Mark Dobmeier outlasts field in caution-filled sprints feature

Wayne Nelson, Grand Forks HeraldSat, July 25, 2026 at 2:35 PM UTC·3 min read

Jul. 25—GRAND FORKS — For most of the night, Mark Dobmeier held a comfortable lead in the third leg of the Wayne Anderson Cup series Friday night at River Cities Speedway.

But comfortable leads evaporate when the flagman waves the yellow flag.

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And the yellow flag was waved over and over and over again, creating one of the more lengthy and frustrating NOSA sprint features at The Bullring in years.

Dobmeier won the 30-lap event but there were 13 yellow flags waved during the race, making for an incredibly frustrating sprint feature for drivers and fans. The race took 35 minutes, 8 seconds to complete and it also required a rare fuel stop as the large amount of laps drained most of the drivers' tanks.

In the end, though, Dobmeier, who started on the front row, managed to survive the restarts and beat Jade Hastings to the flag stand by 1.020 seconds.

"It was a marathon race," said Dobmeier, who topped the 200-career win mark earlier this season. "NOSA can put on a lot better show than this and they sure will in the future."

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Sixteen sprints started the feature, only seven finished.

So, why was the race so ragged?

"I have no idea," said Dobmeier. "Some nights in racing, it's just like that. People struggle. People get frustrated. They sometimes drive over their heads. And sometimes racing incidents just happen and it sucks when they happen all in a row when you get yellow, yellow, yellow."

Fuel stops in sprint racing are rare. But RCS officials called for a fuel stop with seven laps remaining.

"I was a little nervous," said Dobmeier. "On that last restart before they had the fuel stop my car was stumbling all the way around the track. I wasn't going to make another lap or two."

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Two laps after the fuel stop, another yellow flag came out, prompting RCS officials to call for a green-white-checkered, cutting the race by three laps.

Dobmeier has now won two of the three Wayne Anderson Cup races, a four-race, in-season event that honors the memory of the late founder of RCS.

Hastings won the first Anderson Cup race of the season.

"I knew Jade was on a mission," said Dobmeier. "But I figured if I just focused on my laps and ran the car as hard as I could I'd have a good shot at it."

Nick Omdahl finished third while Tom Egeland and Jack Croaker rounded out the top five.

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There were a handful of caution flags thrown in the 20-lap late model feature as well, but not to the degree of the sprint main event.

Tyler Peterson managed to survive the caution flags and beat Tucker Pederson by 1.508 seconds.

Did the cautions, especially in the closing laps, bother Peterson?

"More than you know," he said in Victory Lane.

Jason Strand finished third, followed by John Seng and Joey Pederson.

Austin Hunter won his second feature of the season in taking the 20-lap Midwest modified event. He took the lead from Nathan Raasakka on the white flag lap and won by 0.445 seconds.

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And Cole Greseth again topped the field in the 20-lap streets feature.Greseth started third but took the lead on the first lap, leading it by 0.69 seconds. He stretched that lead to a whopping 8.633 seconds over second-place Doug VanMill.

In 31 nights of racing this season, Greseth has won an incredible 19 features.

Does it matter where Greseth starts a race?

"No, it just matters where you finish," he said. "My car works so well at this place. I'm really confident here."

Feature — 1. Cole Greseth, 2. Doug VanMill, 3. John Halvorson, 4. Greg Jose, 5. Blaine Barnes

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Feature — 1. Austin Hunter, 2. Nathan Raasakka, 3. Aaron Blacklance, 4. Frank Vreet, 5. Jory Berg

Feature — 1. Tyler Peterson, 2. Tucker Pederson, 3. Jason Strand, 4. John Seng, 5. Joey Pederson

Feature — 1. Mark Dobmeier, 2. Jade Hastings, 3. Nick Omdahl, 4. Tom Egeland, 5. Jack Croaker

Story byGrand Forks Herald