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Thursday, June 11

Thursday night, June 11, Grand Rapids Speedway was one of the very few tracks to avoid the wrath of the weather as they got their entire racing program completed under mostly sunny skies.

However, the “Thunder in the Pines” was not that far off, as I hit a very brief but hard downpour just miles from the track. Severely warned storms blew up just at race time, a few miles to the east, and while we sat outdoors in air-conditioned comfort, other folks had their heads down and were seeking shelter.

It was a night of regular racing at the track with the six WISSOTA divisions that routinely race at Grand Rapids in action. It was a night like many tracks are seeing these days, with enough cars in each class to run a pair of heats. That number was tight in a couple of classes, however. On the other hand, there were enough Midwest Mods to run three full heats, with a few drivers on hand who I had not seen race so far in 2026.

Austin Carlson informed me that he had seven complete sweeps so far this racing season with his Pure Stock, in seven nights of racing and going back to last year — 10 complete sweeps in a row. Unfortunately, that string ended later when he had to settle for second in the feature race to a fast Jake Smith.

Cameron Brown from Rainy River represented the Canadian drivers today. He was another driver who I had not seen previously this year. He told me that his racing had been going pretty well to this point, having run just at Emo leading up to Thursday night. He did have some minor motor issues that messed up one night, but fixed the problem himself and avoided a costly rebuild and possible lost time during a short season. He said that Emo had been smooth and slick so far in 2026.

Thursday night marked the first time back behind the wheel for Bob Broking, who has missed a couple of weeks due to some medical issues that have hopefully now been resolved. He later had a top-five run with his Modified.

This is one of the few tracks that still has a weekly program, including a review of the previous week’s racing, plus point standings. I applaud them for doing this, as this used to be something that all tracks did. For many, it’s a collector item that fans kept throughout years. Many tracks are missing the boat by not doing this very thing.

The track was a bit different on Thursday and that caused problems for a lot of drivers. Although there were very few yellow flags during the heats and really, throughout most of the program, some drivers were struggling to find the fast line around the track. The corners were wet and were a bit choppy, and the chutes hard and slick. The track was completely graded following the heats, so the drivers had to start back from square one for the mains and watch and react as the track changed once again. Ultimately, it seemed like the fast route was to go low in the corners and let the car drift out to the top of the track down the chutes and try to maintain momentum that way. With no outside wall, drivers had to be careful not to drift too high and drop off the edge of the racing surface, however.

Other than the Midwest Mod feature, which had its share of issues, the rest of the feature races ran off flawlessly; three went green to checkered and two others had just a single yellow flag.

Midwest Mods, on the other hand, had a series of yellows for spins following one more serious multicar crash early on. They pushed time limit for their race but I believe they did get all the laps scheduled run off. That is a little difficult to tell, given there is no scoreboard and sometimes the announcer fails to let us know how many laps are either completed or remaining.

It was a very good night for Blake Adams, as he won both the Modified and Midwest Mod feature races. He led both contests from start to finish. Although he is too young, a stop on the way home at either Black Bear or Fond du Luth casinos might have been a good idea since he was “hot,” having redrawn the pole for both races.

All he was required to do was get the jump at the start and run a smooth and smart race, and he had no trouble doing so.

In the Midwest Mod he got the jump on Caley Emerson, who is still behind the wheel of the Magistad M2, and survived restarts after the five yellows that bogged down the event. Of course, restarts are the most dangerous part of any race, but he was never really challenged.

The Modified feature was one of the races to go nonstop and once he got the jump on Kennedy Swan, it was just a matter of making good, consistent laps, which he excels at. The best battle was for second between Swan and Shane Sabraski, who I believe was using his new car Thursday. Swan managed to hold him off for 19 of the 20 laps, several times after side-by-side battles, but on the last lap Sabraski was finally able to get past for second.

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