This past Friday night was a special night in the history of Wagner Speedway, honoring the memory of a former racer, long-time race official and flagman at the track, Randy Meiers. During his racing days, Randy won four features, but his legacy would be in his countless hours working as an official, then head flagman at Wagner. Randy succumbed to cancer this past March, but his memory lives on. Numerous friends and family members joined fans for a great night of racing and two classes holding twin features, including the Randy Meiers Memorial IMCA Hobby Stock twin feature, with all the action sponsored by Rog's Auto of Wagner.

The evening began with the first of two feature events in the Mark's Machinery IMCA Stock Cars. The opening act was a makeup from a rain date on July 23rd. Brady Wenzlaff (Yankton) used his front row starting spot to dart to the lead, then held off a serious challenge from Todd Gereau (Sioux City, IA), who started ninth on the grid, to pick up win number four of the season. Following Wenzlaff and Gereau across the line were Taylor Blom (Corsica), Joel Namminga (Avon) and Brenton Palmer (Sioux City, IA).

Following all of the regularly scheduled heat races, feature events would begin with the Roth Custom Farming IMCA Hobby Stock A main. This race would be a normal format with track and IMCA points up for grabs. It would also set the starting lineup for the second feature of the night. All cars that finish under power in this race would have a complete invert for the second feature, with cars that did not finish under power lining up behind the inverted cars.

The early stages of the event were led by Joel Magee (Palm Beach Gardens, FL), only to drop out to mechanical failure. This gave the lead to Jordan Vosika (Gregory), only to have him drop out with troubles. Tony Fetterman (Elk Point) took advantage of these drivers bad luck and won the event, starting from the 11th position. Jeremy Ertman (Haywarden, IA), in his first visit to the speedway, also moved up 10 spots to finish in second. Mike Hanson (Meckling), Stephanie Reynolds (Norfolk, NE) and Derik Rolston (Wagner) rounded out the top five. Heats were won by Toby Ives (Verdigre, NE), Joel Magee and Mike Hanson.

The Ponca Valley Seeds IMCA Northern Sport Mods would come down to another night of Dudley Schroeder, Jr (Armour, SD) and Josh Pfeifer (St Paul, NE). All but one race this season has had these two drivers finish either first or second. The one night they went second and third, is when 67-year-old Jerry Pfeifer (Spencer, NE) won the event, with his son Josh second and Schroeder, Jr. third.

Near the midway point of the event, these two would start side by side behind leader Kendell McCarthy (Naper, NE) on a restart. Once the green was in the air, Schoreder, Jr was a rocket ship and cruised to his sixth win of the season. Pfeifer would settle for a strong second, with Kirk Beatty (Sioux City, IA) managing a third, Matt Esterling (Sioux Falls) taking fourth and Kendell McCarthy rounding out the top five. Heats were won by Dudley Schroeder, Jr and Josh Pfeifer.

Conner Brown (Yankton) would continue his winning ways in the Payer Livestock IMCA Sport Compacts on Friday. Win number six of the season would happen after he overtook Aaron "Bear" Wilson halfway through the event. Wilson would garner second with Taylor Brown (Yankton) rounding out the top three. Aaron Wilson won the heat.

In arguably the best feature of the evening, the Mark's Machinery IMCA Stock Cars, Joey Jaton (Wagner, SD) would hold off numerous challenges for the last half of the race by Brady Wenzlaff, Todd Gereau and Greg Taylor (Sioux City, IA). Numerous times, there were four cars, battling door to door and bumper to bumper at high speeds that left fans on the edge of their seats. When the checkers flew, Joey Jaton crossed the line first, but because of a rules violation bypassing the tech area and going directly to his pit stall, Jaton would be disqualified from his strong showing. This would give the win to Brady Wenzlaff, his second of the evening. Rounding out the top five would be Todd Gereau, Greg Taylor, Justin Schenkel (Tyndall) and Nathan Rogier (Sanborn, MN). Heat races were taken by Brenton Palmer and Todd Gereau.

In the CHS / Farmer's Alliance Late Models hit the high banks, it was a case of "learn from your mistakes." On July 23rd, Cody Martin (Mitchell) had a strong car, but slid off the speedway coming off number two corner and crashing hard into a large pile of tires that protect the pit area. Following the mishap, Martin walked away and went to work on the car. Following some strong showings at other racetracks, Martin returned in a big way.

He used his front row starting spot and was in complete control of the event, until a caution with four laps remaining. That set up a four-lap battle with Doug Tomka (Stanton, NE) giving chase, but to no avail. Martin used his horses to secure the very popular victory. Tomka would finish second, with Jared Hoerle (Chambers, NE), Gale Vogt (Yankton) and Kyle Pecena (O'Neill, NE) rounding out the top five. Cody Martin and Mike Babcock (Creighton, NE) won their respective heat races.

That would set up the Randy Meiers Memorial Race for the IMCA Hobby Stocks. The format would have finishing cars from the first feature be inverted with the remaining cars falling in behind. Drivers ran six laps and were brought to a stop on the front straightway to perform a tire change on their right front tire. The winner of the pit stop challenge would receive a $200 bonus from Namminga Hay Grinding and Beeson Repair, LLC and the order of finish in the pit stop would set up the starting lineup for the remaining six laps.

There is a valuable lesson to be learned here, practice makes perfect. Jordan Vosika came into the pit stop in ninth position, but came out first, with a precision stop. The recent Gregory High School graduate and state wrestling place winner flexed his muscles to pick up the victory and the big payday. Following his $200 bonus for the fastest pit stop the win would give the team another $645 in prize money. Vosika and the team were thrilled. "We practiced this all week. We knew it was going to be important and it really showed. This is awesome!!!"

For more information, complete results and upcoming schedules, see wagnerspeedway.com