Randt, Schultz, Engesser, Nelson, Haben, Walsh and Jenson win at Madison

Levi Randt led flag-to-flag in the Wissota Street Stock feature. (Photo by Alex Ostenson, AOK photography)

I grew up about 40 minutes from Madison Speedway and made many weekly trips there as a kid. Saw some great fights, some big-time crashes over the years at that 3/8-mile oval.  I could write about 3 blogs on some of the stuff I’ve witnessed at that racetrack. So  when the opportunity came to cover Madison via Dirt Race Central, a presenting RaceChaser sponsor, I had to jump at it.

There was a good 94-car field on hand for season championship night. If I have a critique of the tracks in my home area, it’s that they run too many weekly classes (seven, Fiesta City was down to six after dropping the mods).  I think seven is too many; it would be nice to see KRA, Fiesta City and Madison (and all these other tracks at seven classes) go to five classes and invest in them and focus on building those.

After a bit of a long intermission, I was hoping for a pretty racy track for the features. While the track was smooth and slick, it locked down to the bottom for the last few features.

I will highlight the biggest class of the night, the Wissota Street Stocks, which had 25 cars on hand. Zach Flickinger of Madison pretty much had to show up to wrap up his first Wissota Street Stock track title; he had a 41-point lead on Coltyn Schuler of Montevideo.

Maria Broksieck of Goodwin and Levi Randt of Siren had the front row with Randt taking the early lead.

Chris Behrens of Montevideo ran third with Coltyn Schulter and Joe Martin of Willmar in the top five. I was keeping an eye on former Madison champion Mike Jans of Clarkfield, the Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten, and Flickinger a ways back in the field.

The first caution waved when Dale Louwagie of Cottonwood was stopped at the bottom of turn three; it looked like he got stuck in the mud. The next caution waved when Maverick Janssen made hard contact on the frontstretch with another car and came to a halt; he was pushed to the pits with damage.

On the restart things went 3-wide for second with Broksieck, Schuler and Behrens; Behrens would slide back with Martin moving to fourth and Flickinger into fifth. Jans was up to sixth and Vogel was seventh with 14 to go.

Randt had about a one-second lead on Broksieck. Flickinger was applying heavy pressure to Martin in fourth.  The top two had some distance on third-place Schuler. By the halfway point Randt had a 1.7 second lead on Broksieck, who was almost a second ahead of Schuler. The caution waved when Dylan Arndt of Ortonville and Levi Schellberg of Bellingham went around in turn two.

While the top two pulled away on the start, Schuler had Martin, Flickinger, Vogel and Jans in a big pack behind him.  Cory Dykhoff of Perham, who started back in xxth, was up to the top nine and charging. Flickinger and Martin were battling side-by-side, once again, for fourth.

The top three had some distance on the field  but the big race was for fourth with Flickinger, Martin, Dykhoff and Jans were really racing hard. Meanwhile Broksieck had cut into Randt’s lead, cutting into down to a half-second, but ran out of time as Randt won for the eighth time in 2025. Broksieck, the 2025 Casino champion, ran a strong second with Schuler a solid third.

Flickinger put the finishing touches on the track championship in fourth while Dykhoff capped off an incredible charge through the field to finish fifth after starting 23th. After a shaky start, the streets did a nice job with only three cautions for the 24-car  starting field.

The Pure Stocks, going into the night, saw Landon Albertson of Cottonwood lead Colsten Schultz by just three points. What I like the most about the Madison pure stocks – they are UNSANCTIONED. No reason to sanction the hornets or pure/hobby stock/bomber divisions, IMO.  Albertson and Schultz had the front row for Monday’s feature, which didn’t make it through a lap before there was contact in turn two leading to the spin of Brady Hagen; Carter Rice was charged with the yellow.

Schultz took the early lead over Albertson with Hagen and Jesse Timm racing side-by-side for third. Jason Best of Clarkfield was not far behind in fifth. Schultz was in firm control in the top spot.

Best and Timm were in a good duel for fourth as the top three were a little spread out; Schultz had almost a straightaway  on Albertson who had Hagen slowly closing on him. Best would grab fourth with three to go in what was the best battle on the track.

Schultz was in control from the early moments and rolled to the win over Albertson.  It was announced that Schultz and Albertson were co-track champions. Albertson is the Fiesta City Speedway track champion and has eight wins this summer in what has been a terrific summer. His dad Ben was a long-time street stock racer in that area.

The long-time veteran of Madison, 66-year-old Scott Tofte, led Ryan Flaten by 10 points in the Wissota Midwest Modified standings heading into the night. Tofte is the last remaining driver racing in Madison from when I grew up going there in the 1980s; he raced in the modifieds for many, many years and I recall a couple of bad wrecks he had at Madison. He's also got a lot of wins there, and I would be curious where he ranks all-time in total feature wins there.

Gary, S.D., driver Darren Engesser had the early lead of the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Tim Kanten of Milan. Justin VanEps of Pennock was third when the caution waved for debris on Lap 2.

Kanten took a peak at Engesser on the restart as Bjorklund moved into third. VanEps was dueling Flaten for fourth. The caution waved when Midwest modified rookie Sophie Anderson spun in turn two.  On the restart Kanten went to the high side to pressure Engesser when VanEps was turned off turns three and four; I didn’t see what happened  as he was charged with the yellow.

Kanten was determined to make the high lane work and he went back up there and got the run he needed with 14 to go out of turn four to take the lead. Engesser, however, fought back on the bottom of turns one and two as Flaten had climbed to third. Bjorklund was still in the hunt in what turned into a great race at the front.  With 10 to go Engesser pulled a bit of a slider and regained the lead as Flaten made it a three-car fight for the top spot.  Engesser was starting to pull away as Flaten and Kanten were battling for the second spot.  Bjorklund was fourth and Tofte in fifth.

Flaten took second with four laps to go but faced a 1.3 second deficit to Engesser.  Bjorklund, meanwhile passed Kanten for third. Flaten cut the led down to .524 seconds but didn’t have enough as Engesser prevailed for his first victory of 2025. Flaten settled for second, Bjorklund was third, Kanten fourth and Tofte fifth.

Brayden Hedtke of Atwater had wrapped up the Wissota Super Stock title so the fight was for the feature win as Justin Tammen and Trevor Nelson, a pair of 71s, had the front row.  Tammen took the lead but Nelson was challenging on the bottom. Andrew Hedtke was running third, Jason Havel of Rice Lake, Wis., ran fourth and Josh Roggatz of Montevideo was running fifth.

Nelson and Tammen were side-by-side in a great race for the top spot for a few laps but were joined by Andrew Hedtke of Grove City. Nelson, a former Wissota 100 winner, took the lead with 13 to go with Hedtke closing on him. Tammen slid back to third. With seven to go Nelson had about two car lengths on Hedtke as the track rubbered up on the bottom lane.. Havel was solid in fourth and Roggatz in fifth.

Nelson pushed the lead to about one second by the white flag and wasn’t threatened over the final laps to win for the 18^th time in 2025. Hedtke was second, Tammen was third, Havel fourth and Roggatz fifth. It was a caution-free main event that lasted about six minutes, my kind of race!

Brian Haben of Appleton had already clinched the Wissota Modified title going into the night with a 53-point lead over Ryan Flaten. Haben and Jacob Knapper of Montevideo had the front row for the nine-car feature.  Haben stormed out front with Superman Mike Stearns of Aberdeen grabbing second. Justin VanEps, Flaten and national point leader Blake Adams of Cameron, Wis., were racing three-wide for fourth behind Knapper.

Haben was cruising out front to a 3.0 second lead on Stearns with 10 laps lft. The track locked down on the bottom for the mods and things got a little spread out, although Adams cleared Flaten for fifth and was pressuring VanEps for fourth.

Haben’s lead was up to 3.75 seconds with five to go before there was contact on the frontstretch that sent VanEps spinning; IMO he got dumped. He would pull pitside, which was unfortunate because he was running well in the top four. On the restart with five to go Stearns, who was sixth in the national points, took a shot down low on Haben but couldn’t make it stick. Knapper went up high to try and make up some ground, but there wasn’t much grip there and that moved Adams to third.

Stearns kept Haben in sight, but Haben won by .354 seconds for his fifth victory of 2025 and putting the exclamation point on the track championship.  Adams was third, Knapper fourth and Nate Heinrich of Bellingham, the 2025 Fiesta City champion, was fifth.

Trevor Walsh of Watertown led Parker Gilbertson of Watson by 10 points in the Gen X Late Model standings.  The Gen X Late Models looked headed for a pileup in turn two with some cars getting sideways but they survived without a wreck; Jeff Nelson of Perham was the early leader as Walsh was closing. Kris Wilke of Porter was third.

As Nelson approached a lapped car Walsh was able to make the pass for the lead on the bottom. Wilke slowed and spun near the pit entrance to bring out the first caution.  The race didn’t make it another lap as Tyler McFarland of Goodwin and Jarrett Huus of Fergus Falls both spun in turn two. Once the racing got going again Walsh built a big advantage with Matthew Larson of Lake Elmo trying to chase down Nelson in second. Gilbertson was running fourth with the whole field running the bottom.

Walsh ran away with the feature, winning by 4.26 seconds to wrap up the track championship. Nelson held off Larson for second with Gilbertson and Huus rounding out the top five.

There was a surprise entrant in the Gen X Late Model class – Corey Nelson of Canby, a long-time Wissota Late Model driver.  He would pull off late in the race. Nelson raced his late model at Fiesta City earlier this summer.

Christian Kast of Fairmount had a 39-point lead on Bradley Rossow of Florence in the Wissota Hornets going into the night. Kast had clinched track titles at KRA and Casino earlier this week.

Paxton Tjaden was the leader over Anthony Jenson and Jeff Rohner of Willmar, the top two cars in the Wissota national points. Those two would grab the top two spots and it turned into a g ood fight for the lead. Tjaden was third, William Lange of Staples fourth and Bradley Rossow of Florence was running fifth but Kast was closing.

Jenson’s lead was .318 seconds with five to go over Rohner, who had four seconds on Tjaden in third. Rohner kept Jenson within striking distance, but some smoke was starting to come out of his 08 machine.  Jenson would prevail by 5-6 car lengths over Rohner. Tjaden was third, Lange fourth and Kast wrapped up the track title in fifth.  Kast is sixth in the national points.