JACKSON, Minn. — Mark Dobmeier and Brandon Buysse both topped a stout field of competitors to earn hard-fought victories at Jackson Motorplex on Friday during the opening round of The Border Battle.
Dobmeier stayed in front throughout the 25-lap 410 Outlaw Sprint Cars feature to capture the $10,000-to-win Merle Johnson Memorial.
“This is the whole reason I’m doing it here, just the feeling you get standing right here,” he said. “We started off on the bottom for about the first lap. I had to slow down so much to stay down there. I knew that top was going to hold it. I just got up top and started ripping it.”
Brooke Tatnell, Lachlan McHugh and Tim Kaeding each spent time in the runner-up position with an eye on the big payout ahead of them. Tatnell ran second early before McHugh, who started sixth, climbed into second place on lap 11. However, Kaeding quickly rallied from fourth to second after the second-and-final caution of the race occurred on lap 12.
Dobmeier reached traffic in the waning laps and was efficient in his moves, slicing through traffic to win by 2.162 seconds while a handful of drivers waged war for a spot on the podium. McHugh pounced when Kaeding was hung up in traffic with only a couple of laps remaining to reclaim second for good.
“It was pretty fun,” he said. “It just makes it hard when you draw that six (in the feature redraw) trying to get to the front. I didn’t get off that last restart quite well enough otherwise might have had a shot at him in traffic.”
Kerry Madsen was quick to capitalize in traffic as well with a late move to garner the third finishing spot.
“It was fun,” he said. “We were just chugging around out there, trying to drive as hard as you can. You have to get your rhythm and your car and find what it does best and what it doesn’t. The car was quick in the A (Main).”
Kaeding finished fourth with Austin McCarl rounding out the top five.
Buysse led all 20 laps of the Wyffels Hybrids RaceSaver Sprint Car Series main event. However, the second half of the feature was anything but easy for the leader.
Buysse built more than a two-second lead by cruising around the bottom groove throughout the first third of the race before Wade Hansen found a higher lane that allowed him to reel in Buysse. Hansen powered into the lead on lap 13 while riding the cushion, but he got a little too high entering turn one and hit the wall to ignite a series of violent flips.
Buysse changed his line for the remainder of the race as he moved to the top groove, holding off a couple of attempts for the lead by Blaine Stegenga before Brandon Bosma chased in the runner-up position during the final five laps. Buysse’s margin of victory was 0.879 seconds.
“It feels good,” he said. “Man, what a change of events there. I was running the bottom and I could feel it getting slow, but I couldn’t hear nothing. The kid in the No. 17 just ripped it. I went high (on the restart). Blaine showed his nose a couple of times, but I figured if I could carry momentum around the top we’d be all right.
“If you win at Jackson that means you beat the best in the area. Tonight we did that.”
Bosma finished second with Matt Johnson charging from 15th to third. Stegenga was fourth and Koby Werkmeister ended fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 13-Mark Dobmeier (1); 2. 25-Lachlan McHugh (6); 3. 5-Kerry Madsen (7); 4. 3-Tim Kaeding (4); 5. 88-Austin McCarl (8); 6. 16-Brooke Tatnell (3); 7. 22-Riley Goodno (2); 8. 83-Justin Henderson (5); 9. 22K-Kaleb Johnson (13); 10. 7-Lynton Jeffrey (12); 11. 8H-Jade Hastings (18); 12. 09-Matt Juhl (10); 13. 14T-Tim Estenson (16); 14. 2KS-Chase Randall (9); 15. 11M-Brendan Mullen (11); 16. 23W-Scott Winters (20); 17. 35-Skylar Prochaska (15); 18. 3J-Dusty Zomer (19); 19. 4W-Matt Wasmund (21); 20. 5G-Gage Pulkrabek (24); 21. (DNF) 2K-Kevin Ingle (22); 22. (DNF) 05-Colin Smith (23); 23. (DNF) 24T-Christopher Thram (17); 24. (DNS) 8-Aaron Reutzel.
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