Oeltjen hunting first career win after capturing I-94 track title in 2025

Scott Oeltjen of Villard already has a track championship in his young racing career, but he is still chasing something he wants even more.

“I want a win,” Oeltjen said. “I want to get that monkey off my back. That’s all luck.”

Oeltjen has raced in the Wissota Midwest Modifieds since 2020, racing mainly at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls and Viking Speedway in Alexandria.  He won the 2025 track championship at I-94 last year.

The 24-year-old, like many in racing, started in go-karts. But as he neared the end of high school, he was looking to hop into a race car. His parents offered him a deal.

“I wanted to build a car, and mom and dad told me if I graduated, I could go race it,” Oeltjen said. “It was a lot of incentive.”

The racing proved to be a challenge for Oeltjen, but by his third year in 2022, he had recorded his first three career top five finishes.

“We switched to Fords and I don’t think I’m going to go back,” Oeltjen said. “I found something that I really like.”

Each year, there has been progress, and that culminated with the track championship at I-94 in 2025.  He had a solid season in 2025 with seven top fives and 20 top 10 finishes in 31 starts.

At I-94, he had three top fives and seven top 10s to win the title by 11 points over long-time veteran Ron Saurer.

“I proved that consistency is really something,” Oeltjen said. “I’m going to try and be as consistent this year and see if I can do it two years in a row.”

He is third in the points at I-94 this year, trailing leader Nate Reinke of Lisbon and second-place Tommy Nichols of Watertown.

“At this track, we have 15 cars that are really hard to beat,” Oeltjen said.

He is sixth in the points at Viking, where he often races against his uncle, Alan. His cousin, Grace, used to race a Wissota Midwest Modified as well.  This year, he has a 2026 Dirt Dueler chassis that he hopped into about a month ago, replacing the 2009 one he had been driving previously.

“2026 has definitely been a learning curve with learning new things all winter and applying them to my old car and making changes to my new car,” Oeltjen said.

Then, there is the matter of getting his first feature win.  His best career finish is fourth. This year he finished fourth twice, once at I-94 and one at Viking.

“Ryan Mikkelson told me, if you want to win, you have to finish,” Oeltjen said. “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. If it happens, it’s going to be really cool.”

He said an added bonus to racing is the friendships he’s built in the class.

“Everybody you meet in racing – we’re all pretty social,” Oeltjen said. “We’re all just having fun.”

Driver profile

Scott Oeltjen

Wissota Midwest Modified #13

Age: 24

Residence: Villard, Minn.

Sponsors: Midwest Machinery, Beckwith Construction, Dirt Dueler Chassis, Tesar Engineering Race Engines, race-leader.com, Villard implement Co., Designamo, Zuber Law