Cleveland right at home in Wissota Super Stock class

Allan Cleveland of Breckenridge has kept his racing pretty simple for several years. No or very few sponsors, running an older Wissota Super Stock hauled around with an open trailer, and having a simple graphic scheme featuring mainly just the number 4A on the side.

This offseason, however, Cleveland got a nudge from a fellow competitor.

“Tim Johnson of Brainerd basically revitalized my racing program,” Cleveland said. “Starting with going through my whole car and updating it and going through every part. And he had his vinyl guy take me away from old-school single-color vinyl to multi color again.”

Johnson is a former Wissota national champion and has had an outstanding career in the super stocks and street stock divisions. For Cleveland, it made sense to take the advice.

“He surprised me when we went to Arizona (last winter). He got his vinyl guy lined up and he wrapped it up and it looks good,” Cleveland said. “It’s really nice.”

He still has the open trailer, but his car – a 2009 Affordable Chassis once owned by Jeff Crouse of Alexandria – features a new wrap, with sponsors and some updates in recent years.

If you have watched racing over the past three decades in the Red River Valley, there is a good chance you’ve seen Cleveland on the racetrack. He caught an interest in racing as a child when his father pitted for RRV Hall of Famer Steve Pavlicek.

Cleveland started racing in 1988 in the mini stock class at Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon, and from 1990-94 he raced in the outlaw streets at Red River Valley Speedway.  He ran a late model in 1995, and at other times, has raced a modified and a Mod 4. But in 1996, he moved into the class he’s called home ever since: the Wissota Super Stocks.

“it’s been the most affordable class there is,” Cleveland said. “The rules haven’t changed any. It’s been pretty good.”

Cleveland is one of the last Wissota Super Stock drivers left in the Red River Valley.  Almost all of his local tracks have dropped the class weekly in the past decade; the closest track to Cleveland that races the class weekly is Viking Speedway in Alexandria, which hosts the Fast Lane Super Stock Series this Saturday.   I-94 EMR Speedway runs a handful of super stock shows during the year.

“I like it when I-94 runs us; it’s 25 miles from home,” Cleveland said. “I try to get to Alexandria a few times; it’s the closest track that runs us regularly. For me, other than Fergus and Alexandria, everything is two hours or more.”

The Fast Lane Super Stock Tour is something that Cleveland has followed in recent years. Cleveland works as an agronomist at Corteva Agriscience and also owns GW Drain Service. With an early planting season this spring, he was excited to run the Fast Lane Tour.

“I really love that,” Cleveland said. “This year, the way planting went, I knew I was going to be able to run the tour. I don’t usually qualify for all of them, and you’re always at a different track and some of the tracks I don’t race, but the camaraderie is great, the guys you race with are great. Everybody helps everybody.”

His family is into racing, too. His oldest daughter Allison raced the super stock in 2017 at Sheyenne Speedway; and his younger daughter Anna did some practicing on Saturdays at I-94 and ran the first night of the Wissota 100 last year.

“It’s really nice,” Cleveland said. “It was something my dad did. We don’t race all the time, which I like about the super stock class. We go to the lake and do family things too. I don’t have to chase track points, but I can chase the specials.”

Driver Profile

Allan Cleveland

Wissota Super Stock #4A

Age: 58

Residence: Breckenridge, Minn.

Sponsors: Berger’s Body and Glass, Valley Fabrication and Repair, Dickerson Land, Cattle and Storage, GW Drain Service, Sasquatch Racing-1JR Tim Johnson, Affordable Chassis, Quality Engine

s