Greseth tames demanding RCS track to win 25-lap NLRA feature
Jul. 28—GRAND FORKS — To maintain his lead in the NLRA season points race, Mike Greseth faced two challenges Friday night at River Cities Speedway.
Neither was easy.
First, the Harwood, N..D., driver somehow had to get past leader Dustin Strand, who was going for his 30th NLRA win.
Second, Greseth had to tame a demanding — and technical — racing surface at The Bullring.
He accomplished both, capturing the NLRA 25-lap feature as 28 late models showed up to race. Greseth came into the evening with a 20-point lead over Strand. Greseth is shooting for his third-straight NLRA championship.
"The track was rough and fast," said Greseth. "It was a technical race track, too. It was extremely fast. It got kind of patchy in Turns 3 and 4 where you had to hit the traction."
The race took its toll on all drivers.
"You pretty much wanted to roll out of the car," said Greseth in Victory Lane. "It was so fast paced and then you come up on lapped traffic and you have to navigate that.
"But I love lapped traffic. I grew up on a little quarter-mile race track and when you come up on lapped traffic it kind of separates the field. Even if you're a straight-away behind you can catch up."
Strand started on the pole and was in command the first half of the race. But Greseth slipped past Strand on the front straightaway with nine laps to go.
Greseth edged Strand by 1.474 seconds. Strand, however, had the fastest lap time of 12.292 seconds.
Tyler Peterson finished third, followed Brody Troftgruben and Brad Seng.
Five classes were on hand for the weekly Friday show at RCS. NOSA sprints were racing in Mandan, N.D., for the weekend
In the non-wing sprint feature, Ken Hron of Grand Rapids, Minn., took the 20-lap feature as he Myles Tomlinson and Jeremy Lizakowski raced hard for the lead in the closing laps.
The feature took its toll on Hron as well.
"It was not only mentally challenging, it was physically challenging, said Hron, who edged Tomlinson by 1.810 seconds. "I can hardly get my gear off."
Lizakowski was third followed by Chris Lewis and Eric Guyot.
Dexter Dvergsten captured the lightning sprint feature. He has been dominant at RCS this season. He won his ninth overall feature and fourth at RCS.
He's looking to top his career best of 14 season wins.
Winnipeg's Austin Hunter won the Midwest modified feature. He was cruising most of the feature but the yellow flag came out on the white flag lap, bringing about a two-lap shootout.
But Hunter had enough to hold of Jamie Dietzler by 1.398 seconds.
Weston Ramsrud capitalized on some late lapped traffic to win the 20-lap street feature. He edged Seth Klostreich by 0.342 seconds.
Ramsrud's car has the word Relic written on his back bumper. And for good reason.
His car was built in 1996. But it still had enough to capture the win.
