Murty Doubles at Moyer Memorial at Marshalltown

 Saturday night marked the finale of the 2025 racing season at the Marshalltown Speedway with the second half of the Harvest Hustle on the high banks.

Saturday night was also the celebration of the Carl Moyer Memorial race as the Late Models of the  Karl Chevrolet  Pro Late Model Tour joined the other classes for a one night race for themselves. The addition of the Late Models put the car count over the two hundred and seventy number. With the pits so jammed, the Late Models ended up pitting on the East end of the Fairgrounds, something that I had never seen done here before. 

Saturday's program saw Last Chance qualifying for the six classes that raced on Friday night plus a full show for the Late Models. The Late Model portion of the show brought a good number of the PRO regulars plus other Late Model drivers looking to get a last race in before the snow flies. 

Drivers got two more chances on Saturday night to make the main events as first Last Chance heats were held which moved a few drivers up immediately into the mains and then everyone else got to run a Last Chance event to put the last feature starters into the show. 

Another forty three races would be held on Saturday night and even though the program started earlier than on Friday, with so many races it would be another long evening of racing. When all the qualifying was completed, there would end of being around twenty four or so drivers in each class that would run a main event. 

The first class up for their main event was the Sport Mods and there was some controversy in this main. And I must admit that most of the questions were asked by me and not by others in the crowd. Brayton Carter and Matt Avila shared the front row for the start and they took off battling each other in tight formation. They were nearly side by side down the front stretch on the opening lap and when they doze to the inside of turn one, it got tight for Avila and he spun out. 

As all the cars  had not completed the opening lap, a restart was called for and according to the way they operate here, it turned into a "do over" for the entire field, meaning that Avila got his spot back. 

J VAN and I have gone around on this(in a good way of course) and he tells me that this is the way that they do it here every week and if so, they should indeed follow the same course on this weekend too. I believe a bit differently on this as for me, whether it was the first lap or the last, when someone triggers the yellow they should go to the back of the pack. If we give everyone a "do over", we might as well got to UMP racing where the first attempt is fair game for anyone to try anything and if it doesn't work, they try again a second time using the original lineup. 

If M Town does this every week then they definitely should also do it the same way for this event; it's the philosophy behind it that I question. 

In any event, the restart saw Avila get past Carter who failed to cover the outside lane and block Avila's charge and on a top side dominant track at this point of the night, Avila then pulled away for the win. There was only one yellow after that and Avila, strong on the cushion, never gave Carter a chance to catch him. Brayden Shepherd would run third for most of the race. 

Twenty Late Models started their feature race and while J.D. Auringer took the early lead, he was soon under the gun from Dallon Murty who started right behind him. It took Murty only three laps to get past Auringer and he then cruised away from the field. 

There were several yellows to bunch the pack but every time Murty would pull away and he was never seriously challenged. C.J. Horn moved into the second spot by the halfway point of the race but was never able to cut into Murty's lead. Brennan Chipp finished third. 

I felt that perhaps the most entertaining feature was the Hobby Stock main that saw a real battle for the lead and a late race pass making the difference. It was primarily a two car battle between Bradly Graham and Carson Butt that got a bit physical several times. 

Graham started on the outside pole and led most of the race over Butt. Graham was running low in turns one and two and each lap, Butt would try to run off the banking and get enough momentum to make a pass down the back chute. 

This was attempted several times but each time Graham was able to squeeze off Butt and hold him back. Finally, Butt got a better run off turn two and Graham might have been just a bit lower exiting the corner, but either way, Butt was able to edge under Graham down the back chute and take over the lead with them making some contact and Graham getting squeezed himself a bit into the back chute guard rail. 

Butt then held off the challenges the last few laps from Graham to take the win, and after they crossed the finish line and slowed for turn one, Graham initiated some contact that saw Butt pull into victory lane with a left front fender flapping in the breeze. He seemed to not even have noticed this and to me, there was equal give and take during the race that no one got the upper hand, but perhaps Graham wasn't happy losing to a fourteen year old. In any event, it was an action packed event. 

I was expecting a wild and competitive Stock Car feature race but instead it was kind of quiet and nondescript, thanks to Murty. Braden Richards took the initial lead with Jeffrey Abbey, in the B&B House Car, moving into second. Murty started fifth but quickly moved to third and then got past Abbey to move into second by lap four as two yellows slowed the race early. 

The rest of the event went nonstop and it took only a few laps for Murty to build up a head of steam and drive past Richards on lap ten and after that he was gone. He remained unchallenged as the top three stayed in the same order with not a lot of passing behind them either. 

The Sport Compacts shocked when they started twenty four cars, all twenty four remained on the track to the finish and the race ran of nonstop! 

Brian Hillringhouse started on the outside pole and led the first five laps. Michael Gardner started in the second row and made what was the winning pass on lap six and after that move, he was gone. Despite having to navigate through some lapped traffic, he was never in danger of losing the lead as he built up quite a comfortable edge. Hillringhouse then ran second for the rest of the race with Adam Broehm third. 

The evening concluded with another domination performance as Jake McBurnie started on the pole and led all twenty five laps to win the Modified feature. There was only one slowdown in the late going but he took off strong on the restart and moved away from Tripp Gaylord and Kyle Brown to take the win. 

Only four drivers failed to finish the final race of the night. The last checkered waved at 1:38 am, making for a truly long race meet. It was a cold night with a wind that never seemed to let up and while it blew in a direction that wasn't at least in our faces, it was relenting and made it feel much colder than the temperature said. Folks were bundled up like it was a snowmobile race and while the crowd was much bigger than on Friday night, it still wasn't the packed house that I imagined it might be. Perhaps football played a part in that both nights. 

After a night off, the tech folks came back on Saturday with a fury as there were no less than ten disqualifications during the course of the evening, some that cost drivers from racing the mains. 

It did seem a shame that the premier class at this track all year didn't run their main event until about 1 am and in front of about fifty folks that were left, either because they were zealots or were perhaps frozen down in their seats! A modified schedule might have helped that situation. 

One suggestion might be to eliminate the second chances that drivers had on Saturday to qualify and just divide the remaining drivers up into B Features and qualify them out of those races, rather than having qualifying heats followed by another full round of qualifying. That would eliminate a number of races and cut down on the laps on the track. 

I didn't think it possible but I believe the surface actually wore out on Saturday from so many laps. After not touching it on Friday  night, there were several sessions of watering and scrapping the track to try and prevent it from rubbering up and going one lane but they were only partially successful in doing so as there were periods in certain races that it was clear that the groove was latching down and that might have played a part in some of the dominating races with less passing as I thought the prelims on Friday were excellent. 

Still, while some refining might be in order for next year, who can complain about the racing we saw with so many cars, events and entertainment, all during the last week of October?

It had to have been a grind for the track employees who put in some ungodly hours, racing until the wee hours and then being right back at it just a few hours later. Thanks to them as without their efforts, this program or any other for that matter would never be able to be run. 

Harvest Hustle at Marshalltown Has Friday Night Racing Galore

 The Fast Shafts Harvest Hustle on the high banks of the Marshalltown Speedway opened up on Friday night, October 24th. After a practice night on Thursday was attended by around one hundred and fifty drivers, it was apparent that with cool but rain free weather for Friday that there would be a pit full of racing cars for Friday night's qualifying sessions. 

And that was certainly the case on Friday as the expanded pits were filled to the bulging point by the time everyone got parked and signed in. The whole field to the South of the pit area was used to excess race vehicle parking and it was full right up to the edge of the street both to the South and West of the normal pit area. 

Of course, it takes a lot of space to park over two hundred and fifty race cars, especially these days with the larger and larger transporters that many are using. Car counts were up in four of the five core classes racing this weekend with the biggest increases in the Modifieds and Stock Cars over 2024. Only the Hobby Stock count was down slightly and the total number signed in to race was two hundred and thirty seven. Add in the twenty two Mod Lites and two hundred and fifty nine cars would be racing on Friday night. 

Forty eight races plus the Mod Lite events made for a more than full racing evening which went nearly nonstop from shortly after 7 pm. The track was great on Friday with not a bit of dust, despite the rather windy conditions that would prevail throughout the weekend. It was interesting to watch the groove move from high to low and then back to the high, largely depending on which class was racing and where the drivers found their cars to work the best. I believe that once the first green flag was dropped, the track wasn't touched all night and that is testament to both a good surface and good track prep. 

A unique format was used for this event. Drivers raced in two heat races with the draw setting the running order for the first round of heats and then the order shuffled for the second set of heats, both in starting positions for the drivers and also who they were racing against. Often when I see this format I note that the same drivers race against each other twice and that is wrong as the balance between the heats might not be even and it isn't fair to have to run against a stacked heat twice, unless of course you are that unlucky to draw two different heats that are both loaded.

Passing points are used to determine the Saturday night lineups and that is something not used often enough in this part of the racing world for largely attended races. Draw/redraw is simply not appropriate for fields of drivers this large, putting far to much worth on the draw for the success of the whole weekend. Drivers earn their own way into the main events when they have to race twice. And points are also deducted for losing positions during the heat races, putting a huge premium on performance. 

Many excellent and intense heat races were held on Friday night, but it would be difficult to not say that the Stock Cars once again shown brightly. Right from the start in their first heat race they were running in a cluster, swapping positions in every corner and doing their fair share of leaning on each other which seems to be an excepted part of the racing as no one seems to get agitated when they get rubbed a bit. Only the top six in passing points are to be locked in for Saturday night's feature race so there will be many excellent drivers having to run B Features heats or Last Chance races. 

There were a couple red flags for wild flips in the Sport Compact class on Friday night, highlighting the one safety item that I wish could be changed here. Very much like the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks North Dakota, a high banked quarter mile, when drivers fly off the end here it usually produces bad things. On Friday night, a couple of Sport Compact drivers tried to fight their way back onto the track after slipping over the edge but the only thing that produced was a couple of wild barrel rolls. 

The greatest thing that could ever happen here is if a wall was built on both ends of the track, keeping the drivers from exiting over the banking at high speed which more often than not results in a nasty flip or wreck. As it is, anyone that goes over the edge automatically triggers a yellow because track officials lose sight of the cars and don't know if they are OK or not, thus forcing a yellow. 

I look at how much better Central Arizona Speedway races now that they have a wall all the way around the track to keep cars where they should be and also allow the track to build up a berm which adds to the racing. I know that some drivers and fans like an outside wall and other not so much but for me, it is a safety item as much as anything. 

Amazingly, with over fifty races on the scheduled on Friday, there was not a single disqualification to be found. Perhaps the tech folks didn't make it in time but that seems so rare for a big event such as this for not a single driver to be either light or in conflict with some other rule, especially with drivers from I believe eleven states on hand and so many that never had raced here before. 

With so many races on tap, it was a grueling night for both the racers, fans and track workers with the final checkered of the night waving well after Midnight.  However, if it was races you wanted to see, you more than got your money's worth.  

Haudenschild Rips The Lip at Angell Park For Victory

 A busy weekend wrapped up on Sunday, October 19th  with a visit to historic Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie Wisconsin for a rescheduled race from earlier in the year that featured the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars and the Midgets of the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association. 

Not many races are held this late in the year in Wisconsin and this was quite a risk I thought by SLS Promotions to reschedule this race, both because it was so late in the year but also because it was on a Sunday during the school year. I know that Angell Park races on Sunday nights all year but there is quite a difference between a nice warm Sunday in July and this time of the year when school is in session come Monday morning. 

This race was scheduled as the final part of a three night, three state swing by the WoO that saw them race in Indiana on Friday, get rained out in LaSalle Illinois on Saturday and then drive a couple hours North on Sunday to race at Sun Prairie, just East of Madison. 

It rained for quite a few hours overnight in Sun Prairie on Saturday too but while the pits were a bit wet in spots, the track itself seemed to relish the extra moisture with six drivers breaking the old track record that was set quite a few years back. David Gravel was the fastest at 11.556 on the third mile track that is uniquely shaped and almost a complete circle. 

Along with the rain, a front came though over night which dropped the temperatures considerably and also produced a strong Northwesterly wind that of course, was blowing right into the main grandstands. I watched social media closely because I was convinced that they would cancel the show. Clearly, SLS knew the crowd better than I as even though it was not pleasant by any means, the stands were packed with race fans that plopped down forty five bucks a pop to watch the WoO in action. Many, however, were constantly watching their phones for updates on the Packer game and there was one of the bigger cheers of the night when it was announced that they had won, although not too impressively. 

The field showed twenty five WoO Sprints and twenty four Badger Midgets. The WoO brought their top fourteen drivers in series points but not much else and the area series like IRA and MOWA produced few cars. The Midgets are kind of on an island here with not much Midget racing anywhere around here and they are kind of a throw back in many ways. Their field was fortified by a number of Illinois drivers on this night and they were actually very pleased to have two dozen drivers on hand. 

Did you know that the four wide lineups for feature races were not the concept of the WoO but instead of Badger and when the late Ted Johnson, a native of  Wisconsin, saw them at Angell Park, he coined the idea when he started the WoO years later? Neither did I until Johnny Gibson produced that fact for the wind swept crowd. 

Between the short field of entries and mechanical issues that took out a few cars, neither group would need to run a B Feature before the main events but I think no one was complaining was they just wanted to see the main events and then head for their cars and warmth. 

WoO has always been good about moving up the starting times and moving along their shows when weather threatened or it was not a nice night. They did so again on Sunday, moving up warm ups to 5 pm but by the time they got done qualifying etc, it was about 6 pm when the first heat hit the track. The Sprints ran three quick heats and their dash and then it was time for them to run their main event. 

Connor Morrill was a scratch for the feature after flipping in his heat so twenty three cars started the thirty five lap main. Early racing action saw the field most hugging the inside berm on the relatively flat track. If this would have continued it would have made for a likely really boring event. 

However, when they dropped the green, several of the drivers and most particularly Sheldon Haudenschild went to the cushion right away and this made all the difference in presenting an interesting race. It took Haudenschild a few laps to blow off the outside lane but after that, he was very fast out there with several other drivers then mimicking his line. 

Emerson Axsom got the jump on Gravel at the start but while Gravel was hugging the inside line, Haudenschild went roaring right past him on the outside, with the first and second turn being the most successful line on the top. 

Haudenschild continued to charge and drove past Axsom for the lead. Emerson gained it back for one lap when Sheldon went a bit high but one more lap and he grabbed it back for good. After that it was just a matter of fighting through lapped traffic which he did successfully. 

The best race then was for second with Gravel moving past Axsom for that spot. Emerson, however, didn't lay down when he got passed and near the end of the race he retook second from Gravel and actually closed a bit on Haudenschild while he was slowed in traffic. Logan Schuchart and Buddy Kofoid completed the top five in a race that saw the yellow waved only once for a slowing Lance Fassbender. Only two drivers failed to complete the race. 

Parker Jones was the quick qualifier for the Badger cars and he turned a lap at 14.733 seconds as the Midgets used group qualifying to move things along. They then ran three heats and the redraw number was apparently six as Parker started outside of row three. 

The first heat for the Midgets brought about the biggest wreck of the night as Jordan Nelson took a huge flip in turn four with the red flag waving and it taking a few minutes for Nelson to get his bearings but he was reported as being OK. 

Zach Boden snuck up from the second row to lead the opening lap of the Badger twenty five lap main event but it took Jones only six laps to work his way up from row three and drive into the lead. After that, the battle was for second as he was long gone. 

Even a yellow for a slowing car with sixteen laps complete didn't bother him as he pulled away again once the green came back out. He never had to worry about lapped traffic as there wasn't much and he was able to drive home for the win in a rather easy manner. 

Former pavement Late Model racer Todd Kluever moved up from the third row to finish second ahead of Luke Wacherlin, Boden and Logan Julien. Only one driver failed to finish the Midget feature. 

With only two classes in action, and a tight schedule that featured only nine races with them being contested smoothly with few yellows. the final checkered flag of the night waved just before 8:30 pm.  This was perfect, given that Monday was a work and school day and the fans were able to get home before it got too late and cold. I'm sure the residents of Sun Prairie, with the track located right in town, also appreciate a quick Sunday night program. 

Thanks go out to the WoO and SLS Promotions along with all the track officials with both groups plus the Badger folks too. It was a smooth show and I must confess that I was surprised just how many people would turn out on a cold Sunday night when the Packers were playing a late game in the middle of October. I guess you can be both a Packer fan and a race fan too. 

Sabraski A Double Winner at Topless

 Cole Olson.

Perhaps the most lucky human being on the face of the planet, last night Cole Olson was the lead item in the prayers of many folks that were at or heard about what happened during the races at the Ogilvie Raceway. Olson was the videographer working for Dirt Race Central which was covering the races on Friday night when he was struck by an out of control spinning race car during a heat race. 

The contact to him by the car, that he didn't even see coming as he was pointing his camera at turn three, sent him flying into the air, after which he landed motionless on the ground. Many in the crowd saw it happen and their reaction was one I won't forget for a long time as screams, groans and stunned silence were the most prevalent reactions. I couldn't believe what I had just seen, as I saw the whole thing also. That's when I reacted but my reaction was one of anger. 

So many of us had just seen the horrible accident at I-94 just weeks before and I found myself mad that these stupid and potentially deadly accidents kept happening. 

But the result of this accident was one with a much better outcome, and one that was just as unbelievable as the accident itself. Olson was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital and then flown to a larger facility in the Twin Cities. But almost too hard to imagine, he had not a single broken bone! Nor concussion nor head trauma nor any of the other major injuries one would associate with such a brutal hit. 

In fact, he was released from the hospital at 4 am on Sunday morning and he headed home to Chippewa Falls Wisconsin where he lives to recuperate. Whether he choses to remain in this kind of work I do not know but Ben Kruchten, who runs Dirt Race Central has said that other than the drone they use, no workers will ever be allowed to be in the infield again during a race event. 

Everyone in the crowd on Saturday breezed a sign of relief when the news was announced as many were expecting the worst, and I have no doubt that except for the hand of God on his shoulder, Cole would not be with us on Saturday. 

The Topless Nationals is much more than just a race and perhaps that is the secret why so many race teams and fans come to east central Minnesota the middle of October for a race. Trick or Treating in the pits is huge on Saturday with everyone allowed to wander the pits for candy and pictures before the racing program starts. The kids, many of their parents, the race drivers and their teams all dress up and it is quite the sight. Just about every race team on hand either has candy, pictures or both and kids come with pillow cases that they fill with candy from three hundred different stations. 

There are also prizes for the best costumes, best decorated pit areas and oh, did I forget to mention that many of the race cars themselves are also decorated with a wide and wild variety of adornments that make folks laugh and perhaps also blush. There are awards for that category too. 

There is a big campfire on Friday night and live music also. Basically there is something for just about everyone with the races themselves being only a part of the entertainment. Where the scales used to be, The Original Burrito King food truck was parked this weekend and things were so good that he ran out of just about everything by Saturday night. 

Five more drivers arrived on Saturday to race that weren't on hand on Friday. They either started in the back of a B Feature or a feature for those few classes that didn't need a B Feature. 

One of those was Bryson North who pulled all the way from Huron South Dakota just to race what turned out to be a single event. According to his grandfather, Bryson is the quarterback on his high school football team and with only one loss, if they win next Friday night they will be in the state play offs. So he couldn't afford to miss the game. However, his father and grandfather both were racers and they knew that Bryson really wanted to race this event, so they agreed to make the three hundred mile trip on Saturday, knowing that their chances of making the main would not be good. 

 Bryson started seventeenth in the Super Stock B Feature, knowing that he had to get into the top four to move on. He missed on that by three spots but they were still happy as a team that they had made the drive and given him the opportunity. 

One of the other additional drivers on hand to race Saturday was Corky Thomas from Glyndon Minnesota. They had brought two cars to possibly race, with son Joseph driving the car normally raced by sponsor Ronnie Novacek this weekend. Meanwhile, Corky took the car that Joseph usually races and tried some radical changes for practice night on Thursday. 

Corky told me that if there were more than thirty Modifieds, he wouldn't race on Friday because the motor was tired and couldn't stand three races if he had to run a B Feature. However, after not racing on Friday, he did start in the back of a Modified B Feature and only missed the main  by two spots. 

With the additional drivers on hand Saturday, the total number of racers this weekend ended up being three hundred and two, an event record.  

Five of the eight classes racing needed one or multiple B Features, most from sixteen cars or so up to ones with over twenty cars in them, all racing for just a few spots. Racing would start just after 5 pm with a few extra minutes needed to work in an overly wet track. Then all the B's were run, the track redone and features races only after that. 

The biggest winner of the night was Shane Sabraski who won both the Super Stock and Modified features. Sabraski, who recently won his one thousandth feature race, just kept tacking on more wins after he did that and tonight's wins were 1006 and 7. Sabraski had a battle in both features and did not walk away with either one. 

Joey Jensen led the first fourteen laps of the Super Stock  feature until Sabraski made the winning pass. He then had to fight off Dexton Koch to hold on for the win. 

In the Modified feature, there were four different leaders with Kody Scholpp leading the first lap, only to be passed by J.T. Johnson. Johnson then began using the whole track in an effort to hold off Blake Adams for the lead. 

However, on lap eleven, Adams made the pass and then proceeded to pull away from the field. Adams, the sixteen year old from Cameron Wisconsin who will be crowned the WISSOTA National Modified point champion next month, beating Sabraski by four points, then built up a big lead and the race seemed to be his. 

But yellow flags, which produce the majority of passing situations these days, struck again as the yellow waved with twenty two laps complete. Adams got a bad restart and Sabraski, racing his home track, was able to slide up and past Adams and take over the lead which he then held to the finish with Adams and track owner's son Clayton Wagamon next in line. 

The Late Model feature produced a surprise when eastern Wisconsin driver Joel Bennett led from start to finish to earn the win. In the last going he fought off Josh Zimpel, the driver that he had a run in with while battling for the lead here last month in the Fall Nationals with Zimpel eventually getting the win. A photo finish for third saw Gunner Frank get the spot. These two drivers have chased the entire Structural Buildings Challenge Series this year and they have improved markedly as the season has gone by. Iowa fans will recognize the Franks from their days racing at southeastern Iowa tracks. 

The Street Stock feature proved to be a real battle between the true Street Stocks and the Stock Cars also allowed to run this event. The Street Stocks would prevail with Parker Anderson from Phillips Wisconsin win a thriller in a  race that saw the lead officially change hands six times!

Lucas Boyce led the first lap with Kaden Woodie than taking the top spot. Woodie and Jim Gullikson, the WISSOTA 100 winner, then exchanged the lead four times as they slid back and forth in front of each other. Meanwhile, Anderson, who started eighth, moved in to make it a three car battle for the top spot with them going three wide on several occasions. 

Parker finally would prevail and held on over the last seven laps for the win, with Gullikson, in third, not happy after the race was completed while Woodie settled for second. I guess it doesn't make a difference if they are Streets or Stock Cars, these full bodied cars always put on a show. 

The twenty seven car Limited Mod feature was a nail biter too with Canadian driver Garrett Paull coming home for the win. Scott Oeltjen lead the first six laps before Paull made the winning pass but he was pushed right to the finish by David Swearingen, a driver who has won perhaps as many big races in this classes at Ogilvie as anyone. He was close again but Paull held him off by a car length for the win with Cole Boston third. 

Bob Holtquist, the veteran driver from South Dakota, won the Mod Four feature race. The Mod Fours look like shrunken Modifieds and use four cylinder motors in them and are very popular in pockets of WISSOTA country although many tracks do not sanction the class. 

Bob led from start to finish but nearly got passed by his son Dustin, the defending national champion who will again receive that award next month. Unfortunately for Dustin, he tried too hard to pass dear old dad and spun himself out of contention. Mike Rau finished up second with another veteran, Dean Larson third. 

The battle between the WISSOTA Hornets and IMCA Sport Compacts was a good one with four different leaders in this race also. After Arlington MN champion Gary Schumacher led the opening lap, he was passed by Brandon Backstrom for the lead. 

Hibbing MN champ Brady Fosso then took the lead on lap six and he was in front until with just two laps to go he got too high and was passed by Matt Dittman who then went on for the win with Jeff Rohner third. 

Three laps into the feature race for the Crown Vics, Mike Layne took the lead and then he ran away for the victory. 

For a race that was just started on a whim, this race has turned into a huge part of the success story for the season for the Ogilvie Raceway. With over three hundred cars in the pits along with pit passes for three nights including practice, plus a packed grandstand for two straight nights, this has become a very lucrative way for the folks at the Big O to wrap up their season. Thanks go out to promoter Nate Fischer along with the track owners the Wagamon Family and all the workers at the track who put in some long hours this weekend. 

This was thought to be the last dirt track race of 2025 in the state of Minnesota. However, Barry Braun, who is now the promoter at the Hibbing Speedway, held "The Hot Dish Nationals," a one night race last week and it went over well. 

It was announced today that Barry will now hold one more event in Hibbing this year, as the first ever "Iron Range Rumble" will take place on October 24th and 25th. This race will feature two full shows on Friday and Saturday with early start times and will see six classes in action including everything from Hornets to Late Models at the quarter mile on the Iron Range of Minnesota. It will be an unsanctioned event but using basic WISSOTA rules. So many drivers may hold off one more week to tear their cars apart in preparation for 2026 and instead head for Hibbing. 

Jeff, hold off those All Minnesota Points please for one more week as the weekend forecast looks good for Fall racing!

Topless In Ogilvie!

 With the racing season in the Midwest coming shortly to a screaming halt, the last scheduled event in the state of Minnesota is the Topless Nationals held annually at the Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie Minnesota. This year marks the fifteen annual Topless race weekend at Ogilvie. 

Started originally on a whim and as an unusual way of wrapping up the racing season with one last fun weekend of racing before the race cars are tucked away in the garages and the snow blowers brought out, this race gained immediately traction and has gotten bigger and bigger every year. 

Originally this event offered extra money for those drivers that removed the roofs from their race cars and now it is mandatory except for those two classes where removing the tops would compromise the strength of the cars themselves, that being the Hornets and the Crown Vics. 

At the beginning there was much uncertainty on whether or not the racers and their fans would want to extend the racing season into a period on the calendar when racing just was never held in this part of the Universe. That has been proven wrong as this race just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year. Nice weather this year certainly helped play a part in it's success but I still find it hard to explain why so many drivers from so far away would come to race one last time for an uncertain purse, year after year. 

One bonus of this event is that it is an unsanctioned race by any racing  body and therefore drivers from different sanctioning groups can come to race, no matter what their rules were as long as they are similar in nature although this does provide a few problems. Drivers from where ever that want to prolong their season by another week or drivers from sanctioning bodies that don't run at Ogilvie but would like to race there can come to this race and compete. No licenses to buy, no tires to swap, just follow the basic rules of the sanctioning body you normally run and you're good to go. Thirty four heat races would be held on Friday night and not a single disqualification was made. In fact there was a rumor floating about that the tech guys were catching a quick nap between races, not plotting strategy as they normally do!

Promoter Nate Fischer purposely never posts a purse for this event. Never has and never will. He says it is about wanting to race one more time and having a fun weekend, not about the money and for this weekend at least, drivers and teams have bought into that philosophy. For the record, I believe the Late Models end up running for three grand with the other classes scaled down from there but I have heard that it dropped precipitously after that. Still, no one seems to mind as they are there for a good weekend and to party, trick or treat and have fun. 

A record was set this year for car count with two hundred and ninety seven drivers signing in to race on Friday night in eight classes. The biggest field was in the Limited Mods(they call them B Mods but that isn't  correct as that connotates one sanctioning body) where eighty two drivers signed in and the smallest count was in the Crown Vics that don't even race race here but, sadly(my opinion), are starting to gain traction around this area with a couple tracks now running them with more scheduled for 2026.  There were eleven of them.  But with over thirty Late Models and nearly fifty Modifieds, this is far from a crap field of entries. 

While the majority of drivers are from the WISSOTA sanctioning body, natural since this track is WISSOTA sanctioned as are most around here, there were a number of drivers representing both IMCA and USRA that ran their cars according to their rules, just with no roofs. There were about twenty five drivers representing one of these two bodies on hand racing. 

My only rub with this is in the Street Stocks where Fischer continues to let the Stock Cars run with the Street Stocks, even though the Stock Cars don't match up well with the Streets. To me, this is a slap in the face to the Street Stock drivers that when they have this special, they are handicapped after supporting his track all year. However, there are plenty of very good Street Stock drivers in this area and with their skill and knowledge of the track, they still manage to keep up most of the time, despite the apparent mismatch they face. 

The crazy part is just how far some of the drivers tow for this race. There were drivers on hand from five states and three Canadian Provinces.  The most impressive thing is the large number of Canadian drivers that pull down for this race. There were three dozen racers from Canada that participated this weekend, including twenty nine from Thunder Bay Ontario and suburbs. The border crossing at Pigeon River from Ontario to Minnesota must have  been spinning this weekend with all the racers crossing there. 

Just a few short years ago there would have been no one crossing there but with the resurging interest in racing in Thunder Bay with the opening of Thunder City Speedway just three years ago, racing fever is at a high level in that Ontario area. One of the hidden gems in North American racing success right now, Thunder City averages around one hundred and thirty race cars a night with ninety per cent of the drivers from within thirty miles of the track , nearly three thousand spectators per event, 50/50 pots in the four figure range every night and all this racing on a Wednesday night with an automatic Thursday night rain date. I would venture to say that there are no more enthusiastic fans and racers than those from Canada and especially the Thunder Bay area. All this while paying $250 a tire for a nine inch Hoosier thanks to the tariffs they have been hit with. 

Racing is on the rebound in Manitoba too with the surge in popularity of Dead Horse Creek Speedway near Morden after it folded during Covid but has been restarted with new management. More cars are showing from the Winnipeg area and there were nine drivers from there that towed down including Late Model drivers who's nearest track is one hundred fifty miles away in Grand Forks North Dakota. 

Even IMCA Mod star Kody Scholpp from Estevan showed up with a souped up car to keep up with the WISSOTA and USRA Mods and he ran very well. 

This is a draw/redraw show for some reason so with the huge fields of drivers, just making the main event is a chore with in some classes, only the top two in big heats made the main. There will be a large number of B Features on Saturday night with again not very many moving on so for a lot of drivers, it will be spectator viewing come feature time. 

Things were interesting in the early going as for some reason, the scales were moved for this event. They had been just outside the track right at the exit for turn three but they were in the infield for this race. A lot of drivers that missed the driver's meeting were wandering around following their event until track officials helped then to find where the scales were. I'm not sure if this is a permanent arrangement but would seem to be a lot of work for just one night. Trying to find the scales, some of the drivers cheeks were just as pink in embarrassment as the retaining walls had been painted for this event, which is a support event for breast cancer awareness. 

The fun and frivolity of the evening was dampened however, by a horrible accident that occurred during one of the Street Stock heat races. A driver of one of the cars lost control exiting turn two and spun into the infield. He hit the grass which covers the infield and with the dew, picked up speed while spinning totally out of control as he shot across the infield. 

A camera man was filming the race while standing inside turn three and facing that direction. The out of control car seemed to be actually picking up speed as it shot through the grass and the car was completely out of  control. Everyone could see what was going to happen while we were completely unable to help as we, in the stands, watched in horror as the car slammed into the back of the cameraman who had no idea what was happening.

The car, at speed, sent him flipping through the air like a rag doll and it was a horrible, sickening sight to view. He landed on the ground and did not move and everyone feared the worst. Many of us were at I-94 Speedway several weeks ago when track official Scott Engfer was hit by a car and killed on his four wheeler and this happening again was way too soon.  We all feared the worst as a hush fell over the crowd. 

The announcement by Scott Tiefs in the tower that he was awake and alert was somewhat comforting but we all were very worried as he was transported by ambulance and then later transferred to a hospital in the Twin Cities as we all waited for further news.   

After this incident was over and the cameraman transported, the racing continued but at this point, I really wasn't too "into" what was going on. I've seen too many bad things go on this year which I feel are a combination of just plain bad luck and race tracks getting sloppy on protecting their workers. It's time to reassess a lot of tracks for their safety concerns and time to update a lot of procedures. 

The racing was completed around 11:30 pm on a track that held up well to the pounding it took with the B Features and eight main events scheduled for Saturday. One of the highlights on Saturday will be the Trick or Treating going on with kids and fan alike allowed and encouraged to make the rounds in the pits for candy, pictures and autographs.