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Monday, May 25

The Memorial Day holiday weekend wrapped up on Monday, May 25 with a trip to the season opener at Madison Speedway, in Madison, MN.

This has been a tradition for me for a number of years, and with the number of Memorial Day races cut way back in recent years, it made my Memorial Day decision much easier.

I'm sure track promoter Troy Hoyles is never surprised to see me at this race anymore, as it seems my pattern is to visit Madison on Memorial Day, Labor Day and finally for the county fair race in September.

It was a hot one this year, with temperatures I was not quite ready for. It was 96 degrees when I pulled into the parking lot and still 91 degrees at race time. In celebration of the fact that Madison Bottling was sponsoring the opener, I drank one extra Sun Drop to toast them!

It is also not an easy trip to make with so much holiday traffic. However, since the weather was so spectacular, I think folks hung out at the beach as long as possible. The traffic was really the most manageable it has been for quite a few years.

The great weather and earlier weekend rainouts helped jack up the car count on Monday, with a very fine field of racers on hand. It was a big seven-division program on Monday, with five WISSOTA classes producing more than 80 drivers. Add in nearly 30 more in the two non-sanctioned classes and you have more than 110 racers on hand. There was also a very nice opening night crowd present. The Rollie Roth Memorial opener produced drivers from four states, and many of the drivers who will be fighting it out for national points in the coming months.

This event is always a chance to visit with some of the drivers who I don't get to see race too often—among them, “Super Man” Mike Stearns from South Dakota. He told me that his early racing season has been going well. He is racing in two classes again this year and tells me his new MB Modified is a great car to drive. He would like to update his Late Model equipment, but it’s currently hard to justify that. The car has been running so well so far in the limited number of times he has had it out. Later on in the evening, he was involved in probably the most exciting race of the night.

Jake Knapper rolled out a fresh Modified, so fresh they didn't even have any graphics for the car. They found some old numbers in the trailer to put on it for this race. He told me the car was a Diamond chassis out of Indiana and Monday was its first time on the track.

Wow, things really worked out well in that regard! He was the other driver involved in that exciting Modified finish and the first time the car hit the track, he was a winner! Now they wished they would have had that new wrap on the car.

The Super Stock class here could easily be renamed “The Hedtke Class.” Amazingly, there are five Hedtkes racing in the Super Stock class, and I believe all are related. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that both Brett and Brock are new to the sport.

It was also good to see Landon Albertson and Devan Schultz have moved up into what was already a very strong Street Stock field and make it even tougher. From top to bottom, that was probably the strongest class of the night.

With a field that included Justin Vogel, Kyle Dykhoff, Levi Randt, Keith Tourville and Mike Jans among others, the Street Stock lineup was great. But never underestimate Jans at a track where he has so many laps. He took the lead right from the start and everyone else was playing catch up to him for the rest of the 20-lap race. Vogel and Dykhoff were right behind him and they battled each other, as well as Jans, for much of the race.

However, Jans found a line that worked for him; he ran low in turns three and four and raced up on the edge of the berm about midway up the track on the other end. After that, he was hard to catch. Despite three yellows in the first half of the race, he never faltered and drove the smooth kind of race you expect from him. He headed to victory lane with Vogel and Dykhoff right behind him. Alex Grinager and Joe Arndt also executed good top-five runs.

The Midwest Modified feature was a test of patience for man and machine. This race featured a great battle for the lead, some wild slide jobs for that spot, a last-corner pass for the win, heartbreak for one driver, and a mind-boggling eight yellow flags in 20 laps. There was something for everyone, plus something no one wanted.

Scott Tofte was the early leader but just three laps into the race and two yellow flags later, Tim Kanten made a great move as he got by both Landyn Randt and Tofte to take over the lead. Three yellows later, we finally got to the halfway point, and Ryan Flaten worked his way into second from the third row, with Randt next in line.

Each of the many yellows were followed by a real battle once the green came back out. Kanten had to work hard to hold back the challenges of Flaten and Randt, who threw sliders at him virtually every lap. It would have been highly entertaining if there had not been so many yellows.

Each time Kanten was put to the test he managed to fight off everything that was thrown at him. Finally it got down to Kanten and Flaten after Randt broke and was done. However, there were three yellows in the last two laps for Kanten to contend with. After not making a mistake despite all the pressure, on the final restart he bobbled just enough to allow Flaten to get beside him. Coming off the final corner, Flaten out-accelerated him to the line to steal the win. Flaten was of course very excited in victory lane, but one had to feel for Kanten. If not for some of the same drivers spinning multiple times until they were finally shown the exit, he might have been sitting in victory lane himself. Justin Bjorklund finished third.

Trevor Nelson started on the outside pole for the Super Stock feature and led from start to finish to take the win in this race. While the preceding classes had a tough time keeping things rolling, the Super Stocks made 16 laps before a yellow was even needed. As Nelson marched away from the field, Tommy Bawden ran a strong second for much of the race. However, near the end of the race, it appeared that his car started getting loose under him, and Karter Reents and Andrew Hedtke drove past him. Hedtke completed his charge in second behind Nelson, who was not caught en route to the win.

There were three different leaders in the Modified feature, a race that was not decided until the final corner of the 20-lap race. Many were stunned by the outcome, including Stearns.

Nate Heinrichs took the early lead and led the first 10 laps of the race. Stearns started third and moved in behind him to challenge while Jake Knapper, who started fifth, started to show some speed of his own as he moved into third by the halfway point.

Heinrich seemed to be in good shape through that halfway point, but then the yellow flew. As we have observed all year so far, most race passes come directly after yellow flag restarts.

Such was the case again in the Modified feature, as Stearns got under Heinrichs to take over the lead and then he seemed to be in comfortable position to take home the win. Knapper also got past Heinrichs for second and he was starting to show even more speed, getting some solid runs off the low side of the track.

Still, Stearns seemed to be in control as the white flag flew, with a several car length lead ahead of Knapper. Stearns chose to run the banking off the final corner and all in the crowd were stunned to see what a great run Knapper got off the bottom in the final corner. He pulled up and simply drove under Stearns to flash across the line as the winner.  

Obviously it was a great win for Knapper, especially given that it was the first run for the car. Meanwhile, Stearns must have been just shaking his head. But as they say, that’s why they run the race, right? And after he led so many laps, Heinrichs had to settle for third.

The Hornets wrapped up the show with an excellent two-driver battle between eventual winner Adam VanDerostyne and Bradley Rossow. The Hornets raced a lot of laps, 16 on this big track I thought, but they also ran off a green-to-checkered event

Rossow took the early lead with VanDerostyne running in his tire tracks and then up beside him for a number of laps. They weren't bumping, but instead were just racing hard. Finally, on lap eight, VanDerostyne edged by to take over the point. However, one lap later Rossow was back in front. And then, once again, VanDerostyne had taken back the point another lap after that, finally securing the lead for good on lap 10.

After that, VanDerostyne pulled away by several car lengths, didn't falter and then drove on for the win. Christian Kast finished up third.

There were many good things to report about the opening night at Madison. The crowd was very good and the car count was excellent. The track might have been among the best it has been for a number of years for the opener. It seemed to have more moisture in it and though it might have had a bit of character in the corners as the night progressed, the drivers found several grooves to race on and there was not a hint of a locked down surface.

With so many racers and races, it did get to be a long night, with the final checkers waving at 11:28 p.m. This is obviously late for a Monday night when folks have to work the next day, but not something that hasn't happened before for this event. I think folks understand that going into the night. With all the good, you have to accept that this might be a long night for racing. Four bells is pretty late to be pulling into the driveway at home, but you can bet I'll be right back here for the Labor Day show!

Thanks to Troy and the crew at Madison and to John from DRC for holding my seat.

Thursday, May 28

Thursday night, May 28, Grand Rapids Speedway was back in action for the first post-holiday program and its second night of racing for 2026. They are leading those “tundra area” tracks in programs completed thanks to Mother Nature in 2026. A couple tracks in the region are still waiting to get their first race in the books.

It was a spectacular night for racing and a great night for Meet the Drivers night, with race cars on the track during intermission for fans to see up close. Usually those nights tend to extend the program and push the curfew here, but things went smoothly and most importantly, the drivers put on a program with few yellow flags.

I feel kind of silly that I didn't recognize the new flagman for Grand Rapids Speedway last week. However, I realized Thursday it’s Tim Jackson from Bemidji, a well-known Modified and Midwest Mod driver and a person with previous flagging experience. I'm told the longtime starter for Grand Rapids and Hibbing—Dale LaPlant—is soon due for hip surgery and will likely be out all year. As a result, Jackson will be taking over that important task for 2026.

It’s odd, but the Late Models actually had the highest car count of all six classes, with 16 of them signing in to race Thursday. For every class except the Pure Stocks, who remain MIA, there were a pair of heat races and main events.

More new Late Models appear each and every week. Derek Vesel made his first appearance of the year with last year’s package, the Capital chassis with 525 crate power.

Late last year Garrett Masurka, a former Super Stock driver, made his first laps in a Late Model and he also was back at it on Thursday night. He is running a Victory by Moyer chassis and spent the evening shaking down the car.

A couple of surprise entrants added to the field of drivers on Thursday. Caley Emerson, waiting to make his first Sprint Car start of 2026, will be running a pair of cars out of his shop along with his son. He drove Chris Magistad's Midwest Mod on Thursday.

The biggest surprise on the entry list was that of Kyle Schell in the Pizza Ranch car out of Aberdeen. I did not get to talk to him, as he was a very late arrival, so I'm not sure the reason for his appearance here on Thursday. Perhaps he was making a long distance delivery?

Johnny Broking was doing double duty Thursday, racing both his Late Model plus his father Bob’s Modified. Bob was on hand but has been a bit under the weather. He got orders not to try it on Thursday, as running the track gives him plenty to do and he didn’t need to worry about racing when he wasn’t feeling the best. The driver change worked out quite nicely later on.

The cream quickly rose to the top of the racing chart on Thursday night. Shane Sabraski was a double feature winner, while Blake Adams came up a half car length short of matching Sabraski’s efforts. However, Sabraski’s late effort to make himself a double winner proved to be quite the pain in Steve Stuart's back.

I hate late-race yellow flags when the order and flow of a feature race has been pretty much established. Of course, there is nothing that can be done to stop such things from happening, but it really does give drivers behind the leader an unfair advantage over the driver who has been “ruling the roost” of the race, so to speak.

Stuart had a big advantage in the Super Stock feature using the cushion, as Sabraski eventually moved into second. Sabraski appeared to be gaining just a bit on the leader as the top side began to slow down a bit and the bottom picked up speed. But Sabraski could have raced until curfew and never have caught Stuart—at least, until the yellow flag with just three laps to go.

Stuart picked the outside line and was then a sitting duck as Sabraski drove under him and pulled away to grab the win. It was good luck for Sabraski, and Stuart must have been more than a little chagrinned.

Sabraski worked the whole track in winning the Late Model feature. Kevin Burdick grabbed the early lead and looked to be fairly comfortable out front. Sabraski, meanwhile, started in the third row and worked both high and low as he searched for the fastest line. Eventually he settled on a line that always seems fast at Rapids: running high in turns one and two, and then dropping to the bottom on the other end.

He made it work in passing Burdick for the lead and then eased away from the field in a race that was stopped just once for a yellow flag spinner. Billy Kendall moved up to second and Jeff Provinzino was impressive as he drove from 10th to fourth.

Adams had an excellent run in the Midwest Mods, starting eighth on the grid smartly moving to the front. He used both the high and low sides of the track, and took advantage of a couple of other drivers’ misadventures to gain positions.

This race was the first feature of the evening and run on a refreshened track, which was fast. The drivers went nonstop, green to checkered, and there was plenty of fast action. Ethan Elhardt started on the pole and had probably his best run to date, as the second-year driver led for several laps and proved to be a tough pass for the lead. Several drivers tried to get past him but couldn’t until Adams finally drove around him. Later, Elhardt was “blasted” in a corner and lost a number of spots, somewhat diminishing his effort.

Josh Beaulieu, doing double duty and driving the Gary James Nelson Midwest Mod, stayed fairly close in second, with Sam Blevins finishing third.

Johnny Broking clearly hasn’t forgotten how to drive a Modified. Wheeling his father’s car, he led from start to finish to win the main event in that class. Adams got close to him and nearly made the pass for the lead but the top side, after a full night of racing, started to slow down and he couldn't quite get past Broking. Then, after pounding the cushion to no avail, he settled into running the bottom where Broking was successful.

One of those dubious late-race yellows nearly cost Broking, as a spin with just three laps left allowed Adams to close back up on him. Adams made an all-out run at the end, going high on both ends and he nearly stole the race, coming up just a half car length short of the win. Mervin Castle III had bad luck just at the end as he spun out of a chance to take a top three finish.

The Pure Stock class is still looking for more drivers. While they gained one this week, they still were down to just a single heat race and feature. Their main event went nonstop and Austin Carlson led from start to finish for the win.

Speaking of bad luck, it appeared that Brady Fosso had yet another Hornet feature race in the bag after making a lap-three pass for the top spot. He then pulled away from the pack.

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