With some of the sponsorship money I picked up a camera to take some action shots. I'm no Mike Spieker, Cody Papke, Collin Nelson or Stevenator, but I at least wanted to get some pics of my own.
So I decided to throw together a collection of my pics with a little story behind each.
I got to meet the Mehrwerth (Ashley, Brandon and Corey) family out of St. Stephen this summer for the first time. Very nice family. Ashley also might have the biggest Facebook following Of any driver in Wissota. I’ve seen them race several times. Ashley, pictured above in the 17 car, won a midwest modified feature at I-94 Speedway a few years ago in very impressive fashion. All three siblings have won features this season -- Brandon has six wins, Corey five and Ashley two.
Jade Hastings (8H) of Grand Forks and I had a bit of a running joke that pretty much every time I showed up at River Cities Speedway, he won a feature. Well, it was close -- all but one NOSA Sprint feature that I saw at Grand Forks this season was won by Hastings, the 2020 NOSA Sprint champ.
This was the best IMCA Sport Mod race I saw all year between Rich Pavlicek (17), Ryan Restad (7R) and Chris VanMil (40) as they put on a heck of a show at Red River Valley Speedway on Aug. 20. And I even got a decent pic of the 3-wide racing. VanMil won the feature, by the way.
The ageless Tom Corcoran of East Grand Forks (T1), age 66, won a late model feature at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks. He now has feature wins in six different decades. That may have been the coolest win I saw all year, especially the reactions of his fellow drivers afterwards (I'm guessing he got quite a few free beers :) ) I'm proud to call Corcoran a friend.
Tyler Hall of Fertile (60) put on a heck of a show at the Dakota Classic Mod Tour stop in July at Red River Valley Speedway. He led the first 23 laps of the feature and a late caution may have derailed his hopes for a big win. Ricky Thornton Jr. passed him after that caution but for Hall it was one heck of a night.
Zach Johnson of Lowry is a great racer -- has been for two decades in Western Minnesota -- but is a YouTube celebrity, too. He is the Millenial Farmer and has more than 575,000 subscribers on YouTube. He drives Corey Svor's 6X modified at Viking and I-94.
Pokey Lukes is a legend in the Lisbon racing scene, serving as an announcer for many years. He is the official historian of Sheyenne Speedway. He hopped this mini stock a view years ago. He won a feature at Sheyenne Speedway earlier this season.
Kalvin Kesselberg of Ada (11) picked up his first career win at Norman County Raceway this past summer, and the post-race celebration in the pit area was one of the most memorable I saw all year. He's one of several up-and-coming talents in the IMCA Stock Cars.
One of the truly nice guys -- and racing diehards -- you will meet in racing is Larry Samuelson of Erhard. Larry drives the #11* Limited Late Model at I-94 Sure Step Speedway. He's usually the first guy in the pit area -- his trailer is parked in the shade in a prime spot. The guy loves to race and loves being at the track.
Old Man Jerry Lamb of Lisbon announced his retirement from racing after the 2020 season. The 70-year-old raced 51 years and is a legend in the Lisbon area.
Brody Troftgruben (14) of Grand Forks won his first career late model feature at Devils Lake Speedway on Aug. 1, passing series champ Dustin Strand for the win.
Brody Carlsrud of Fargo (formerly Moorhead) capped off his final year in the INEX Legends class with a career-high four wins in his #B1 machine.
Teenager Gavin Walton of Englevale (7x) won the final Mini Stock feature of the year at Sheyenne Speedway and clinched the season point title as a result.
2019 NOSA Sprint champ Nick Omdahl didn't have a great year in 2020 but did pick up the win at the sprint special at Norman County Raceway on Aug. 6, which was his first and only victory of the year.
The two super stock track champions in the RaceChaser region battle during a heat race at I-94 Sure Step Speedway. William Lund (54) of Brandon won the Wissota Super Stock title at I-94 while Trevor Saurer (21) of Dalton won the Viking Speedway title.
The Schow brothers from McIntosh race against each other in the midwest modified class. Matt, left, drives the 2S (and won the point title at River Cities) while Ryan drives the 28S machine.
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