(Bill W) June 23, 2014 – “Dynamite” Mark Dobmeier did well to defend his home turf last Friday night against the World of Outlaws at the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Charging from 11th to fourth, he did more than hold his own against the best in the business. This weekend, he’ll tackle weekly shows at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa and Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota.
Mark timed in seventh quick with the Outlaws on Friday. “That makes it tough with their new format,” he says. “You start third in the heat, and you have to win it to get to the Dash.”
After finishing second in the heat, the Lunstra/Dobmeier #13 team lined up inside row six for the feature. “The track was just about absolutely perfect on Friday,” says Mark. “They tilled it up before the feature, and made a heck of a racetrack. There was a top, a bottom, and there was enough to grab onto in the middle if you had to.”
Mark was in the thick of the action for forty laps. “It was exciting to say the least,” he says. “We had three and four-wide racing, and it was full-on. It took a toll on everybody by the end. It was a blast! We only had a couple of yellows, so there were long stretches of green flag racing.”
He used those stretches to gain seven spots in the main event. “We started eleventh and kind of just picked our way forward through the field,” says Mark. “We ended up fourth at the end of it. I think if we had a yellow at the end, or had some lapped cars to work with, we could have had a crack at it. The leaders were in our sights. (Donny) Schatz made some good moves in lapped traffic, and he was able to get away from all of us.”
Saturday night, the team went with the WoO to I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. “The track was just dry and slow,” says Mark. “They had some problems with their equipment. They had a tiller break. They couldn’t get it prepped the way they wanted. We did everything we could, but we came home fifteenth.”
It was touch and go for Huset’s Speedway Sunday night, but track personnel had things ready to go after all the rains. “The floods subsided and we raced last night,” says Mark. “We had a good run. We qualified fifth, and moved up a spot in the heat, running third.”
Starting outside of row one, Mark looked to be well on his way to his second feature win of the season at Huset’s when disaster struck. “We had pretty much checked out on everyone,” he says. “We were gone. By the time the motor blew up with seven laps to go, apparently we had a three-quarters of a lap lead. We had some motor issues, and it decided to shoot rods out of the side of it.”
The Lunstra/Dobmeier team would like to thank Senske and Son Transfer, Big Trucks by Jimco, Sioux Falls Ford, Steffe’s Auctioneers, Dammer Trucking, ACME Tool, Strong Box and Tire Boss for all their help!
Attached: Mark races at River Cities (Rick Rea Photo)
- Admin Account on Jun 24, 2014
- Article Date: 6/24/2014 by Bill Wright