Searing wins Challenge Cup XX

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HURON — The winningest driver in Dakota State Fair Speedway history thought he had added to his victory total during Challenge Cup XX presented by Prostrollo GM held Saturday at the Huron oval.

Kent Arment of Aberdeen pulled away during the closing laps of the Repairablevehicles.com Tri-State Late Model Series 35-lap feature race to claim what would have been career win No. 194 at DSFS.

Unfortunately, when he crossed the scales following the race, he came up a few pounds short of the required minimum what that had to be met, thus handing the win to Huron’s Cole Searing.

The main event kind of got off to rocky start, as on just the second lap flagman Mike Hasart was hit by flying debris and needed to be examined by emergency medical personel be for the race could resume.

Two more on-track incidents slowed the field of 25-late models before the first five laps were in the books.

Searing, who was second during a 30-lap feature race on Thursday, capitalized on the third of the three restarts to snag lead after starting sixth. He used the low groove coming out of turn four to wrestle the top spot away from Arment and led for the next 10 laps before Arment regained the top spot with a pass in the low groove of the second turn.

Searing ran in second for four laps until Blair Nothdurft of Renner claimed the spot. However, Nothdurft would bring out the fourth caution of the race just five laps later after suffering a flat tire from contact with a lapped vehicle..

With just 12 laps remaining when the field roared back up to speed, Searing pressured Arment for the lead once again, but wasn’t able to keep pace as Arment pulled away for the apparent win and the $5,000 top prize.

As the crowd waited for the top two drivers to return to the track for the trophy presentation, it was Searing, who emerged first, with Trevor Anderson of Watertown following.

“We set up pretty conservative, I thought the track was going to hold more tack than it did,” Searing said. “Arment was really good in the beginning and then I kind of faded. The the bottom took rubber more, so I just kind of held on.

“We did a lot of math over there (in the pit area) just to make sure we were going to make weight at the end,” he said.

It was the first Tri-State Late Model Series win for Searing. He now has total of 22 career wins at Dakota State Fair Speedway.

Anderson, who leads the series points standings, was second, followed by Dustin Arthur of St. Lawrence.

Rounding out the top fie were Josh Skorczewski of Aberdeen and Nate Beyenhof of Rock Rapids, Iowa, who worked his way to fifth after starting 22nd in the field.

Winning the late model heat races were Searing, Chad Olsen of Hendricks, Minn., Scott Ward of Watertown and Tyler Myers of Harrisburg. Chad Becker of Aberdeen won the 10-lap B-main event.

Despite getting caught up in a mishap, which did extensive sheet metal damage to his driver-side door panel in the heat race, Trevor Nelson of Warner was able to return with a vengeance during the WISSOTA super stock main event Saturday.

Nelson started 10th in the 15-car field, but needed just four laps to reach the front of the field. He passed pole-sitter Blake Whitlock of Watertown on the low side in turn two during the fourth lap of the 15-lap feature race and led the rest of the way.

Nelson now has two wins at DSFS with his first coming back in 2016.

Whitlock held on for the second spot, while Casey Hanson of Badger was third. Stewart Schipke of Aberdeen was fourth, followed by Nathan Grehl of Hitchcock.

Whitlock and Brad Kopecky of Miller claimed wins in the super stock heat races.

Scott Hansen of Garden City led from start to finish in the 15-lap WISSOTA Midwest modified feature race on Saturday to earn his sixth feature win at the track and first since 2017. He started fourth in the 22-car field and was able to move to the front on the opening lap.

Lorin Johnson of Miller, who was seeking his 100th career win at the Huron track, followed Hansen to the front, but wasn’t able to keep pace with the leader. He finished second for the second consecutive outing at DSFS.

Tracy Johnson of Lake Preston, who started 10th, capitalized on a restart with five laps remaining to claim the third spot in the final standings. Jayme Peterson of Highmore and Lindsey Hansen of Watertown were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Claiming wins in the Midwest modified heat races were Scott Hansen, Dawson Zabel of Selby and Lindsey Hansen.

The next slated event at Dakota State Fair Speeway will be the Race Cars & Hot Seeds Night on July 4. The program will include the WISSOTA late models, modifieds, Midwest modifieds and street stocks.

The Tri-State Late Model Series will return to Huron on Aug. 20 for the Bauman Agency Harvest of Champions event.

Dakota State Fair Speedway
June 4 results

WISSOTA Midwest Modified
Heat 1: 1, Scott Hansen, Garden City; 2, Matt Heinzerling, Spearfish; 3, Lorin Johnson, Miller; 4, Tracy Johnson, Lake Preston; 5, Chad Kopfmann, Alpena; 6, Brandon Hoftiezer, Ft. Pierre; 7, Logan Redlin, Watertown; (did not finish) 8, Tyler Bitz, Aberdeen.

Heat 2: 1, Dawson Zabel, Selby; 2, Cory Berquist, Huron; 3, Damon Hoftiezer, Ft. Pierre; 4, Dustin Johnson, Mitchell; 5, Jayme Peterson, Highmore; (did not finish) 6, Adam Brotherton, Huron; (disqualified) Tony Terrill, Clark.
Heat 3: 1, Lindsey Hansen, Watertown; 2, Britt Williams, Ft. Pierre; 3, Blake Meyer, Huron; 4, Jake Wranek, Winner; 5, Jordan Kienow, Miller; 6, Payden Scott, Ft. Pierre; 7, Joel Reiter, Kimball.
Main event: 1, S. Hansen; 2, L. Johnson; 3, T. Johnson; 4, Peterson; 5, L. Hansen; 6, Wranek; 7, Meyer; 8, Zabel; 9, Berquist; 10, Hoftiezer; 11, Kienow; 12, Williams; 13, Kopfmann; 14, B. Hoftiezer; 15, D. Johnson; 16, Redlin; 17, Reiter; 18, Terrill; (did not finish) 19, Scott; 20, Bitz; 21, Heinzerling; 22, Brotherton.

WISSOTA Super Stock
Heat 1: 1, Blake Whitlock, Watertown; 2, Nathan Grehl, Hitchcock; 3, Matt Johnson, Aberdeen; 4, Dale Tomes, Dell Rapids; 5, Robin Schmitt, Redfield; (did not finish) 6, Trevor Nelson, Warner; 7, Austin Arbogast, Huron; 8, Stewart Schipke, Aberdeen.
Heat 2: 1, Brad Kopecky, Miller; 2, Casey Hanson, Badger; 3, Doug VanLiere, Madison; (did not finish) 4, Jeremy North, Huron; 5, Alan Malsam, Mobridge; 6, Derek Zastrow, Gann Valley; (disqualified) Dave Duff, Redfield.
Main event: 1, Nelson; 2, Whitlock; 3, Hanson; 4, Schipke; 5, Grehl; 6, Tomes; 7, Arbogast; 8, Malsam; 9, Johnson; (did not finish) 10, Kopecky; 11, Zastrow; 12, Duff; 13, Schmitt; 14, VanLiere; 15, North.

Tri-State Late Models
Heat 1: 1, Cole Searing, Huron; 2, Kent Arment, Aberdeen; 3, Trevor Walsh, Watertown; 4, Morgan Ward-Grosz, Watertown; 5, Justin Boomsma, Huron; 6, Chad Becker, Aberdeen; 7, Kyle Jensen, Brookings; 8, Kelly Duffy, Winner.
Heat 2: 1, Chad Olsen, Hendricks, Minn.; 2, Dustin Arthur, St. Lawrence; 3, Gary Brown Jr., Brandon; 4, Bryce Sward, Nelson, Minn.; 5, Dylan Fitzpatrick, Magnolia, Minn.; 6, Josh Rogotzke, Sanborn, Minn.; 7, Robert Bitz, Aberdeen; (did not finish) 8, Nate Beyenhof, Rock Rapids, Iowa.
Heat 3: 1, Scott Ward, Watertown; 2, Blair Nothdurft, Renner; 3, Trevor Anderson, Watertown; 4, Josh Skorczewski, Aberdeen; 5, Ryan Engels, Watertown; 6, Luke Sathoff, Jackson, Minn.; 7, Jared Jelsma, Springfield; 8, Toodd Fuerstenau, Watertown.
Heat 4: 1, Tyler Myers, Harrisburg; 2, Lane Brenden, Mitchell; 3, Brad Vogt, Pierce, Neb.; 4, Justin Karlen, Howard; 5, Shane DeMey, Denison, Iowa; 6, Scott Borstad, Volga; (did not finish) 7, Brandon Sprinkel, Highmore; (did not start) Mike Babcock, Creighton, Neb.
B-main event (top 5 transfer): 1, Becker; 2, Beyenhof; 3, Duffy; 4, Sathoff; 5, Rogotzke; 6, Jensen; 7, Jelsma; 8, Borstad; 9, Bitz; (did not finish) 10, Fuerstenau; 11, Sprinkel; (did not start) Babcock.
Main event: 1, Searing; 2, Anderson; 3, Arthur; 4, Skorczewski; 5, Beyenhof; 6, Sward; 7, Becker; 8, DeMey; 9, Olsen; 10, Sathoff; 11, Ward-Grosz; 12, Duffy; 13, Engels; 14, Nothdurft; 15, Brenden; 16, Karlen; 17, Jelsma; 18, Fitzpatrick; 19, Ward; 20, Vogt; 21, Brown Jr.; 22, Walsh; 23, Boomsma; (disqualified) Arment.