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There was a lot of Late Model action to choose from in the region over the weekend, but my choice was the Rumble at Brown County Speedway. The NLRA Late Models returned once again, providing sanctioning for a full program on Friday and Saturday. The Street Stock Tour raced as support each night.

There were 37 Late Models and 38 Street Stocks on Friday, which was more than a full night of racing.

Josh Skorczewski picked up the victory in the 30-lap Late Model main event, but it was certainly an eventful race. Matt Gilbertson took the lead from Skorczewski on the second lap, but his night came to an end with a big lead after he ran into the back of a slower car leaving the speedway on the back chute. The damage was enough to eliminate Gilbertson, who certainly looked like he had the car to beat early.

Skorczewski held the lead for the restart with five laps scored, and he was chased by Dustin Strand. After a nice little battle, Strand took the lead on lap 12, but when he came up on Mitch Johnson to put him a lap down, the race took another dramatic turn. I will offer my perspective on the incident, and also the guy’s behind me in the grandstands when it happened, just for contrast.

It looked to me, as Johnson raced on the high side, that Strand just slid up the track with his right rear into the left front of Johnson. Strand’s tire shredded immediately and Johnson spun off the frontstretch with my jaw agape. The person behind me – who I did not know – was outraged that Johnson did not get out of the way. So, whatever the cause was, Skorczewski was the leader for the restart with about 12 laps to go.

Mike Greseth was the next challenger - and the last five laps or so were excellent, with the leaders swapping grooves in close contention. After they took the white flag, Greseth stole the lead in the low groove through turns one and two, but an accident near the rear of the field brought out the caution instead of the checkers, and Skorczewski was restored to the top spot for the final restart, which he controlled to the checkers.

Skorczewski, who became a new father during the week, earned the $2,566 paycheck.

The Street Stock main event was excellent as well, and was almost a pretty big upset victory for Kyle Bertram. Justin Vogel earned the 25-lap feature win; he took the lead early from Billie Christ, and Bertram and Christ had a good battle for second ahead of another group of cars. With about 10 laps complete, Bertram broke free and tracked down the leader in traffic with about seven to go. With a well executed slide job in turn four, Bertram led at the line to complete laps 20 and 21, but a slight miscue in turn two allowed Vogel to reclaim the top spot on lap 22.

I do not want to take anything away from Bertram’s career to this point, but I feel like it would have been a significant upset if Bertram could have held on for the win. Bertram has two career victories in the division – a 2021 victory at Black Hills Speedway, and last season’s win at Miller Central Speedway. To be competitive against this level of drivers was impressive – charging by former WISSOTA National Champion Vogel – so even though he did not knock down a monumental upset, he has now shown he can compete. Bertram has not put in a ton of shows in this season, so it will be interesting to see if he can turn this momentum into feature wins before the year is over.

More money was on the line Saturday night, with a $6,000-to-win, 66-lap main event. Unfortunately, the event rained out, but I was still able to make it to Madison Speedway Saturday in time for their program.

It was a pretty solid night of racing, and three of the WISSOTA features had no caution flags, including the Modifieds, Super Stocks, and Hornets.

The Modified main event was a runaway win by Seth Brede. He won by a straightaway over Ryan Flaten. I was surprised to see Madison was only Brede’s eighth start of the season – a quarter of that total are victories. Brede had previous Late Model experience around 10 to 15 years ago, but I was very glad to see him return to the cockpit last season in the No. 6SL Modified. He got up to speed quickly, and now is a contender wherever he unloads in west central Minnesota.

The Super Stock main event had a pretty nice battle for the lead. Shawn Fernkes and Andrew Hedtke broke away from the pack from the get-go, and Hedtke went to work on the leader just before halfway. Hedtke worked the inside groove and edged into the lead with six of 18 laps remaining, but Fernkes charged on the outside and stayed close the next lap. Hedtke moved to the high groove and sealed the deal in the green-to-checkers race.

Derek Rieck made it to the front in a hurry in the Midwest Modified feature. He hugged the inside groove, racing from sixth to the lead in about a lap and a half. Jake Molitor made it to second, and did not let Rieck get too far ahead, but was never close enough to make a bid for the lead. Rieck did have a close call in lapped traffic, but patience allowed him to escape without serious incident.

Eric Riley started on the pole of the WISSOTA Street Stock main event, and I thought it would be a tough task for anyone to displace him at the head of the field. Kolton Brauer was into second after an early restart, and made a nice outside pass on Riley to take the lead on lap four. Riley stayed close, and made a bid for the lead after a late restart, but Brauer shut the door to claim his fifth win at Madison and 11th overall this season.

Brady Albertson stormed to the lead early in the Hornet feature and outran Adam VanDerostyne for the checkered flag.

That will wrap up this week’s notes. Stay tuned for more in the future!