By Josh Holt
| 06/15/2011 – At the start of the day, last Friday the 10th of June, Lunstra/Dobmeier Motorsports loaded up the truck and started the long drive to Knoxville Raceway to race the World of Outlaw double header event. Things were going as planned until a phone call explained the cancellation of the first night due to rain. This happened just south of Sioux City, Iowa. The team turned around and began the trek back to the team’s home track of River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND.
The Lunstra/Dobmeier Motorsports truck and trailer rolled into the speedway about 5 minutes before Mark’s scheduled heat race and with a very special thanks to Senske & Son, Right Choice Electric, and Big Trucks by Jimco as they got the Grand Forks car ready to rock, Dobmeier hopped in the #13 right out of the truck and came from last to win the heat race.
“It was intense,” explains “Dynamite” Dobmeier, “We knew we were going to be cutting it close on the time frame, but our great sponsors had the car ready for us and I just strapped in as the cars were rolling onto the track. Then to come from the back to win, just shows how good our team is in preparation. It was awesome and I can’t thank Senske & Son, Right Choice Electric, and Big Trucks by Jimco enough!”
To cap off the rear to win charge in the heat race, Dobmeier started on the outside of row number 3 in the feature and made short work of the top five, as he had the lead with only five laps into the main event. He stayed up front throughout the race and capped off his second win of the season on the short track of River Cities.
Saturday morning the team loaded up and headed back down to Knoxville to contest with the World of Outlaws. Qualifying 29th and finishing seventh in the heat race, made for a long night for the Grand Forks based team. Dobmeier was able to tackle the B-Main starting ninth and then passing the “King,” Steve Kinser for the transfer position of fourth until a caution flag flew dropping that position for Dobmeier. The King made a bold move on the restart to take the transfer and placing the Right Choice Electric #13 back to fifth.
Luckily, as one of the World of Outlaw competitors had to take a provisional to start the main event, the track gets a provisional to hand out. Since Dobmeier was one spot shy of the B-Main transfer, Knoxville gave him the provisional which allowed Mark to start at the tail end of the A at 26th. Mark made some fast charges towards the front to put him at 14th by the time the checkered flag flew.
Following the Knoxville Outlaw show, it was off to Huset’s Speedway and a series of disasters.
After qualifying second to Gregg Bakker (11x) with a 10.981 lap time, Dobmeier lined up 6th for the start of the heat race. At the start of the race, Dobmeier and a fellow competitor got together sending Mark flipping down the straight. The team hurried and took everything back outside to the race hauler for the attempt to make it back for the start of the main event. “It was one of those deals,” says Mark. “We have all been in those situations, and it is never fun. We obviously didn’t plan on wreaking on the start of our heat race, but our team is good under pressure, so I knew we would have a chance to make it back to the main.
Amazing efforts by the Lunstra/Dobmeier Motorsports team allowed the Senske & Sons #13 to start at the tail of the main event at 20th. With an amazing charge to the front of the field from the back set Dobmeier in the number 2 spot right behind the leader, Austin McCarl (#17), with only one lap to go. As the two were coming out of turn four to take the checkered, Austin spun leaving no holes for the Big Trucks by Jimco #13 and sent Dobmeier flipping once again. The tangle between Austin and Mark allowed for Terry McCarl to take the win from both his son Austin and the hard charger of Dobmeier.
“What a crazy night and weekend,” exclaims Mark. “After traveling all these extra miles over the weekend to race back home after Knoxville was cancelled, and then taking the win from the back in the heat and then winning the feature, then charging in the WoO (World of Outlaw) main, then crashing two cars tonight and coming from the back to the front in the main… Wow!. It just proves that we have put together a solid team and we are ready for just about anything. Tonight (Huset’s) obviously wasn’t a good night as far as results, but it showed that we were fast, prepared and ready to battle. I am really looking forward to this coming weekend of the Outlaw show in Grand Forks, we should have a great weekend.”
FAST FACTS ON DOBMEIER:
Mark graduated from The University of North Dakota in Grand Forks with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business in which he then put the degree to work as he currently has a business in his hometown called Forx Radiator where he specializes in radiator repair and other vehicle service work.
Mark will be racing River Cities Speedway, Knoxville Raceway and Huset’s Speedway weekly throughout the 2011 season with as many close World of Outlaw, IRA and other NOSA events to fill in the gaps of the schedule.
LUNSTRA/DOBMEIER MOTORSPORTS TEAM WEBSITE:
Be sure to follow the team through the team website www.markdobmeier.com. Latest results, news and photo updates will be updated regularly.
Be sure to also follow Mark on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dobmeierracing