Mod Wars Night 1 was contested on Friday night, July 18th at the Princeton Speedway in Princeton Minnesota. Located at the Mille Lacs County Fairgrounds which sits squarely in the middle of the city of Princeton, the Princeton Speedway has been operating since 1956. At one time, the Fairgrounds was right on the edge of town, but with the growth of the North Metro of the Twin Cities, all the towns in this area are now growing at a rapid pace.
Redone state highway 169 runs just pass the pit area to the West of the speedway and both the city cemetery and residential housing runs just to the North and East of the race track. The track has a curfew but management of the speedway is always careful not to race too late into the night and the Princeton Speedway has long been part of the fabric of the city with it being one of perhaps the few tracks welcomed by the local population.
The Princeton Speedway has seen a few different management groups run the track over the years with it long being a WISSOTA sanctioned track. It did switch over for a few years to IMCA sanctioning under the Cliff Sasker promotion but they struggled to get race cars and when the Wagamon family put in a bid and took over the track last year, it was a breath of fresh air for the track as car counts again rose, special events started to be held again and they were welcomed by the city to provide strong and long term management of the track under promoter Nate Fischer. The Wagamon family also own Ogilvie Raceway which is one of the premier race tracks in the state of Minnesota.
Ogilvie has for a number of years welcomed the USMTS to their track with their Mod Wars being their event of choice. This pits the USMTS drivers against the WISSOTA drivers with the WISSOTA drivers allowed to run their rules package which is an encouragement for them to race as they don't have to buy tires for just one weekend of racing and while their rules package makes them down a bit in horsepower to the USRA cars, familiarity with the tracks is to their benefit.
Along with the USMTS, several divisions of weekly WISSOTA racing cars would also be in action on Friday night as while the Mod Wars has raced for years at Ogilvie, this would be the first ever USMTS race held at Princeton as in the Wagamon's first year at Princeton last year, they concentrated on just building the program back up and did not host much in the way of special events. This year would be a change and many were looking forward to see how the open Modifieds would race on the high banked quarter mile of Princeton.
The USMTS does not travel with the strength that they did at one time. Truly, there are only about ten or so drivers that can be counted on to race with the USMTS at every race, so if they aren't running near a USRA stronghold of Modifieds, they can struggle to draw a full field of drivers for their events.
A promotion like the one going on this weekend helps, as the WISSOTA cars can race just as they are without making a bunch of expensive changes so many of the regulars give it a go and hope for just a little bit of luck to make the show and on Friday, twenty nine drivers signed in to race.
Qualifying would be the first order of business for the Modifieds with them qualifying as one big group, unlike the last time I saw them race and they qualified by heats. Joe Chisholm, fresh off a feature win the night before, was quickest at 13.370 seconds. The Mods ran three heats and a B feature with the final three spots in the main reserved for provisional drivers, two from USMTS and one local track one. It was quite surprising to see how poorly both Terry Phillips and Kyle Strickler ran as both finished in the back of their heats and weren't close to qualifying out of the B either, having to rely on those provisional spots.
The Mod B Feature was delayed partly through it for a time as a surprise rain shower hit the track. It was very little however and didn't last long so they were able to restart the program with not a large delay. However, more storms with a bigger punch were closing in on Princeton and the Modifieds were moved up to the second feature on the program to try and beat the weather.
The USMTS show was a good one. The quarter mile was smooth and fast and the little extra "juice" provided by Mother Nature turned a good track into a very good track for feature racing.
Twenty five cars ran forty laps and there was just a single yellow flag and only five drivers that started the show failed to finish and there were only two cars that were a lap down.
Jim Chisholm took the lead from Clayton Wagamon on lap two and then led the rest of the race but that lead was under fire the whole contest. After Wagamon led the opening lap, Chisholm got by him on the outside on lap two but Wagamon didn't give up with him attempting to slide back under Chisholm on just about every lap. Reece Solander was also on the move as he challenged Wagamon for second.
When the only yellow of the race flew with sixteen laps completed for a single car spin, Solander had moved to second with Gary Christian and Joe Chisholm also up to top five spots.
Chisholm was working the extreme low side of the track and he got past Wagamon for third by the halfway point of the race. The last twenty four laps would go green and after getting away to a half straightaway lead, slowly but surely, Solander was starting to reel in Jim Chisholm for the lead.
Both were working the top side of the track and with no outside wall here, it is a very fine line that drivers run between being fast on the cushion and flying off the end if you just get a bit too far up the track. But Solander kept coming an in the last ten laps, he drew closer and closer.
The slide job that you knew was coming occurred with just two laps to go as he dove under Chisholm in turn two and cleared him for the lead. However, Chisholm crossed him back over and retook the top spot and Solander's attempt put him too far back to make a last lap attempt once again and Jim Chisholm drove on for the win.
Christian came home third and Dave Cain threw a late slider on Wagamon to claim the fourth spot with those two being the highest finishing WISSOTA drivers in the field. Point leader Rodney Sanders was quiet all night and finished in eighth spot.
WISSOTA racing was also scheduled in five divisions as a part of the program. However, only two were completed before the rains hit and wiped out the rest of the program. In the Street Stock feature , there were three different leaders with Lucas Boyce leading the opening lap before he was passed by A.J. Kellar who had towed down from Thunder Bay Ontario to race this weekend.
Kellar led until the halfway point of the race when Tommy Pogones, who started sixth, drove around him on the high side using the banking and then led the rest of the contest. Kellar settled for second and Boyce finished third.
After the Modifieds finished up, the WISSOTA Super Stocks ran their feature with eighteen cars racing for twenty laps. This was an exciting race with a late pass for the win. Defending WISSOTA Super Stock national champion Dexton Koch started on the pole and drove off to an early lead after battling with Alex Myers. Austin Niemeyer got past Myers for second and after two yellows in the first two laps for spins, the rest of the race would be completed nonstop.
As Koch continued to lead, Curt Myers, who started fifth, was on the move and he drove into second by the halfway point of the race. He then set off after Koch who had about a half straight lead. Koch was running the low groove and after staying about the same distance behind the leader, Curt Myers moved to the cushion and was rewarded as he started to close on the leader.
As Myers started to reel in Koch, Dexton at the same time was developing a push in the corners with the front end of his car wanting to go up the banking. He tried correcting that by racing higher but he wasn't comfortable up there and dropped back to the inside line.
Myers was coming like gangbusters however, and with just five laps to go, he blew past Koch on the outside and then drove away for the win. Things really deteriorated for Koch at the end as both Shane Sabraski and Dylan Nelson also passed him in those last few laps. All eighteen drivers were still on the track at the finish.
The Mod Fours were lined up for their feature race when the skies opened up and the show was done. They, along with the Midwest Modifieds and Hornets will see their main events rescheduled at some point over the coming weeks.
A big crowd was on hand for the first ever appearance of the USMTS in Princeton that contributed to a nearly fourteen hundred dollar 50/50 drawing and I would be shocked if they don't return in 2026 as part of the schedule.
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