Lou’s Mad Town Showdown brought 132 cars to Madison Speedway for the first night of the season-ending doubleheader. I expected it to be a long night – Madison has never been known for running quick shows, plus having 132 cars in the pits naturally adds to it – and it was, concluding shortly before 1 a.m. The Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten took a big lead early in the Wissota Street Stock feature with Mike Jans of Clarkfield in second and Josh Long of Canby fighting Col

The 2026 Corn Cob Nationals champions were crowned on Sunday night at Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon. It was a long night, not unexpected, with nine classes. I feel it is too many for a year-end race but so is eight classes, seven classes…I won’t belabor it. As a blogger I just don’t care for marathon racing programs — makes for a long long night for me. If you read the blog regularly you know where I stand. And for the purse that was offered, which was very good, I e

The Wissota 100 wrapped up by crowning five champions Saturday night at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls. The weather made a mess of the week, not only at I-94 but at most tracks in the Midwest. In fact, tracks from Knoxville to Cedar Lake to Jackson to Deer Creek all cancelled this weekend with the rain. We need the rain badly up here in Fargo but it’s too late for a lot of the crops in the region. With the rain this week the track had some major holes to navigate but I t

If you were a sprint car fan, you had to love the River Cities Speedway lineup on Friday night with four classes of sprint cars running. I debated about covering remotely or not, but with the Wissota 100 Friday program raining out, I figured, what the heck, let’s give the “World Famous Legendary Bullring” one last shot for 2026. Sprint car shows, with the push starting, will take a bit longer and the final checkered waved about 10:42 p.m. There were a couple of red flags

The 20th John Seitz Memorial wrapped up Saturday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks with the 92-lap late model feature highlighting the night. I don’t get why the stands aren’t fuller for this event with 71 late models signed in. There is no event in Wissota that draws that many late models, I suspect the Wissota 100 will be around 50. Plus, car counts were strong in other classes. The late model B mains, in terms of quality, looked like A mains at most tracks with

The pit area was packed at River Cities Speedway for Friday’s portion of the John Seitz Memorial. A total of 180 cars, led by a record 71 Wissota Late Models. With Friday mostly being heat races, which for practical reasons I usually don’t write about (The blog would be 4,000 words long), this will be more of a notebook as I enjoyed just walking around the pit area checking out the all the cars, which included drivers from five states and three Canadian provinces. Saturday’

Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo concluded its 2026 season with the second night of the inaugural Minn-Kota cup. The first night of the Minn-Kota cup brought in 86 cars while Night 2 drew 73. One suggestion I would have for Fix It Forward Speedway managemnt – bump up the purse quite a bit for the Minn-Kota Cup and advertise it weeks in advance. There was a doubleheader for IMCA classes in Brainerd and a three-night show at Nodak Speedway in Minot they were up against

Buffalo River Speedway in Glyndon held its season championship on Sunday night on a sticky evening. Buffalo River promoter Jason Berg said this week that Don Shaw, who owned I-94 EMR Speedway from 2020 until selling it this year, did some work reshaping the track earlier in the week. I know they’ve wanted to make the higher lane a more consistent option and are hoping some of the reshaping will do that. I personally felt the track was fairly racy for most classes and there

I don’t cover a lot of the national touring series while they are in the area, in large part because they have their own PR folks that cover them well, but with the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars less than 15 minutes from my house in West Fargo I figured what the heck. There was a great crowd on hand at Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo for the Danny Schatz Memorial, following a big crowd at River Cities Speedway on Friday. Donny Schatz of Fargo is a 10-time WOO Sprint

I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls wrapped up its 2026 regular season with another strong field of cars. I-94 has consistently been over 100 cars all year, and piled in 125 for their season championship night, setting up for a longer night. I think part of the reason for the car counts is some cars wanting to get laps on the track before the Wissota 100 in September. I-94 had 20 Wissota Late Models on hand, just one less than the 21 signed in at River Cities Speedway for

I was hoping to make it to Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon for the season championship on Thursday, but it didn’t work out, so instead of more of a play-by-play this will be more of an editorial/summary of the results. My goal was to make it to Sheyenne Speedway in-person four times this summer and I did that. There was some uncertainty in the offseason about whether Sheyenne would even race in 2026, and some locals in the Lisbon area approached Dusty Mund about running the tra

The second annual Clash at Casino was held at Casino Speedway in Watertown on Saturday with a big field of 110 cars on hand. Not surprisingly, with 110 cars on a quarter-mile bullring, it was a long night. It ended up being a good night for the Randt brothers while Joe Thomas of Glyndon picked up his second big Wissota Modified win in as many nights. A nice 28-car Tri State Late Model contingent signed into Casino, racing for $2,500 to win. Superman Mike Stearns of Aberde

The sixth annual Howie Schill Memorial NLRA Late Model special saw 37 Wissota Late Models on hand Friday night at Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo. I talked to Howie’s son, Cole Schill, who along with wife Erica puts together this outstanding event. Last year’s event set a record with 51 cars on hand, but that was the second night of a doubleheader. Cole told me before the race the plan is return to a doubleheader for the event in 2027. The Schills put in a lot of work

It was a beautiful night at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon, which was back in action for the first time since late June. The temp was around 80, little humidity and a nice breeze, probably the nicest night I’ve been at a track all year. Sheyenne’s car counts have been solid all year with 56 cars on hand in five classes, which included three heats of Wissota Midwest Modifieds and two heats each of the Hobby Stocks, Wissota Street Stocks and INEX Legends. That seems to be a very

I decided for the old-time’s sake to cover Madison Speedway remotely on Saturday. As folks who read the blog know, that is the track I grew up going to as a kid and there are tons of memories for me there. It was the Alt Arneson Memorial at Madison on Saturday. Alt Arneson was the flag man at Madison in the 1980s when I was growing up. He had to handle some real characters at that track in those days, but I always remember him as a fair-minded flagman there. With Meet the

One of the fun things about doing RaceChaser blog is covering drivers who win their first career feature races. On Friday night at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Emma Nelson joined the first-win club this season with a thrashing of the field in the Wissota Hornets. If I am being honest, I-94 shows can run very long some nights, but Friday, with 103 cars, the last checkered flag waved at 10:28 p.m., a nice job by both the officials and drivers. I thought the feature race

Al Schmidt has been racing longer than many of his fellow competitors have been alive – he’s in his 49th year behind the wheel. What keeps the Watertown veteran – approaching 50 years of racing – at the track each week? “I still have a lot of fun,” Schmidt said. But the enjoyment of racing is only part of the reason the 75-year-old is still at Casino Speedway in Watertown every week. And it was his late life, Judy, who died of cancer in 2020, who offered him the advice.

The NOSA Sprints were at Buffalo River Speedway on a hazy Sunday night at the quarter-mile. A nice crowd was on hand and after the relentless heat of July it was a fairly comfortable night at the racetrack. One thing I’ve come to learn covering NOSA over the years -- there will be some kind of track farming before their heat and feature races which will add time to the shows. Sprint car shows, with the push starting, tend to take more time anyway. Sprint car fans don’t mi

The Race for the Fallen Linemen is the biggest Wissota Mod race of the year at Viking Speedway. It is a $3,000-to-win, $300 to start main event with a lot of contingencies. A huge credit to Corey Svor for his work with this event, now in its 11th year. Not only is it a great purse, it also raises money for the Fallen Linemen organization, which provides financial support for families who lose loved ones in electrical-line accidents. Svor has done a terrific job year-after-y

The Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten moved a step closer to clinching his second Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour title by grabbing the feature win Friday night at Jamestown Speedway. Jamestown is hosting the final two nights of the tour this weekend. I figured there would be around 25 Wissota Streets on hand, so I was disappointed only 19 were on hand, especially with Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen off this week. But the quality was there with a good amount of the f