AUTO RACING: Green flag drops at River Cities Speedway

The fastest cars on the race track belonged to two of the younger sprint drivers at River Cities Speedway -- Mitch Mack and Austin Pierce.

Fast cars aside, it still takes a lot to beat Mark Dobmeier -- the dominant driver at RCS.

Dobmeier, running a borrowed 360 motor, came from the 10th spot to win Friday night's season-opener at RCS, holding off Mack in a 25-lap sprint feature that had its fair share of caution flags.

"We were working hard all night," said Dobmeier. "We have to thank Ryan Grinde for borrowing us the motor because our motor is still at the engine builders."

Mack and Pierce both had fast laps times during the race. Mack, who briefly grabbed the lead from Dobmeier late in the race, turned a lap on the quarter-mile track in 12.143 seconds. Pierce, who sat on the pole and led the early laps, turned in the fastest lap of the race at 12.120 seconds.

But Dobmeier's experience in lapped traffic again proved to be the difference.

Dobmeier passed Lou Kennedy Jr. for the lead out of Turn 2 on Lap 14 and then had to hold off a final charge from Mack, who started seventh.

"Mitch definitely had a good car on the bottom," said Dobmeier, who used the high groove to make his way to the front. "Once we got up to traffic, I just took that bottom lane away from him because I knew that was the only spot he could get by me.

"He ran a good race. He's shown a lot of improvement. I think we can look for a lot from his this year."

Mack finished second, followed by Kennedy, Wade Nygaard and Jody Rosenboom, a Rock Rapids, Iowa, driver who drove the 97G sprint.

There was no question who had the fastest late model on opening night.

Joey Pederson, the defending track champion, started on the front row and led all 20 laps of the late model feature.

Pederson, driving a new car, bolted out to the lead but had to survive a late surge from Dustin Strand.

The two battled for the lead during the final laps in lapped traffic but Pederson had enough to hang on for the win.

Strand finished second followed by Mike Balcaen, Bill Mooney and Troy Schill.

The strangest feature of the night belonged to the Midwest modifieds.

The winner wasn't declared until after the program had ended.

Jason Strand led the first 17 laps and appeared to be in good shape on the white flag lap.

But he was spun out on Turn 2 by Cole Haugland. No yellow flag was thrown, and Haugland crossed the finish line first.

Strand, however, drove into Victory Lane and waited for roughly 10 minutes before he was told he didn't win the race. Haugland apparently was disqualified after spinning out Strand and, for a few minutes, it appeared the third-place car driven by Rory Opp would be declared the winner.

But RCS officials awarded the win to Strand after the program had ended. Opp was awarded second place.

In the streets feature, Ryan Flaten started up front and cruised to the feature win. Mike Anderson was second, followed by Jordan Duray.