Friday the 13th is long regarded as one of those days to watch your backside, as you just never know what might happen on that day. Well, my Friday the 13th proved to be a very interesting one indeed, but in the end, everything worked out well and I did see some quality racing action.
My first choice on that day was I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls Minnesota as the USMTS traveled on to that track as the second leg of their three night sweep into Minnesota. Also on the schedule were WISSOTA sanctioned Midwest Modifieds and Street Stocks.
Of course, everyone knows how awful the weather turned out on Friday, and truly just extended on into the weekend. The Fergus Falls area didn't receive any of the rain that many areas did, but the temperatures were low and the winds incredible. Fergus lies in the rolling glacial area just South and East of where the plains start and when the wind blows in the plains, it howls right down into the Fergus area and it is one of the windiest areas around. And when the winds are cold like they were this week, it makes it just plain miserable.
Back tracking just a bit, I'm guessing that many people reading this have not been and perhaps do not know too much about I-94 Speedway. If not, then let me tell you that despite the fact it might be slightly off the beaten path, it is without a doubt one of the finest dirt tracks in the Midwest without question.
Built originally as a paved track and then covered by dirt several years ago after it sat dormant for a number of years, I-94 is first class in all regards. The pits are all paved, there is seating on both the front and back chute, and the tiered parking off turns one and two is widely popular with folks lining up early in the day so they can get one of the valued parking spots. Including all the seating and vehicle parking spots, Track Manager Corey Eggen has told me that they can house about twelve thousand people in the facility. Track lighting is first class, as is the seating and sound system. No expense has been spared in upgrading the facility with new camping spots the latest additions along with raising the wall on the back chute and resurfacing the track during the off season.
The track is a third mile high banked track and is a very racy facility. The track is owned by Dick and Carla Johanneck who also started and own the Polydome Calf Pen business as well as several other businesses. Polydome is also the title sponsor for the WISSOTA Racing Series. The pits are surrounded by a couple of glacial lakes which abound in this area and truly, the first time I walked into the pits at Fergus, I thought I was walking into a state park! It is a track that every race fan needs to see at least once.
Even though car counts have been huge at the track in the last couple of years and they have had some very successful events, their schedule has been very much on the conservative side. They have focused on their Friday night shows while slowly training in their staff and upgrading their facilities to begin taking on bigger events. Now they are stating to branch out and I would expect that more major events are in their future. The rumor persists that they are a strong candidate to take over as the host track for the WISSOTA 100, the premier event for that organization and a five day event in September that hosts over four hundred race cars.
When Todd Staley brought in the USMTS to Fergus last year and saw the quality of the place, the number of local and area cars willing to take on his travelers and the huge crowd, he started to salivate. It didn't take long before the wheels were set into motion and the USMTS moved their Summer spectacular event from Deer Creek to I-94 for 2016. The SUMMERSOTA will be held in June and will feature a $15,000 to win USMTS event along with WISSOTA Midwest Mods and Streets.
Friday was a miserable day to even be considering auto racing and virtually every track in the area had called their races with some from the weekend already pulling the plug. However, Dick Johanneck wanted to race as he wanted to give the USMTS drivers some laps before the big June race and since over fifty drivers, including many local and regional stars were on hand to race, he wanted to give them a show. And as Eggen told me, "When Dick wants to race, we race." Eggen also told me that Fergus "races in the cold."
Johanneck is a wise businessman, and not given to throwing money away, but he is and has always been a big race fan and for an event like this, even though they knew beforehand that the crowd was going to be small and the event an economic loser, he wanted to put on the race. And so they did.
Despite the fact that snow flurries occasionally drifted down during the afternoon and ice balls fell during the evening, there was no thought given to canceling the show and race teams arrived and prepared for action.
Fifty Modifieds signed in to race and many were local and regional drivers, something that excites Staley as he looks to June. Thirty two MidMods and twenty Streets completed the field. Included in the support classes were drivers that pulled all the way from western North Dakota, South Dakota, Canada and Wisconsin.
In the USMTS, it was again Jason Hughes who dominated the action. Hughes is off to a great start this season as he looks to reestablish the dominance that he had once over this series. An ill conceived move to Late Models and several other things put him behind the eight ball so to speak, but he has really picked up his game both last year, and especially this year to the point that he is dominated like Rodney Sanders did a couple of years ago.
Friday he started in the second row, quickly moved into the lead and then was basically unchallenged through most of the race. The first thirty three laps ran nonstop which allowed him to build up a big lead and then he withstood the large charges of the field when they were brought back to him by late yellow flags.
The late yellows really helped Ricky Thornton Jr who made a bold late race move on the high side that saw him drive up to second. Thornton Jr was supposed to race Late Models this weekend but the weather nixed that, so he threw the Modified in the trailer and hauled all the way up to west central Minnesota, even though he knew that Viking had already cancelled for Saturday and the long trip would be for just one night of racing. After the show, he was intent on converting his car back over to IMCA so he could catch some racing in Iowa over the weekend. Imagine what this guy could do if he wasn't just a one man band with a small trailer and a pickup truck to tow his trailer!
The WISSOTA support classes provided some good racing action too. Defending national Street Stock champion Jordan Tollakson came from the third row to dominate their main event.
A former WISSOTA national champion, Travis Saurer, started in the front row but had to fight his way around Zach Docktor in the late laps to win the MidMod main. Docktor towed all the way from Minot North Dakota to race while Thunder Bay Ontario's David Simpson finished a strong third.
I was fully prepared for the cold weather and had virtually everything I own on! Even so, it would rank as among the top three coldest nights I have ever spent at the races. But who cares, as eventually I warmed up and think what I would have missed if I had stayed home and sat on the couch all night!
For folks interested in checking out I-94 Speedway at some point, along with the SUMMERSOTA in June, other good specials to see would include the RV Modified Tour for WISSOTA Mods in June and the King of the Dirt in August for Late Model fans when the best in WISSOTA'S One Main Financial Series would be in attendance.
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