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Sunday, May 26

The fourth scheduled night of the MN Mod Nationals was held Sunday at Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie, Minnesota.

Five WISSOTA sanctioned divisions were in action on Sunday night, the same program that was held here the night prior and in Princeton. A couple of bonuses were still in play as the final night of the series commenced, including the clean sweep bonus in the Super Stocks with Dexton Koch still having a shot at it.

It was good to run into WISSOTA board president Rob Palmer, who was in attendance for the weekend and taking advantage of the camping facilities here at “The Big O.”

There was a nice field of cars on hand for the second night here at Ogilvie. The open-wheel classes were especially strong. On the other hand, the Hornets were not buzzing — there were only a half dozen cars on hand.

Sunday was the first night for me to see a couple of new drivers who moved up to the Modified class this year. Both Andrew Mackey and Kyle Kirberger have had successful stints in racing, with Mackey formerly in the Super Stocks and Kyle formerly a Mid Mod driver. New blood is always needed in all classes.

The racing started right at the advertised time of 7 p.m. on a track that was reportedly a bit drier and a bit smoother than it was on Saturday night, when they beat the rain by minutes.

Heat races clicked off smoothly, thought not the smoothest for Mike Anderson. He hit the backstretch wall during his heat race, retiring to the pits.

A couple big B feature races where Anderson did indeed advance to the Modified main and we were ready for feature racing action.

The feature race action was highlighted by the first three features that were presented and all of them were excellent. The Mid Mods were up first. Will Moelter, looking for his biggest win yet in the Mid Mods, did take the early lead and in fact, held off the challengers for the first eight laps of this race, which also included all three yellows.

Jake Smith, David Swearingen, Joey Jensen and Zach Benson were all chasing hard after the leader, and then they were soon joined by11th-starter Jason VandeKamp.

Smith took the lead on lap nine and put a little distance on the field but the driver on the move was Vande, who had charged all the way up to second by the halfway point. The final half of the race was very interesting, as Vande tried to narrow the gap on Smith, but Jake wasn't just idly sitting in one groove, waiting for what seems inevitable.

Instead he worked the track beautifully, altering his line considerably from lap to lap as he found occasional speed up on the banking and then dropped back low as he worked the track for all it was worth. Near the end, the two leaders caught traffic and Smith won the race when he move high, then cut low and split the two slower cars in the way. Meanwhile VandeKamp got trapped on the bottom and had to slow before he could pass the same two cars. That was the difference as Smith drove on for the win. Swearingen captured third as he, Benson and Moelter fought to the end for position.

The Super Stock feature was a great two-car battle that lasted nearly the entire 25 laps. Terran Spacek was the initial leader after he started on the pole and he was in front for the first five laps. Dexton Koch, on a roll in this early season and seeking the sweep money, moved up from the second row to put the heat on Spacek, who was struggling to hold the bottom line. When he slid off the low groove on lap six, Koch drove under him to take over the lead. One lap later the lone yellow waved. It appeared Spacek said to himself, “The heck with it, I'm going to ride the wall and see what happens.” He moved up to the outer reaches of the track and indeed, made it work well.

He retook the lead from Koch and for the next laps, they ran side by side around the track, putting on a great show. On lap 14, Koch edged into the lead but then Spacek got him right back again, only to have Koch pass again one lap later. Spacek wasn't done, however, as in three more laps, he was back in front of this dandy.

The only thing that spoiled what was a classic duel was when the two leaders caught a couple of lapped cars and Koch moved up the track, chopping off Spacek rather abruptly. That broke Spacek’s momentum and gave Koch the final lead with just five laps to go. Koch pulled away slightly after that, as Spacek didn’t have enough to move back alongside him. He had to settle for second as Koch celebrated the win and his bonus with a victory lane burnout. Dylan Kromschroeder drove a steady race to finish third.

Talk about a great race car setup and a heads-up driving performance and that summed up the evening of Ryan Gierke. Even though he started ninth in a loaded Modified field, he was the class of the show with his dominating performance.

JT Johnson started on the pole and led the first three laps, with Kaden Blaeser and Jody Bellefeuille right behind him. Two yellows in the first three laps kept the field bunched, but they raced the last 22 laps without a stoppage.

On lap five, Bellefeuille drove past Johnson to take over the lead but Gierke was starting to heat up as he moved forward. Johnson retook the lead from Bellefeuille on lap eight, but then Bellefeuille returned the favor and regained the top spot.

And then suddenly, Gierke showed up, and boy, had he picked up speed. Less than 10 laps before, he wasn't even in the top five, but then he started finding great traction driving low off the corners. He began to pass cars as if they were anchored. In those few laps, he went from being outside the top five to taking the lead on lap 11 and after that, the only thing the rest of the field saw was his vapor trail as he pulled away from the pack.

There were no yellows to stop him and at the finish, he had six lapped cars between himself and the second-place finisher. The battle for second was fantastic and worth the price of admission alone, as they were nearly four wide for runner-up honors when Brian Riedemann waved the white flag. Bellefeuille raced home for that spot with Johnson third ahead of Clayton Wagamon and Blaeser.

Dustin Holtquist was the early leader of the Mod Four feature, a race that was stopped after one lap when his father Bob flipped into the frontstretch wall. Bob was okay. One lap later, Dustin relinquished the lead to Tyler Larson.

Larson put some distance on the field but then Dustin started to gradually work back into a challenging position during the last 18 laps under green. Just one lap past the halfway point, Dustin retook the lead despite Larson trying to hold him off. Holtquist then pulled away to record a sound victory over Larson and Tommy Bawden.

Only a six pack of cars for the Hornet feature and as the crowd streamed toward the exits, Payson Patrin led from start to finish to record the win over Jenna Hagemann and Bobie Arnes.

It was a good night of racing with some fine battles, especially in the top three classes. Thanks to all who made the show possible.

One last thought from Memorial Day weekend ... There are three things in the world that are a certainty: taxes, death and a guaranteed weather-related cancelation any time I drive to the Madison Speedway in Minnesota. That is all.

Wednesday, May 29

On Wednesday night I made a trip morth across the border into Ontario, Canada for a visit to one of the most successful tracks in WISSOTA currently — Thunder City Speedway near Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Like other tracks in 2024, they are struggling with the weather. This was only the second of the year, in its second full year of operation. Things are booming here: they have plenty of race cars, lots of fans, and tons of sponsors as this operation continues to grow week by week.

They had 2,500 folks in the grandstands, plus more than 100 cars in the pits.

Things are also still running smoothly. They have the pits open by 3:00 p.m. and drop the first green flag right at 6 p.m. They need to start this early because they do have a relatively tight curfew, which recently was raised to 11 p.m. from the previous 10:30. They do seem to have difficulty with yellow flag fever, and in fact, dreaded lap cutting took place in full force on Wednesday, but more on that later.

WISSOTA Street Stocks have been added here this year and there were 26 of them racing on Wednesday, The Mid Mods are still producing mind-boggling numbers, with 43 of them on hand. The Super Stock and Mod classes are both still on the rise as well. With 97 cars in the pits in those four classes, plus another two dozen of nonsanctioned Hornets, there were plenty of race cars to compete. B features were needed for Mid Mods, Street Stocks and Hornet,s and while this adds to the show, it also adds to the time limit issues, too.

But boy, talk about enthusiasm being everywhere. The fans who come are having fun and the drivers I talked to are all thrilled the way things are going at the track. The track lighting was improved since I was here the last time, and it’s much better than it used to be. They could still use a scoreboard, if for no other reason than to keep laps. I hope that is on the planning list.

There seem to be an inordinately large number of drivers who are racing in more than one class here and I counted at least seven who are driving double duty. It’s just another example of the interest bubbling here.

And fan enthusiasm is high also. For instance, the 50/50 ticket holder went home with $6,183, not a bad chunk of change for a weekly show!

The track is also fortunate to have so many businesses backing the racing here with billboards, track and class sponsors, plus all the C Cans rented out for the year for businesses. I am blessed to have a seat on one of the C Cans, the one rented out by the great folks at the Thunder Bay Truck Centre, Inc. They tell me that they sponsor 20 or more care, plus they own a Super Stock that races at the track. They are also the class sponsor for the Modifieds and sponsor the fall three-night special held at the track. That, folks, is putting your money where your mouth is, literally. And there are many other business owners who do nearly as much for the racers and the track.

They ran 19 preliminary races to set the fields for the five main events, and those races took a lot of time. Two of the five feature races had laps cut because of race time limits and in the long run, this is not going to go over well with either the racers or fans.

The lengthy heat race durations might be aided by the implementation of the one spin rule for all qualifying races. It’s a lifesaver at many tracks across the Midwest, and it could be here, too.

Drivers struggled with realignments Thursday as well. There must have been some communication issues, with one feature dragging on especially long in the amount of time it was taking to get the drivers into their place. I probably just caught them on a bad night on this, and every track has those nights when things just don’t work out as hoped.

The Street Stock feature went the distance, and had a great battle right down to the wire. Spencer Reid led the opening lap, only to be passed one lap later by David Mitchell. Kyle Bolt charged forward from ninth, Darren Wolframe from eighth, and A.J. Kellar in his unique station wagon from seventh.

Mitchell fought them all off until the yellow waved with just four laps to go and this proved to be Mitchell's undoing. He was quickly shuffled back to fifth in those last four laps. Bolt charged into the lead and then held off Wolframe for the win. This race had only one yellow and only one car failed to cross the finish line.

The Mid Mod feature was not quite as clean, as several yellows slowed the 21-car field in this race. Veteran Kevin Monteith took the early lead but just for a lap until David Simpson raced past him for the top spot. Monteith fought back to lead another lap before Simpson took over for good. In between, yellows for spins were sprinkled throughout the race. Finally they went green, white and checkered with Simpson unchallenged for the win, Monteith second and Dan Tocheri third. Amazingly, all starters finished the race but many had at least a spin on their record for the event, which was cut to 10 laps.

The Super Stock feature only had three laps scored before they were “gonged” for their event, to the relief and cheers of the crowd. Three attempts netted only one completed lap along with spins and one grinding crash in turn one that stacked up quite a few cars.

They also had a lot of difficulty realigning one driver, making the effort to get him in the correct spot. The drivers grew restless as did the fans, and finally they just went ahead and dropped the green. This ate up valuable time and only three laps under green were accomplished before they waved this one complete.

Danny Young picked up the win, and fans will remember him from his Late Model days, when he traveled the states extensively. He’s still driving a yellow car, only now a Super Stock. He held off Rick Simpson and Shawn Polonoski for the victory.

Wrapping up the WISSOTA portion of the program, the Modifieds went green to checkers in their main event. Dan Bertrand led the opening lap until he was passed by “Hot Sauce” John Toppozini for the lead. Once in front, there was no catching him. He maintained a comfortable edge over Cole Chernosky that he carried on to the finish line. Jeff Davis came over from Devlin and he finished third.

Interestingly, of the 120 drivers signed in to race on Wednesday, there was only one American in the field — Ashley Mehrwerth Boyum. She pulled over from International Falls to race.

Overall it was another entertaining and interesting experience crossing the border. Special thanks to all the track officials and workers here and also to our great hosts from the Thunder Bay Truck Centre Inc and especially Clarence Downey and Dave Mack.

The trip also served as a fresh reminder of just how dedicated all the Canadian racers have to be to put up with that weekly trek from the Thunder Bay area to the Twin Ports and points beyond. Just getting through the east side of Duluth and then all the bumps and turns on Highway 61, plus all the slow motorhomes, buses, jeeps and gawking berry pickers must be a maddening weekly adventure. But yet they do it, week after week. Perhaps the only other racers who have the same resolve are the racers in Montana and Wyoming who travel hundreds of miles to get to the next track.

We in our area are so blessed, even though we seldom realize it and appreciate it.

Thursday, May 30

Grand Rapids Speedway got its first race of 2024 in the books on Thursday night, May 30. They didn't get the whole show in, but more on that later.

The program for 2024 is the same as last year, with five WISSOTA classes racing weekly and a sixth one, the Late Models, rotating every other week with the Sprint Cars. Opening night, after two previous cancelations, was a Sprint night.

Weather was still an issue Thursday. Rain was marching north and east and track officials could see it coming, it was just a matter of when. They did their darndest to start right on time, keep the intermission short, and tried to out-race the rain and get the full show in. They were successful in that regard, but there were other weather-related matters that affected the later stages of the evening, with rough conditions arising and wreaking havoc.

Sixty-seven cars were on hand in the five WISSOTA divisions. Racing started within 10 minutes of the scheduled start time with the wide tire cars, the Sprints, starting out.

I was surprised when entering the pits to see the white No. 5 MidMod of Rory Taber on hand, having pulled up to Grand Rapids from Wisconsin. Rory made his debut at Rice Lake Saturday, after being away from the sport for many years.

I spoke to him on Thursday and got a little more information. Rory was one of the top guns in the newly started Modified class back in the early 1980s, and then he tried Late Models for a short period of time. It just got too expensive for a farm kid from Sheldon, Wisconsin however. He moved to the big city and lived in Chicago and most recently in Texas. He told me that he is better off now financially and even though he still trucks for a living, he works weeks at a time and then has some time off for racing. Last Saturday night was the first time the 65-year-old raced in more than 30 years, having retired from racing in 1990.

He has an older chassis MidMod, but has been working with the folks at Dirt Dueller Chassis on set up and more. His is one of the few coil spring cars on the track and he told me that the setup on his car right now is basically the same that he had when he raced Modifieds in the 1980s. He said the things they do to tires right now is eye-opening and he marveled at the rigs some of teams use to race for $500.

Right now he is on one of his breaks from driving, and plans to race as much as he can in the next few days before he has to go back on the road for a couple weeks.

Dale LaPlante was back on the flagstand here, as he has been for many years, in addition to flagging at Hibbing on Saturday nights. However, he did have a female assistant who flagged some of the heat races, and I will have to find out if she is being trained in to replace him.

Due to circumstances, we did not get to see a full show in all classes, but there was certainly plenty going on in the races — including stunt car driving, forestry trimming, and photo finishes.

The heat races clicked off in about 70 minutes, so we were in good shape to beat the rain and the curfew. A few minutes break and it was time for the feature races.

Previous to that break, the Pure Stocks used their heat races to provide some drama and wild action. Billy Binkley, who seemed to have a bad setup from the start of the race as he three wheeled his Pure Stock, did a Joey Chitwood impersonation in turn one and then went flying off into the woods, one of the unique characteristics of this “Thunder in the Pines” track. He disappeared from sight in the woods but then backed right out and when back to work. In the next heat, Alex Berg drove too high on the frontstretch, slipped off the track, and went plowing into the woods off turn one, having to make a hard right hand turn to avoid the biggest tree, and then disappearing deeper into the woods. He needed help getting out and retired from the event.

One of the big trees is close to the track and it’s probably time to get out the chain saw and down that hazard.

The track was very tacky, and as the racing progressed, the one-two corner started to tear up significantly and cause problems for the drivers.

It was challenging for the Midwest Mods when they came out for their main event, with that corner providing plenty of trouble. While the race was grueling and less than half the starting field were around at the finish, the race itself was entertaining, included four different leaders, and featured a last-lap pass for the win.

Sam Blevins and his brother Mikey fought it out early, with them exchanging the lead four times between the two of them in the first five laps. Then 11th-starter Blake Adams came charging to the front and passed Mikey for the lead. It only took him six laps to get that far forward.

David Simpson was not far behind and as numerous yellows kept the field bunched, those two went at it for the win. Simpson was putting heavy pressure on Adams for the lead and on lap 10, Adams got too high in that dreaded turn and Simpson drove under him for the lead. The top two cars seemed almost equal, and it seemed that only a mistake by Simpson would open the door for Adams.

Lapped cars played a part in the proceedings, however, and with only three laps to go Simpson was trapped by two slower cars. Adams jumped on the opportunity and drove into the lead.

Now it seemed the ball was in his corner but on the final lap, he again failed to protect the bottom lane, got too high in the loose stuff and allowed Simpson to drive under him to take over the lead. Simpson then held off Adams on the final corner for the win.

This is one that Adams will look back at later and likely say he gave away. While second was not bad from where he started, his second-place run kept the small burg of Cameron, Wisconsin from sweeping the feature action.

Cameron’s Curt Myers took his Super Stock to victory lane, having started third. He got past Dalton Carlson on lap two and then led the rest of the way for the win. There was a great four-car battle for second that was very entertaining. Carlson took the second spot but he certainly had to work for it. Matt Sparby made a late charge that allowed him to claim third.

It was a rough go for the Modifieds, as that troublesome corner caused cars to pitch into the air, bounce around, and slam back to the ground. The opening lap was a scramble among the leaders, but Johnny Broking found a way to race up from fifth to lead the opening lap over father Bob.

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