There is something about the No. 37 car and the Structural Buildings Wissota Late Model Challenge Series at Casino Speedway over the past few years. Watertown veteran Scott Ward had won the previous two challenge series features at Casino in 2024 and 2025; he has been sidelined so far in 2026 with a shoulder issue. Wanting to have his 37 on the track at his hometown track, Ward was able to get Cody Overton of Georgia, to drive the car this weekend (which included two Tri-St

Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo hosted the Structural Buildings Wissota Late Model Challenge Series on Saturday night with a solid 32 late models on hand. Fiesta City Speedway’s Friday show was rained out, but at least they were able to get one night of their doubleheader in. I was a little worried about the late model car counts at Fiesta City; there just aren’t many local late models lef

I made it back to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks on what turned into a pleasant June evening. With a High Limit sprint race scheduled (and canceled because of rain) at I-94 EMR Speedway, the NOSA Sprints had the night off. The Wissota Modifieds were in town for the first time in 2026, and there were only four classes racing. There are a couple of things I appreciate about River Cities Speedway, at least on a regular basis. They almost always start on time, sometimes

I made it to opening night for Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon. Once again the weather threw a curveball with some sprinkles, much like Fix It Forward faced on Friday, but for an opening night I thought it was good show. It is clear to me that BRS officials are working to speed up their show and Sunday was a good step forward. They moved their heats along nicely – when one heat was exiting the next was coming on the track. Intermission wasn’t overly long, either. I hav

The USRA Northern Lights Modified series is making a trek through central Minnesota and on Saturday night was at Viking Speedway in Alexandria. The series allowed the local Wissota cars to run their rules against their USRA foes. Dusty Bitzan of Evansville wiped out any drama in the $2,000 to win feature, dominating the 25-lap main event. He has been fast all year and was the fastest qualifier during time trials on Saturday. Joe Chisholm won at I-94 EMR Speedway on Friday.

Fix it Forward Speedway in West Fargo, formerly Red River Valley Speedway, kicked off the 2026 season on Friday night with 94 cars on hand. The track is under the direction of Kevin Nathe and Duane Peterson, who folks in the Red Rivar Valley known from running Glyndon for several years. Talk about getting dealt a crappy hand weather-wise – Fix it Forward sure was on Friday. There was a shot of rain shortly before race time that delayed the start, and sprinkles off and on du

Norman County Raceway in Ada hosted the NLRA Late Models on Thursday night. It was a good field overall with 86 cars on hand on a hot May evening. I will lead with the NLRA Late Models with 27 cars on hand and 26 taking the green. NLRA shows at NCR usually are at 20 cars or more as the series provides a reliable car count when it comes to town. Which shows how effective the NLRA has been in keeping late model racing viable in this region. Unfortunately this was a caution-

Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon kicked off 2026 with its annual Memorial Day race. A solid crowd was on hand with 95 cars signed in to compete. Dusty Mund and his team are in their first year of promoting Sheyenne. It is the fourth different promoter in four years at the 1/4-mile oval. Several locals asked Mund – who owns the successful Job Erection and Engineering Business in Lisbon – to take the leadership role of running the track. It is an all-volunteer run track, and there

After a pair of rainouts, the Dirt Race Central Wissota Street Stock Tour kicked off with 27 cars on hand Sunday night at Viking Speedway. The first night of Viking’s doubleheader was canceled but much better weather, around 80 degrees, was in place on Sunday night. It was also the Collin Nelson Memorial, in honor of the long-time Viking photographer who passed away in the offseason. Krystal Ostenson, a long-time friend, gave a great speech in honor of her friend. I will ad

Jamestown Speedway kicked off its 2026 season on Saturday with 107 cars, plus 10 Junior Slingshots, in attendance. The spring weather, or lack of spring I should say, is doing tracks zero favors right now. I visited with Jamestown promoter Tim Baldwin who said Jamestown got 3/4-inch of rain on Friday afternoon/evening. The sun did not come out til the afternoon on Saturday and it left the infield and quite a bit of the pit area muddy. Considering the weather, it wasn’t s

River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks held opening night of the Wayne Anderson Cup on Thursday. The move to Thursday will end up being a wise one as almost every Friday track regionally (I-94 EMR, Dacotah and Fix It Forward Speedways) has already been cancelled with rain and cool temps in the forecast. The INEX Legends joined the four regular RCS classes on Friday. One of the things I’ve liked as a fan about RCS is they’ve normally stayed at four classes for their weekly pr

The Jeff Hinkemeyer Memorial kicked off the 2026 season at Viking Speedway. The Structural Buildings Wissota Late Model Challenge Series was on hand for the first and only time at the half-mile with a solid 32-car field on hand. The night was in honor of Jeff Hinkemeyer, a Viking Hall of Fame member and many time late model track champion, who passed away from lung cancer earlier this spring. He was a very well-known late model driver in central Minnesota for a long time. One

River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks opened the 2026 season on a breezy Friday night. Yep, it was windy. Again. I am 3-for-3 on wind races so far. The wind did RCS folks no favors, leading to a challenging night of track prep – not to mention the wind was blowing straight into the stands. It even impacted the order of the racing – the NOSA Sprints, with their wings, heats were held AFTER the Wissota Street Stock and Midwest Modified features, and after intermission because of

Veteran driver Dave Mass of East Bethel enjoyed some success in his first years in a Wissota Late Model, including track championships at I-94 EMR Speedway in 2020 and 2021. When 2025 rolled around, he set another goal – to win his first Structural Buildings Wissota Late Model Challenge Series race. He did that – twice. Not only did he win two races, he also was crowned the series champion for the first time in his three-decade career. Mass topped Shane Sabraski by 25 points

I made it to Casino Speedway in Watertown for opening night on Sunday with 72 cars signed in. As I’ve said I won’t be evaluating car counts in my recaps until we get past Memorial Day (I know several who are not ready), nor will I focus much on track conditions this early in the year as I have yet to see a perfect racetrack during an opening night of a track. We need to get into the season for a good 3-4 weeks before I make much of the track conditions unless it is a total p

I-94 EMR Speedway kicked off the 2026 season with 125 cars on hand. The weather did not deal I-94 an ideal hand – a gusty northwest wind was present throughout the evening, and rain would eventually become a factor to shorten the night. The Wissota Modified feature got about four laps in with Tyler Peterson of Hickson (TPO) leading Talan Thoennes of Nelson for the top pot before the rain started to fall. The Wissota Modified, Wissota Late Model and Wissota Hornet features wil

Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo opened its 2026 season on a cool May evening with 89 cars signed in. I mentioned in a recent Facebook post, I will be covering tracks mainly within a 150-mile radius of Fargo; however, I do want to hit the tracks in my home area some, too, which would include Fiesta City and Madison, two tracks I went to as a kid. I grew up 15 minutes from Fiesta City and my parents ran the track there for three years in the early 1990s.Thanks to presenting

Brady Gerdes won the Wissota Modified feature. Photo by Cody Papke) Night 1 of the Lou’s Mad Town Showdown was held Friday at Madison...

Doyle Erickson won the Wissota Mod feature (photo by Lisa Rhen/Lisa Jean Designs) Night 1 of the Bemidji Stampede featured 113 cars on...

Ryan Gierke fended off challlenges from Shane Sabraski to win the Wissota 100 Mod title. Photo by Alex Ostenson/AOK Photography. The...