ARLINGTON, Minn. (June 1, 2024) – Mike Stien led the distance Saturday at Arlington Raceway in winning his first IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature of the season.
Stien started in the front row alongside Bruce Allen. The race behind them was Brett Allen moving forward and passing five cars to challenge. He tried to get under Stien a couple times but ran out of room on the track and settled for second ahead of Matt Johnson.
Matt Looft repeated his winning ways from the previous week, topping both IMCA Sunoco Stock Car and Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod features.
Tony Stephensmeier led the Northern SportMod feature for the first seven laps before a caution was thrown for a spinning car. The field restarted and Reimers had misfortune again spinning off the track and that ended his night.
On the restart, Looft was able to take over the lead spot and remain the leader to win with Eric Larson behind him and Jeff Lloyd taking third.
The Stock Car feature saw three different leaders and four and five cars racing side by side, lap by lap.
The early leader was Dave Moriarty with Dan Eckblad, Matt Speckman and Dan Mackenthun all in the mix. Before a caution came out.
On the restart, Speckman was the new leader but that lasted for five laps until Looft, who had started 12th. was running alongside him.
Looft took control of the race following the next restart but by only inches as the top four cars were all door handle to door handle. Ryan Bjerkeset got by Mackenthun before Speckman gave Looft a run on the high side but in the end, Looft won with Speckman taking second and Bjerkeset taking third.
The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock feature had a tough time getting started as there were two restarts in two laps. Halfway through the race, Blake Foesch rolled down the front stretch. He was OK but out of the race.
Scott Porter led early with Dan Probst right behind him. By the second time around, Probst had the lead and was able to maintain it until the white flag was displayed, when son Cory got by and went on to win just ahead of Dan. Third place went to Taylor Manderfield.
Eric Stocker had his Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact moving and led the first three laps of that feature with Gary Schumacher trying to gain on him lap by lap.
By the fourth lap, however, Nate Coopman worked his way up from his fifth place start and took over the race. Stocker held on for second ahead of Neil Forsberg.
There were four different leaders in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature.
Jason Schroeder led the first three laps and then he and JJ Reimers traded spots. Clint Hatlestad then took his turn in the lead but he had the company of Trent Loverude.
The two battled throughout but it was Loverude who came out the winner. Hatlestad took second ahead of Dan Menk.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.