9-24 Page 27

Friday, September 20

The 44th annual Punky Manor Challenge of Champions kicked off Friday, September 20 at Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, Wisconsin. After last year’s rainout, Red Cedar Speedway track folks were happy to see the sun shining. There was a little rain overnight on Thursday that forced them to protect the track and cancel the scheduled practice session. The rain wasn't significant, however, and things were fine by Friday, with everyone ready to go.

Five classes were in action on Friday night, with WISSOTA-sanctioned Late Models, Modifieds, Super Stocks, Mid Mods and Street Stocks all part of the show. Heat races were held on Friday, with B features and main features set for Saturday. There were a couple of changes and shifts in operational procedures for the event in 2024, with the Late Models time trialing at the beginning of the program. This set their lineups for the heat races, with an invert of four in each heat.

Passing points were used in all divisions to set the feature lineups. B features were necessary in the Modifieds and Late Models only.

Passing points seem to be the fairest of all methods, unless you want to qualify all cars, which could be a nightmare for timing and efficiency of the program.

Most special event organizers have finally seen the light on this and do use passing points. We will see next week what ABC has in mind. The Red Clay Classic begs for passing points to be used with the big fields they have in all classes, but to this point they have not made any changes to their old method of draw/redraw. We will see what 2024 brings.

After the heat races were completed at Red Cedar Friday, the top six Late Model and Modified drivers in passing points were put into a dash to set the front three rows of Saturday night’s feature. This was also a new addition.

More than 130 drivers signed in to race the opening night. The Late Model field was solid, with 33 drivers on hand. Most everyone you expected to be on hand in the Late Models was in attendance, with Troy Springborn making the tow from eastern Wisconsin and Brandon Englund debuting a new car.

Thirty Modifieds was a nice number as well for their portion of the program.

The numbers in the other three classes were perhaps just a bit smaller than might be expected. However, with the large number of special events taking place just about every weekend until the snow flies these days, the drivers get pretty split up. I did note that quite a few drivers on the season point list from Red Cedar were not on hand for whatever reason.

Still, they had enough cars for a race and I didn't hear anyone complaining they felt shorted.

Perhaps the biggest surprise among the drivers on hand was the appearance of Lisbon, North Dakota's Nate Reinke in the Midwest Mods. Always a strong competitor where ever he races, I assumed this was his first-ever trip to Red Cedar and perhaps to any track in Wisconsin.

In talking with Reinke, I found out that he had long-expressed an interest in running this event and with a good weather forecast, he decided to make the pull east into Wisconsin. He was running solo for the weekend, with his father, normally his crew chief, out after suffering serious burns in a farm accident.

His hope coming into the event was to get a top-five finish and put the car on the trailer in one piece. As things turned out on Saturday, he came very close to that goal, settling for sixth at the finish of the Midwest Mod feature. He chose to run the top side of the track, but unfortunately it took most of the race for that line to come in. Once it did, he was definitely on the move but just ran out of laps.

After a six-hour pull home, he was looking forward to an extended period on the farm equipment, as harvest time begins in North Dakota. He, along with his brother Zach—an accomplished Mid Mod driver in his own right—and his father look to harvest 4,000 acres of beans in the coming weeks. The crop, he said, will be a good but not great one, having lost some acres early to flooding rains.

He hopes for one last race at I-94 emr Speedway, where he is an excellent runner, if the crops and weather cooperate. Otherwise, his next race will either be at Vado, New Mexico in January or perhaps the Shaw series, if it does return for 2025.

Shadow Kitchner, who has been one of the best in the Mid Mods for a number of years here, showed up with a Modified to drive on Friday. He recently purchased an SSR Modified from Brady Lacher in South Dakota, a car with just a few races on it. When asked if this might be his direction in 2025, he indicated that it was possible that next year he would be Modified racing.

It might have been around four years since he raced regularly in the Super Stocks, but Steve Thomas was back at it on Friday night, debuting a car in the Mid Mod class. He took a ride in a Mid Mod last year at some point, but it was still a surprise to see him return. He used the well-known No. T17.

Mike Knudtson is another driver that just can't stay away from the sport. A longtime Street Stock driver, he hasn't raced for awhile but surprised when he showed up on Friday driving a used car from out of eastern Minnesota.

Rodney Olson, the starter here at Red Cedar for a number of years now, has announced he is retiring from the job after the completion of the Punky. That will mark two area tracks looking for starters come 2025.

Running time trials looks relatively easy from the stands but there is some coordination that is required to make this procedure run smoothly. Sometimes it takes practice and debuting the system for a special event can be a bit risky. Unfortunately, things went terribly wrong during time trials on Friday, resulting in the worst crash of the night. The incident badly damaged two cars, but thankfully no one was injured.

The Late Models were rolling through the infield as they completed their qualifying and then sent back across the track at the turn three opening to the pits. At some point, Lance Matthees was done qualifying and was waved across the track by a track official. As he went across the track, Jim Carlson came down the back chute and accelerated; there was a grinding crash between the two right at the crossover.

It was very reminiscent of the Tom Nesbitt and Brady Smith crash in the same exact spot several years ago. They were very lucky no one was injured in that one either, with Nesbitt already unbuckled in his car. These are the kinds of things that leave you just shaking your head at how they can happen. In any event, both cars were eliminated for the weekend.

Racing started about 40 minutes late on Friday, due to track lights in both the first and third turns that wouldn't come on. After they were fixed, racing cracked off in succession smoothly and efficiently.

Two of the biggest surprises during the heat races were the unfortunate circumstances that befell a couple of the drivers. Mike Anderson, who has been running so well lately with his Modified, was a full straightaway in front of the field in his heat when he got a flat right front tire and was done for the night.

Jesse Redetzke, who is always a large threat to win at Red Cedar in the Super Stocks, nailed a ute tire in his heat race and folded in the front end of his car and was also done for the program.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE