7/14/2017
Norman County Raceway
Grove Scores First Career Sport Mod Win at Norman County Raceway
ADA, Minn. (July 13, 2017) – Shelly, Minnesota’s Taylor Grove picked up his first career IMCA SportMod feature win Thursday night at Norman County Raceway. The driver affectionately referred to as “The One-Armed Bandit,” after a farming accident at a young age left him without his left arm.
That hasn’t slowed down Grove, however. The second-year SportMod driver started outside of the front row for the Titan Machinery SportMod main event before taking the lead in the early going.
“When the first caution came out, I could hear that all the fast guys were moving up the running order so I thought, oh great,” said Grove. “Then the caution they were moved even more.”
Despite that, Grove was able to hold his own against Norman County Raceway’s best.
In the closing laps, Andy Wagner looked to make a charge on Grove, but Grove’s No. 1RM was too fast on the smooth and tacky racing surface.
“It was happiness. It was excitement,” said Grove of his drive into KRJB/KRJM Victory Lane. “The littlest things have hurt us all year long. It was finally nice that everything stayed together. Boy, it’s nice to finally get one.”
After three big heat races, the Christian Motors WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds rolled out for their feature with 18 cars on the starting grid. Brock Gronwold led the field to the green before taking the lead on the opening lap.
Once out front, Gronwold never looked back as he went on to lead all 16 circuits around the three-eighths mile oval.
Fourth place starter, Jamie Dietzler moved into the second spot on lap two and tried to chase down Gronwold throughout the remainder of the event. In the closing laps, Dietzler made a charge on Gronwold, closing to within a second.
As the checkers flew from the Frandsen Bank and Trust Flagstand, Gronwold took the win by just over seven-tenths of a second.
Tim Church topped Brandon Schmidt in the Christian Brothers Ford IMCA Hobby Stock feature. The win marked Church’s third win in a row and ninth win overall in 2017.
Aaron Olson picked up his ninth NCR win of 2017 to remain undefeated in Norman County Implement IMCA Stock Car action. Olson topped Rick Schulz, as Rob VanMil rounded out the podium.
Dale Kraling started on the pole and led every lap of the Sanders Metal Products IMCA Modified feature to pick up the win. Kraling held off Brady Petermann by 1.527 seconds at the line to become the fifth driver in NCR history to have a WISSOTA Modified and IMCA Modified win to his credit.
SUMMARY
IMCA Modifieds:
A Feature 1: 1. 7-Dale Kraling, [1]; 2. 88B-Brady Petermann, [3]; 3. E85-Jason Strand, [5]; 4. 4V-Billy Vogel, [8]; 5. 25-Jamie Trautner, [4]; 6. 84-Michael Johnson, [2]; 7. 71-Trent Grager, [6]; 8. 60-Tyler Hall, [7]
Heat 1: 1. 84-Michael Johnson, [2]; 2. 88B-Brady Petermann, [1]; 3. 7-Dale Kraling, [4]; 4. E85-Jason Strand, [6]; 5. 25-Jamie Trautner, [5]; 6. 71-Trent Grager, [7]; 7. 60-Tyler Hall, [3]; 8. 4V-Billy Vogel, [8]
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
A Feature 1: 1. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [1]; 2. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [4]; 3. 2S-Matt Schow, [7]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [11]; 5. 16-Skyler Smith, [9]; 6. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [3]; 7. 28S-Ryan Schow, [13]; 8. 6-Dean Eggebraaten, [12]; 9. 00-Steve Hougard, [17]; 10. 22S-Tyler Schow, [18]; 11. 11-Larry Samuelson, [14]; 12. 19D-Noah Metzger, [16]; 13. (DNF) 50H-Haley Lee, [8]; 14. (DNF) 188-Hunter Hougard, [2]; 15. (DNF) 68-Joe Henninger, [6]; 16. (DNF) 33N-Jeff Nelson, [5]; 17. (DNF) 6D-Dylan Goplen, [10]; 18. (DNF) 33-Brennan Urbach, [15]
Heat 1: 1. 50H-Haley Lee, [1]; 2. 33N-Jeff Nelson, [2]; 3. 16-Skyler Smith, [3]; 4. 6D-Dylan Goplen, [6]; 5. 28S-Ryan Schow, [4]; 6. 19D-Noah Metzger, [5]
Heat 2: 1. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [1]; 2. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [2]; 3. 188-Hunter Hougard, [4]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [6]; 5. 11-Larry Samuelson, [5]; 6. (DNF) 00-Steve Hougard, [3]
Heat 3: 1. 39-Jamie Dietzler, [1]; 2. 2S-Matt Schow, [4]; 3. 68-Joe Henninger, [2]; 4. 6-Dean Eggebraaten, [6]; 5. 33-Brennan Urbach, [3]; 6. (DNF) 22S-Tyler Schow, [5]
IMCA Hobby Stocks
A Feature 1: 1. 21-Tim Church, [2]; 2. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [4]; 3. 31X-Tim Shiek, [5]; 4. 37N-Nick Nelson, [3]; 5. 14-Alyssa White, [1]; 6. (DNF) 069-Kalvin Kesselberg, [6]
Heat 1: 1. 21-Tim Church, [3]; 2. 219-Brandon Schmidt, [5]; 3. 37N-Nick Nelson, [4]; 4. 31X-Tim Shiek, [6]; 5. 14-Alyssa White, [2]; 6. 069-Kalvin Kesselberg, [1]
IMCA Sport Mods:
A Feature 1: 1. 1RM-Taylor Grove, [2]; 2. 3X-Andy Wagner, [6]; 3. 8J-Luke Johnson, [8]; 4. 44D-Chris VanMil, [7]; 5. 51-Kelly Jacobson, [4]; 6. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [5]; 7. 76-Reile Sailer, [10]; 8. 13C-Paul Colvin, [1]; 9. (DNF) 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [11]; 10. (DNF) 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [9]; 11. (DNF) 22-Vince Jegtvig, [3]
Heat 1: 1. 51-Kelly Jacobson, [2]; 2. 8J-Luke Johnson, [4]; 3. 3X-Andy Wagner, [3]; 4. 1RM-Taylor Grove, [1]; 5. 76-Reile Sailer, [5]; 6. 12T-Brandon Tendeland, [6]
Heat 2: 1. 3S-Jesse Skalicky, [5]; 2. 22-Vince Jegtvig, [2]; 3. 3W-Aaron Wetterlin, [3]; 4. 44D-Chris VanMil, [4]; 5. 13C-Paul Colvin, [1]
IMCA Stock Cars:
A Feature 1: 1. 14-Aaron Olson, [3]; 2. 4-Rick Schulz, [2]; 3. 40-Rob VanMil, [5]; 4. 187-Eric Lundon, [6]; 5. 76Z-John Sandvig, [1]; 6. (DNF) 1-Kelly Jacobson, [7]; (DNS) 76-Bob Fuegmann,
Heat 1: 1. 4-Rick Schulz, [2]; 2. 14-Aaron Olson, [4]; 3. 40-Rob VanMil, [6]; 4. 76-Bob Fuegmann, [5]; 5. 76Z-John Sandvig, [1]; 6. 187-Eric Lundon, [7]; 7. (DNF) 1-Kelly Jacobson, [3]
Article Credit: Mike Spieker
Submitted By: Scott Sailer