AUTO RACING: Speten finally wins a feature

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Before Sunday, Troy Speten had accumulated lots of points and lots of top-five finishes racing at Mandan's Dacotah Speedway this summer. But he had no feature wins.

The 21-year-old Legends driver from Wilton broke that drought on the second night of the North Dakota Governor's Stock Car Classic.

Speten rolled to an impressive win Sunday, more than making up for the 16th-place finish he had in the previous night's feature.

"It took a long time, but it feels really good to finally get a win here," said Speten, who is in second place in the Dacotah Speedway's Legends points standings. "Especially after what happened last night. I got hit during the race and my car didn't run all that well after that. But I came back with a good run tonight."

Speten led after each lap of the 15-lap feature. He and his older brother Nathan have combined for six feature wins at Mandan this summer. Troy Speten has four second-place finishes.

Speten, last year's Semi-Pro Legends national champion, is in the running for the national title in the Pro division. He is currently in third place.

"A win always helps when you're talking national points," Speten said. "This is the first time I've won here this year, but I've won at other places. And I've finished high quite a few times, too. Overall, it's been a good year. I'm hoping to finish it off strong."

Speten trails Speedway points leader, Tom Wagner of Mercer, by five points.

One driver who has grown accustomed to winning features at Mandan is Carrington's Kelly Hagel, who posted his second WISSOTA Street Stocks win in as many nights Sunday, and his sixth this summer. Hagel, who was the weekend's only double-winner, hadn't won a feature at the Governor's Classic until this year.

"I'm excited to say the least," Hagel said. "I came here hoping to do good, but I didn't expect two feature wins. This track has been awfully good to me. The conditions this weekend were probably the best they've been all year."

The two wins helped Hagel extend his lead to 28 points over second-place Brian Swenson of Bismarck in the Speedway standings.

For the second night in a row, Rusty Kollman of Carrington had to settle for second place behind his friend and rival. Kollman was right on Hagel's tail with less than two laps to go, but Hagel held him off.

"I knew Rusty would be there," Hagel said. "We've been going at it all year, and not just here."

Steven Pfeifer of Bowbells appeared to be on his way to a second feature win in the Modifieds class, but was denied by mechanical problems. He led after each of the first 18 laps of the 25-lap final, but Trent Johnson of Mohall passed him on 19. One lap later, Pfeifer left the track and didn't return. Johnson held on for the win.

Brad Seng of Grand Forks claimed top honors in the 25-lap Late Models feature, outlasting Saturday night's winner, Blaine Doppler of Menoken. Seng finished second on opening night.

Deen Brecht of Golden Valley went wire-to-wire in the Hobby Stocks feature.

Overall Classic champions were Jeff Vogel of Marion in Hobby Stocks; Paul Huettl of Bismarck in Legends; Hagel in Street Stocks; Marlyn Seidler of Underwood in Modifieds, and Seng in Late Models.

Hobby Stocks

Heat 1: 1. Deen Brecht, Golden Valley. 2. Jeff Vogel, Marion. 3. Lucas Rodin, Jamestown. 4. Ron Joern, Bismarck. 5. James Lawson, Bismarck.

Heat 2: 1. Travis Olheiser, Dickinson. 2. Eugene Halverson, Bismarck. 3. Scott Gartner, Mandan. 4. Zach Frederick, Golden Valley. 5. Matt Brendel.

Feature: 1. Brecht. 2. Brendel. 3. Lawson. 4. Vogel. 5. Matt Dosch, Bismarck.

Legends

Heat 1: 1. Ivan Sailer, Bismarck. 2. Bill Hultberg, Bismarck. 3. Donavin Wiest, Wishek. 4. Troy Speten, Wilton. 5. Tom Wagner, Mercer.

Heat 2: 1. Nathan Speten, Wilton. 2. Paul Morman, Wishek. 3. Paul Huettl, Bismarck. 4. Glen Hellebust, Bismarck. 5. Justin Batzer, Minot.

Feature: 1. Troy Speten. 2. Huettl. 3. Wiest. 4. Hultberg. 5. Hellebust.

WISSOTA Street Stocks

Heat 1: 1. Rusty Kollman, Carrington. 2. Nate Keena, Bismarck. 3. Kelly Hagel, Carrington. 4. Brian Swenson, Bismarck. 5. Richard Jordan, Dickinson.

Heat 2: 1. Travis Ulmer, Dickinson. 2. Randy Meyer, Bismarck. 3. Craig Ohlhauser, Mandan. 4. Barrett Berg, Lincoln. 5. James Wall, Winkler, Manitoba.

Heat 3: 1. David Falkenstein, Wilton. 2. John Feist, Bismarck. 3. Josh Olheiser, Dickinson. 4. Rory Opp, Hannaford. 5. Carrie Mundahl, Bismarck.

Consi: 1. Geoff Hellman, Mandan. 2. Shawn Volk, Bismarck. 3. Rick Johnson, Bismarck. 4. Henry Peters, Morden, Sask. 5. Brad Kadrmas, Bismarck. 6. John Weber, Linton.

Feature: 1. Hagel. 2. Kollman. 3. Olheiser. 4. Meyer. 5. Ulmer.

Modifieds

Heat 1: 1. Aaron Turnbull, Estevan, Sask. 2. Trent Johnson, Mohall. 3. Leo Burkhardsmeier, Bismarck. 4. Mark Dahl, Bismarck. 5. Eric Folstad, Glenburn.

Heat 2: 1. Hank Berry, Sidney, Mont. 2. Shawn Strand, Bismarck. 3. Jarret Wold, Arnegard. 4. Tim Perkins, Bismarck. 5. Spencer Wilson, Minot.

Heat 3: 1. Tyson Turnbull, Estevan. 2. Marlyn Seidler, Underwood. 3. John Gartner Jr., Bismarck. 4. Darrell Bauer, Mandan. 5. Steven Kuntz, Bismarck.

Heat 4: 1. Ben Seidler, Underwood. 2. Robert Hellebust, West Fargo. 3. Troy Kittler, Turtle Lake. 4. Steve Pfeifer, Bowbells. 5. Drew Christianson, Minot.

Consi 1: 1. Herb Bargmann, Bismarck. 2.Wilson. 3. Troy Heupel, Williston. 4. Peter Bradley, Williston.

Consi 2: 1. Kittler. 2. Kuntz. 3. Paul Schulz, Washburn. 4. Troy Butz, Bismarck.

Feature: 1. Trent Johnson. 2. M. Seidler. 3. Strand. 4. Berry. 5. B. Seidler.

Late Models

Heat 1: 1. Wayne Johnson, Minot. 2. Casey Meyer, Wahpeton. 3. Hank Berry, Sidney. 4. Harold Schill, West Fargo. 5. Tom Corcoran, East Grand Forks, Minn.

Heat 2: 1. Troy Schill, Grand Forks. 2. Brad Seng, Grand Forks. 3. Steven Pfeifer, Bowbells. 4. Paul Mueller, Bismarck. 5. Ricky Weiss, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Heat 3: 1. Jeremy Keller, Bismarck. 2. Mike Johnson, Moorhead, Minn. 3. Cody Skytland, Edmore. 4. Blaine Doppler, Menoken. 5. Troy Heupel, Williston.

Feature: 1. Seng. 2. Doppler. 3. Pfeifer. 4. W. Johnson. 5. H. Schill.

Overall Governor's Classic champions

Hobby Stocks: Jeff Vogel, Marion.

Legends: Paul Huettl, Bismarck.

WISSOTA Street Stocks: Kelly Hagel, Carrington.

Modifieds: Marlyn Seidler, Underwood.

Late Models: Brad Seng, Grand Forks.

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