The Wissota 100 is set for this week at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls. In the past I’ve written some previews about it, and picked winners (and aside from a few times, usually wrong); this year I won't make outright predictions, though. I’ll get to that in a minute, but I have a lot of my mind in terms of racing, including some things that bug me. The question comes up sometimes, what do you think of where racing is at right now? There’s some good. Some not. This bl

The John Seitz Memorial is the premier late model event in Wissota, in my opinion, and is at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks this weekend. The best part for me as a fan – only four classes! The trend at these invitationals is the opposite (for example, the Fall Classic will run 10 classes this year, which is ridiculous). But I’ll get into my thoughts on invitational racing later. The Prelude to the Johnny is on Thursday, which is the NLRA finale that pays $2,092 to wi

I decided a while back to take some of the Labor Day weekend off to watch some racing. I wanted to get out of town for a couple of days and see at least one night of late model racing, so I headed to Grand Rapids on Friday. I wanted to see my aunt and uncle who live on a lake near Brainerd as well, so I figured why not give North Central Speedway another look since I was in the area anyway. The 25th Mighty Axe Nationals brought in more than 150 cars and a nice crowd on a n

I admit I’ve lost some off of my fastball when it comes to editorials. I’ve tried focusing on more positive aspects of racing, which is most cases are the drivers, or maybe I’m just getting mellow with age. But there are some things in racing that just piss me off. Here is a big one – inconsistency when it comes to enforcing rules, on the track or off it. I’ve said it before and I will say it again – favoritism, or “home cooking,” ruins racing. I’ve been frustrated by ot

I’ve done this blog since 2017. Featured more than 300 drivers and talked to dozens beyond that Covered more than a dozen tracks. Covered hundreds of racing programs. I can tell you what the most common topic that is talked about during and after the races, whether at the track or on social media. It isn’t the officiating (although there are times that can be a hot discussion item), the concessions, the lighting or anything like that. This is a clear one: It’s the track

This has been a bizarre week, to put it mildly, in the racing world. One track’s financial situation is so dire that some drivers are giving their winnings back to the track so they can run next week; a track owner/promoter being seriously injured in a side-by-side mishap (good news is he will recover); and of course, there’s ALWAYS some off-track drama playing out on facebook that I choose to ignore in this blog. We wish James Trantina well in his recovery (owner of I-94,

Now that we've hit the halfway point of the racing season, I have some things on my mind that I'd like to clear out: --Congrats to Jonny Carter of Lisbon who won the Dakota Classic Modified Tour IMCA Stock Car championship this past week. Carter topped Bock Beeter of Minot by 12 points for the win. In the five features contested (Williston’s features rained out), Carter had one win, four top fives and finished in the top 10 all five nights. Jonny is a good guy, and one

Outside of my coverage area there has been some, let’s call them interesting Facebook posts this week. I’ve seen a few drivers post they will not race at a particular track anymore after some on-track and off-track incidents. I’ve seen some fans really upset with tracks in their posts, too. Conversely, I have seen several tracks post some guidelines/rules about driver, pit crew and fan conduct, at the track, and in some cases on social media. Some of the consequences includ

I am going to say it outright – blogging about racing is good for my mental health. Let me explain. This blog will have a little different tone to it than others in that it won't focus on the actual action on the track. Some might ask what prompted me to even write this type of blog. It’s because mental health needs to be talked about. Stigmas need to be removed. We have too many people suffering in silence, and we've had too many people fight that battle and lose. I get

I’ve mentioned my late father’s influence on my love for racing in previous blogs. But my mom deserves some blame, I mean credit, for my interest in racing. And with Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday I felt like writing about my mom. Ever have that parent who in some ways you were so much alike that you butted heads? That’s my mom and I. We are both anxious people, can get stressed easily and when folks like that are around each other, well, you butt heads and drive each oth

The big news in area racing this week was the official announcement that I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls has been sold. Don Shaw made a Facebook post on Monday on the I-94 page making the announcement that James Trantina III has purchased the facility. Shaw said he will remain co-promoter with Deb Engfer for the 2026 season, still involved with the weekly operations of the track. In the Facebook post, Shaw mentioned a few reasons for the sale – one, finding someone to keep

When I was a kid in the 19—s, well let’s say a few years ago, I couldn’t wait for race season to start. As far I was concerned, racing could start at the beginning of May and then go to September and it still wouldn’t be enough. Of course, I was not paying the bills – my dad paid my way in for many years (and paid for the gas to get to the track), and I wasn’t a car owner/driver who spent a lot of time and money keeping their cars on the track. My attitude on that has changed

My dad suggested I start this blog in 2017. He said you go to the races anyway; you keep track of the results…why not write about it. So I gave it a try. In his final years, his lung disease prevented him from going to the track in person, so I provided texts of the races I went to to keep him connected a little bit. He never got to see the blog grow, unfortunately, as he died on Sept. 2017. Not many nights happen in racing when I don’t think of him, as my devotion and love

I went to Aberdeen, S.D., last weekend to watch a Minnesota State Moorhead football game at Northern State. On the drive there I was thinking that a majority of my previous trips to the Hub City have been for racing, aside from a few MSUM softball trips where I had to stat the games. I had a lot of windshield time and it got me thinking about what I truly like about racing, or what keeps me motivated to keep blogging. The obvious things come up – the competition on the track,

Close finishes like this at Viking remain a great part of racing. Collin Nelson Photo/Outlaw Action Photography With the Gopher State Showdown at I-94 EMR Speedway wrapping up the season in local racing, I’ve been doing some reflecting. I watched some of the Gopher Showdown online, and sadly there were some torn-up race cars – but unfortunately that happens during invitational season when you get so many people who do not race against each other on a regular basis. From a

Racing, like for many people is an escape from the day-to-day stresses of life. While the sport can frustrate drivers, fans and track...

In the past – and purely for fun – I’ve written some previews about the Wissota 100, highlighting some of the favorites. It’s tough...

The big news in local racing came on Thursday evening, with the Red River Valley Speedway promoters – Jake and Sharnel Bitker and Nick...

This photo is from the 1980s, I believe at Red River Valley Speedway, of LM driver Steve Thorsen. Corey Litton provided me with it a few...

I needed an action photo so I picked out this old street stock tour one. I’ve talked to some folks in racing lately who’ve used the term...