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Thursday, September 26

On Thursday, September 26, I stayed home due to not feeling well. My wife Joanne went up to Proctor Speedway for the rescheduled Silver 1000, to fulfill her obligation of selling souvenirs for the speedway.

I had just had a procedure to insert what’s called a WATCHMAN in my heart, to prevent further strokes. The doctor said before we started that this wouldn’t make me feel better. He must have been speaking physically, as it sure made me feel better mentally!

It was the first time I had watched a race where the videoing team used a drone. It provided an interesting view of the race track and the cars from that perspective.

I noted from my view that the car count was down a bit, I suspect because of the use of a rain date. I believe there were 34 WISSOTA Late Models and 30 WISSOTA Modifieds.

In the WISSOTA Late Models the feature event quickly broke down into a duel between Jake Redetzke and Pat Doar. Redetzke started the 40-lap main event from the outside of the front row, with Doar blasting off from third. It was close racing all the way through. Redetzke had taken back the point from Doar and looked to be able to take the win until, until ... Doar found a pathway from the bottom of turn four, drew alongside Redetzke and took the win by a half car length! It was an exciting victory for Doar, the New Richmond, WI racer.

Ashley Anderson led after moving up from eighth at the start, but a restart proved to be his undoing. Whether the tires didn’t fire or something else happened, Anderson was overwhelmed by the cars around him and slid back into a confrontation with Jeff Provinzino. Anderson held on for third, just ahead of Provinzino in fourth. Visitor Dustin Strand rounded out the top five.

Over on the WISSOTA Modified side, young Kaden Blaeser of Chippewa Falls, WI won. Our locals fared well, including the “Flyin Farmer” Nick Oreskovich, Jody Bellefeuille, and Brady Uotinen, who all finished in the top five, as did Tanner Gehl.

On Friday, September 27, I was feeling well enough to head over to ABC Raceway in Ashland, WI for the 49th annual Red Clay Classic, a two-day affair that always brings many cars.

This event is for WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks, Modifieds and Late Models.

Raceway president Eric Erickson announced plans for the 50th running of the Red Clay Classic coming up in 2025. The event will be held on September 26-27, highlighted by a purse in excess of $225,000. Feature payouts are set to be $15,000 for Late Models, $10,000 for Modifieds, $7,000 for Super Stocks and $3,000 for Midwest Modifieds. Erickson pointed out that “efforts will be ongoing throughout the off-season as well during the 2025 to increase and add other bonuses.”

The annual awards banquet will be held in January 2025.

Heat races were run on Friday, and then on Saturday it was time for the features. Feature winners after a night of good racing action included Michael Blevins, Sr. in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, while Shane Sabraski won in the WISSOTA Super Stocks and in the Late Models. In the 40-lap WISSOTA Modifieds Clayton Wagamon won for the sweep of action.

And with that, the Red Clay brought an end to our season. The Red Clay is always when we call it quits for the year.