Friday night racing: Mack hangs on for win

Casey Mack knew he couldn't let up. He also knew he couldn't make any mistakes.

One slip up and Mack knew he wouldn't be in Victory Lane.

That's because Mark Dobmeier was chasing Mack in the final laps of Friday night's 25-lap sprint feature at River Cities Speedway.

Mack managed to hold off Dobmeier to win his third feature of the season at RCS. The East Grand Forks driver grabbed the lead with 18 laps to go and opened a comfortable advantage before Dobmeier began to reel him in as both drivers cleanly maneuvered their way through lapped traffic.

"You always know Mark is going to be there," Mack said. "I didn't know how close he was at the end. I was just trying not to make any mistakes. Luckily, I held him off."

The feature had a different twist to it.

Dobmeier accepted a back-row challenge. He started at the back of the 21-car field and had he won he would have received an extra $1,750 raised by a handful of businesses this week.

He drove his No. 13 exceptionally hard on the white flag lap and closed to within a couple of car lengths of Mack at the checkered flag.

"I would have liked another lap or a caution flag," Dobmeier said.

After the red flag came out for a three-car pileup on the first lap, the race went green the rest of the way, which worked to Mack's advantage

Dobmeier was fifth with 15 laps to go; fourth with 12 remaining and moved into second with nine laps left. Only in the final laps was Dobmeier able to significantly close the gap on Mack.

Mack was strong throughout the race. Work in the pits after the heat races allowed Mack to help hold off Dobmeier.

"The car wasn't very good in the heat race," Mack said. "But we were hooked up in the feature. We made some changes after the heat. The car was awesome."

The win was special for Mack.

"It's only the second time I've ever beat Mark," Mack said.

Wade Nygaard finished third, followed by Greg Nikitenko and Kyle Fedyk.

Brad Seng captured the 20-lap late model feature as the Grand Forks driver passed Joey Pederson for the lead on the white flag lap. Seng made the pass in Turn 2.

Pederson, the 2009 season points champion, was shooting for his first feature win of the season at RCS. Pederson took the lead with seven laps to go, overtaking Steffen Snare and Seng as all three drivers headed into Turn 3.

The next few laps belonged to Pederson, who appeared to be in good shape for the win. But he struggled with mechanical problems the last few laps and couldn't hold off Seng.

"I feel bad for Joey," Seng said. "He was the class of the field tonight."

The closest finish of the four classes came in the Midwest modifieds division where Rod Peterson of Thief River Falls nipped Winnipeg's Paul Veert by a couple of feet. Peterson ran the high side of the track in the final few laps and was within inches of the grandstand wall when he passed Veert just before both reached the flagstand.

Patrick Sobolik was third, followed by Zach Bruer and Aaron Olson.

Jim Geringer captured the streets feature. The Harwood, N.D., driver started on the front row and held off Joe Potter, the season points leader.

Ryan Johnson was third, followed by Terry BlackLance and Dan McNamee.