5-12 Page 18

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Saturday started out rocky, with Bob Wahlstrom getting launched into the frontstretch wall upside down. Then things seemed to settle down for the feature with only a couple yellows and just a single driver did not finish the feature.

It is tough to maintain a winning streak for any length of time and on Saturday three of the four repetitive winners were finally topped, with only Simon Wahlstrom still undefeated.

Alex Myers drove one of his better races on Saturday, holding off every challenge from Steve Stuart, trying to make it three in a row. One mistake by Myers and Stuart would have had him, but Myers held his ground to take the win.

For the second straight night, Jeff Eisner, Jr. had a strong run. At one point he drove around Stuart on the outside for second and then nearly did the same to Myers. A yellow flag kind of messed up his chances, and then the battle with Stuart for second ended any chance that he might win the race. Still, it was a strong effort for the driver who really lives just on the very fringe area of WISSOTA racing, being much closer to the eastern IMCA tracks with certainly no tracks running Super Stocks anywhere near him.

It seems that every night, for those who have good luck, there always seems to be someone on the other end of the stick. Saturday Shawn McFadden was that person. He had a dominating win in a Super Stock heat and then his first bad luck was that he redrew nine of nine. And then, to make things worse, an opening-lap tangle with drivers going in all directions caused damage to his car. He was done before he even got the tires warm.

An aside here: where are all the Street Stocks? I noted earlier this weekend that several tracks running them had really low numbers. It is unheard of here to only have enough cars on hand for a single heat. It is early in the season and hopefully there were be more out soon, but for a track that brags on its biggest race being the Street Stock Little Dream, so few race cars is a bit concerning.

Sunday, May 10

Granite City Motor Park held its second race of the season on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 10. It was still brisk for May with a temperature that didn’t crack the 60 degree mark and a brisk wind that fortunately was blowing from west to east, away from the face of the spectators or it would have felt colder.

Six WISSOTA classes and the Crown Vics were on tap. The Street Stock numbers were concerning here Sunday night as well. Seventy-three drivers plus the Crown Vics made up the racing lineup on Sunday.

A longtime prominent name in east central Minnesota racing is Dustin Nelson. For 2026 Dustin will be racing a Super Stock at Princeton on Fridays and here at Granite City in a Midwest Mod on Sundays. On Saturday night he is mostly just a spectator, trying to gradually ease back on his racing. After all, 2026 will mark his 35th year of racing on the dirt, a long time to be doing any activity but particularly one that keeps getting more expensive every year.

His Midwest Mod is a JMR chassis from 2016 that has been treated well and still gets him around the track in fine shape. Nelson is one of those rare racers who enjoys watching the show on nights when he isn't racing and even comes up into the grandstand to watch some of the features when he is done for the night.

Bob Holtquist was back on Sunday with his Mod Four. He was involved in a big wreck on opening night last month and has just gotten his car back together. He was later rewarded with a strong third-place finish in his feature event.

Tommy “Two Chains” Bawden also made his first appearance of the year, driving his usual bright yellow scheme on a Super Stock in 2026. He had a top-five finish to conclude his evening.

Tyson DeVente and Curtis Oleksuk both pulled their Hornets down from the Thunder Bay area to race in central Minnesota this weekend. It must have been a long drive back to Thunder Bay, even though the races concluded at an early hour on Sunday.

You really must want to race bad to pull a Hornet on an open trailer all the way down to Minnesota for a weekend of racing, but fortunately, they did have cool but sunny weather for the most part. I'm sure they can hardly wait for Thunder City to open up, which should be in the next week or so.

Also making her first appearance at Granite City was Gracie Edwards. She has been riding in the truck all over WISSOTA country with her boyfriend Kolten Brauer for the last couple of years, so now this year she gets the chance to do some racing. She was very careful for her opener here and took it easy so as not to ding up her car.

It was a very good way to wrap up the weekend for Blake Adams. Two fast race cars plus good starting positions allowed him to take victories in both the Midwest Mod and Modified classes. In the Midwest Mod, he started on the outside pole and got the jump on Devin Fouquette; with a freshly prepped track for the Midwest Mods, the pace was fast and there were no yellow flags as Adams led from start to finish. He really cut through the field as both Fouquette and Landyn Randt chased him with only six drivers on the lead lap at the finish.

Fouquette was just racing the Mid Mod Sunday with no Late Models part of the program, but they are currently scrambling for next week when the Challenge Series begins its season. They blew a hole in the block of their Late Model last week and were forced to go to their backup car—and there’s a reason that it is the backup. They hope to have their new car back on track by next weekend.

Adams got the jump on Zach Benson in the Modified feature and also led that one all the way. Benson kept it close and one mistake, not forthcoming, might have made quite a difference.

Kennedy Swan had a good run, finishing a solid third after her weekend started out very badly with a wreck at Red Cedar on Friday. She also had an improved performance at Rice Lake on Saturday night.

The closest feature race of the night was the Mod Four event, where Ashton Schwinn had taken the initial lead and was up front for 13 laps of the 15-lap race before Dustin Holtquist made the winning pass.

Holtquist had been edging closer to Schwinn as the laps ran down but two late yellows, back to back with just four laps remaining, were backbreakers for Schwinn. Holtquist's pass for the win was an impressive one, as he moved to the outside and drove around Ashton for the win.

Chalk up another win for Shane Sabraski, as he topped the Super Stock feature. The real story in this event was the hard charge put on by Dylan Nelson. Nelson had given up the early lead to Sabraski but then he started to make up ground and before you knew it, he was all over Sabraski for the lead.

Seldom do drivers reel in Sabraski when he is in front but Sunday—starting at the mid-race point—Sabraski was forced to make his car very wide as Nelson was all over him for the lead. Several times Nelson had a great run off the corners but was forced to “whoa up” his run or collide with the back end of Sabraski's car.

However, the great run by Nelson came apart with just a few laps left, just as his right rear tire came apart and he pulled to the infield, done for the night. Jordan Henkemeyer took advantage of this to advance one spot and finish as the runner-up.

Tommy Pogones led from start to finish to win the Street Stock feature. After last week's disappointment, I'm sure he was motivated to win and he pulled away from Jim Gullikson right from the start and led all laps.

To conclude the WISSOTA portion of the evening's action, Brady Fosso led all laps to win the Hornet feature. Near the end, William Lange moved in on him and provided a stiff challenge but Fosso managed to hold him off for the victory.

The feature races turned out remarkably smooth, with five of the six WISSOTA mains going green to checkered, something not seen very often. Only the Mod Fours had any slowdowns during their main events. This led to an early completion time with the finale wrapping up just around 9 p.m. And after a long weekend of racing, this was likely appreciated by all, with the haulers taking advantage of the early evening to pull out of the pits just as soon as possible after they were done racing.