Brendan Mullen shakes off slow start to the season, captures 30-lap sprint feature at RCS

Jun. 9—GRAND FORKS — The start of the race season wasn't what Brendan Mullen hoped it would be.

"We've had a trying start to the season," said Mullen. "I've wrecked some race cars. And all over the place we've kind of been behind the 8-ball with this new tire and stuff."

But Mullen left River Cities Speedway Friday night with a win and some much-needed momentum after he dominated the last half of the 30-lap sprint feature — his third overall win at The Bullring.

Mullen slipped past Austin Pierce midway through the feature and held on the rest of the way, beating Pierce to the flagstand by 0.989 seconds. Mark Dobmeier was third, followed by Jade Hastings and Nick Omdahl.

Zach Omdahl finished sixth but he set a wicked pace early, leading by just over two seconds before a yellow flag reset the field.

Mullen used a strong restart to get past Pierce.

"I think Austin probably made a little bit of a mistake," said Mullen. "It's really hard to figure out midrace the top or bottom groove because both lines are kind of coming in at the same time.

"I got a big run on him into Turn 1 and threw the classic slider. I don't know if I pinched him or not but it felt like a great race."

Mullen said any win at The Bullring is special.

"I'd like to get to Victory Lane more here," he said. "I've struggled here; I've made mistakes when I shouldn't have and we've been off on the car a little bit. But we're finding some momentum. We did something completely different with the car tonight than we normally would have. It was a rocket so I think we're going to write that down in the notebook and come back with it."

Mullen also set the fastest qualifying time at 11.214 seconds.

There were 15 sprints on hand, including Adam Sobolik, who raced a 410 sprint for the first time. He has won a number of wingless sprint features in the area.

Cole Schill won the 20-lap late model feature, holding off Mike Greseth by 0.560 seconds. Tyler Peterson was third, followed by Joey Pederson and Brad Seng.

Schill had to withstand a number of restarts, which are always challenging for the leader.

"I don't know if those yellows hurt or helped me," said Schill. "I know we were getting to lapped traffic. The yellows were perfect timing because those lapped cars were running two, three wide all over the place.

"This win is bittersweet. It's been a long time since we won here."

Schill's last RCS win came in 2019.

Lance Schill won the Midwest modiefied feature, holding off Austin Hunter by by 0.336 seconds. Jamie Dietzler was third.

Trey Hess won the streets feature, followed by Greg Jose and Cole Greseth.

Friday's results

NOSA Sprints

Qualifying — 1. 11M-Brendan Mullen, 00:11.214[14]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce, 00:11.290[8]; 3. 0-Nick Omdahl, 00:11.329[5]; 4. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier, 00:11.477[11]; 5. 8H-Jade Hastings, 00:11.511[10]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl, 00:11.522[15]; 7. 8-Jack Croaker, 00:11.545[7]; 8. 27-Weston Olson, 00:11.568[3]; 9. 31-Shane Roemeling, 00:11.813[2]; 10. 14-Tom Egeland, 00:11.815[1]; 11. 99-Jordan Graham, 00:11.839[12]; 12. 26-Blake Egeland, 00:11.909[13]; 13. 52-Adam Sobolik, 00:12.430[9]; 14. 4-Colton Young, 00:12.642[4]; 15. 41T-Travis Strandell, 00:12.761[6]

First heat — 1. Jade Hastings, 2. Mark Dobmeier, 3. Jack Croaker, 4. Brendan Mullen, 5. Blake Egeland, 6. Tom Egeland, 7. Adam Sobolik, 8. Travis Strandell

Second heat — 1. Nick Omdahl, 2. Shane Roemeling, 3. Zach Omdahl, 4. Austin Pierce, 5. Jordan Graham, 6. Weston Olson, 7. Colton Young

Feature — 1. Mullen, 2. Pierce, 3. Dobmeier, 4. Hastings, 5. N. Omdahl, 6. Z. Omdahl, 7. B. Egeland, 8. Sobolik, 9. Strandell

WISSOTA Late Models

First heat — 1. Joey Pederson, 2. Tyler Peterson, 3. Tom Corcoran, 4. Greg Moore, 5. Terry Nelson

Second heat — 1. Lance Schill, 2. Greg Friestad, 3. Jason Strand, 4. Brandon Fuller, 5. Dan McNamee, 6. Brady Pengilly

Third heat — 1. Mike Greseth, 2. Brody Troftgruben, 3. Jesse Teunis, 4. John Seng, 5. Nicholas Minske

Fourth heat — 1. Cole Schill, 2. Brad Seng, 3. Dustin Strand, 4. Blake Anderson, 5. Brandon Corbett, 6. Nathan Higginbotham

Feature — 1. C. Schill, 2. Greseth, 3. Peterson, 4. Pederson, 5. B. Seng, 6. D. Strand, 7. Troftgruben, 8. J. Strand, 9. Teunis, 10. J. Seng, 11. Friestad, 12. Moore, 13. Anderson, 14. Ryan Corbett, 15. Fuller, 16. Minske, 17. B. Corbett, 18. Blake Higginbotham, 19. McNamee, 20. Nelson

WISSOTA Midwest Mods

First heat — 1. Austin Hunter, 2. Jason Halverson, 3. Brandon Rehill, 4. Jory Berg, 5. Phil Christlieb, 6. Joe Henninger

Second heat — 1. Matt Schow, 2. Jaden Varnson, 3. Lance Schill, 4. Jamie Dietzler, 5. Nathan Raasakka, 6. Chris Edmonds

Feature — 1. Schill, 2. Hunter, 3. Dietzler, 4. Rehill, 5. Berg, 6. Schow, 7. Eric Haugland, 8. Reise Stenberg, 9. Edmonds, 10. Varnson, 11. Christlieb

WISSOTA Street Stocks

First heat — 1. Seth Klostreich, 2. John Halvorson, 3. Shane Swenson, 4. Greg Jose, 5. Rachael McNamee

Second heat — 1. Cole Greseth, 2. Trey Hess, 3. Tucker Pederson, 4. Weston Ramsrud, 5. Chris Ekren

Feature — 1. Hess, 2. Jose, 3. Greseth, 4. Klostreich, 5. Halvorson, 6. Swenson, 7. Josh Barker, 8. James Meagher, 9. Ekren, 10. Ramsrud, 11. Rodney Hulst, 12. McNamee