Topless at the "Big O"

The state of Minnesota held its last dirt track race of the 2015 racing season on Saturday, October 24th when the Ogilvie Raceway hosted its sixth annual Topless Nationals featuring eight divisions of racing action all compacted into a one day show. Originally scheduled with racing both Friday and Saturday, the show on Friday was weathered out by an all day soaking rain. With several options considered, the final choice was to run a complete program on Saturday for all divisions scheduled to compete. The original purse was halved, with no entry fee for the racers and only one pit pass to purchase.

All six weekly divisions were in racing action plus the Late Models were added to the event, as they have been in recent years. Also, after a sponsorship offer from Greg Parent of GRP Motorsports, the UMSS Traditional Sprints were also added to the card. Parent is the Media Director for the UMSS as well as a generous sponsor of race cars and racing events and the addition of the Traditional Sprints was a good choice for this event, particularly if the heats and dashes would have been completed on Friday as planned, rather than having to jam eight divisions with full shows all on Saturday.

This race gained some traction last year after the first editions of this event struggled with car counts, largely because racers in this area were used to putting their race cars "to bed" by this time of the year and , while there still are many that start stripping them down and rebuilding by late October, more and more racers are holding off for one more weekend of racing.

The all day rain on Friday was a blessing in some ways for the track surface itself, as this track can take rubber and lock down if it gets too much racing but on this Saturday there was none of that at the track saw many laps of competition and with very minimal track attention once the green flag waved, there was no bolted down race surface to content with.

Since the drivers have to make a concerted decision to race in this race, with the roofs required to be removed from all classes except the Street Stocks where it was optional for an extra $100 and the Hornets where they weren't allowed to remove the roofs, the change in the format likely would not change many drivers decisions about whether to race or not. With Saturday proving to be a sunny but cool day, one hundred and ninety cars signed in to race, which I believe was probably the largest turnout of race cars ever for this race track. With part of the pits too soft to use and this being a facility with not a huge pit area to begin with, finding places for all the racers to pit was challenge number one of the day. Many ended up out in the spectator parking lots which also provided the spectators with a unique experience as certainly many of the folks on hand to watch the races never had to park next to a race car in the parking lot before, or try to steer around a big totter to get on the road home. But everyone made due and the biggest task was to round up the racers and get them signed in, a task that was challenging and did lead to the races getting a twenty seven minute late start. However, after that it was almost nonstop racing for the next seven hours or until you as a fan just couldn't take any more and headed for the exits.

WISSOTA general rules prevailed for the race cars, however, exceptions were made so that all on hand could run with the class closest to their rules package. For instance, Late Models allowed the aluminum motors to be run with a restrictor plate used and Mark Rose, who blew up his WISSOTA engine in practice on Thursday, dropped in an aluminum engine his crew brought over for him so he could race.

In the Modified class, WISSOTA rules cars were the vast majority entered but there were also a couple of USMTS cars and an IMCA car or two. The Midwest Modifieds had a couple of IMCA Sport Mods running with them and the WISSOTA Street Stocks had a couple of IMCA Hobby Stocks running also but the IMCA Stock Cars were not allowed to run, given they had just a way too much advantage last year when Andy Altenburg won one of the feature races. The WISSOTA Super Stocks and Mod Fours are a singular class to WISSOTA and the Hornets ran under local track rules.
The Traditional Sprints are an interesting breed. They use regular sprint chassis, with restrictions on the shocks and some of the other expensive components. They run basically a MidMod or B mod motor in the car and a restricted tire, but from all appearances they resemble a nonwinged sprint.
The class have proven to be a haven for people that wanted to run a sprint car but couldn't afford to do so before and as a stepping stone for young drivers coming up from 600 sprints or mini sprints.
I have seen this class run at several different speedways and they always put on a good show with close competition and very few yellow flags. Their races are frequently decided on the last lap and if a few more tracks would start running this class, I think it might really take off. Right now St. Croix Speedway in Wisconsin, the home track of the UMSS, runs them every week and their numbers have built to over twenty cars for most of their shows as the season moved along. On Saturday they only had eleven as this race was a late addition and caught many of their drivers unprepared. This class prides itself on not having many yellow flags in their races and again on Saturday, they ran a non stop main event. Their other boast is that they have many different winners because the class is so even, and they added to that Saturday as Jeremy Kerzman, who is a veteran of racing with everything from Modifieds to 360 sprints to Midwest Modifieds in his backround, won his first ever Traditional Sprint feature as he rode the cushion to victory.

The Late Model field was a bit tepid as only a dozen cars were on hand as I guess not that many drivers were interested in racing for $1,500 for the one day show as opposed to three grand for the two day show. Nevertheless, Don Shaw put on a good show as he came from the seventh position to pass Jeff Massingill near the end for the win. Shaw, who has been on fire the second half of the year after he got his new Victory chassis from Billy Moyer, has been a dominant figure in area racing as the season has wrapped up and I would guess that he is savoring the chance to do well in Tucson in January, a track that he knows and runs very well indeed. John Kaanta, Lance Matthees and Marshall Fegers rounded out the top five finishers.

Forty six Modifieds signed in to race with three sanctioning bodies represented as well as drivers from four different states. However, for the longest time it appeared that local driver J. B. Stortz was going to win the main as he drove a brilliant race and fought off a series of challenges. Unfortunately, a late race yellow proved his undoing as he got a bad restart and spun his tires in turn one and Dave Cain blew past him on the outside to take the lead and go on for the win in his MasterSbilt from JMR Racing chassis. Stortz, Shane Sabraski, Jody Bellefeuille and Jason Thoennes would follow.

The Midwest Modifieds also had forty six entrants and making the main event in either one of these open wheel classes was a struggle itself. The MidMod main was dominated by area driver Jeremy Nelson who led the distance in his MB Custom chassis. He proved to be very fast and there was no one who could stay with him. Young Tyler Lamm, who is being tutored in his racing career by the famous Jones family from Princeton Minnesota, came home a strong second and was followed by Sketter Estey, Sabraski and Corey Bruggeman.

Tim Johnson won the Super Stock feature after a great battle with Eric Martini. They went wheel to wheel for many laps before Johnson was able to edge in front. A couple of late race crashes took out contenders Martini, Don Shaw and Dave Mass and gave Johnson a little breathing room. Johnson, who races in three classes multi times a week during the season, has won over one hundred feature races just this season  between the Street Stock, Modified and Super Stock that he drives and has put together one of the most amazing racing seasons on record. He also finished runner up in all  three national point standings in those classes under the WISSOTA sanctioning body. Johnson was followed by Mark Blood, Joey Jensen(of USMTS fame), Jared Zimpel and Josh Schmit.
Johnson also won the Street Stock feature where he started on the pole and dominated the race. He was trailed by Justin Pogones, Jim Gullikson, Davey Kruchten, and rookie Ethan Iiams.
Shayne Laske is one of the "big shots" in the Mod four class. He is a multi time national champion and builder of many of the fastest Mod fours around. However, he doesn't race too much himself any more, but when he climbs behind the wheel, he is one to watch. Saturday he jumped into Mitch Hribar's  car and dominated the Mod four feature, winning by a large margin over Chad Funt, Dean Larson, Dwight Gilyard and Mike Rau.

There was some sadness associated with Saturday's show and it was evidenced most in the Hornet class. Layne Roberts, from Willmar Minnesota, passed away suddenly during this week. Layne was widely known in the central Minnesota racing scene, having been a board member at a couple of different tracks, a well known flagman at several area speedways, a wrecker driver and corner worker at tracks in the area, and most recently, a Hornet racer. Among Layne's greatest accomplishments has been him being the Head Starter at the WISSOTA 100 in Huron South Dakota in recent years and in fact, the last time I was at Ogilvie Raceway earlier this Summer, Layne was flagging the races as a replacement for regular flagman Brian. He was a wild and crazy guy, known by everyone and will be sorely missed for his fun and "devil may care" attitude. He was truly one of a kind.

The Hornet drivers started their main event with the "missing driver" formation and his close friend Mark Deering drove Layne's car in the main event, leading for a lap or so before settling for third. Race winner was Joe Martin with Ashton Schulte, Deering, Justin Schelitzche and Joe Bunkofske(all the way from Iowa), trailing.

It was a long night of racing and surely pushed the limits of just how much racing one can do in one day before the show should be a split show over two days. However, folks at the Big O didn't have that option due to the weather and activities on Sunday that would have hampered things so they did the best they could. There was nothing wrong with the racing and the car count was fantastic so overall it was a very positive way to end the local scene. You could also tell that some drivers at least, were operating under the theory that they had all Winter to fix any damage as there seemed to be a more than the normal amount of aggressive driving and several rather blatant cases of  "payback", justified or not.

The Wagamon family, of Wagamon Brothers Racing Engines in the Twin Cities, purchased the Big O part way through this racing season and it will be interesting to see if they make any changes for the 2016 season as they really had no time this year to do other than finish off what had been already scheduled. I would be surprised it there were not some bigger events on tap for next year.