The 2025 racing season is now complete for me so it is time to do a quick wrap on the season as we now get ready to turn the calendar to 2026 and see what new fun, disappointment, joy and sadness await us in the new year.
In 2025 I attended one hundred and ninety one race events. That marked the third highest number of yearly races that I have attended but continued the slow but steady drop from 2023 when I reached my highest number of two hundred and nine.
In 2025 my total was affected considerably by rainouts, a few poor decisions and by a slightly less amount of enthusiasm to drive many hours to a race that just might not be worth the effort.
With all the rain of April, May and June, I was actually surprised to see that my total was as close to 2024 was it was, only dipping by a pair of shows. The early part of this year was very difficult with all the rainouts, both for weekly shows and special events. It didn't help matters that about a half dozen times I opted to go in one direction, thinking that I had out foxed the weather, only to have that decision bite me later in the back side when I got rained out and the other planned event raced on.
There were also about a half dozen shows when I just frankly decided not to attend, using the "cost-benefit" analysis to determine that what I was going to see just couldn't be justified by the time and expense it was going to cost me.
July and August were much better months with very few weather issues as I saw twenty eight and twenty seven races respectively during those two months. I did see racing in all twelve months, starting in New Mexico in in January and wrapping up the season indoors in Missouri in December.
Of the one hundred and ninety one races, ninety one were under the WISSOTA sanction as that is the predominant body in my area and the group that just about all the tracks belong to. The other one hundred plus shows were under a variety of different sanctioning bodies.
2025 marked the forty fifth year in a row that I have attended at least one hundred nights of racing and forty eight out of the last fifty years that I have been doing this insanity.
I attended races at sixty two tracks in twelve different states and one Canadian Province and for the first time in a couple years, actually got to a track for the first time ever, with three new ones recorded this year. One was in Wisconsin, one in Arizona and one in Texas.
Interestingly, I actually attended races at more tracks in Minnesota than I did in my home state and also nearly as many so as in Iowa. Marshalltown and Spencer were the run away leaders in the Hawkeye State but I also got to nine other tracks in that state.
I am now at three hundred and thirty seven attended in twenty nine states and three Canadian Provinces.
Unfortunately, for the first time in a long time, I was witness to a fatality at a track when a track official got hit by a speeding car on the track. I also saw two photographers get hit in the infield by out of control race cars and both are lucky to still be with us. It had been many years since I had last seen this in person and it still leaves a sickening feeling in my gut when I think about those three instances. We all know there is a degree of danger involved in this sport but when something bad happens, it provides a real slap across the face of reality striking, especially when you know all three individuals involved.
I also made the initial entry in a new category for me. I have been rained out, sleeted out, hailed out, stormed out, froze out, winded out, tornadoed out, fogged out, overheated out, no powered out, waterlines broke out and just about every other kind of "out" that you can imagine, but for the first time in 2025 I was "fired" out!
I was in Thunder Bay Ontario and Thunder City Speedway when it happened. Some wild fires were triggered by a passing train and with the tinder dry conditions the fires built, threatened houses, businesses and unfortunately, the Thunder City Speedway which was in their path.
When the decision was made by Provincial officials that they would fight the fire using large planes dropping water on the flames, we had to evacuate the area and the races were cancelled, despite it being a beautiful June night. They came back the next night to race on their "rain date" but I didn't stick around.
The 2026 racing season is scheduled to begin for me in just a few short weeks in Arizona with a hoped for trip following that to Florida for some Speed Week action. While my enthusiasm for the start of a new season is not what it might have been in the past, I will still be excited to see the cars hit the track for the first time and see what is new for 2026. I will take you along as best I can to see as much of that journey as I can.
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