allowed Andrew Bertsch to get into the mix.

The restart on the outside for Bertsch got him past Hoffert, only to be greeted with another caution. The next restart Bertsch went after Tvedt, but another crash in the middle of turn three drew the third caution flag on lap five and finished the race under yellow due to meeting the time limit.

It was going to be a hard ask to keep the hard-charging Bertsch behind him in the final laps, but Tvedt arguably got a little luck from above to visit the winner’s circle for the first time since his father passed away at the start of the season.

Hoffert was credited with second place with Bertsch in third, Olsen in fourth and Vance Tomlinson rounded out the Top 5. B feature winner Dana Brandt slotted into sixth.

The IMCA Sport Mods feature was way more straightforward and stayed green the entire 20 laps. Heat 1 winner Robbie Conway picked up his first win of the year going away from Heat 2 winner Robby Rosselli.

Heat winner Joren Boyce got around pole-sitter and Heat 3 winner Scott Yale on the second lap of the 20-lap Stock Cars main feature. But, Yale wouldn’t go away. He took the lead back with 13 laps remaining.

Dalton Flory arrived on the scene up front joining Yale and Boyce with 10 laps to go. A caution with nine laps to go, bunched the field back up behind the trio, which including season points leader Joe Flory and Thornton Jr.

Joe Flory went from fourth to first on the following restart using the bottom lane, as his son Dalton pushed the field up the race track in the first corner. Thornton Jr. followed him through and eventually got around Dalton to slot into second.

Sandwiched between the Flory’s, Thornton Jr. did everything he could to get around Joe but he couldn’t get anything to stick and that’s how the Top 3 finished. Joe Flory went from last to first to win his heat race as well.

Racing resumes next Sunday with the four featured classes, plus late models and sport compacts at 6 p.m. Prior to that, the drivers will also have a practice night at Nodak Speedway from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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