River Cities Speedway: Back to the front

Mark Dobmeier was asked about his drought at River Cities Speedway.

It had been two weeks since Dobmeier had won a sprint feature at RCS, the track he has dominated the last few years.

The drought, if it can indeed be called that, is over.

Dobmeier turned in another of his dominating performances at RCS on Friday night, winning the 25-lap sprint feature on a fast racing surface.

"I haven't seen the drought," Dobmeier said. "I had a second and a third the last two weeks here. That just goes to show you that it's not easy out here. There are a lot of strong cars out here. You can't win them all."

Starting ninth, Dobmeier remained patient in the early going. With 14 laps to go, he passed Bob Martin for the lead coming out of Turn 2. From there, his No. 13 sprint was in control the rest of the race.

Martin, who won two weeks ago, was second, followed by Casey Mack, Chris Shriek and Wade Nygaard -- last week's winner.

Rain earlier in the day helped make a fast racing surface. However, accidents were at a minimum. Ryan Wilson of Superior, Wis., rolled his sprint in a heat race, but the feature was relatively caution-free.

For a number of laps, Lou Kennedy Jr. was battling Dobmeier for the lead.

But Kennedy hit the wall on the front straight-away as he was trying to clear some lapped traffic. His brush with the wall ended his night.

Dobmeier said racing conditions were good throughout the night.

"It was a lot better race track than we've had here the last two weeks," Dobmeier said. "It was fast. You could run the top and the bottom.

"At the beginning, I had to be patient. There were a lot of cars all over and they all were running hard. There were a couple of spots where it was pretty tight.

"But once you got out front, you could concentrate on working the fast lane of the track."

A longer drought at RCS ended in the late model feature.

Steve Anderson won the 20-lap late model feature, his first win at RCS in roughly two years.

The Grand Forks driver passed pole-sitter Tom Corcoran for the lead with five laps to go as both cars came out of Turn 4.

Patience was the key for Anderson.

"I passed Tom earlier, but the yellow came out," Anderson said. "So I just relaxed and waited until we got back in lapped traffic."

Anderson, who started fifth, was followed by Corcoran, Mike Balcaen, James SanGrait and Howie Schill.

Like the sprints, there weren't too many yellow flags in the late model feature.

"This win felt really good," said Anderson, who drew a lot of cheers from the crowd of approximately 2,000.

The hard-charger award for the night belonged to Aaron Olson, who won the 18-lap Midwest modifieds feature.

The Mekinock, N.D., driver started 12th but passed Tim Berg for the lead with seven laps to go. Berg finished second, followed by Ryan Schroeder and Zach Bruer.

The closest finish of the night came in the streets feature. Jim Geringer grabbed the lead on the last lap and finished roughly a foot in front of Tyson Anderson as the cars were side-by-side coming out of Turn 4.