Hansen looking for solid finishes to conclude first season in IMCA Modified class

Lindsey Hansen raced faithfully at his hometown track, Jamestown Speedway, for nine years, but was never able to pull off a feature win. So when he put his #32 IMCA Modified in victory lane for the first time on June 14, the victory, in Hansen’s words, “meant a lot.”

Hansen now races out of Fargo but is from Jamestown, and raced at the ¼-mile for several years in various classes.

“After I hit the scales, I turned around to go to victory lane and there was literally 20 of my family members running across the track. It was really cool,” Hansen said.

The feature win had a bit of irony to it. The night before at Red River Valley Speedway, he finished third – but on a green-white-checkered finish, ended up well behind the top two finishers, Dave Shipley and Jesse Skalicky, forcing Hansen to make some changes on the car.

“I give credit to Skalicky and Shipley; we came here Friday night and got our asses handed to us. It was a green-white-checkered and they beat me by 4-5 seconds,” Hansen said Friday from the pits at RRVS. “All day Saturday I was sitting in the shop. I had the left rear off the car, tearing it apart. I wanted to try something new, we went out for the heat race (at Jamestown), ‘we might have found something.’”

He started on the front row of the June 14 feature at Jamestown and after an early restart, jumped into the lead.  When the caution waved with five to go, Hansen noticed two numbers on the scoreboard – the 98 of John Nord and the 5 of John Corell.  Hansen would survive the cautions and challenges to get the win.

“I got a good jump and led every lap from there.  With 5 to go we had a caution, I see 98 and 5 (on the scoreboard). Nord was in second, and I know he drives hard. It was a fun race,” Hansen said.

Hansen is in his first year in the IMCA Modified class but is not a stranger to racing. He’s raced 14 years overall, getting his start in the mini stock class at Jamestown.  His interest in racing came from watching his two cousins race a Road Hog.

“They used to race those Road Hogs,” Hansen said. “They were always beating tin and having fun, and I got around it that way.”

He moved from the mini stock to the Wissota Street Stock class and then moved to the Wissota Midwest Modified class in 2017. His first career feature win came that season – but it was driving someone else’s car in a different class.  His friend, Lane Stoppleworth, was having issues with his Bomber car, and Hansen brough the car to Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon.  The result on Sept. 30, 2017, was his first career feature win.

“I took it to Lisbon and ended up winning,” Hansen said.

He progressed in the Wissota Midwest Modified class. In 2020 he posted five top five finishes, and in 2021 improved to seven top five finishes. The breakthrough came in 2022 at the ¼-mile bullring of Casino Speedway in Watertown.

He raced Dawson Zabel of Selby side-by-side for several laps and topped veterans Adam Brotherton and Scott Hansen for his first win in the division and the second of his career.  He received congratulations from several friends whom he raced against.

“It’s more my style of racing, where you get up on the wheel,” Hansen said of Casino Speedway. “I was always a fan of those kinds of tracks. It was surreal.”

In 2023 he made the move to the Wissota Late Model class, where he spent the previous two seasons.  He decided to move to the IMCA Modified for 2025, in large part because he could race at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, which is close to his home in Fargo.

“The five-year plan is to get back into one,” Hansen said of the late model. “It was a lot of fun, I learned a lot.”

He took the car to some local test-and-tunes and felt good about the car. As far as this season goes, the results have been a mixed bag. He does have a feature win and four top five finishes and is third in the points at Red River Valley Speedway, but also has six DNFs.

“Each time we left, we got faster,” Hansen said.  “I knew we had a good piece, we just had to put a night together. Jamestown especially; we have five DNFs there. If we can stay on the track…we’ve got to stack some finishes.”

In 14 years of racing, many friendships have been built for Hansen.

“The family atmosphere. I like all the friends I’ve made and all the camaraderie,” Hansen said. “The racing is almost an extra deal. Obviously, you get behind the wheel, it’s always fun. Sometimes you get your butt kicked but you still have to have fun doing it.”

Driver profile

Lindsey Hansen

IMCA Modified #32

Residence: Fargo, N.D.

Age: 32

Sponsors: Roemmich Farms, Gasol Feedlot, Andrew Thompson—Titan Machinery, Shocker Hitch, RK2 Companies, Pizza Ranch of Lisbon, Austin Cannon Realty, Bjerken Electric, Thomas Farms, HighSide Enterprise LLC, Cody Meyer Enterprise LLC