Caden Appelt holds up the trophy after winning the IMCA Hobby Stock feature race at Nodak Speedway on Sunday, June 21. Appelt also captured the regular season championship, winning all seven races during the year. Photo by Nodak Hall of Famer & Past Track Photographer Betty Nordstrom. Submitted Photo

No driver had a better season at Nodak Speedway than Caden Appelt.

The Minot native dominated his home track, winning the first six IMCA Hobby Stock features to put himself in prime position to capture the overall championship on the final race night of the regular season.

Appelt built a 14-point lead over Alan Bertsch and a 15-point lead over Cash Saxson with 200 total points entering Championship Night on Sunday, June 21. Not only did Appelt come away with the IMCA Hobby Stock title, but he once again found himself in victory lane by going a perfect 7-for-7 in feature races, taking the checkered flag for his 70th career victory.

The night didn’t start well for Appelt, who didn’t finish his heat race and therefore had to start 19th among the 21 drivers. It proved not to matter, as Appelt made his way to the front of the pack during the 15-lap feature race, besting Bertsch and Colby Patterson, who finished second and third, respectively.

Bertsch finished second in the points standings in the IMCA Hobby Stock class, finishing 15 points behind Appelt with 225 points. Saxon took third with 222 points.

Appelt was one of four drivers who entered the final race of the regular season as their respective points leaders who remained at the top of the standings by the end of the night. But there was one driver who began the night second in the standings and finished at No. 1.

Nicholia Topolski leapfrogged Harrison Schwartz in the IMCA Sport Compact class with a second-place finish in the 12-lap feature race among 14 drivers. Schwartz took fourth, allowing Topolski to finish one point ahead of Schwartz in the standings with 189 points. Topolski entered the race trailing Schwartz by two points. He finished second in his heat race and started the feature in ninth. Schwartz was also second in his heat race and started 10th.

Topolski compiled four second-place finishes during the regular season, three coming in the last three races. James GIlbert won the feature race and finished sixth in the points standings with 136 points. Zach Hughbanks (186) and Landen Mikkelson (182) – both of Minot – took third and fourth in the standings, respectively.

Chad Strachen had little margin for error in the final regular season race in the IMCA Northern Sportmod class, holding a three-point lead over Keenan Glasser. The championship was down to just those two, as Darren Schatz was a distant third, 25 points back.

Strachen used all of the small buffer he had over Glasser, winning the title by a single point with 227 points. The Minot native finished the 20-lap feature race fourth, two spots behind Glasser among a field of 21 drivers. Strachen and Glasser started side by side, with the points leader beginning ninth and the runner-up 10th.

Strachen and Glasser combined for six of the eight feature wins at Nodak Speedway this season. Schatz and Sunday’s winner Tim Goodwin had the other two. Strachen and Glasser both registered six top-three finishes during the regular season, as they battled for the points lead throughout the year.

There was less drama in both the IMCA Modified and IMCA Stock Car classes, as both Steven Pfeifer and Brock Beeter held comfortable leads entering Sunday. Pfeifer wasn’t going to push the envelope unnecessarily and took sixth in the 13-driver IMCA Modified feature race. He finished one spot back of Macus Tomlinson, who was nine points behind Pfeifer in the standings.

Travis Hagen won the 25-lap race for his second consecutive trip to victory lane and fourth this season, moving him up two spots in the standings from 10th to eighth. The top seven spots remained unchanged. Gabriel Deschamp finished third overall with 208 points.

Beeter had the largest points lead entering the night, 18 points clear of Connor Hanson. That didn’t stop Beeter from racing for the win, taking second behind Kyle Scholpp in the 20-lap feature race. Seventeen drivers started the race, but only 12 finished.

Hanson finished the feature race in third and completed the regular season 16 points behind Beeter, who won the title with 225 points.

Beeter won his lone race at Nodak Speedway on May 10 and also compiled three top-three finishes to capture the championship.

Sierra Davenport made the biggest climb among any driver across all five classes, moving up from ninth to fifth, finishing with 192 points. Davenport took fourth in the feature race.

The regular season race schedule is over at Nodak Speedway, but there are still plenty of events taking place at the Playground of Power over the next two months. Nine races highlight the postseason schedule, beginning with a visit from the World Of Outlaws Late Models on Sunday, June 28, at 7 p.m. They will be accompanied by the IMCA Modifieds. Among the confirmed World of Outlaws Late Models drivers coming to Minot is Jonathan “Superman” Davenport, who is a 3-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion, a multiple World 100 winner and multiple Dirt Late Model Dream winner.