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Wednesday, May 21

Another first was achieved for me, personally, Wednesday, May 21. I headed to Thunder City Speedway in the Thunder Bay, Ontario area and had planned on attending the second weekly show of its 2025 racing season. They had well over 100 cars for the opener, so I was expecting a full and busy night of racing. I was also looking forward to meeting up with my friends again from the Thunder Bay Truck Centre —Clarence Downey, Dave Mack and all the other good folks from that establishment.

As I crossed over a railroad bridge just east of the track, I noticed that several fires were burning along the tracks, and I saw no one containing them. I thought it a bit odd that were doing a controlled burning on such a windy day, but gave it no more thought.

However, after I got to the track and was getting ready to enter the pits, I was told that the fires were actually wild fires and they were out of control. Apparently caused by the recent passage of a train through the area (I didn't know they were still using coal-fired trains that cause fires), the largest one seemed to be heading directly toward the track's pit area. We all stopped what we were doing to keep an eye on things.

It appeared that the biggest fire was going to just miss the track, as it headed toward the Trans Canada Highway north of the track, and things seemed to be under control. A helicopter was dropping water on the fire and the authorities shut down the major highway. The roads heading toward the track were being closed, and we had to evacuate the pits because large tanker planes were going to be dropping water on the fire. It was threatening nearby businesses and residences, so it wasn't safe for us to be so close to that.

I joined the parade of haulers exiting the track, where I found out just what a logistical nightmare occurs when multiple highways shut down. I had to fend for myself and figure out how to get back to my hotel.

Over the years, I have lost races because it was too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, sand storms, hail storms, wind storms and ice storms. I have been snowed out, cancelled due to power outages and water pressure failure, and let's not forget those frustrating fog-outs. Now I can add out-of-control brush fires to the list.

The speedway has an automatic postponement date of Thursday nights, but I had to head back south. Perhaps I will have a chance later this year to attend on another night. Thanks to everyone at Thunder City. The ladies at the back gate outdid themselves, providing me with some primo parking for the event.

On a much more positive note, when I got back to the hotel and flipped on the TV, I saw two very nicely done advertisements on CKPR for the races. When the local news came on, before they started talking about their beloved hockey playoffs, they reported the races had been “fired out” and that they would be racing on Thursday. I don't know of any other market in WISSOTA country that is on such good terms with its TV station. That was very impressive.

Thursday, May 22

After a one-week delay due to weather, Grand Rapids Speedway started its 2025 racing season on Thursday, May 22.

Four WISSOTA classes were on the racing card for the opener, including the Hornets, Pure Stocks, Modifieds and Late Models. The car count was decent for the opener, with only the Pure Stocks down just a bit in number. I suspect because Bemidji opens this weekend, those Pure Stock drivers maybe wanted to run their own track’s doubleheader opener before risking their machines elsewhere. I thought 18 Late Models on a Thursday night was a very good number, and the other classes had enough cars for a pair of heats.

Johnny Broking rolled out a new Domination chassis out of Ohio, the same kind he ran last year before wrecking it. This year it’s a Broking family-owned and operated venture. Father Bob was very excited to race his new CDR Modified for the first time that he bought over the winter. Johnny still has his Lethal Mod, which he will also race on occasion.

Danny Vang was back to his new car this week. He hurt the motor in his new car at the Ogilvie practice and just got it back. In the meantime he raced his old car. They have their first-ever spec engine, having previously run a 525 crate motor exclusively.

Harry Hanson told me they are still trying to sort out their new Longhorn Late Model, and that it races very differently than their previous car. He has been fighting a “tight” racing condition. The fact there have been so few races for the Late Models has not helped the situation. Here we are at Memorial Day already and the Late Models have only two shows again this week.

The heat races were completed in fast fashion, with only two yellows during all the qualifying events. It took just 68 minutes to get all the qualifying completed.

The best races of the night I thought were the Modified and Late Model feature races. In the Mod feature, Blake Adams started on the pole but when his car was too tight in the corners, Tyler Kintner was able to edge past him and take over the lead. However, Adams fought back and when Kintner briefly bobbled, Adams took the top spot back and moved up the track.

The best part of the race was watching Adams searching the track for the best route, with Shane Sabraski right behind him doing the same. They jockeyed back and forth, were side by side several times, but eventually Sabraski prevailed. He found a line diamonding off turn one that gave him a great run down the back chute and he edged in front of Adams. Sabraski pulled away slightly during the last few laps while Adams settled for second with Bob Broking third.

The Late Model feature was also entertaining. Kevin Burdick started on the pole but completely blew the first corner, shooting up the track and giving Sabraski the lead. However, Burdick was very fast and he got up on the cushion and drove back around Sabraski one lap later. Burdick had built up a comfortable lead until the yellow flew for a spin.

After that, things changed quite a bit. Burdick didn't seem as fast and it took him several laps to get his momentum up. Meanwhile Billy Kendall took off, passing Sabraski — who also didn't seem as fast — for second, and then closed on Burdick for the lead. Burdick got going again just in time and in the last few laps increased his advantage on the field. Kendall claimed second with Sabraski slipping to third.

It was bad news for Zach Wohlers, who appeared to blow a motor during this race.

They were short on Pure Stocks but they provided some wild action in their feature. Austin Carlson took the early lead but was soon challenged by Dustin Puffe for the top spot. They went back and forth with Carlson repelling every challenge. They then got into lapped traffic and things got even more hectic, as the two leaders sliced through the slower cars.

Unfortunately for Carlson, a slower car was crossed up on the front chute and slammed hard into the rear wheel area of his car. Carlson tried to race on but lost control and spun on the back chute. He pitted and tried to race again but the damage was too severe and he pulled off.

For some reason, Puffe was sent to the tail, which was only fifth at the time, for the yellow. That’s something that I will need an explanation on. Puffe wasn't done yet, however, as he split the two cars in front of him on the green — perhaps an uncalled jump — and he moved up to second. On the last lap, in the last corner, he was able to drive around Alex Berg and take the win. Pure Stock rookie Derek Ament finished third.

Russell Kiker, Jr. led from start to finish in the Hornet feature, but this race was not a runaway. Kiker Jr.’s lead was challenged twice, after yellow flags. He seemed to take longer to get up to speed than some of his rivals. Zeb Graves was the first to challenge him, and following the final yellow, Brady Fosso came charging up and moved into second.

He was able to nose under Kiker during the last couple of laps but Kiker fought him off to take the checkered flag with Tristan McLynn coming home third.

It was a smooth opening night of racing. There weren't many yellows or big wrecks and the track prep was handled as quickly as possible. It was a good opening night show and the fans had to appreciate the fast run event.

Friday, May 24

It was “Heroes Night” Friday night at Red Cedar Speedway. It was just the second race of the year thanks to weather.

All six classes, five WISSOTA sanctioned, raced Friday and it was a very smooth and quick show. Drivers were able to race all over the track and provide some very exciting side-by-side battles.

Now that we’re about a month into the new season, some of the drivers who aren't always ready for the April openers are starting to appear. A couple did very well in their first outing, including both Cody Kummer and Jake Hartung, who turned their first runs of the year into feature wins, and A.J. Diemel, whose first race of 2025 netted him a runner-up finish in the Modified feature.

My first visit of 2025 to the track found Scott Erickson calling the action once again. Regular track announcer Scott Tiefs was in Ogilvie calling the Mod Nationals. Erickson informs me he will be again working next Friday, as the Challenge Series is in action and Tiefs will be away again. Pretty soon Erickson will be the track announcer, with Tiefs making guest appearances!

Rice Lake’s Sean Cimfl was waving the flags on Friday. As a veteran flagman for the Sprint Cars, he always puts on a good show. I don't know if he is the new flagman at the track or just a one-night sub. I do know the former flagman retired at the end of last year.

The biggest story from Friday was the return to victory lane for Lance Matthees in the Late Models. Matthees, who will be inducted in the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in August in Florence Kentucky, won his first feature race since a 2022 win in Iowa. He outraced another veteran, Mark Hessler, in winning a thrilling feature.

The race went nonstop. Hessler and Matthees were side by side for nearly the whole race, with Matthees taking the early lead before Hessler passed him on lap four. They then raced side by side, with Matthees edging up inside Hessler lap after lap. He was never quite able to make the pass, however. Finally, with just three laps to go, he was able to clear Hessler and then he had to fight off James Giossi, nipping him by a car length at the line. Ashley Anderson had also roared up at the end to nip Hessler for third. It was a dandy race and very entertaining.

After the race, Matthees received visits from most of the Late Model drivers and others, congratulating the 69-year-old veteran on his win. Matthees mentioned he had a lot of help from Jimmy and Sam Mars, who found a couple of “gently used” WISSOTA tires for him.

Lance’s longtime crew chief, Lucas Stockhausen, now works for Dustin Sorensen Racing. They have been working on shock packages for the car and are getting it better balanced; it must be helping as the car was the fastest I have see it in a long time. It was getting traction on the slick track, something they have been struggling with all year.

Speaking of Sam Mars, I talked to him on the way into the pits and he is done with school for the summer, having now completed two years as he works toward an engineering degree at UW-Stout. Now that school is over, he's ready to go racing and mentioned they hoped to run The Dream at Eldora in a couple weeks. He said he really enjoyed his recent weekend of racing at Eagle Raceway in Nebraska, a track he'd like to go back to.

A couple other recognizable faces were also in the Late Model pits on Friday. With Mike Anderson gone Modified racing this weekend elsewhere, car owner Jerry Brummond summoned longtime driver Terry Casey, from New London, to drive his Longhorn chassis. Casey is one of the most colorful drivers around and stories of his exploits are many from over the years. Casey said he hasn't raced in a couple years but was anxious to get behind the wheel and try out the Longhorn to see what it felt like. Later, the evening would not go as planned; an encounter with one or more ute tires wrecked the front end of the car in the heat race and they didn't run the main. Still, it was good to see Casey back in the pits.

Speaking of veterans, another one has returned to the wheel of a Late Model — Spencer's Kerry Hansen. He is back in racing after trying to run a Mod for the last couple years. He has a Seubert car that was formerly driven by Brett Swedberg. He said he's still trying to get back in the groove, as they have changed so much in recent years. They are also nothing like the Mod he was driving.

Hessler also had a Midwest Mod that he raced as well Friday. He faded a bit in the Mid Mod feature but had a good heat to go along with an excellent night in the Late Model.

Cody Kummer came out slugging on Friday night. A little tardy getting his season started, he is coming off a spectacular year in 2024, having won $30,000 at the Little Dream. If Friday was any indication, he'll be a player in this year’s race come the end of July once again.

He came from dead last to win his heat race and it only took him five laps to move up from the second row, pass Cole Richards and then run away with the Street Stock feature. Sam Fankhauser made a nice drive to finish second. It was good to see another veteran, Bill Stettner, in a Street Stock for 2025. He has raced in just about every class available over the years at one time or another.

The Modified feature got off to a spectacular beginning, when Diemel and Hartung hooked up and took turns exchanging spectacular slide jobs, before Hartung prevailed and then pulled away for the win. This was Hartung's first night on the track and he started things off impressively.

For Diemel, it was also his first night of racing as he tunes up the Dale White MB Customs for an attack on the big money race for the Modifieds next week. Diemel has been battling some health issues early this year and has yet to drive his own Late Model; his run Friday was the first of the year in any race car.

Brandon Jensen led from start to finish in the Mid Mod feature race, but it wasn't quite as easy as it sounds. He had a big challenge late in the race, following a couple restarts, from Shadow Kitchner. The leaders banged wheels while racing hard off turn four and Kitchner went flying into the infield, where he made a great save and kept going. It cost him second, however, as Jay Richardson drove back past him to finish second. There was plenty of action in the Mid Mods but most everyone was still on the track at the finish.

Jesse Redetzke led from start to finish to win the Super Stock feature. A late yellow allowed Terran Spacek to close up on him and pressure him for the win, but Redetzke held his line and won by several car lengths. Kolby Kiehl had another nice run to finish third. Due to his duties at Rice Lake he doesn't get to race as much as he would like, but that is the cross to bear with owning a race track and making the wise decision to not race at your own track.

With track officials starting the program right at 7 p.m. and a smooth running show, they were done with the program before 10 p.m., something that everyone could celebrate.

Saturday, May 24

The Kids’ Night promotion Rice Lake Speedway does might be their most successful of the year. This year they gave away 136 bikes and gift packages in drawing to kids that were at the track. When I came up from the pits into the stands, there were lines everywhere of kids and families waiting to get on to the track — it was amazing. And track officials did a great job, opening multiple gates and entries so everyone could get on to the track as quickly as possible.

Along with the drawings and Meet the Drivers, they had a bouncy house, face painting and tattoos and just a great variety of things for the kids to do. It was a fantastic turnout and there is nothing better to fire up the drivers with than to look up into the stands and see a full house of spectators.

Time management is always an issue on a night like this, but they did a great job in that regard.

With a week off due to rain and cold last week, there was time to do some touch-up around the track. All the ute tires and most of the wall had been repainted and it is amazing just how much a facility can be brightened up by such a simple thing.

This was the first week of the new season with many surrounding Saturday tracks in action now, but Rice Lake had full fields in all five classes and 16 new drivers were on hand to race.

It was a night with time to meet a few of the drivers in the pits on Saturday. Visiting for the first time was Thunder Bay Ontario's Jeff Helget, who is racing a Modified. It’s the “house car” from Mars Racing from last year. When I asked why he has returned to racing after such a long period of being out of the sport, he said he didn’t want to regret missing the opportunity to do so. He reported that the last time he raced at Rice Lake was 40 years ago! Just about everything at the track has changed since then.

Layla Chaplin is 13 years old and a rookie in the Street Stock class in 2025. She has not been intimidated by the drivers or the speed and is getting better every week. She is a veteran of the karting ranks and one of the reasons she has switched out of the karts is moving to the next level of the sport would have been very expensive. This way, she and her father Joe can race at the same tracks on the same nights. She took the No. 86 for her car in tribute to Don “The Poo Bear” Folz, a Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Fame driver who has been very helpful to the entire Chaplin racing team over the years.

Caleb Duffie is in his first full season of Pure Stock racing and has been doing a good job. He’s not afraid of mixing it up with the veterans. Caleb is a very tall 16-year-old and besides racing, he participates in both football and wrestling at Chippewa Falls High School. His is a third generation involvement in the sport; his step-father Brad raced for a number of years and before that, his step-grandfather Jim partnered for years with M.G. Johnson in the Pizza Hut Modifieds.

Bob Wahlstrom built a new Pure Stock for 2025, but up until Saturday he continued to run his old car. However, he broke out the new car this week and after a big smoking problem was cured, the car proved to be fast, with a fourth-place feature finish to show for his efforts.

What does a budding Street Stock driver do to prepare for the night's racing? If you're Jenna Herrman, you paint faces for the kids on Kids’ Night. That’s what she was doing before the races began.

I was led to believe that Tucker Quinn was taking the 2025 racing season off after a recent addition to his family, so I was more than surprised when their trailer pulled into the pits and they took a parking spot among the Ladysmith crew. Mechanical first night issues knocked him out of both his heat and the feature, but it was good to see the car back on the track. Hopefully he will be a regular the rest of the season.

Mark Hanson was actually ahead of schedule this year, making his first race before Memorial Day of all things. He told me they had been changing some things on the car and had actually put a new body on it, but then changed their mind and decided to go with the old tin early in the season. He might have wished that he had the new shell on the car however, after he took multiple pictures in victory lane for winning the Modified feature on his first night out.

Hanson doesn't race too hard anymore, just when the mood hits him. But, he still seems to win at least one feature every year at the track. He also tells me that after a winter of traveling to competitions, he is quite the gymnastics expert!

Brent Creaser has taken over the role as the track's social media expert this season and it seems to me that hiring him was a great move by track owner Kolby Kiehl. The track's website and social media are better for it. Brent even did the victory lane interviews Saturday, thus keeping Ben Brost from having to make the long trek from the tower, down the wall and across the track to victory lane. This will add years to Ben's life and also keep the show moving.

Ben did come up with a cool idea through his business, Built2Media, for the track. Any driver who sweeps the night will get a large push broom from Built2Media in victory lane. Saturday night Nick Koehler and Kolton Brauer were the first to earn theirs.

It's good to see the progression from class to class working in some cases. Chris Gross started out in a Pure Stock and then advanced to a Street Stock. Saturday night, for the first time, he debuted his new car, a Super Stock.

In a reflection of the large crowd on hand, the 50/50 Split the Pot winner received just under a thousand dollars, a nice gift indeed for spending a buck.

After a number of years of being out of the sport, Jamey Fisher returned to racing on Saturday, driving a Pure Stock. The car was number No. 3, painted in the yellow and blue Wrangler colors of Dale Earnhardt, and the car was a tribute car to Troy Holder. Holder, a longtime employee of the speedway, passed away unexpectedly over the winter.

Kolton Brauer had quite a story to tell about his previous 24 hours. He was racing on Friday night at Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo, Minnesota when they blew the motor up on their Streeter. The team returned to Eyota, Minnesota in the wee hours, changed the motor, and then made the two and a half hour drive up to Rice Lake, arriving as the last car in the pits. They drew the pill No. 200, which put them ninth in a heat race. Yet he won the heat, and then started on the pole and led every lap of the feature race, winning for the first time ever at Rice Lake. His late father Jeff would be proud of his efforts.

It doesn't take too much some times, but Mark Hessler sure pulled the wool over my eyes this weekend. On Friday night at Red Cedar, I saw him with a Midwest Mod and mistakenly assumed that he had converted his Mod over during the off-season. To say there was egg on my face when he showed up at Rice Lake on Saturday and unloaded a Modified would be an understatement.

For 2025 Hessler has taken on the unprecedented task of racing a Mid Mod and Late Model on Friday and then a Modified on Saturday. Given the fact that he has a small pit crew, this would seem to be a daunting endeavor but we'll see how it plays out.

There was a very serious medical emergency in the pits Saturday. One lap into the Super Stock feature the race was halted for an emergency in the scale/tech area of the track involving one of the Midwest Modified drivers. Before order was restored, three ambulances, a fire truck and an emergency first responder vehicle were on hand with a life flight helicopter on stand by. The driver was rushed to the hospital but at this time, no names will be released as the track officials wait for updates from the family. It was a very serious incident and everyone at the speedway holds out for good news for the driver involved.

An interesting thing happened during this delay. The Supers had one lap into their feature race when the race director pointed all cars to the infield. They actually watered the track one lap into the race. I may have seen something like this before but it would have been a long time ago. I was wondering how this would be taken by the drivers. Once they had clearance to start racing again, the drivers rolled in the track for a few laps and went back to racing. And it did help the track, which was exceptional from that point on.

A tip of the hat to track management and employees. The track was excellent on Saturday night, by far the best it's been all year. It was smooth as can be, had multiple racing lanes from the drop of the green flag, and had virtually no dust. The track crew has been working long hours this spring, and the fruit of their labors were finally on display on Saturday. And a good, wide and racy track not only produces better racing, it cuts down on yellow flags.

The other thing they did very well was time management. Despite all the activities of Kid's Night, they kept things on schedule and despite the lengthy medical emergency delay, all racing was completed before 10 p.m.

Always a fan favorite, C.J. “Station” Wagner's Pure Stock was back for 2025. He finally debuted the Chevelle Wagon that he will run in the Pures and I swear, the car looks like it's about 40-feet long! After some early teething issues, he came from 14th to fifth in the Pure Stock feature and will be a driver to watch in upcoming weeks.

Congratulations to Alex Myers on his Super Stock win, the second of his career at the track. He did a great job of getting up on the cushion to make the winning pass and then wasn't intimidated when his heavy-footed father was right behind him, trying to make a pass for the lead. He continued to drive his line and was more than deserving of the win.