RCS: A memorable first victory

It will be hard for Steffen Snare to top his first win in a late model.

In his first season of driving a late model, Snare captured the 20-lap feature before more than 3,000 fans at River Cities Speedway on Friday night -- a win coming with NASCAR veteran driver Ken Schrader in the field.

Snare started on the front row and dominated the race.

"It's pretty neat," a smiling Snare said after the race. "Things went pretty good. But I don't know how good things would have gone had we got into lapped traffic. It would have been tough."

But lapped traffic wasn't a factor for Snare, who has made only a handful of late model starts this season at RCS. He was last season's streets champion at RCS.

Schrader, meanwhile, started 10th and finished seventh but still enjoyed his appearance at the quarter-mile track.

"It's a good race track," Schrader said as he signed autographs in the pits after the race. "They have a good field of cars here and they have good race fans up here. That's what it's all about.

"I'd love to come back here and try it again."

Schrader said he was impressed by Snare's run.

"I guess he's raced (a late model) only five or six times but he did a real good job," Schrader said.

Snare said he's struggled with his No. 71 late model during the handful of times he's raced it at RCS.

"It took me half the race to figure out how to drive the car in the corners," Snare said. "The last half of the race, I got the car to stay on the bottom of the track. I figured as long as I stayed on the bottom, no one else could get around me."

Brad Seng finished second as the Grand Forks driver made the biggest charge through the field.

Seng started 11th, one spot behind Schrader. Seng also provided the car Schrader drove.

Tom Corcoran finished third, followed by Steve Anderson and Mike Balcaen.

In the 20-lap sprint feature, Mark Dobmeier picked up another win. Dobmeier started in the middle of the 20-car field and passed Ryan Wilson for the lead coming out of Turn 4 with 17 laps remaining.

Dobmeier made the pass as he battled lapped traffic.

After grabbing the lead, Dobmeier cruised. Chris Ranten finished second, followed by Chris Shirek, Jordan Graham and Dave Glennon.

There were a handful of cautions in the race.

But the caution flag was waved continuously during the 18-lap Midwest modifieds feature, won by Cote Haugland.

The field couldn't complete more than two laps before RCS officials decided to cut the race to two laps. It took approximately 20 minutes to complete the four laps because of all the spin outs.

Aaron Olson, the season points leader, finished second, followed by Tony Byzewski.

A near photo finish highlighted the streets feature, won by Jim Geringer.

Geringer trailed Tyson Anderson for most of the 15-lap feature but caught him as the driv-ers came out of Turn 4 on the last lap.

Geringer's margin of victory wasn't by much more than a foot.