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

The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour invaded the Casino Speedway in Watertown on Sunday night on a nice summer evening. After battling weather much of the summer the 1/4-mile Bullring was finally blessed with good weather. Justin Vogel of Brooten entered the night as the DRC Street Stock Tour point leader with Cody Kummer of Medford, Wis., six points back. While it was a good night for Vogel, it was not for Kummer, who ended up as DNF after a crash in turn four. It was

River Cities Speedway was back in action on Friday with 79 cars on hand, led by 22 Wissota Midwest Modifieds. The Wissota Street Stock feature quickly turned into a three-car fight at the front between Greg Jose of Grand Forks, Trey Hess of Grand Forks and Cole Greseth of Harwood. Hess, who is driving Rodney Hulst’s 49 machine this season, grabbed the lead with 18 laps to go. A spin brought out the first caution and the second came out before all the cars could even take

An afternoon rain shower threw a wrench into Norman County Raceway’s show on Thursday night, but after some time working the moisture the show went on. Things got started about 45 minutes late at NCR as it took time to work the track. The track was muddy and had a couple of holes, which was not unexpected after the rain. Those type of tracks are not easy to pass on. Some new faces found victory lane on Thursday – one for the first time in five years while another won his fi

The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour entered the week with eight different winners in eight different races. Saturday night that changed. Friday’s tour feature was called off because of rain, so it was made up as part of Saturday’s program with Huron’s Jayden Bogh and Princeton’s Tommy Pogones leading the field to green. This turned into a heck of a race over the final few laps. Defending national champion Kolton Brauer of Eyota suffered a problem before the green eve

Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo was back in action for the first time since July 3 with a strong 109-car field on hand. Some familiar faces found victory lane while one driver won his first career feature, and another claimed her first IMCA sprint feature win. The weather looked grim for a while and there were a few sprinkles, but the storms stayed to the south and west. Between the fair and the layoff, I was wondering what the track would be like. The track had some

I think almost every driver I’ve interviewed, and its at 300, says something like this: I grew up watching races at _______. It could be Viking, Buffalo River, Red River Valley, Jamestown, Lisbon or whatever track that driver went to as a kid. For me, that comes down to two tracks in western Minnesota. Madison was the primary one, but the other was about 21 miles to the south, in Canby, Minn.. I think my first race was at Canby, maybe 5-6 years old, when my dad still race