9/10/2014
Sprint Source
Mark Dobmeier – One Big Point!
Mark Dobmeier narrowly missed his sixth Huset’s Speedway championship Sunday night. The Lunstra/Dobmeier #13 team finished second to Terry McCarl, just one point back. An exciting race in traffic with Dusty Zomer at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota and a charge from 13th to fifth at the Jerry Richert Memorial at Cedar Lake Speedway near New Richmond, Wisconsin also highlighted the weekend for the Grand Forks driver. This week will find the team possibly concluding their season with the World of Outlaws at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer, Iowa Friday and Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley, Minnesota on Saturday.
Thursday’s race at River Cities was sanctioned by the NOSA series. Mark won his heat, emerging as the high point man heading into the feature. “It wasn’t a normal night there, because it was a NOSA race,” he says. “They flip a coin before the feature to determine if there’s an invert or not. There wasn’t, and since we were the high point getter in the heat, we started on the pole.”
Mark shot out to an early lead. “I was running pretty strong out front there about twelve laps or so,” he says. “I was kind of taking my time through the lapped cars, and all of a sudden, Dusty Zomer showed me he was pretty fast that night too. He got alongside of me and by me.”
From there, the fans were on the edge of their seats as Zomer won a narrow victory. “The last ten laps, we had a good hard fun race,” says Mark. “He was able to work the bottom better, and I was pounding the top through the holes. He beat me across the line at the end of it.”
Mark was hoping to defend his championship at the Jerry Richert Memorial on Saturday. He had run second three times in a row before last year’s win at Cedar Lake. “We came out late in qualifying and that didn’t help us,” he says about Saturday. “We ended up 13th quick, which set us back a little for the feature.”
After running third in his heat, he would line up 13th for the feature and run fifth at the checkers. “We showed we were a strong car,” says Mark. “We were able to charge from 13th to fifth. I was wishing the race was a little bit longer, because we were getting faster and faster as the race went on.”
At Huset’s, an eighth quick run in time trials put the team behind the 8-ball. After a second place run in the heat, Mark would line up third for the feature. “It was just a fast one-lane track,” he says. “I was able to get up to second. I was able to gain on (Austin McCarl) a little bit, but I never got within striking distance.”
Terry McCarl would finish seventh and seal the track title by one point. Nonetheless, Mark is proud of the team’s efforts. “My hat’s off to our team and our sponsors,” he says. “All year long at Huset’s, we were the car to beat night in and night out. Unfortunately, we had a few strokes of bad luck with the motor that were beyond our control. In the end, we were second.”
The Lunstra/Dobmeier team would like to thank Senske and Son Transfer, Big Trucks by Jimco, Sioux Falls Ford, Steffe’s Auctioneers, Dammer Trucking, ACME Tool, Strong Box and Tire Boss for all their help!
Article Credit: Bill Wright