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Montana's Beau Nave has made two of the features so far this week driving his Kryptonite chassis with a JR Motorsports motor in it. All three nights so far he has had to run a B, but has made it to the main. He reports that Late Model racing is picking up in Montana, which excites him. There are more opportunities to race and he also plans on making some trips to North Dakota to race at tracks there.

After six years absence, Zach Johnson has made a return to Late Model racing and from what he achieved, it appears the rust was knocked off quickly. Using one of Shaw's many cars, he was driving a Victory by Moyer chassis with a 525 under the hood. He made the first two features of the week with a best of sixth. However, during the third night the motor blew a hole in the side of the block and his participation for the rest of the series is in doubt.

His son Onyx has been racing his Mid Mod as well, with him scheduled to return home to play hockey this coming week. Perhaps the seat in that car will be open for Dad for the second week. Onyx has done well in the car so far this week in his first race out of state, finishing 13th as his best run.

Brandon Corbett has improved each night of the series so far and made his first feature race on Saturday. He is driving a former A.J. Diemel MB and is using a 525.

Paul Mueller has been a busy man so far this week, and he has a three car team on hand to race. His drivers include Matt Aukland and Blaine Doppler, with his third car driven by local driver Austin Kuehl.

Aukland is driving a Longhorn with a Klein engine, while Doppler’s car is a Rocket with a Dakota motor. Aukland has made one feature, as both struggle mechanical gremlins. Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Rick Aukland was in the pits hanging with the team all weekend.

The South Dakota team of Chad Becker and Denver Nickeson have had a tough week so far with each just making one main a piece, far below their norm. Mechanical issues have been their bugaboo so far.

Rounding out the Late Model teams on hand was the Olsen team from Hendricks, Minnesota. Diemel dialed in the car on practice night with Chad Olsen arriving in time to race on Thursday, where he made the main but then was a DNF. Chad’s son Charlie arrived in time to race the car on Friday and Saturday, as he gets laps in a WISSOTA car for one of the few times so far in his young career. While he didn’t make either A main, he got progressively faster as the week went on and always brought the car home in one piece. Both are headed back home, and it wasn’t clear just who will be doing the driving next week. Charlie had school activities to attend to that were a priority. Their car is an MB with Pro Power under the hood.

Along with the Late Models, Shaw set up one other class to give the WISSOTA drivers another opportunity to race. The Limited Mods here are dominated by Midwest Modified drivers, who have made the long pull out to the desert, along with a few B Mod and X Mod drivers from bordering states.

Those who are on hand have been putting on a good show and so far, it is the Lucas Rodin show. It's no surprise that Rodin is in control here, as he does the same thing much of the summer in the Dakotas or any other special for that matter.

So far this week, Rodin is undefeated, having won a heat race every single night and visiting victory lane as the winner three times also. And he continues to amaze in a car that has more than 100 shows on it and who knows how many wins. He has been trying to sell this SSR for awhile, and he did finally break out his new car, which he made into an IMCA Mod.

Rodin has not been quite as successful in that car. He made all three features in the IMCA class. He was leading the main on Saturday until he was booted off the track by another driver.

Next in line in consistency has been Jake Smith. They took their Modified from 2023 and converted the MB into a Mid Mod, which they are racing here while waiting for their new MB Mod to arrive. Smith has finished second, third and fourth so far while still waiting that first win.

Blake Adams is also showing a lot of speed here this week. Having just turned 15, the defending National Rookie of the Year in 2023 has been chasing Rodin all week. So far, he has earned two second place finishes in his MB along with one DNF. He bent a J-Bar on opening night, which eventually gave him a flat tire.

Jess Brekke has been running strongly too. Using his SSR with Chubbs power, he has two top-five finishes and three in the top-10. He is a busy guy as well, as he is running an IMCA Rage Modified. He has made all three features against a good-sized field.

Scott Bintz had run a two car team here, as he did at Vado. Travis Saurer has stepped in as his second driver. Bintz has cracked the top-10 in two of the three shows in his J2 car, while Saurer has ran well in the Millenium car with a best finish of third on Saturday as he battled with Adams.

The rest of the Millenium delegation was led by Jory Berg, who drove to three top-10s, including a best of third on opening night. Ryan McCleary, with Zeuli power in his car, has recorded a best finish of eighth so far this week.

It has been a stressful week so far for Preston Carr. Another Millenium driver, he has been struggling with motor issues so far. He was running good when he had a rocker break on Thursday and he told me he hoped he had it fixed on Friday; it was his only motor. More bad luck followed, as the motor blew in a ball of flames on Friday and it appeared that his racing was done. Like he has for many drivers over the years, Bintz came to the rescue and offered Carr a motor to use, which they put in on Saturday. It produced his best run as he finished sixth in the Saturday feature.

Canadian Milleniums were entered by the two-car team of Ted and Tyler Doell with South Fork power under the hood. Both drivers have made all three of the features so far.

With no fendered cars to race out here, Jordan Henkemeyer made his first ride in an Affordable Midwest Mod this week. He has shown speed but so far hasn't had the finishes he was looking for.

C.J. Eisenzimer, fifth in 2023 track points at Electric City Speedway, became the lone Montana driver to race in the Mid Mods. A best finish of 10th marked his opening-night success.

There were also a couple drivers trying out the Modified ranks this week. Devin Fouquette, who jumps back and forth between sanctioning bodies, had his Lethal chassis on hand. He made two of three features, but overheating and suspension ills stopped his feature efforts.

Mark Maga, who runs a Midwest Mod back in Canada, had a Modified here to race this weekend. He was running a Taylor chassis with Freson Bros. helping him get to Arizona. At this point, he is still working to make his first main event.

Talk about old home week. The announcer is none other than “The Legend” Ron Krog, while is wife works the back gate, something she doesn't do at I-94. Chris Stepan is functioning as race director for this series, a job he is not unused to doing. Just as they do at I-94, Scott Engfer and Larry Samuelson are helping with track prep and whatever other duties need to be done. Samuelson did tell me that he plans to race both Late Models and Gen X Late Models again in 2024. Another familiar face to WISSOTA folks, Gene Kockelman, who winters in this area, is doing the teching for the Late Models and Limited Mods, as well as supplying oranges to those hungry for citrus. Mike Witheril, head starter at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, is waving the sticks for this year’s series.

Among those attending that I have spoken to so far include Matt Gilbertson, who tells me that he has both a Late Model and a Modified yet. He also has a son who is interested in starting his racing career after racing karts. Skeeter and Kelly Estey were standing in line to buy tickets to watch one night, and I ran into Randy Gullixson, who is another driver who winters out here. He also plans on breaking out his Late Model again in 2024. A.J. Diemel has been a busy guy, moving here to Arizona after the Vado shows were done, dialing in Olsens’ Late Model while helping all the other MB customers on hand. Parker Anderson was roaming the pits and reported that he will be racing Modifieds again in 2024. Bob Thompson was pretty excited, reporting that after not racing for a couple years, he will be getting back into local Pure Stock racing, driving the former Zach Folz car.

Three more nights of racing action are scheduled for this coming weekend before the drivers and crews head back home and anxiously wait for spring in the Midwest.