Plaza’s Randy Fyllesvold may want to start coming to the Geographical Center Speedway (GCS) more often.

For the second straight year Flyllesvold won the IMCA Stock Tour opening race held in Rugby. He bested a field of 19 drivers and took the $300 first prize in the 25-lap feature on July 11.

It was perfect night for racing, weather-wise, and a crowd estimated at around 300 took in the action. The only downer was the car count.

Local racing officials were anticipating about two dozen racers.

Minot’s Mike Swallers was runner-up and Kelly Henderson, also of Minot, was third.

The track was dry and drivers were fighting to get to that bottom groove, especially on the turns. Five of the cars did not finish, including Rolette’s Lane Opstedal, who placed 19th.

The field included a driver from Iowa and another from Minnesota and a pair from Saskatchewan.

The rest were from North Dakota, most from Minot. Rugby’s Tyler Dosch was the only other local driver in the field.

Dosch finished a disappointing 12th. “We switched up the setup a bit, and the car didn’t perform well,’ Dosch said.

A night later in Minot Dosch raced in the second leg of the tour in and finished seventh out of 31 drivers. He started the feature in 15th.

“We switched the car back to where it had been and had a great night,’ he said.

Dosch didn’t continue on the tour, which also raced two nights in Estevan, Sask. and the finale in Williston. “I was sitting in sixth place in tour points after the second night, and it was hard not to want to keep going on,’ he admits.

There is next year, and Dosch does plan to race the entire tour then.

Final results of the tour were not known prior to The Tribune going to press.

Rugby’s Brad Fritel all but assured himself the Sport Stocks track points title following another feature win. Fritel’s car has three victories in five outings this seaosn. Rugby’s Jay Loughman was second, followed by Dan Arends in third.

In the Wissota B-Modifieds, Bottineau’s Shawn Nostdahl took the title over Minot’s Jeff Hooker. Willow City’s Josh Sattler was third and Rugby’s Kelly Bonn was fourth.

Track points leader Jim Morlock, Pettibone, finished in the middle of the pack.

The final race of the season will be this Thursday, July 23, beginning at 7:30 p.m.