GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Making his first sprint car start in more than a year after suffering a back injury, Mark Dobmeier triumphed during Thursday’s Northern Outlaw Sprint Ass’n feature at River Cities Speedway.
Starting sixth aboard his own No. 13 during the opening night of the Wayne Anderson Cup, Dobmeier quickly moved up to third by lap four while Tim Estenson led the opening laps.
Estenson’s luck soon ran out as he flipped his No. 14T in front of the flag stand with four laps completed. That moved Jack Croaker into the top spot for the ensuing restart, followed by Dobmeier in second.
Croaker held the lead on the restart, but the caution waved again for a spinning car on the frontstretch with seven laps completed. Dobmeier made his move during the next restart, rocketing under Croaker through turns three and four to snatch the lead away on the eighth circuit.
The caution flag would wave three more times, but no one would catch Dobmeier as he held off Brendan Mullen to earn his 166th series victory.
“Just to get racing was amazing, but the feeling you get when you pull something like that off is just unreal,” Dobmeier said in victory lane. “It’s just a great way to come back. Just to get that feeling back in the car again and get it ripping and once you hit the cushion a couple times, two or three laps, that dust blew right off the wing and away we go.”
Defending series champion Jade Hastings was third, followed by Wade Nygaard and Austin Pierce.
Thursday’s race was broadcast live by SPEED SPORT TV affiliate River Cities Speedway TV. The Northern Outlaw Sprint Ass’n will be back in action tonight for round two of the Wayne Anderson Cup. That event will also be broadcast live by River Cities Speedway TV.
The finish:
Mark Dobmeier, Brendan Mullen, Jade Hastings, Wade Nygaard, Austin Pierce, Jack Croaker, Shane Roemeling, Riley Goodno, Blake Egeland, Jordan Adams, Nick Omdahl, Jordan Graham, Reed Allex, Travis Strandell, Zach Omdahl, Taylor Forbes, Josh Swangler, Nick Otto, Tom Egeland, Lee Grosz, Nick Ranten, Bob Martin, Tim Estenson.