4-29 Page 19

Before the weather warms and the ground firms up enough for WISSOTA Auto Racing to begin, drivers from our area continued to compete in larger events south of the Midwest.

On March 27-29, a large three-day event was held in Missouri for open-motored Modifieds and B Mods. Our own WISSOTA Midwest Mods were allowed to compete, and there were nearly a dozen drivers from the north who headed down to Lucas Oil Speedway.

This was a premier event and drivers from all parts of the country came with their best equipment. The large fields and the quality of competition made it a challenge to make the feature each night.

Among of the group of nearly 80 Modified drivers were five who represented this area. A couple of them had already raced earlier in the year, with a few making their first starts of 2025.

For the Modifieds, it was tough sledding just making a main event. Time trials followed by passing points were the format used to make the features, and time-trialed events are not ones particularly familiar to drivers from our region.

Joseph Thomas was in the Tim Thomas car again for his second big race weekend of 2025. It was tough for Tim; his best night ended up being a program during which he finished one spot short of making the night’s main feature.

Steve Lavasseur runs a number of races with the sanctioning body that was in charge of this particular show, and as such, he had earned enough points with them to gain provisionals for use. He ran two of the three night's main events, but dropped out of both early, earning 25th-place finishes.

Jason Strand was making his first race start of the new year, running a Mullens chassis by Millenium and a Sower Power engine. They reported they still have their Late Model and will be racing it this year, but it is much easier to make a Modified legal and competitive for this kind of show than the Late Model.

It was also a tough road for Jason, as he failed to make a main. His best finish was an 11th in a B feature.

Dustin Strand had his Millenium chassis with Sturdy power along to race. He made one of the features, finishing in ninth after he was punted by another driver and got his position back. The “shot in the shorts” messed up his front end and he struggled the rest of that race. Strand reports he will run a schedule much like last year, racing hard with the Late Model and also running the Mod on occasion. The fact River Cities is running more Mod shows this year is a benefit to him.

James Hanley dropped in briefly on the opening night but he mechanical issues and was not seen back at the track after Thursday. The Cresbard, South Dakota veteran has a habit of showing up when you least expect him.

There were six Midwest Mod drivers who raced with the B Mods at LOS. Only two of them had previous races under their belt in 2025.

Dan Wheeler had a Texas trip behind him and had plans of racing in Oklahoma and Kansas before the first green flag was set to drop up north, but he struggled in Missouri. They were battling a carburetor issue, and he was trying to keep the front end on their car after getting it knocked off a couple times. The best he could muster in three nights of racing was an 11th-place B-feature finish.

Scott Bintz has been a busy driver this year already, with races in New Mexico and Arizona already behind him. Bintz had one of the better runs of the group, winning a B-feature on Friday night. He then raced to a top-five finish in that night's main. He was not able to qualify the other two nights. Bintz reported that with all his business interests and being short on a pit crew, he did not have the time to organize the Red-Headed Rebel Midwest Mod tour for 2025.

Landyn Randt was the most successful of all the area drivers on hand. Driving the MB Midwest Mod they acquired right at the end of 2024, with Wagamon power, Randt was able to qualify for two of the three feature races. His best finish was an eighth. Randt was one of only two drivers who ran their cars WISSOTA legal; he ran minus the spoiler, as required under this event's rules, and used their Hoosier tires. Randt reports that he will be playing hockey this fall for the Alexandria Blizzard, a member of the NAHL. The center iceman will be coached by Jeff and Jon Crouse, a pair of familiar names to race fans and well-known Super Stock drivers at Viking Speedway and other area tracks. At least they will have something to talk about other than hockey!

Austin Hunter made the very long trip from Winnipeg to race at Lucas Oil Speedway. Driving his Millenium chassis with Tim's Automotive power, he struggled to get hooked up with the tires he was running and failed to make any of the three features. He did get a couple sixth-place B-feature finishes and a sixth in a final night’s nonqualifier race. He plans to race Grand Forks and Winnipeg weekly in 2025, plus other events that fit his schedule.

South Dakota's Tracy Johnson had threatened to retire this year but instead got hooked up with Sioux Falls’ Miah Christensen. His race schedule is uncertain, but he will certainly race Orv's events at Huron. He was another who struggled and failed to make any of the mains.

The other driver using the WISSOTA rules package was Jake Wranek. Since he moved to Sioux Falls a couple of years ago, he hasn't raced as many WISSOTA-sanctioned events. He said his schedule would be about 50/50 with sanctioned vs. nonsanctioned races for this coming year, however, and certainly he’ll be at all of the Huron races. Wranek was driving a GRT chassis with The Engine Shop providing power. A 10th-place B-feature finish was his best showing.

While the Mid Mods and B Mods seemed to be pretty comparable in their rules packages previously, I have come to the conclusion that B Mods have the edge right now with the current rules, and the WISSOTA cars probably need to get their spoiler back to make up for the horsepower edge the B Mods seem to have.

Sad news comes this way with the recent passing of one of Eau Claire, Wisconsin's all-time greats, Late Model driver Red Steffen. Steffen was a top-notch driver in the era when the best Late Model drivers in the Midwest came from Eau Claire and the surrounding area. His weekly battles with Harold Mueller, Phil Prusak, Leon Plank, Tom Steuding, Dave Morgan, Ron Goss, Jim Gruen and others were legendary. I don't think he ever had an enclosed trailer, and one of the classic sights going down the highway was Red's flatbed truck, with his blue No. 97 Monte Carlo sponsored by Frank Mooney's Tavern. He drove for other folks later with different numbers, but for me, that will always be my classic Red Steffen ride.

Spring has been a season of many false starts and heartbreaking back steps along the way. But truly, doesn't this happen more often than not? We get our hopes up for an early start to the racing season and then everyone has to go into “hold” mode, while we put up with the starts and stops that spring in the upper Midwest brings.

So far this year, North Dakota was able to get their WISSOTA racing season going last weekend at Devil's Lake Speedway.

On Saturday, April 19, the Minnesota WISSOTA season kicked off with a big opening night of racing at Wagamons’ Ogilvie Raceway. Six WISSOTA divisions were in action and 119 drivers from four states plus Ontario were in attendance for the opener. It is hard to believe how the time flies, as this is the 17th opener for Ogilvie already.

The Mod Fours are no longer part of the weekly program at the Big O. In all honesty, seven classes of cars was just too much and the most logical choice was to drop the Mod Fours. They typically had the fewest drivers on a weekly basis. With North Central Speedway, which also runs the class on Saturdays, not that far away, it seemed to be a logical choice from all perspectives. North Central’s track is much more conducive to racing for Mod Fours as well.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I was immediately stunned and began to wonder if they had cancelled. There were no cars in the pit area and I assumed for this opener there would be a lot of early arrivals.

When the teams did start to arrive, however, they came in good numbers and from a wide area, as you might expect when the number of racing opportunities has been so limited thus far. The grandstands filled and it appeared to be a very nice opening night crowd, especially given the fact that it was cold. Temps dipped into the 30s before the final checkered flag waved.

Speaking of waving the flags, Dan Harstad has taken over as the new starter at the track following the retirement of Brian Riedemann from the tower. He is a former Hornet, Street Stock and perhaps even Mid Mod driver from the Fergus area. He was in training with Brian on at least one night when I was at the Big O last year. From all appearances, except for a couple of quick yellows that probably didn't have to happen, it seemed that things went smoothly all night.

Opening night is always a scramble for me, and I don't get to spend as much time with the drivers and find out the “good stuff” as I usually do. But Danny Vang was nice enough to point out that the reason his car was all “scuffed up” was that he had to pull out his old car from the corner of the garage at the last minute. He had motor issues during the practice night here and the motor had to go back to the builder. Not wanting to miss the opener and one of the KME drivers, he uncovered the old Rocket from the corner of the garage and got it ready to race on Saturday. Later, early troubles put him behind, but in the feature he came from last place to finish eighth.

As part of his wide ranging involvement in Late Model racing in WISSOTA country, Pat Kapella of Kapella Machine Electronics (KME) is supporting a Late Model KME point fund here at Ogilvie, with eight races on the schedule and $5,000 to the winner of the point fund. He is also supporting a point fund at Grand Rapids and Proctor. Surprisingly, Harry Hanson and Vang were the sole KME-sponsored cars on hand Saturday; perhaps a number of the others were not ready or just waiting for local openers to begin.

While I am sure their new rig is much more handy and dependable, it was somewhat sad to see that the iconic dually truck of Brandon Copp is no longer used to tow his trailer. I could spot that rig miles away and there was no other like it. Now they will be just another nice-looking white rig when they roll into the pits.

Dang, sometimes I hate progress.

The field of entries was just right: multiple heats were needed, but no B-features were necessary. On a cold night, the elimination of those sometimes difficult B-features is not a loss.

Speaking of that, track officials and management did a great job of getting things going and keeping them moving. Opening night can often be wild and crazy, so to sign in nearly 120 cars, offer opening night hot laps, and still get the program started within three minutes of the advertised time is excellent work. And the 21-race program was completed by around 10:20 p.m. Again, a good job all around, including the cooperation of the drivers.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE