Thursday night, August 17th, the first of two nights of the third annual Howie Schill Memorial race was held at the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo North Dakota. This event would feature NLRA/WISSOTA Late Models along with three divisions of IMCA racing in the first of two straight nights of racing at the West Fargo track.
It was another smoky night here in the northern region with the skies getting hazier and hazier as the evening progressed and the North wind blew in more smoke from the Canadian wild fires. I lost by sense of smell post Covid but I would swear I could almost smell the smoke, that's how heavy it was.
Howie Schill was one of the best known personalities in the Red River Valley area for many years. He was a long time racer, mainly in the Late Model class but in other classes also over the years. He had retired from racing for a number of years but was still highly involved in the racing career of his son Cole, who also races Late Models, #44 and Howie was in the pits, calling shots on every move of Cole's operation, which has been very successful in its own right since Cole jumped into racing, moving right into the Late Models. Howie was seen at every track and was an active part of the Northern Late Model Racing Association (NLRA ), the club that supervises races for the Late Models in this area. The NLRA puts together their own traveling schedule of races and while they are completely sanctioned by WISSOTA and run their rules fully, they "do their own thing", so to speak, at tracks in North and South Dakota, along with northern Minnesota and occasionally a visit into Manitoba.
Howie Schill got sick suddenly over the Winter three years ago and passed quickly, shocking the racing community in this area and this race was set up as a tribute to him. The race has been highly supported by the drivers and fans and held here at West Fargo which was his home. This year, thirty seven Late Model drivers would sign in for night number one of this event, which would be just a regular purse, point paying event for the NLRA with the big money to be distributed at the Friday night show, where likely even more drivers will be on hand.
Track promoter Jake Bitker gives his regular classes, all of whom are sanctioned by IMCA, a chance to race during this two day show also with half those classes racing on Thursday and the others moving in for the Friday night show.
NLRA uses the old draw/redraw method of lining up their races so there would be no qualifying in any of the four classes racing which even with hot laps, allows the show to start right on the dot at 7 pm.
The Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, for those unfamiliar with it, is one of the finest facility in the upper Midwest. The track seats over 8,000 spectators with a huge set of grandstands, has spectacular lighting and all the other amenities of a top notch track. The track itself is about a third mile, cut down a number of years ago by then promoter Danny Schatz(yes, that Danny Schatz) from the big half mile that it had been since its inception. It took some years for fans and drivers to get used to the smaller track and I suspect still some people that pine for that big old black dirt half mile, but all the newer drivers and fans now only know the smaller track. Interestingly, the front stretch retaining wall from the old half mile was retained so there is a long wall that extended beyond the track in both directions on the front chute that seem to be protecting nothing but are a remnant of the old track. The new track has no walls on either end so drivers occasionally slip over the top or go flying over the top as Andy Pake did with his Sprint Car Thursday.
A great field of Late Models was on hand as the featured attraction, with five heats and a pair of B Features needed to set the field for the twenty five lap main event. There would be drivers on hand Thursday from both Dakotas, along with Minnesota just across the Red River and also from Canada.
Interestingly, the Late Models would compete in a bonus feature race that needs to be explained. Jake Bitker is also the promoter at the Norman County Raceway in Ada Minnesota, very close to his farm property. This is a Thursday night track that runs both IMCA and WISSOTA divisions and occasionally brings in the Late Models and Sprint Cars as a special. Two weeks ago they had the Late Models and the feature was rained out.
However, circumstances required that Norman County wrap up their season early and their finale for the year was cancelled. With no chance to run that Late Model feature, Bitker instead moved it here to West Fargo and that event was run early in the evening so as not to affect the regular show.
There were only ten cars in that event and as things would work out, the banner year that Tyler Peterson has been having would continue. The rookie Late Model driver and former Modified WISSOTA national champion, would benefit when Don Shaw and Cole Schill would bang together on the opening lap and briefly be forced to check up. Peterson would drive by them both and take the lead, one that he would retain to the checkers in the short race and thus tack another feature win on to his ledger as he would best Shaw and Shane Edginton.
Peterson would be right in the middle of the Schill Memorial feature, part one, also, but things didn't work out quite so well in that event. The twenty five lap, twenty five car starting field would see things start out in a rough manner.
Denver Nickeson would get the jump at the start of the main event but Mike Greseth would get a big run on him off turn four on the opening lap. However, when Nickeson moved up the track, Greseth piled into the back of his car, spinning off turn four right in front of the whole field. Josh Zimpel couldn't avoid him and they collided hard, with both cars done for the event. Significantly, Greseth is the two time and defending NLRA champion and is locked in a tight battle with Brad Seng for the title this year and his elimination from the event had to hurt when Seng would eventually motor on to a fourth place finish.
Nickeson would only hold the lead for one more lap on the restart before Peterson would move up from the third row, using the top side of the track. He went flying by Nickeson and it looked like he would run away with the race.
However, he misread the top side of the track, which started to slow down considerably and Chad Becker, a former multi time WISSOTA champion, would drive under Peterson and take over the lead. However, Tyler wasn't done yet though, as he fought back using the top and lower grooves and he was right beside Becker as they hit heavy traffic. The slower cars were mostly running right on the bottom and it got wild as both the leaders tried to slash through the traffic and beat the other back to clean air.
At one point, Becker got trapped on the bottom and knew the he needed to get back up top and he made a slicing move back to the top side of the track, just beating Peterson by inches to that spot. However, Peterson already had a head of steam up and couldn't slow quick enough and slipped over the edge of turn one, triggering a yellow with just six laps to go.
Tyler decided to call it a night at this point and Becker would drive on for the last six laps to take the win over NIckeson and the ageless Mitch Johnson who just keeps getting better and better in his return to the sport after retiring for a number of years. The one, two swipe by South Dakota drivers likely won't sit sell with the North Dakota group and they prepare for the Friday night showdown for the big bucks.
Fourteen IMCA 305 Racesaver Sprints were on hand to race on Thursday. This is a relatively new class to this area which has always been a Sprint Car hot bed anyway and the class continues to grow slowly. On this night, the locals were joined by national point leader Tyler Drueke who is making a tour this weekend of area tracks and intends to run River Cities in Grand Forks on Friday night.
However, Drueke would have to settle for second on this night as no one could touch track point leader Tye Wilke for the win. Wilke would pass Ty Hanten on lap two and then pull away for the win. The race was stopped for the red on fourteen when third running Andy Pake would tangle with a slower car, go flying off turn four and take some big air before he would slam into the extended wall on that end. He was OK but it took a bit of time for him to exit his car.
Wilke would then pull away from Drueke and Hanten to take the win.
A nice field of twenty two IMCA Modifieds would be on hand for what turned out to be a rather aggressive, slam bam kind of feature race. Lynn Sather would lead for one lap before Kollin Hibdon would make the pass for the lead, having come from the third row. He would put distance on the field, a wise move for him because there was plenty going on behind him and most of it was not good.
"Wild" Bill Wadeson proved to be exactly that as he spun in turn one right in heavy traffic and the resulting grinding crash eliminated four cars. Hibdon would lead the rest of the way, safely in front of the battles behind him that were aggressive at times. Dave Shipley would eventually come home second with Jesse Skalicky third.
The Hobby Stocks are a new class to the area in the last couple of years and their numbers are just a bit slow to grow. Some nights they have a decent car count but a Thursday night is probably pretty tough for many and so only eight were on hand on this night.
However, they managed to produce some action of their own. After hitting the wall in the heat and having to start in the back, Brodee Echerdt would come through the field to win the main event with a late race pass. He didn't endure himself to others in the field though, as he slammed his way past a couple of contenders who felt the need to let him know after the race that they were none too pleased with his strategy. In fact, one other driver got so incensed that he managed to fly off the end of the track while expressing his displeasure.
Eckerdt would take the win with Brad Ovedal second and Tim Church third. Church was the one to fell the fullest impact of Eckerdt's over aggressiveness. Eckerdt also showed the he clearly isn't the one working on his race car as when asked in the victory lane speech just what had been repaired after hitting the wall in the heat, he had to admit that he had no idea, clearly an indication that Dad or others work on the car and he just drives. Maybe that is why that his "no holds barred" strategy works so well.
So it was a nice night of racing with plenty of entertainment for the fans who were on hand in good numbers on a Thursday night with the place to likely be packed on Friday night. The fast paced show was completed just after 10 pm as they did a nice job with time management on a week night. Thanks to Jake Bitker and the entire crew here at RRVS. If in the area, this would be a good place to add to your list of tracks visited. It can be seen right from I-94 if you are traveling West.
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