Topless at the "Big O"

The state of Minnesota held its last dirt track race of the 2015 racing season on Saturday, October 24th when the Ogilvie Raceway hosted its sixth annual Topless Nationals featuring eight divisions of racing action all compacted into a one day show. Originally scheduled with racing both Friday and Saturday, the show on Friday was weathered out by an all day soaking rain. With several options considered, the final choice was to run a complete program on Saturday for all divisions scheduled to compete. The original purse was halved, with no entry fee for the racers and only one pit pass to purchase.

All six weekly divisions were in racing action plus the Late Models were added to the event, as they have been in recent years. Also, after a sponsorship offer from Greg Parent of GRP Motorsports, the UMSS Traditional Sprints were also added to the card. Parent is the Media Director for the UMSS as well as a generous sponsor of race cars and racing events and the addition of the Traditional Sprints was a good choice for this event, particularly if the heats and dashes would have been completed on Friday as planned, rather than having to jam eight divisions with full shows all on Saturday.

This race gained some traction last year after the first editions of this event struggled with car counts, largely because racers in this area were used to putting their race cars "to bed" by this time of the year and , while there still are many that start stripping them down and rebuilding by late October, more and more racers are holding off for one more weekend of racing.

The all day rain on Friday was a blessing in some ways for the track surface itself, as this track can take rubber and lock down if it gets too much racing but on this Saturday there was none of that at the track saw many laps of competition and with very minimal track attention once the green flag waved, there was no bolted down race surface to content with.

Since the drivers have to make a concerted decision to race in this race, with the roofs required to be removed from all classes except the Street Stocks where it was optional for an extra $100 and the Hornets where they weren't allowed to remove the roofs, the change in the format likely would not change many drivers decisions about whether to race or not. With Saturday proving to be a sunny but cool day, one hundred and ninety cars signed in to race, which I believe was probably the largest turnout of race cars ever for this race track. With part of the pits too soft to use and this being a facility with not a huge pit area to begin with, finding places for all the racers to pit was challenge number one of the day. Many ended up out in the spectator parking lots which also provided the spectators with a unique experience as certainly many of the folks on hand to watch the races never had to park next to a race car in the parking lot before, or try to steer around a big totter to get on the road home. But everyone made due and the biggest task was to round up the racers and get them signed in, a task that was challenging and did lead to the races getting a twenty seven minute late start. However, after that it was almost nonstop racing for the next seven hours or until you as a fan just couldn't take any more and headed for the exits.

WISSOTA general rules prevailed for the race cars, however, exceptions were made so that all on hand could run with the class closest to their rules package. For instance, Late Models allowed the aluminum motors to be run with a restrictor plate used and Mark Rose, who blew up his WISSOTA engine in practice on Thursday, dropped in an aluminum engine his crew brought over for him so he could race.

In the Modified class, WISSOTA rules cars were the vast majority entered but there were also a couple of USMTS cars and an IMCA car or two. The Midwest Modifieds had a couple of IMCA Sport Mods running with them and the WISSOTA Street Stocks had a couple of IMCA Hobby Stocks running also but the IMCA Stock Cars were not allowed to run, given they had just a way too much advantage last year when Andy Altenburg won one of the feature races. The WISSOTA Super Stocks and Mod Fours are a singular class to WISSOTA and the Hornets ran under local track rules.
The Traditional Sprints are an interesting breed. They use regular sprint chassis, with restrictions on the shocks and some of the other expensive components. They run basically a MidMod or B mod motor in the car and a restricted tire, but from all appearances they resemble a nonwinged sprint.
The class have proven to be a haven for people that wanted to run a sprint car but couldn't afford to do so before and as a stepping stone for young drivers coming up from 600 sprints or mini sprints.
I have seen this class run at several different speedways and they always put on a good show with close competition and very few yellow flags. Their races are frequently decided on the last lap and if a few more tracks would start running this class, I think it might really take off. Right now St. Croix Speedway in Wisconsin, the home track of the UMSS, runs them every week and their numbers have built to over twenty cars for most of their shows as the season moved along. On Saturday they only had eleven as this race was a late addition and caught many of their drivers unprepared. This class prides itself on not having many yellow flags in their races and again on Saturday, they ran a non stop main event. Their other boast is that they have many different winners because the class is so even, and they added to that Saturday as Jeremy Kerzman, who is a veteran of racing with everything from Modifieds to 360 sprints to Midwest Modifieds in his backround, won his first ever Traditional Sprint feature as he rode the cushion to victory.

The Late Model field was a bit tepid as only a dozen cars were on hand as I guess not that many drivers were interested in racing for $1,500 for the one day show as opposed to three grand for the two day show. Nevertheless, Don Shaw put on a good show as he came from the seventh position to pass Jeff Massingill near the end for the win. Shaw, who has been on fire the second half of the year after he got his new Victory chassis from Billy Moyer, has been a dominant figure in area racing as the season has wrapped up and I would guess that he is savoring the chance to do well in Tucson in January, a track that he knows and runs very well indeed. John Kaanta, Lance Matthees and Marshall Fegers rounded out the top five finishers.

Forty six Modifieds signed in to race with three sanctioning bodies represented as well as drivers from four different states. However, for the longest time it appeared that local driver J. B. Stortz was going to win the main as he drove a brilliant race and fought off a series of challenges. Unfortunately, a late race yellow proved his undoing as he got a bad restart and spun his tires in turn one and Dave Cain blew past him on the outside to take the lead and go on for the win in his MasterSbilt from JMR Racing chassis. Stortz, Shane Sabraski, Jody Bellefeuille and Jason Thoennes would follow.

The Midwest Modifieds also had forty six entrants and making the main event in either one of these open wheel classes was a struggle itself. The MidMod main was dominated by area driver Jeremy Nelson who led the distance in his MB Custom chassis. He proved to be very fast and there was no one who could stay with him. Young Tyler Lamm, who is being tutored in his racing career by the famous Jones family from Princeton Minnesota, came home a strong second and was followed by Sketter Estey, Sabraski and Corey Bruggeman.

Tim Johnson won the Super Stock feature after a great battle with Eric Martini. They went wheel to wheel for many laps before Johnson was able to edge in front. A couple of late race crashes took out contenders Martini, Don Shaw and Dave Mass and gave Johnson a little breathing room. Johnson, who races in three classes multi times a week during the season, has won over one hundred feature races just this season  between the Street Stock, Modified and Super Stock that he drives and has put together one of the most amazing racing seasons on record. He also finished runner up in all  three national point standings in those classes under the WISSOTA sanctioning body. Johnson was followed by Mark Blood, Joey Jensen(of USMTS fame), Jared Zimpel and Josh Schmit.
Johnson also won the Street Stock feature where he started on the pole and dominated the race. He was trailed by Justin Pogones, Jim Gullikson, Davey Kruchten, and rookie Ethan Iiams.
Shayne Laske is one of the "big shots" in the Mod four class. He is a multi time national champion and builder of many of the fastest Mod fours around. However, he doesn't race too much himself any more, but when he climbs behind the wheel, he is one to watch. Saturday he jumped into Mitch Hribar's  car and dominated the Mod four feature, winning by a large margin over Chad Funt, Dean Larson, Dwight Gilyard and Mike Rau.

There was some sadness associated with Saturday's show and it was evidenced most in the Hornet class. Layne Roberts, from Willmar Minnesota, passed away suddenly during this week. Layne was widely known in the central Minnesota racing scene, having been a board member at a couple of different tracks, a well known flagman at several area speedways, a wrecker driver and corner worker at tracks in the area, and most recently, a Hornet racer. Among Layne's greatest accomplishments has been him being the Head Starter at the WISSOTA 100 in Huron South Dakota in recent years and in fact, the last time I was at Ogilvie Raceway earlier this Summer, Layne was flagging the races as a replacement for regular flagman Brian. He was a wild and crazy guy, known by everyone and will be sorely missed for his fun and "devil may care" attitude. He was truly one of a kind.

The Hornet drivers started their main event with the "missing driver" formation and his close friend Mark Deering drove Layne's car in the main event, leading for a lap or so before settling for third. Race winner was Joe Martin with Ashton Schulte, Deering, Justin Schelitzche and Joe Bunkofske(all the way from Iowa), trailing.

It was a long night of racing and surely pushed the limits of just how much racing one can do in one day before the show should be a split show over two days. However, folks at the Big O didn't have that option due to the weather and activities on Sunday that would have hampered things so they did the best they could. There was nothing wrong with the racing and the car count was fantastic so overall it was a very positive way to end the local scene. You could also tell that some drivers at least, were operating under the theory that they had all Winter to fix any damage as there seemed to be a more than the normal amount of aggressive driving and several rather blatant cases of  "payback", justified or not.

The Wagamon family, of Wagamon Brothers Racing Engines in the Twin Cities, purchased the Big O part way through this racing season and it will be interesting to see if they make any changes for the 2016 season as they really had no time this year to do other than finish off what had been already scheduled. I would be surprised it there were not some bigger events on tap for next year.

The Conundrum of Auto Racing

This is the story of two race tracks in the Badger State that are trying to come back to life after being closed. Both have new owners after sitting idle, both started out with much enthusiasm and good ideas, yet both fell into the trap that seems to consume this sport. And that is the notion that to survive as a facility, it is necessary to get into a scrape with your nearest track neighbors, rather than trying to work together.

The Tomahawk Speedway is an old facility, having been around since at least the 1960's . I remember first attending a race there in the early 60's, having been in Tomahawk for an Easter get together with family friends and finding out that they were racing an Easter afternoon matinee. I talked my parents into dropping me off at the track and I spent Easter afternoon watching the races, rather than sitting around eating left over ham.

Tomahawk was a blacktop track then, and many of the best drivers from the old Central Wisconsin Racing Association were racing that day. It was the first time I got to see such big names as Marv Marzofka, Jim Back, Marlin "Shoes" Walbeck and others race. In fact, one of the drivers on hand that day was Dave Marcis, but in my youthful ignorance, in my driver's list for that day, not knowing any better, I spelled it "Marcus."

Anyway, Tomahawk had a successful program for years but gradually it went downhill. Race cars were scarce and fans even scarcer. They tried running lesser divisions as the premier class but that didn't work and eventually the track closed, where it sat vacant for several years.

Enter Ron VanDusen, a successful businessman in Tomahawk and Eagle River. He had the chance to buy the track for a reasonable price, and he did so. The catch was that he was a dirt racer himself and his plan was to cover the blacktop with dirt.

He did this, sanctioned his programs with WISSOTA for a couple of classes along with running some of the local nonsanctioned classes, and took off as a promoter. Now Tomahawk is a fairly small town, and there aren't many other cities of size within reasonable driving distance. He got race cars, but not a lot of them as there just weren't the racers in the area any more in the numbers that there had been once, a situation that many tracks similarly face.

He soldered on for a few years but he grew tired of the hassle of promoting and put the track up for sale. With no one jumping on board to buy it, the track has now sat idle for about two years.

The second track in this story has been known by several different names but most people would know it best as the Monster Hall Raceway near Unity Wisconsin. First built by a partnership of three people, Jerry Weigel eventually became known as the face of the track and the person that did the most to keep the track running. They had some good years, but gradually they hit the same roadblocks that affected Tomahawk as the car counts started to slip after the boom years of dirt track racing settled into a more "try to survive" mood, and in fighting between the track principals saw Weigel move from the area, buy some land and build his own race track, the Eagle Valley Speedway near Jim Falls Wisconsin which he still operates.

Monster Hall went up for sale and eventually a gentleman from the Twin Cities purchased the track. He was an absentee owner and promoter and after several fitful starts and stops of the track, it closed up shop early last year and its future was uncertain.

Flying the face of what has been happening at many tracks of late however, both tracks surprisingly came up with new ownership this Summer. Tomahawk was purchased by a member of the Bartelt family, a family that has been involved and participated in racing for a long time in this area.
Monster Hall was purchased by Scott Duval from Bloomer, a racer who has raced everything from Street Stocks to Modifieds and Late Models and is well known in the area.

I have known Scott Duval for many years as he has raced at many of the area tracks while I have not as yet met Mr. Bartelt I have certainly heard of him previously and have seen him race on occasion over the years.

Both tracks, once the new owners came on board, rushed to make improvements so that they could get their first shows in yet this year. Duval made the rounds of the area tracks, talking to drivers and laying out what was his plan for his new acquisition, which he has named Spring Lake Speedway and Event Center. He posted a date for his first race and then published it extensively, passing out flyers and getting a face book page up and running.

Bartelt ran his first race in mid September, and friends from the area told me that he advertised the event well and worked the local markets to make it a success. He had a good field of racers on hand, many more than had been at any event for a long time previously at this track and had a huge grandstand full of people. It was a highly successful event. They then decided to build on this success by having their first, two day show yet this Fall.

Here's where things started getting sticky. The date they chose, with many dates available on the calendar given that most of the other tracks in the general area had already wrapped up their seasons, was the same date that Spring Lake Speedway had long been advertising for their opener!

Duval told me that Bartelt called him and asked Scott to change the date of his race, something that he obviously couldn't do based on the advertising that he had already done.

So, from that point, the battle was on, one that probably benefited both the drivers and fans, at least for the short term. As the battle took place on facebook, each track tried to "one up" the other and things such as sponsors increasing the purse, contingencies, continues track improvements, fan giveaways, and creature comforts such as heaters for the fans, plastic to cover the backs of the grandstands to break the wind etc were volleyed back and forth.

The last straw hit just a couple of days before the race. Tomahawk, who's program was scheduled to be a two day show, facing a bitterly cold weather forecast for Friday night, condensed their program to a one day show on Saturday, so both tracks were going head on fully from start to finish. Keep in mind, in  a highly rural area with limited population, these tracks. are only seventy seven miles apart according to Rand-McNally.

While I did not attend either show, reports for this event were positive from both tracks. Both had well over one hundred cars in the pits and full grandstands of fans. Each track had some issues that  most likely were due to new people in key positions and perhaps just not being fully prepared for what they received in terms of spectator turnout. These are things easily correctable for the future.
Neither track has officially stated what they plan to do next year in terms of classes that will be raced, what night they will race on , what sanctioning body, if any they will use etc. All these things will play a part in what the relationship between these two tracks will be in the future. And without the luxury of having ample race cars due to no other tracks still racing this late in the season and fans from a wide area looking to get one more race in for the year, drawing crowds and racers will be much more challenging next year, when the newness of the places wears off. Common sense would tell you that two tracks this close together would likely share race cars and fans, but common sense is not a commodity often in great supply in racing.

For the short run, it appears that both tracks have gotten off to a good start. However, the long term is what separates those tracks that survive from those that either turn to dust or go on the market for sale within a couple of years. What happens to these two tracks will continue to be an evolving story.

Southern Iowa Speedway Season Championships

In an interesting schedule twist, Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa returned after a three week layoff to host their Season Championship races on Wednesday night, Sept. 23^rd.

As I have noticed at tracks closer to my home area, tracks have basically two ways that they wrap up their racing seasons. Some tracks cut off track point one week before the end of the season, crown point champions and then run what they call their “Season Championship” night, with the heat races lined straight up off track points and the starting order for the features determined by the finish of the heats. So in essence, they crown a point champion and a season champion.

Other tracks run their last race as just another race, lining up the cars as they normally would, depending on the sanctioning bodies' way of doing this. Then they tally up the points after the final night and crown “track champions.”

Oskaloosa does it the latter way, and going into the final race night Wednesday, there were two very close point battles to be decided. In the Stock Cars, Cayden Carter and Mike Hughes were locked in a flat out tie while in the Mods, Carter had a five point lead with three other drivers within six points of his total. In the other three classes, things were pretty well wrapped up already going into the final night's race.

I thought that perhaps there might be a few drivers chasing points or perhaps just looking to get in another race given that many Iowa tracks are by now shut down for the season. That wasn't the case however, as it was mostly a night when just the regulars showed up one last time. In fact, the Hobby Stock and Stock Car numbers seemed a bit down from some of the other visits to the track I have made this year. Osky, by the way, is probably the track in Iowa that I have been to most often this summer, probably primarily due to the fact that they race on a weeknight and they also get their season started pretty early compared to many of the Hawkeye State tracks. The Sport Compacts, on the other hand, did have the highest car count of any time I have seen them run at Osky this year though. It also remains a mystery why the Modified car count is always so low at Osky, as I think their pay compares well to other tracks in the area, and the half mile is no bigger than the other half miles that have many more cars in the class. Perhaps someone can explain to me what the issue is.

In talking to promoter Mike VanGenderen before the show, he told me that he had some options and offers to run some other tracks next year, some even on nights that he has been running his two tracks on this year. However, he said that in all likelihood, he would probably stay with what he has been doing in 2015 and that is running Osky and Donnellson. He has a busy five weeks coming up with Fall specials at Osky, Memphis and Donnellson that will take him away from the driver's seat the rest of the year and he doesn't think that he will be doing any more racing this year, although there remains an outside chance he might haul a new car out for a driver while taking along his own car to race at the Duel in the Desert. Mike has already sold one of his cars from this year and has a new Harris chassis for 2016.

As usual, racing started right on the dot of the advertised time, with a decent sized crowd on hand. One must remember that by this time of the year, not only does work get in the way of some drivers and fans but school activities are going full bore and that certainly must keep some people away from the track for the midweek events. However, Mike ran this same kind of schedule last year and he wouldn't put it on the schedule again unless he was confident that it would break out OK for him.

Several of the open motor late models were on hand getting some practice laps in before starting their big event at Knoxville on Thursday night, including both Moyers, Ryan Gustin and Paul Glendenning and they helped turn the track into a black, slick surface with a narrow cushion right up against the guard rail for the main events.

Shaun Slaughter and Brandon Potts scored easy wins in the Sport Compact and Hobby Stock features respectively. The Sport Mod feature was killed by a lap two wreck that took out most of the fast cars and saw Brayton Carter run away with the win, lapping up to the sixth place finisher.

Then it was down to the two features that held the most meaning, the Mods and Stock Cars.

However, there was such a small field of Modifieds and with the point system dropping only one point per position, some quick math would prove that really all Carter had to do was keep him car on the track and perhaps pass a car or two, just to be safe. And he did that, finishing second to a strong running Scott Dickey who ran away with the win.

It then boiled down to the Stock Cars, where the night's real only drama was played out. Zack VanderBeek stayed away from practice at Deer Creek with his modified and instead ran the Stock Car at Osky and he took the early lead. Carter was the only one real able to make the low groove work, and he was able to advance from a fourth row starting spot up to second, where he tried lap after lap to get by VanderBeek but was unable to do so.

Hughes had a tougher time moving forward and he couldn't pass Jerry Pilcher for third, trying the same move as Carter to dive low in the corners but he couldn't beat the Bloomfield veteran back up the track and had to repeatedly tuck in behind him.

It appeared that near the end, Carter realized the situation and he settled in behind VanderBeek, satisfied with second as long as he was receiving no challenges from anyone else. On the last lap, Hughes finally secured third but he was too far behind to make a difference and Carter became a double point champion, with the margin razor thin at one point in the Stock Cars.

It was a smooth night of racing with the final checkered flag waving just after 10 pm, even with out of car driver introductions.

It is possible that I might return for one of Mike V's Fall specials. One can never predict what the weather will bring or what circumstances will take place. However, if I don't, I want to thank Mike and his whole staff for their help and consideration this year. More often than not, I pop up at one of Mike's tracks unannounced and I get a warm welcome and plenty of assistance if needed. It is most appreciated by me.