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On Saturday, I made my first trip of the season to Madison Speedway. When I left Watertown, there was pretty steady rain that had been falling for 20 minutes or so, and it rained or sprinkled about half of the trip there. I looked at the radar, and there was a chance the line of storms could break up, and fortunately they did. There were a few sprinkles at the track, but that was the extent of what looked surely like another rainout.

As far as the action of the speedway, I can not go any further without mentioning the show the WISSOTA Hornets put on. The second Hornet heat race was notable; Bradley Rossow made a charge on the high side and raced from third to first in the last lap or so. That was just the appetizer for the feature, where Rossow looked he was going to drive away from the pack until Matthew Dittman and Jeff Rohner caught him in the late going. Their three-wide battle turned ugly, though, and they all bumped off each other and Rossow turned around to bring out a caution. Dittman was sent to the tail.

Adam VanDerostyne was a new challenger in the three-lap dash to the finish. He and Rohner split Rossow with a three-wide pass, and while Rohner led much of the remaining laps, VanDerostyne channeled his inner Dale Earnhardt, sailed his black No. 3 around the outside of Rohner and nipped him at the line in a photo finish. It was good stuff.

The Street Stocks had a bit of extra money on the line, as well as a bit of a point fund for a three-race swing that was abbreviated to two with KRA’s rainout on Thursday. Kolten Brauer won the points fund, as well as Saturday’s feature.

Ethan Beckler held the point in the early stages of the Street Stock main event, but was under pressure from Maria Broksieck and Brauer pretty early. Broksieck led lap four at the line, but Beckler regained the spot in the high groove. Ultimately, on lap eight of 20, Brauer made an aggressive move and Beckler forfeited the position. Broksieck moved to second after halfway, but Brauer remained in control for the feature win.

Also, on a personal note, my running total for Brauer feature wins this year sits at two for Kolton (Madison, Fiesta City) and one for Braden (Brown County). Stay tuned.

Zach Schultz got about all he could handle from Trevor Nelson to earn the Super Stock win. Nelson started eighth, moved to third on lap four of 16, then picked off second place with about six laps to go. Nelson did not close at the pace I expected, but got a caution flag to aid his efforts with four to go. Nelson threw everything he could at Schultz, but Schultz held steady for a well-deserved victory.

Scott Tofte won the Midwest Modifieds by a straightaway in the caution-free race. It made me wonder, on that piece of land in the past half century or so, how many features Scott Tofte has won by a straightaway. Tofte was “that guy” for so long at Madison Speedway in the 1990s and on, racking up NASCAR Modified feature wins and track titles. There is not as much yellow on the car as in those days, and the orange is a different shade, but Tofte can still get around his hometrack with relative ease.

Tony Konold dominated the Modified race. Nothing much of note happened in this race.

I felt fortunate to be able to witness the entire program, or really much of anything, after looking at the forecast, so it was a convincing victory in my decision to go to Madison Speedway. The season is rolling along, so stop and smell the racing fuel.