Myron Tschakert’s racing career reached a pinnacle in 2001. That year, he won nearly half of the feature races he entered and won a national championship.
In 2001, he won the Wissota Street Stock national championship. The Kent, Minn., area farmer raced 86 shows and won 42 features with 26 clean sweeps.
“We ran four nights a week most of the time,” Tschakert said. “It was a good run.”
He credited a good car — a Kurshinsky chassis — and a good engine program for helping his street stock program thrive.
He also won the Little Dream race at Rice Lake Speedway that year which has become the highest-paying street stock race in Wissota.
The 2002 season was also successful, highlighted by a win at the Jamestown Stampede. He won several track championships in the street stock class as well.
Tschakert started his career in the Bomber class at Sheyenne River Speedway in Lisbon in 1997. He was only 16.
“We started over Thanksgiving vacation — we built a bomber car and thought it’d be fun,” Tschakert said.
Soon after, he moved into the Wissota Street Stock class and became a top competitor quickly.
One thing Tschakert enjoyed in the street stock class was the competition. He said that drivers like Scott Paulson, Buzzy Adams, Jason Long, Jim Phillips and Jeremy Thorstenson provided good competition — and clean racing.
“There were a lot of us that raced together. It was always fun,” Tschakert said. “(Racing) a street stock, I didn’t tear anything up. You were running with good racers, and you knew the guys who were fast and who you could race side by side with.”
Tschakert also credited his pit crew for playing a big part in the success on the track.
“Your crew is just as important as you are. It’s not just the driving for sure,” Tschakert said. “We had fantastic guys. We had a good crew and a good following.”
He ran a super stock and a modified briefly before moving into the late model class. He won some features in the late model and eventually sold the car after 2012.
“The first couple of years were ok,” Tschakert said. “That was a whole new world.”
While he stepped away from driving after 2012, he didn’t walk away from racing. Instead, he turned his attention to his son’s go-kart careers. Son Alex, now 16, and Tucker, now 15, have raced several years at tracks at West Fargo, Grand Forks, Alexandria and Atwater, among others.
“We’ve been doing that three nights a week,” Tschakert said. “It’s plenty busy.”
Tschakert is only 42, and he doesn’t rule out a return to driving. But he said his sons will be in full race cars soon.
“If the kids are doing it, and we’re going anyway — it’s a good possibility we’ll do something,” Tschakert said. “If I ever had the itch to drive, I can.”
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