The highly anticipated opening night of the Corral Sales Dakota Classic Modifed Tour treated the capacity filled grandstands to an excellent night of racing. The fans were treated to healthy car counts in both the IMCA modified (54) and IMCA Stock Car (35) divisions and a very diverse field of drivers. The heats, b mains, and last chance qualifier races all provided excellent racing but it was the feature races that were the talk of the night!
The IMCA Stock Car feature was filled with white knuckle racing action once the green flag was waved. Rick Schulz (Horace, ND) and Ryan Gaylord (Denver, CO) would set the pace for what would be an early battle of attrition as the cautions came early. One caution that caused a lot of commotion was the one between Dalton Flory and Jordan Zillmer. Flory would throw a slide job at Zillmer causing Zillmer to have to check up to avoid being driven into the outside wall and causing Zillmer to come to a stop bringing out the caution. The call would go against Flory forcing him to tag the rear of the field. It wouldn’t be long after before the flagman would show the field the yellow and black flag signaling that the feature would send any other driver causing a caution pit side. A few drivers who brought cautions after this were Travis Robertson and Andrew Jochim. Brennan Borg almost went airborne on one the restarts as he rode the front stretch wall and had three wheels off the ground at one point before bringing the car back down on all fours. Meanwhile, Jordan Zillmer would pull away from the rest of the pack for the majority of the race. Deeper in the field a determined Dalton Flory had begun to storm his way back to the front and found himself back near the top ten. Flory looked to be a man on a mission driving extremely aggressively but also very calculated but his aggressiveness would cause him to make contact with another driver causing them to spin out. This caution would be charged on Flory and would spell the end for his night. Back at the front Zachary Madrid from Phoenix Arizona had began to make his presence known and the late race cautions would reel
Zillmer back to the rest of the field. In the final laps Zillmer would hold off the hard charging Madrid but as the two took the checkered flag Jordan Zillmer’s throttle stuck wide open and would launch Zillmer off the steep corner one bank, resulting in the car going into an absolute wild barrel roll. The car would eventually come to a rest near the pit side guard rail and thankfully the driver would walk away from the scary wreck. The fact that Jordan walked away from the wreck is truly a testament of how safe the cars have become and a visibly shaken Zillmer would address the crowd in victory lane. The feature’s hard charger would be Travis Ulmer passing fifteen cars to finish fourth. Other notable drivers moving plus ten positions would be Todd Heinrich (+11), Jason Berg (+11), and Tyler Bartholomew (+10).
Meanwhile, in the IMCA modified feature, a diverse field of contenders would be led to the green flag by Kollin Hibdon (Pahrump, NV) and Eddie Belec (Arvada, CO). Belec would grab the lead early but would be hounded by the young Hibdon and the rest of the field. Two quick cautions came out early in the feature for John Correll and Dominic Ursetta. This would once again bring out the crossed yellow and black flags signaling that if you bring out the caution, you’re going to the pits. From here out a frantic battle would ensue between Belec and Hibdon. Belec would lead the way catching the rear of the field. Right as he would begin to dissect his way through the lapped traffic a caution would come out erasing the lead that he had began to accumulate. With the midrace caution, Hibdon took full advantage of starting on the rear of Belec and would steal away the lead with a pass low in the ensuing laps. With the lead Hibdon looked to burry Belec but it wasn’t Belec that Hibdon needed to be worried about. Charging on the high side was Ethan Dotsen and he was closing gap quick. Hibdon was working the remaining tac down low as Dotsen was letting his mod rip the now emerging high line. However, laps would run out for Dotsen as Hibdon would out last the finals efforts of Dotsen as the checkered flag flew. Kid Cash Kollin Hibdon would win his first ever Corral Sales Dakota Classic Modified Tour IMCA modified feature in his first ever attempt and would receive a rousing roar of approval from the
Jamestown fans. The hard charger for the IMCA modified feature would be Jeff “The Animal” Taylor (Cave City, AR) as he started eighteenth and finished eighth (+10).
The Corral Sales Dakota Classic Modified Tour heads to the Nodak Speedway in Minot, North Dakota for a double header. Both nights will feature the IMCA Stock Cars and the IMCA Modifieds.
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