Racing at the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota is often delayed far into the spring. Contrary to the plight of Knoxville Raceway in Iowa, however, they did get their opener in last weekend. Mark Dobmeier was in attendance at both tracks, scoring a second place finish on the River Cities bullring. This weekend, the Jimco Motorsports #13 is planning three stops. The FVP National Sprint League will be competing at Eagle Raceway in Nebraska Friday and Knoxville on Saturday. On Sunday, Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota hopes to get their 410 opener in.
There was little moisture in the track when racing began on Friday. Mark would start sixth in his heat. “It’s probably the hardest track I’ve ever raced on at River Cities,” says the all-time feature winner at the venue. “It was laying rubber in the heats. There were some small holes in the corners down low, and that’s the only moisture we could get out of it. We were bouncing through them and spinning on the straightaways. We managed to get from sixth to third. That was all we were going to get out of that.”
Some water was added before the main event. “There was a big argument about the lineup,” says Mark. “I just sat back and watched. We ended up starting third. They sprinkled the track…their tractor was broken so they couldn’t till it up. Actually, the water made the track come back a little better than we thought.”
Mark was able to get in familiar territory leading the feature. “I was able to get out front, and we led the majority of the race,” he says. “I was kind of ‘putzing’ around on the bottom in the holes, doing the same thing I was in the heat. In the lead, you don’t search the track very much.”
Unfortunately, Wade Nygaard did have that luxury. “The middle groove started laying rubber, and Wade was able to sneak around me,” says Mark. “I hooked a hole in one and two with the right rear and I bobbled. That’s when he got by me. It was follow the leader until then. Wade did a good job searching the track when he was coming through the field and found it before we did.”
Saturday saw the team make the ten hour one-way haul to Knoxville. Unfortunately an early evening shower ended any hope of getting in the opener. “We were all the way down to Knoxville to watch it rain,” says Mark. “I will say that Ryan Grinde was up on the wheel. We were the first ones to leave the racetrack. I have to commend him on his truck driving skills getting out of there. We were home by 4:20 a.m.!”
Jimco Motorsports would like to thank Senske & Son Transfer, Big Trucks by Jimco, Right Choice Electric, Acme Tools, X-treme Polishing, Interstate Towing & Recovery, B/L Strong Box, Steffes, Dahlstrom Motors, GLB Transport, Tireboss, Forx Radiator, Anderson Auto Body, Gary Gruhot Farms, Willow Ridge, Rose Creek, Great Plains Plumbing & Heating, Ironman Welding, DAV, Rendezvous Region Construction, High Mark Snowmobile Rentals, Boss Signs & Graphics and Dobmeier Bonding for all their help!
Attached: Mark races at River Cities (Rick Rea - www.RickRea.com Photo)
Bill W Media
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- administrator on May 07, 2015
- Article Date: 5/5/2015 by Bill Wright