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

Casino Speedway was back in action with 66 cars on hand. It was the second show in four nights for the Watertown track, which hosted an USMTS show on Thurssday. The final checkered flag waved at 8:58 p.m., a great job by Casino officials and drivers. As I said, I will compliment racing programs that run efficiently and are done in a good time, and this was one of those nights. But I won’t hesitate to point out shows that I think run way too long because of a lack of urgency

Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon hosted the Midwest Sprint Touring Series which concluded a three-day swing in the area. Jack Dover of Springfield, Neb., was the class of the 410 field from the green flag. The IMCA RaceSaver sprints also had 20 cars on hand along with 10 Lightning Sprints and seven IMCA Stock Cars. Dover roared out front of the MSTS feature with Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks chasing him. Christopher Thram of Sanborn was third, and Jade Hastings of Grand

The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour moved to Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo on Friday with 25 Wissota Street Stocks signed in. Because of the heat, Fiesta City moved its start time back by a half hour in order to save some of the sun’s impact on the track. On their Facebook page, FCS was looking to run a quick show to get fans out of there at a good time. Instead, the opposite happened. It was a long night, in large part due to several cautions, and a big wreck in

The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour made a stop at KRA Speedway in Willmar on Thursday with a quality field on hand. The tour had not had a repeat winner yet this year – and that trend continued on Thursday. How would I describe the race? Cautions. Eventful. A call that puzzled me. A wild final few laps. I hate to say a race was decided by the redraw, but when Keith Tourville re-drew the No. 1, I figured that was real bad news for the field. Tourville, from Janesvil

Track officials, drivers and fans braved the heat for Buffalo River Speedway's Sunday night program. I am not going to analyze car counts in weather like this, but I admire the 50 cars who came to race and the fans who showed up, too. I know some tracks cancelled because of the heat warning, and I can’t blame them for that. But Buffalo River, which isn’t running every week this summer, decided to make a go of it. Buffalo River does have one advantage – an air-conditioned b

The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour was back at Rice Lake Speedway on Saturday night with 23 cars in attendance. Since the tour is a presenting sponsor, my goal is to cover as many shows as I can, in-person or remotely. Entering the night there were five different winners in five nights of the tour, including Jeff Ekdahl winning Friday at Red Cedar Speedway. Heading into the Rice Lake race, former tour champion, Wolverine Justin Vogel, led Kummer by six points with Jeff

I-94 EMR Speedway was back in action on a warm Friday night. Between rainouts, scheduled off-nights and trying to get to other area tracks, it had been since May that I had been to the 3/8-mile oval in Fergus Falls. The track had some character after the rain this week, leading to the blade coming out at intermission. It was improved for the feature and there was some good racing; there were also a lot of cautions in some of the features. If I have an issue with I-94, it

Jamestown Speedway held action on Saturday night as part of July 4, with a fireworks show set after the races. If you read this blog, you know I can’t stand longer-than-necessary race programs. But to be fair I need recognize when shows are done in a quick time, too – and Jamestown was done in less than three hours on Saturday, a great job by track officials and drivers. And it set up perfect for the folks who were driving up to the fairgrounds to check out the fireworks (I

Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo welcomed 99 cars for its Red River Valley Fair race on a warm summer evening. It has been a few years since there was racing during the fair. I think it’s hard to gauge the crowd when people are coming in and out the whole night. I hope RRVF keeps racing during the fair because I think it’s a good idea, frankly and a good way to get some non-racing fans to maybe check a night out at the track. Kyle VanMil of Barnesville led the early mo

River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks moved from Friday to Thursday this week, ahead of the holiday weekend, with 89 cars on hand in five classes. I thought RCS had a nice track for the WOO Late Model show last week and as a fan spectating that is how I like the track there. On Thursday the track had some character in spots; the best feature of the night turned out to be the INEX Legends, who were making their second trip to RCS this season. The question in the Wissota Stree

For a few years, the Wiest brothers, Joshua and Shawn, raced against each other in the INEX Legends class in eastern North Dakota – and their goal was to beat each other. Fast forward two years – Shawn Wiest has moved into the IMCA Modified class while Joshua remains in the INEX Legends – and that mentally has changed a bit. “It was fun. I pushed him to the limits all the time,” Joshua said. “I was making him grow and get better, and that’s how we got better.” “It was a l

Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon was back in action Sunday night as it wrapped up the first half of its 2026 season before taking a hiatus in July. Sheyenne’s car counts have been solid for the most part. They had two heats in every class except the Short Trackers, which to me is a good weekly goal for them. The Wissota Midwest Modifieds, usually around 15 cars a night, had the night off as the IMCA Modifieds were back in town for a second straight week. I have to hand it to She

Viking Speedway had an excellent crowd on hand for its “Free Grandstands” night on an overcast evening in Alexandria. NAPA sponsored the free admission to the stands. The car counts have remained pretty solid at Viking through the first six nights with 74 on hand in the five classes on Saturday. As I said if they hang around 15 Wissota Mods a night weekly (they had 14 on Saturday), I think that is a good number in a racing world where the A mod class numbers have declined (a

World of Outlaw Late Models continued their swing through the area at the River Cities Speedway on Friday and once again, it was another dominant performance by Bobby Pierce. The Wissota Midwest Modifieds and Wissota Street Stocks were the suppose classes with 29 and 23 cars, respectively. With I-94 EMR Speedway racing earlier in the week and Jamestown Speedway being off tomorrow, I figured a few more cars would arrive in those divisions. As I’ve said previously since W

I’ve heard the Wissota vs. IMCA debate pretty much since starting the blog, and at least on Thursday night, there was a chance to see the two sanctioning bodies square off against each other with the Bitker B Mod Challenge at Norman County Raceway. The winner got a fancy belt, and the victory was worth $650. The Wissota cars had to stay true to their rules, as did the IMCA cars. NCR promoter Jake Bitker isn’t afraid to try new things, and this certainly was a different con

I-94 EMR Speedway hosted the World of Outlaw Late Models on Wednesday night with the Wissota Midwest Modified and Street Stocks on hand as support classes. There were 78 total cars, highlighted by 28 WOO late models. The only local Wissota Late Models to take a shot were Shawn Meyer of Wahpeton and Cole Schill of Horace; it used to be years ago that a few more locals would take a shot at such a race, but in terms of equipment, they are at a big disadvantage. Not just the 30

Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon welcomed the IMCA Modifieds for the first time in 2026 on a pleasant evening. Race director Todd Carter made an emphasis the first week about getting the show done in a timely matter, and it’s clearly Sheyenne officials are working hard to do that. Last week’s show got done at 8 p.m.; this week it was 8:08 p.m. when the final checkered waved. Dusty Mund and the entire group of volunteers deserve credit for making this work. It takes everyone to k

I was excited to get a chance to write about Ogilvie Raceway, one of my favorite tracks, as the Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour stopped at the 3/8-mile oval on Saturday. Ogilvie had 101 cars in six classes. I’ll be honest, if it were closer than 210 miles for me, it would be a part of my Saturday rotation. One observation – the high gas prices are hitting some of these tours pretty hard in terms of car counts. There are a few drivers who followed the DRC Street Stock T