Racing: Night of firsts at RCS
It was a night of firsts at River Cities Speedway on Friday. John Halvorson set the tone by winning the first late model race of his career while sprints driver Casey Mack followed with his first career win in Grand Forks. For the 21-year-old Mac...
By Tom Miller
It was a night of firsts at River Cities Speedway on Friday.
John Halvorson set the tone by winning the first late model race of his career while sprints driver Casey Mack followed with his first career win in Grand Forks.
For the 21-year-old Mack, it was the first checkered flag after a number of close calls over the past five years at RCS.
"This is what you dream about growing up with racing in Grand Forks," Mack said. "To finally win really is awesome."
The East Grand Forks driver entered on a hot streak, winning a NOSA feature last week in Alexandria, Minn., his first win of the season.
"We've been close a lot, but we haven't been good enough," Mack said of his RCS past. "Tonight, our crew worked really hard, and I was pretty good in lapped traffic."
Mack made his way to the front of the pack early in the 25-lap feature. Ryan Wilson and Tom Egeland led the race early on, but the pair got tangled up just six laps into the race.
Shortly after the restart, Mack took control and wasn't challenged late in the race.
Dave Glennon came in second, followed by Wade Nygaard, Mark Dobmeier and Greg Nikitenko.
In the late models, Halvorson had to do some late maneuvering for his milestone victory.
"It was a long time coming," Halvorson said.
Halvorson passed Tom Balcaen for the lead on the 15th lap of the 20-lap feature. He then held off charges from Brad Seng and Joey Pederson to win.
Seng, who was running in third, got turned around in Turn 4 of the final lap to fall outside of the top five.
Steffen Snare took advantage of his ability to stay on the track to win the streets feature.
With four laps left, Steve Jose and Tyson Anderson collided in Turn 1 while battling for the lead.
Jose, who flipped into the retaining wall, exited the race. Anderson was forced to restart from the back of the pack, helping Snare cruise to the victory.
In the Midwest Modifieds feature, Dustin Strand ran away with the 18-lap race.
Miller has covered sports at the Grand Forks Herald since 2004 and was the state sportswriter of the year in 2019.
His primary beat is UND football but also reports on a variety of UND sports and local preps.
He can be reached at (701) 780-1121, tmiller@gfherald.com or on Twitter at @tommillergf.
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