The racing season in the Minnesota-Wisconsin region concluded on Saturday night, October 23rd with the final night of the Topless Nationals at the Ogilvie Raceway. After running all the heat races on Friday night, the preliminary action would consist of four B Features in the Midwest Mods and one for the Super Stocks before the five feature races would be run.
For more drivers showed up on Saturday to run at the back of the fields for those classes with room while one lone driver started at the back of a fairly large Super Stock B Feature but hoped to race his way into the main event. Sadly for him, it didn't happen but he was the last of what turned out to be one hundred and seventy six drivers that took to the banking of the "Big O" for one last race in 2021.
The afternoon was filled with trick or treating by the kids in the pit area and nearly every one of the racers had either candy or pictures(or both) and even guys like me wearing my own natural Halloween mask were offered more candy that I could handle, leading to a sugar high.
One of the topics for discussion in the pit area was the upcoming Wild West Shootout, simply because there are so many racers from our area that attend and support that event and are actually the ones carrying the load in terms of car and fan support. Without a big turnout of racers and fans from our area, that race would not be what it has become.
Of course, by now just about everyone knows that the race for 2022 has been moved to the Vado Motorsports Park in Las Cruces New Mexico because Arizona Speedway is being shut down. While Vado is a great racing facility and certain top ten in the entire country, a lot of racers and fans are expressing some hesitancy about the move, simply because for many it is also a vacation with warm weather and oodles of things to do a part of it and some are not just sure they want to go to the high plains of New Mexico in January.
It is true that New Mexico is about eight or so degrees, on average, cooler than Arizona and that there probably aren't as many touristy kinds of things to do there, but for those coming there for the races, they won't find many tracks anywhere nicer than Vado. I guess we will wait to see just how many make the pull there in January.
Well known Late Model driver Don Shaw has added a Modified to his stable of cars and Iowa racing fans will recognize that he got the JMR car from Scott Fitzpatrick who is getting the chassis from Jay McDonald in North Dakota and then putting them together.
Shaw owns a winter home in Arizona that he spends considerable time at and when they aren't racing Late Models out there, he wants to be able to race other cars so he bought an IMCA car since all the Modified racing in the Phoenix area is of the IMCA type. This weekend he converted this car over to WISSOTA with their tires and a big spoiler but left the crate motor in the car. Don told me he was hoping for a slick track on Saturday as while he did OK on Friday, he said he had the car "to the boards" just to try and keep up. Later he would start sixth in the Modified thirty lapper and slip to tenth at the end.
Racing action would start just after 5 pm to try and beat the cool weather again predicted for Saturday but with the bright sun the track was tough and there were an excruciating twenty one yellow flags in the five B Mains which were painful to watch. Finally they got them done, the sun set, the top qualifiers took to the track for the main events and the racing went much smoother.
Quite the opposite of the B Features, the five main events were all smoothly run shows with few yellows, lots of side by side racing with two settled right at the finish line and other not much much more in separation.
Continuing a pattern that he has maintained most of the Summer, Shane Sabraski was again a double winner, taking both the Modified and Super Stock main events. It has been another monster year for the Rice Minnesota driver, with his two wins this weekend putting him right at sixty feature wins for the year between the two classes he races in. He also won yet another WISSOTA national title in the Super Stocks and finishing painfully close in the Modifieds, coming up just two points short of Hickson North Dakota's Tyler Peterson. Sabraski had two shots late in the year where feature wins would have given him the point lead but he came up short in both, finishing second both nights.
He told be before the show that he was happy to have a weekend where he didn't have to worry about points and could just race. He also admitted the race where he was passed at this very track on the last corner by Dan Ebert that likely cost him the title will haunt him for quite some time.
Matt Aukland would lead the first two laps of the Modified main before Sabraski would pass him and after that, it would be Shane to lead the last twenty eight. He was really flying on this night and opened up a full straightaway over the field that was never really challenged. Jody Bellefeuille moved up to second but then he faded and it was Clayton Wagamon who drove up from eleventh and would eventually take the second spot.
A late yellow would set up a two lap sprint to the finish and Sabraski would fight off the best efforts of Wagamon to pull off the upset. Aukland would finish a solid third as he keeps getting faster and faster since he quit IMCA racing, got himself a new Lethal chassis and has been getting better and better each week.
A mention should also go out to Jeremy Nelson(4) who ran well on Friday night, only to get DQ'd for his deck height. He started twenty fifth and raced his way up to fourth at the finish.
The Super Stock feature started inauspiciously as polesitter Dan Nissalke jumped the start. The starter waved the yellow quickly while the field was still pounding down the front chute. The front half slowed, the back half didn't and a major wreck ensued that eliminated four cars before the green was waved.
Nissalke was set back a row and the race restarted with Josh Zimpel leading a single lap before Sabraski came up from the second row to take over the lead. Sabraski would lead the rest of the way but that would be slightly misleading. He would build up a big lead in what would turn out to be a nonstop race but lapped traffic was brutal and it bogged Sabraski down some.
Meanwhile, Nissalke was driving the wheels off his car and he cut a full chute lead to a few car lengths in the last few laps. In fact, twice in the last five laps, Nissalke got beside Shane but Sabraski was able to find his way through traffic just a bit quicker and at the finish he held the slimmest of margins over Nissalke, who if he hadn't lost his pole position because of the jump, might have won the event. Another big winner this year, Dave Mass, would come home third.
The two biggest nail biters were the Street Stock and Midwest Modified mains. Justin Vogel would start on the pole for the Street race and lead the first twelve laps but Kyle Dykhoff would gradually reel him in and on lap thirteen, Kyle would drive under Vogel and take over the lead.
However, Vogel would fight back and the last seven laps would see the two drivers, who race each other weekly and more than once a week most times, battle side by side. Dykhoff would run the low side while Vogel, who loved the high side, would work that line. They would jockey back and forth, taking turns leading at the line.
On the last lap they remained in this fashion but Vogel got a great run off the final corner, squeezed up against the wall and would edge Dykhoff by inches in what was an excellent race between drivers that race each other harder than hard but respect each other too.
While the leaders fought it out, there was a great battle for third between three drivers that saw Zach Elward roll on the final corner. He was awarded third with another driver sent to the end of the running order but that probably wasn't a great deal of consolation to him. Vogel would conclude the event as he likes to when he wins a big race, parking his car against the home stretch wall and then doing a "burndown" until the whole victory lane is obscured by tire smoke.
Ashley Mehrwerth would lead one lap of the Midwest Modified feature before Travis Schulte took over the top spot. He would then have to weather an assault from three different drivers before he could park in victory lane. First it was Mitch Weiss that would challenge and then Brennan Blascyk would try to get by.
His biggest challenger though would be Cody "The Cobra" Lee who would come from tenth to challenge. Lee, driving a new car that he got near the end of the year. is a hard charger of repute and he used that strategy as he high balled his way up to second and then began to pressure Schulte. Lap after lap, Lee would fling his car into the corners, rolling up to the door of Schulte who would coolly maintain his line while Lee would back off and race him clean.
They did this right up to the final lap where Lee made one last blast into turn four, but Schulte trusted his instincts and Lee's judgement and Cody left him a lane where Schulte squeezed by to win by a whisper with Blascyk finishing third.
The Mod Fours would see Bob Holtquist lead the first half of the race before his son Dustin would make a great outside move on his "Old Man" and drive into the lead. Once in front, Bob would keep him close but Dustin would drive on for the win with Jamie Flickinger taking a tight battle to finish third.
The feature races would go off smoothly and all racing would be done just after 10 pm after which I slipped back to my car where it was a comfortable thirty three degrees on this pleasant Minnesota Fall day. A very nice crowd was on hand for the feature races so along with a jammed pit area, this turned out to be a very good weekend for the track when racing is a gamble this deep into the Fall.
Thanks to the Wagamon family and promoter Nate Fischer and all his crew for a good final experience of racing for this year. With all racing in this area now complete, any further activity will require considerable driving so we will see what the rest of the season brings.
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