Saturday night, July 6th, I was able to attend the fortieth annual Gopher 50, held at the Deer Creek Speedway just North of Spring Valley Minnesota. This was an historic night, marking the fortieth year for this great event that was concocted on a whim by Blooming Prairie Minnesota farmer Jerry Ingvalson as a way to bring big time Late Model racing to southern Minnesota for Ingvalson, a huge Late Model fan himself.
The history of this event dates back to when Ingvalson, a member of the Blooming Prairie Jaycees, decided after watching the Miller 100 at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids that he would try to start an event in southern Minnesota that would try to be the equivalent of that great Iowa event. He convinced the Jaycees to get on board with him and make the race a non profit fundraiser, the proceeds of which were used the first year to buy the local senior retirement home a new van.
Ingvalson was a tireless worker for this race to get it started, and he visited virtually every Late Model event in the Midwest and visited with nearly every Late Model driver in an effort to build up this new event. The first race was held at the Chateau Speedway just down the road from Blooming Prairie, and was a huge success both in terms of driver participation and fan support.
Ingvalson went "big and bold" with the first Gopher 50 in 1980, paying a purse that was unheard of at the time and had many wondering how in the world they were going to make that kind of purse. But his vision for the race was solid and the support of fans and drivers made him just push on and try bigger and better things every year.
Chateau Speedway soon became too small for the event and in their search to find an alternative place to hold the race that was still close to the Blooming Prairie area, they settled on the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna Minnesota, where this event had its most historic races. The Fairgrounds track had a huge half mile, black dirt oval that was only used a couple times a year but also had gigantic grandstand which was exactly what the Blooming Prairie Jaycess were looking for. And they packed that place, year after year with Late Model fans from all over the Midwest.
Track prep was always an issue at Owatonna, as the track was not used enough to have a good racing surface and every year it was a struggle to make the track racy and not "dust out" all the fans and some years they were more successful than others. But the money was always so good that they had racers ready to run each year.
Finding a rules package that worked for everyone was one of Jerry's biggest problems. The local racers were all under the WISSOTA spec engine program while many of the drivers he was hoping to bring in were running "open" motors so rules and enforcement were a constant hassle. Some years the race ran as a part of the UMP Summer Nationals series, some years it was a UMP event and some times it was an open show but trying, from year to year to get a rules package that would work for all was one of Jerry's biggest hassles every year.
He also wanted to bring in some "big name" drivers to help sell the show to fans not fully cognizant of Late Model racing and as southern Minnesota became more of a Modified area with no Late Model racing on a weekly basis any more, that became more and more of a challenge. Some of Jerry's stories about his negotiations with the likes of Scott Bloomquist and Billy Moyer would be very interesting to race fans for sure. Memorable moments like Freddie Smith's DQ for being too light, Bob Hill's wild flip on the last lap of the feature one year and the year that Tom Steuding won the race, while many swore that he had ducked into the pits for service under a red which was not noticed and he returned to his place in the running order only to win the event in a "fuel mileage" race are all part of the lore of the Gopher 50.
When the race moved to Owatonna, Ron Nelson came on board to help Jerry and the two of them were just about the entire Gopher 50, until race day when the Jaycees came up to help out. After the two of them got to be too old to be in the Jaycees any more, other non profits came on board as the beneficiaries of the event which was always a non profit event and remained a centerpiece of the racing season in southern Minnesota.
When Jerry started the race, he went to other people to help him run the show. I was a member of the race team at the Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie Wisconsin which was one of the hot beds of Late Model racing in the entire area. Jerry got most of the race night workers from Red Cedar to help at the Gopher and I was included in that group. I was doing the race night reports for Red Cedar and came on board to do them for the Gopher, working the first one at Chateau and continuing to do so all the way through the last Gopher at Owatonna in 2005.
The city of Owatonna was never very supportive of the Gopher and was always very picky with curfews and other issues that constantly made life difficult for Ingvalson and the crew there. Neither was the Fair Board every easy to work with. Eventually, they made it clear that they didn't want the race anymore in their town, and with Deer Creek Speedway going great guns under the ownership of the Queensland family, it was a logical choice for the move of the race to that facility, which was probably the only southern Minnesota track capable of hosting the race.
To solve the situation with rules and enforcement, the Queensland's got the race sanctioned by the World of Outlaws which took care of many of their former issues and since they had their own promotional team, they didn't need my services as a writer any more. The race was moved from its midweek date, which I always thought made it a "special event" and now stage it on a Saturday to move conveniently fit the Outlaws schedule. While it is still a big deal for the Queensland family and the thousands of folks that attend, now it is just another race on the Outlaw schedule with the same purse etc as all the other ones they compete in and the special luster that the show had is there no more. However, it is still the only time that "big time" Late Model racing is brought to southern Minnesota and as such is still an important event for fans from that area along with those from northern Iowa. For many years I had perfect attendance at this race but when it moved to Saturday nights, I have missed a few for other commitments that were just as important to me. Still, with no such issues this year, it was good to get back to see the Gopher and visit with many of the people behind the scenes that I worked with from way back in the 80's.
Three inches of rain in an isolated downpour on Friday night threatened the race but the Deer Creek Speedway is built to drain well and they have all sorts of equipment to handle a situation like this and the experience over the years to deal with the weather and except for a portion of the pits that was "walled off" because it was still to soft and muddy, you would not have even known that it rained the night before.
Along with the Outlaws Late Models, the USRA Modifieds, the top division at the track for their weekly shows, were also racing on Saturday night and the combination of the two classes is a perfect fit for this event, with interests for both the fender and open wheel fans as southern Minnesota is "nuts" about Modified racing these days while this is about the only Late Model show you can even find happening in this part of the country.
So, some of the issues that Jerry had to deal with way back when still apply and that is primarily coming up with enough Late Models to put on a good show, so Jerry still has to pound the pavement and try to convince drivers to attend. They even have an incentive program built into the event budget to get some of the spec motor drivers and others to attend where things like entry fees etc are waived and also bonuses for those drivers based on their performances.
For example, John Kaanta, a WISSOTA driver running a spec engine, which means he is giving up somewhere between two hundred and two hundred and fifty horses to the open motored cars, gets a check for around five hundred dollars when he pulls in the gate, just for attending. He finished a fantastic seventh in the race on Saturday that was worth fourteen hundred dollars plus a five hundred dollar bonus for the best performance by a WISSOTA driver and he came out pretty good for the night, especially since he didn't even buy tires and just used his WISSOTA tires which he cut!
The WISSOTA drivers were coming off their own two night special the previous two nights at Bob Timm's Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin and several of them dropped in at Deer Creek to help fill the field. Jimmy Mars and Jeff Massingill swapped cars for Deer Creek with open motors, while Jake Timm went home and changed motors. Kaanta, A.J. Diemel and Lance Matthees all just ran their WISSOTA stuff. In fact, Timm couldn't make his open motor run when he got to the track, which is why he missed his heat race. However, they finally got it going and he was able to make the main event and run re presentably.
A total of twenty seven Late Models raced with twenty four making the main. The Outlaw main event was a good one, with Shane Clanton leading the majority of the event as he fought off challenges from Brandon Sheppard and Jimmy Mars. Sheppard took the lead following a late restart and then he had his hands full with Ricky Weiss was just in the process of making a pass for the lead when the yellow came out. The last four laps found Sheppard doing what he needed to as he kept Weiss from getting his first Outlaw win while building on his own point lead. Mars made a late pass to get the third spot.
In my opinion, the Outlaws are traveling this year with probably their smallest and weakest contingent of tour followers that they have had in quite some time. They are now far away from most of the their "drop in" connections and promoters of upcoming events in Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota are working like crazy to line up enough local and regional entries to ensure a full field of cars which is a giant concern. I'm also going to predict that both Mars and Weiss will win a feature race before this northern tour is over.
On the Modified side of things, thirty seven USRA drivers signed in to race for their five grand to win main event. On top of that, Tralo Trucking offered a ten thousand dollar bonus if the top drivers in passing points would opt out of their starting positions and go to the sixth row and then win the race. Fortunately, to make the challenge more interesting, two drivers did opt to try and both Brandon Davis and Rodney Sanders went to row six for the thirty five lap main.
Pre race activity saw Adam Hensel performing a motor swap on his Dirt Dueller chassis after having discovered issues with the motor after they were done racing at Mississippi Thunder. With car owner Les Duellman having no spare, they turned to Adam's father-in-law, Doug Hillson, who had a spare Sputs in the garage so the motor change was made in the pits at Deer Creek.
For northern Iowa fans, popular driver Ryan Ruter was a sub behind the wheel of the #6 Modified, normally driven by Modified rookie Dustin Kruse from South Dakota.
The Modified feature was also a good one, with only one yellow flag in thirty five laps. After an early battle with Zack VanderBeek and Eric Kanz, Rochester's Dustin Sorensen moved into the lead and he dominated the rest of the race, winning the feature with a strong performance. The recent Rochester Lourdes High School grad, who holds a USMTS feature win earlier this year, was also supposed to race a Late Model on Saturday too. He dubuted a new MB chassis at Mississippi Thunder on Thursday night, but they had some major motor issues during Friday night's show which left him with just the Modified for Saturday.
Sanders gave it his best shot, coming from twelfth to finish second in the main. He was driving a risky high side line around the track and shooting up sparks from contact with the wall on several occasions but was making time using that line. His slide job, back and forth battle with VanderBeek for second was one of the highlights of the night and Sanders was closing on Sorensen at the end but just ran out of time. Davis also did a nice job as he came from eleventh to fourth at the finish as he is having a great come back year after having been away from the sport for awhile, all the time running a WISSOTA spec engine which means his is giving up around one hundred horses to the USRA motors.
Modified track point leader Jason Cummins had a terrible night. As he was charging forward in his heat race he got too low and clipped the berm which sent him spinning. Going to the tail of the pack, on the restart he drove straight into the first turn wall and his evening was done after he was considered one of the favorites for the night.
The track was in great shape despite the weather, and the drivers were racing all over the track with both the high side and low side productive, depending on the drivers themselves. The Deer Creek folks seldom miss when it comes to track prep and they didn't again on this night. The crowd was very large indeed and the show moved long well so that the final checkered was waved around 10:30 pm which gave the fans plenty of time to visit the pits and there were a swarm of them that did.
The Gopher 50 may not be that "special event" that it once was but it is still a very big deal and one of highest attended races for sure in this part of the country. And it sounds like Jerry Ingvalson still plans to be a part of it, and he was hinting that there may be some surprises in store for 2020. We will all have to wait and see on that.
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