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Sunday, June 1

It’s hard to believe we have turned the calendar to June. We get so busy the days and weeks slip by way too fast. It's also hard to believe that Sunday, June 1 was the opening night of racing for the 2025 season at Proctor KME Speedway.

Newly renamed this year, the Late Models will be the beneficiary with a point fund for their short series at Proctor, paying $5,000 to the point champion. KME is now involved with three tracks in WISSOTA, with special point funds at all three.

Perhaps in response to this, the Late Model field had the largest car count of the six classes on hand, all under WISSOTA sanctioning. It was good news for those Late Model fans in the crowd. The Sprint Cars were also part of the show on Sunday, making for a full opening night.

Visiting the pits before the show, it was good to see a lot of familiar folks I have yet to run into this year. I hadn’t seen any racing action before Sunday in the Twin Ports area.

Steve Stuart was on hand with his Dirt Dueller Super Stock and reported this was the first time he had raced at Proctor in perhaps a decade. And, it was certainly much longer than that since a Greg Kuklinski-owned or driven car had been at Proctor. He later made the most of his visit, winning the main event in the Supers.

Lance Schilling was completing his northern tour, having raced at ABC on Saturday and making his first-ever visit to Proctor. Parking next to him was Justin Jones, who is focusing on WISSOTA racing so far this year. He does have a car to race under other sanctioning as well. I recognized his toter as the one that dates back to the days of the Hartje Racing Team out of Bemidji. Who all knows who else has used that rig, but I'm guessing Strands and perhaps even Spaulding. Jones says it has more than 900,000 miles on it and was always used as a race car toter.

Somewhere down the line, fans may remember this as the first night Cade Nelson raced his own WISSOTA Late Model. While he has driven his father’s car on occasion, and his USRA car as a WISSOTA car, this night marked the first in his WISSOTA-designated car. If his career turns out like many people think it will, this will be a night to remember decades from now. While he ended up a DNF in the feature race, he was running in the top five when he did suffer a breakdown.

Jim Sauls is back in the flagstand at Proctor. He used to flag at Proctor and Rice Lake, but then announced his retirement. Apparently that retirement was put on hold as I'm guessing his services are needed at the track. It hard to find folks who know how to flag and are willing to do so.

Opening night can always be a challenge for any track and the first go-round, particularly with some new folks manning key jobs, can bring on challenges. Nevertheless, race director Benji Pearson kept things moving. While they were a few minutes late getting started due to track prep, it was for a different reason than normal. The track didn't need a water truck but instead needed some packers to help roll it in. Not that it was a sloppy mess by any means, but Terry Lillo, who is doing track prep, had plenty of moisture in the surface; it just needed some extra packing.

With a wind, though not a strong one, blowing from the east into the grandstands, that effort to help prevent dust was appreciated. And all night there was a cushion that developed, which did make for some fast action.

One of the opening night quirks was a PA system low on volume. It did make it a bit tough to hear the announcers. It was good to see Jamie Thomas and Jerry O were on hand for the Proctor opener. I wonder how many Proctor openers they have seen between the two of them?

Oh, and I can't forget that Crash Carlson, a Proctor institution, was also on hand.

The most interesting main event Sunday was the Late Model feature. There were four different leaders and a surprising late-race pass for the top spot that may have stunned the many Darrell Nelson fans in the stands.

Harry Hanson led early but his car was loose and Kevin Burdick soon passed by. Burdick has been running strongly so far this year and it seemed likely the race was his. However, Nelson was moving forward fast after starting seventh; on a track where they could pass and really pound the corners, Darrell moved into the lead on lap 14.

Kyle Peterlin had been lurking among the leaders during the whole race and he took over second from Burdick. A late yellow, when Cade stalled, proved to be a double whammy for the Nelson family. Peterlin got a great restart, timing it just right when he fired and he was alongside Nelson in turn one and beat him down the back chute to take over the lead. He led the final five laps for the win.

Was the restart a jump? Many around me thought so, and you can ask my opinion at the track. The track officials, who were watching closely, didn't think so and that is all that matters.

Joey Jensen is having another banner season in the Mid Mods and he backed that up again on Sunday. Jones led early but he simply couldn't hold off Jensen, who drove by him on lap six and then led the rest of the way in a race stopped only twice by yellow flags. Tyler Vernon came from seventh to finish as the runner-up with Jensen taking his third feature win of the weekend.

Stuart was very fast with his Super Stock, taking only one lap to get past Shawn McFadden and then lead the rest of the way for the win. Curt Myers was testing out his ribs on Sunday after taking off some time and he finished second.

Brandon Copp led from start to finish to take the Modified feature with a strong performance. Nelson came from fifth at the halfway point to end up second with a strong late run, as he edged out Evan Checkalski. Checkalski also had a fine drive.

Domination was the name of the game in the final two features. The Pure Stock was led start to finish by Eric Crosby, who has been doing a lot of winning already this year, with Jake Smith second.

The Hornet feature was controlled by Carson Gotelaere, who led from start to finish with Joe Puidokas and Nikota Larson trailing by some distance.

When the wind laid down, it was actually a very comfortable evening on the shores of Lake Superior, which has failed to warm up as of yet. The repeated cushion packing did take some time, but it was worth the effort. It was refreshing to see the water truck used as a packer, not a repeat mister, as has been the case at most tracks so far this year. Racing was done by around 9:30 p.m. and that will be improved as the program sharpens up with less prepacking needed.

Thursday, June 5

The 2025 installment of the Fastlane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series debuted on Thursday, June 5 at Rice Lake Speedway. Rice Lake has now been a part of the series for the last three years. Last year’s original Thursday race day was rained out and instead the series raced on July 3, when it was a part of the Firecracker event.

Rice Lake has raced Thursday this week because the city-wide Aquafest celebration is ongoing. With big-name entertainment on Saturday, it tends to kill the crowd at the races. Thursday night is a tough night also, as a lot of spectators just aren't able to make it. And now, we make it so easy to watch from the comfort of our couch at home, putting butts in the bleachers for this event has been tough.

I'm sure it isn't easy for the drivers and crews either, since there are multiple mid-week shows during this series this year. As a result, signing on for the series requires some planning and preparation.

I am hearing there may be some schedule changes for 2026. Stay tuned.

As series director and all-around busy guy on race night, Dennis McCauley had a little side bet on just how many Super Stocks would be on hand for the opener. McCauley doesn't know yet that I upped the ante since I ended up winning. He was close but I was closer.

According to John Kimmes, the series recorder keeper, with Scott Lawrence missing in action, it ended the final driver’s record of making every series event. Lawrence is cutting back on his racing this year, mostly just racing in the Twin Ports area.

Al Cleveland has been a longtime supporter of the Super Stock series, even though the vast majority of the races are held far from his home in Breckenridge, MN. Thursday night they drew a number for him and he rolled in just as hot laps were starting.

Thirty-five Super Stocks signed in to race on Thursday night along with 25 in the Mid Mods. In my estimation it was just the right number of classes for a weeknight show.

Interestingly, 12 of the 25 Mid Mods were first-timers at the track in 2025, and 19 of the 35 Supers were first-timers. This is just about the perfect mix, with 52 percent of the drivers considered “visitors” and the rest familiar faces. In the old days, this is what we would call an “invitational” and what it should look like.

Among the visiting drivers on hand, Les Duellman was making a test run in the Kyle Runkle tribute Mid Mod he will likely drive in the Runkle Memorial race, which this year will be a part of the Firecracker event on July 3. It will pay the Mid Mod winner somewhere north of $2,000. For a driver who hasn’t raced a lot this year and in that car for the first time, he ran darn good. He raced with the leaders through much of the race and ended up sixth.

As far as I know, this was also Jerry Weigel's first race with his Mid Mod. He had his longtime driver, Michael Truscott, behind the wheel and after starting on the pole, he raced with the leaders for quite a few laps before a mechanical bug put him in the pits.

A surprise entrant was Bailey Cousins; they made the long pull from Stanley, Manitoba.

It was quite an amazing debut for Tommy Richards. It was his first night out with his new Super Stock and then he parks it in victory lane! That doesn't happen too often, especially against a quality field of drivers. Actually, all four of the racing Richards family have had a lot of success at this track over the years, including Street Stock Little Dream wins. Danny and Cole currently run first and third in Street Stock 2025 points at the track, Danny is the defending point champion, and George just won the Pure Stock feature here last Saturday. That involves a lot of 90-minute one way pulls on race night.

I thought the track was in exceptional shape for racing on Thursday. Some will say that it might have been too fast and sticky, and perhaps for the early going and the heat races, they weren’t wrong. But I have yet to be at a dirt track that is perfect all night. If you want a really good track for the main events, sometimes it might not be quite so good for the early going.

With track co-owner Kolby Kiehl, a Super Stock driver, wanting to race on his own track at least once this year, former track co-owner Mitch Hansen came in on Thursday to help with track prep. When he used the blade to widen out the track after the heats, it was in prime shape for the main events.

There may have been more passing and position changes than seen at any event all year. Just look at the top five finishers: Richards went from 10th to first; Curt Myers from 15th to second; Terran Spacek from 14th to third; Dexton Koch from 17th to fourth; and Shane Sabraski from 21st to fifth! And let's not forget D.J. Keeler came from 23rd to 10th. That, my friends, is a lot of passing.

Sabraski won the hard charger award and the $200 that went with that, courtesy of Dennis and Kathy Pattee and Don Drew, who was honored by having the award in his name for Thursday. Drew was in attendance, which was great to see. The all-time feature win leader in the Super Stock class at Rice Lake may have to yield that title soon, as Myers is only two behind at the current time.

Speaking of Myers, it was stunning to see him yield the lead after leading from lap 11. He drove high and gave the lead back to Richards with just two laps to go.

There were five different leaders in the Super Stocks 30-lap feature and you also don't see that many lead changes very often. Myers did run the fastest lap of the feature at 16.334 seconds on lap 13, just after he took over the lead.

Jesse Redetzke suffered bad luck after he took the lead from the start and seemed to be in good shape, only to suddenly dive into the infield with four laps completed.

The one “downer” of the Super Stock program was the bad crash that happened on lap two, right on the front straightway, when one car got into the wall. With the field barreling down the front chute two and three wide, there just wasn't enough room for everyone and several hard hits took place. Four cars were heavily damaged; the worst damage appeared to happen to Eric Olson’s No. 1E. The current point leader at the track took hard hits to both sides of his car, which looked to be severely narrowed and perhaps just junk.

Chris Wark ended up balanced in the air on his left side, with his car sitting on the hood of Olson's car, which had gotten squashed on all sides. Fortunately there were no reported injuries in what was one of the most violent wrecks of the season so far.

Shadow Kitchner is on a roll currently. Just last week he won $2,000 in a Red Cedar Mid Mod special and on Thursday night added another $800 for winning the Mid Mod portion of the event. I was surprised to see that the feature win was his first ever at Rice Lake, even though he had an excellent year at the track in 2023 and finished high in the points, he never visited victory lane.

Ashley Boyum drove an excellent race to finish third, her best finish here ever. Nick Koehler, even though he didn't win, showed again how fast he is here this year, coming from eighth to finish a close third. The Mid Mods, who we all know can sometimes have their “issues,” ran off a very nice program Thursday, with only two very minor yellows in their main event. Twenty of 24 drivers that started were still on the track at the finish.

Sometimes special events have a way of not starting on time but the “clock watchers” here were prompt as usual. The first green flag was dropped actually one minute before the advertised starting time and the final checkers waved well before 10 p.m.

Friday, June 6

The third annual Dave Shackleton Memorial race was held on Friday, June 6 at Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, WI. Since Shackleton was primarily a Super Stock driver, this race is a great tie-in with the Fastlane Motorsports Super Stock Tour; they held the second night of the tour as a part of this program.

WISSOTA-sanctioned Late Models, Modifieds and Mid Mods were also part of the program. With solid fields of drivers in all four classes, this is about the perfect offering for the race fans. No disrespect meant to those facilities that run six or seven classes of racing, but to an “old-school” fan who remembers those days, a good three- or four-class program was just what the doctor ordered, in terms of a full and entertaining night of racing.

The Fastlane series provided a good field of 29 drivers on Friday. All four of the drivers who were involved in the grinding crash on Thursday at Rice Lake were missing, however. Reports were that most of them had taken their cars home and were hoping to rejoin the tour on its next swing the end of June. I'm not so sure about the Eric Olson entry and whether or not that car was salvagable. Also, Alex Myers’ car, reported to be needing a new front stub after his own impact with the concrete wall on Thursday, was on hand Friday. Bent stub or not, he still ran competitively.

I caught up with Jesse Redetzke, who had dropped out of the Thursday show while leading in the early going. He seemed to take the issue with a grain of salt. While he was disappointed to have had to drop out while leading, he was happy he was in the front of the pack when it happened so he could get off the track quickly and safely.

Redetzke reported that a couple of bent push rods were the problem and they had fixed the issue. They didn't have to pull the motor and he later ran very well, finishing just outside the top five.

In other news from the pits, Coach Mark Thomas made his first appearance of the season in his MB Mid Mod. As usual, “Coach T” is a busy man, even in the summer with coaching and other activities. He reports that in the coming year, he will again be coaching the outside linebackers for the U.W. Stout football team and then come winter, coaching high school girls basketball, both sports dear to his heart.

John Kimmes’ rain dance working out beautifully for him Friday. Long a supporter of the Fastlane Series, he wants to be at every race but his loyalty to Gondik Law Speedway requires him to be there when they are racing. A morning of dreary skies and rain in Superior worked out just fine for Kimmes, as Gondik cancelled and he scooted right down to Menomonie to help out Dennis McCauley with logistics for the Fastlane folks.

Sean Cimfl was again the flagman, and he is apparently the replacement for Rodney Olson. Olson retired following the 2024 season. Cimfl has jumped back into the sport with both feet, so to speak. Along with flagging on Fridays, he is the race director on Saturday at Rice Lake.

Anytime these days when you can pull in 19 Late Models for a weekly program you are doing well, and that is what Red Cedar had on Friday. And, there are still a couple of regulars or semi-regulars missing.

The track and workers had to do a quick turnaround after Wednesday night's Sprint Car show but all appeared to be in order. Track officials were smiling about the amount of beer and food sold to the crowd on Wednesday. A few folks were sporting new souvenirs collected, with Rico Abreu and Kyle Larson appearing to be the top choices.

Racing started shortly after 7 p.m. with a good-sized crowd in the stands, especially after the Wednesday night throng. Although, I suspect many on hand Friday weren't in the stands on Wednesday. Except for the exceptional fans and the curious, it is a different crowd indeed.

The numbers game worked out well on Friday for the Super Stock drivers. With the field at 29, track and series officials opted to start all in the main event. This required a little flexibility on the part of the series officials, and came with the approval of track officials. RCS officials had to pay out a few more finishing spots opposed to a normal 24- to 26-car field. It was a tad scary to see 29 cars take the green flag but I don’t think there were any more yellow flags than normal.

For the first two races in the series this week, the Super Stocks have put on competitive shows with multiple leaders and passing through the field. I didn't think I would see anything like Thursday night again for quite some time. And then, 24 hours later, and son of a gun, the same thing happened again!

Friday's race at Red Cedar featured five different leaders in 30 laps once again, and three of the top five finishers passed at least 10 cars, including both the winner and second-place finisher. Two other drivers in the top-10 also passed at least 10 cars.

Friday night, Tommy Richards, Thursday’s winner, started on the pole and he led the first two laps. However, Alex Myers, bent stub and all, moved up to the cushion and passed Richards on lap three. He then led for six laps before Dexton Koch was able to pass him and take over the top spot.

Over the next three laps, those two swapped the position twice before Koch settled in as the leader. However, the battle for the lead was far from over. On lap 18, Terran Spacek passed Koch to claim the lead but we still weren't done yet.

Curt Myers, who started 11th, was able to get to the cushion and that was bad news for the others. He quickly reeled Spacek in for the lead. On lap 21, after a spirited battle, Myers drove around Spacek to take over the lead and then held off Terran over the last five laps after a late yellow. Koch was third ahead of Richards, with James Trantina completing the top five.

Myers came from 11th for the win, Spacek started 15th, and fifth-place Trantina started 27th and gained 22 positions!

There were others within the top 10 that also put on charges, including Matt Deragon, who gained 13 spots and D.J. Keeler, who passed 11.

The Hard Charger award was in memory of former Super Stock driver Rick Hallquist, and there were a huge number of candidates for the award.

Perhaps the only thing that kept the race from being a classic were the number of yellow flags, which waved seven times.

A strong performance netted Tyler Vernon the win in the Mid Mod main. Vernon has started strongly this year, with several wins already in both the Mid Mods and Modified classes, although I have yet to see him run the Mod. He started on the pole and controlled the lead for the entire race, never challenged for the top spot.

Will Moelter also had a strong run, as he held the second spot for most of the contest. The majority of the field migrated to the low side early on and it was up to Blake Adams and Brandon Jensen to test out the cushion. Some determined driving by both of them allowed that line to start to come in. Late in the race, both appeared to be the fastest drivers on the track. Adams really made up a lot of ground late and was able to drive past Moelter for second, while Jensen cracked the top five.

Some wall bangers started up front in the Modified feature with “Mad Dog” Mark Hansen taking the early lead, which he held for the first five laps. However, Kaden Blaeser was even bolder on the cushion and threw a successful slider on Hanson to take over the top spot.

After that, Blaeser was gone; no one was able to keep up with him. Mike Anderson showed some of his best speed so far this year as he picked up the pace late, racing to second at the finish. Adams made another late-race charge on the cushion to complete the top three in a race that ran green to checkered flag.

There were a lot of laps put on the speedway this week and it finally started to show in the final event of the night, which was the Late Model feature. Jesse Glenz edged ahead of Sam Mars for the early lead in a dandy of an opening lap. James Giossi, who has been consistently fast everywhere so far this year, was quickly on the move after starting fifth. Glenz was running the cushion while Giossi was rolling the middle line, similar to how he has raced earlier this year so far.

Giossi moved into second and seemed to be making ground on Glenz but just around the halfway point of the race, it appeared that the low groove was taking rubber hard and anyone out of that line went in reverse.

Glenz caught the change just in time as Giossi had closed to within several car lengths of him, and this change no doubt saved him the race. During the final laps those two held about the same difference in time, and when neither made a mistake from then on, they finished in that order with Mars third.

Earlier in the evening I had talked to Jesse, who plans to mostly run a special-event-only schedule, picking out the most appealing races of the weekend with several upcoming races in Iowa on his schedule.

All feature racing was completed well before curfew time and that is always a good thing here. It was a good show, again highlighted by some very fine racing by the Super Stocks.

Saturday, June 7

Saturday, June 7 was one of those days that drives race fans, teams and promoters to drink. Rain was in the forecast for just about everywhere, with some areas of WISSOTA Country affected by a straight line of storms and others dealing with the heavy pop-up variety.

I really wanted to see some of the Late Model drivers from the NLRA region in action at I-94, since I hadn't been up that way yet this year. The Dick Johanneck King of Dirt special was ongoing at the I-94 emr Speedway in Fergus Falls, which included the NLRA in a $2,000-to-win event, the DRC Street Stock Series, and extra money races for the other classes.

One hundred forty-six drivers in the six WISSOTA sanctioned classes signed in to race on Saturday. A very fine field of 35 Late Models were present, and the Modifieds and Mid Mods were close behind with 30 a piece entering those classes.

It was a hot and windy day in central Minnesota, with the sun popping in and out for most of the day; this made track prep a challenge. Everyone was keeping on eye on the racing action, while the other was trained on the western sky, looking increasingly angry as the night progressed. With drivers on hand from Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, both Dakotas and two Canadian Provinces, they wanted to do everything possible to try and get the program completed.

The drivers cooperated as best they could through the heat races and there were few yellow flags. They only misted the track once that I recall, and while it was clear that it needed another drink, they kept right on racing in their best efforts to get the whole show completed.

They made an excellent effort but it just wasn’t meant to be. It started to sprinkle during the Hornet heats, which were the last on the program, and then it started to pick up during the Late Model B-feature. They were able to get that done but when the flagman then grabbed his flags and came down from his stand, that was the sign that we didn't want to see.

Everyone headed for shelter to try and wait it out but it was clear that after a few moments this was not just going to be a short shower and then the sun would pop back out. It cut loose and the rest of the show was postponed.

There has been no official announcements that I am aware of to this point about the rescheduling of the features.

Thanks to Don, Scott and everyone else from I-94 for their help and for making a great attempt to get this show in.