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Friday, May 8

Five divisions of WISSOTA racing plus the USRA Late Models were on the card at Red Cedar Speedway Friday night, as the track moved into its second week of racing for the 2026 season.

This night was a special one for the fans, with free admission thanks to the sponsorship of Cardinal Glass Industries. Cardinal is a local business from the Menomonie area. Generally when free nights to the spectators are offered, it is usually a “watered down” program featuring perhaps just a few classes in action. Not so on Friday, where both the WISSOTA and USRA Late Models were racing, alongside the Modifieds and the rest of the weekly classes. The exception was the Hornets, a class that will rotate with the Street Stocks in 2026.

It was a joy to see the packed grandstands and obviously, folks still respond to the word “free.” I have to assume those fans who come on perhaps a semi-regular basis made sure to attend, while there were certainly some who were at the track for the first time.

A night like this is generally good for everyone. As proof of that, the concession lines were long all night. Hopefully Cardinal Glass Industries felt like they got some benefit as well, to the point they might consider doing this again.

A good field of drivers were on hand, with 87 in total in the sanctioned classes.

Drivers are still getting their cars completed in this early part of the season, and those making their first appearances of 2026 included Kammron Rose, Reese Schlosser, Jason Vokovan, Kevin Vought, Jason Quarders, Brett Shafer, Kerry Hansen, Mark Hessler with his Late Model, Greg Nippoldt, Aaron Wilson and Jesse Glenz.

Check out the graphics on Hansen's car, as he celebrates the 50th year of racing in 2026. There are older pictures on the sides of his car featuring the race car that he won his first feature race in, along with some of his most successful rides. His first race, by the way, was at the track at the fairgrounds in Neillsville, long-since retired to the ranks of forgotten ovals. He is threatening to retire after this year but we will see how that goes. Car owner Mike Seubert does not want him to put down his steering wheel quite yet.

When last seen seven days ago, the No. 75Jr of Sean Geiger was upside down in turn three during the Super Stock feature. But showing the determination to race that dominates any pit area, he was back this week to run once again.

I got the word on the different car that Steve Hallquist debuted at Rice Lake last Saturday. It was actually a brand-new SSR chassis, the first time on the track for the car. He had some gearing issues with it but plans to race it again on Saturdays with better results expected. In the meantime, he will race the older SSR on Friday here at Red Cedar.

I had a informational visit with “Coach” Mark Thomas, the Red Cedar VP, before the races. He has postponed the start of his racing season so he can help get the track rolling in 2026. He promises to soon be out with his Midwest Mod. He told me he plans on racing more this year, as his career days are numbered and he wants to cram in as much racing as possible—along with all the other things that make up a part of his life.

He told me track officials and the board of directors had a good meeting this week to look at the overall operation of things following the opener. They discussed some time-saving measures plus other things that could be done more efficiently, as their biggest issue has always been the curfew they must deal with weekly.

It seemed like results were immediately forthcoming. They started tonight right at 7 p.m. and held strictly to their schedule. All races were timed and held to those time limits. Due to a series of crashes, the Midwest Mods had to be cut to eight laps for their finale, but all classes will be treated fairly. Of course, the ultimate goal is for every class to get a full feature race, but that will be judged by the clock.

There was a retro look in the flagstand tonight: with current flagman Sean Cimfl absent, former and retired flagman Rodney Olson was pulled off the couch to run things Friday. It looked like he hadn't forgotten a thing, and I suppose it's like riding a bike.

It was a night of bad crashes, as there were several drivers across the board in various classes who damaged some good equipment. It wasn't a “track thing” or a “driving thing” but it just seemed like it was one of those nights that happen sometimes.

While it might be too early to sound warning alarms about car counts in certain classes, there seemed to be several trends developing. Street Stock numbers seem way down so far this year at a number of tracks across WISSOTA. These things seem to occur in cycles but so far in 2026, a number of tracks which have had considerably higher numbers of Streeters just haven't had those car counts yet.

There were eight Friday at Red Cedar, but it has always been a struggle to get much higher numbers than that at Red Cedar. Sam Fankhauser won the Street feature after he started on the outside pole and led all the way. This race went nonstop but Levi Randt made it exciting late in the race. I'm not sure if Fankhauser was just coasting or if Randt was that much faster, but he made up a lot of ground in the last few laps and the winning margin was less than a car length.

Blake Adams led from start to finish to win the Midwest Mod feature but this event had to be cut due to several yellows. A big crash occurred when Brady Larson, running in the top five, suddenly broke and there was heavy traffic all around him. Both Craig Haas and Deagan Guntner slammed into him very hard.

This took a while to clean up and led to a two-lap dash to the finish. Adams and Landyn Randt started side by side and these drivers are so even that it seems like whoever gets the jump is likely to win. They are just so evenly matched, much like Adams and Nick Koehler when they race on Saturdays at Rice Lake.

Shadow Kitchner had his best run of the year, coming from 10th to fight with Randt for second.

Kyle Copp took the early lead in the Super Stock feature with Leslie Leu and Jesse Redetzke chasing him. However, Copp jumped the cushion—where most of the drivers were running—and when he did so, Redetzke was right there to take advantage and move into the lead. Copp and Steve Stuart, who started eighth, spent the rest of the race trying to catch Redetzke but he made no mistakes and took home the win.

Leu was involved with a big hit later when he collided with Avery Anderson and both cars were damaged heavily in the wreck.

Jeff Eisner, Jr. and Adam Pratt had good runs and finished with top-five runs, their best of the year so far.

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