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.