7-21 Page 28

Thursday, July 16

With weather and environment factors at play, I headed to KRA Speedway in Willmar for the second straight time for their Thursday night show. Originally I planned to attend the 444 Byholm race at ABC Raceway in Ashland, but that race was cancelled due to the most bizarre series of circumstances possible. Wildfire smoke from both Canada and Minnesota made the air unhealthy to breath outdoors for extended periods of time, and for that reason, ABC cancelled.

And here I thought that I had finally finished off my list of “outs,” or the many reasons races have been cancelled during my many years watching races. Last year’s wildfire “out” at Thunder City was the newest addition in 2025. Unfortunately, today I get to add a “smoke out” to that dubious list of rain outs, hail outs, freeze outs — you get the drift.

Fortunately, I did have a backup plan for Thursday and that was the DRC.tv Street Stock Tour. While they eliminated some classes for Thursday, WISSOTA-sanctioned Super Stocks and Midwest Mods were also part of the program.

We had some smoke near home, but not enough to cancel races if there had been a track locally. It ended in the Princeton area and by the time I got to Willmar, it was hot, sunny and steamy out, typical July weather as of late.

Eighteen Street Stocks signed in to be a part of this race and that included the top six in current series points, along with some other tough racers. This series isn't pulling in the numbers of previous years, though. Ironically, the field for last week's regular show included some drivers who didn't show up again Thursday, even though the money was better tonight.

The program for the Streets included three heats and the all-important redraw for starting positions first through ninth. Unfortunately, when Keith Tourville redrew the pole, that made things look a bit darker for the rest of the field. And indeed, that turned out to be the case.

The Street Stocks weren’t at their best Thursday, with several cautions. Tourville led all 20 laps, cut down by five due to the heat and humidity. Ethan Iiams challenged early but Tourville’s main challenger turned out to be fifth-starter Justin Vogel. He moved into second by lap five and then pressured the leader for the rest of the race.

While Tourville led all laps, Vogel occasionally put on a strong challenge, trying both the high and low sides of the track. However, Tourville had just enough that he managed to keep Vogel a few car lengths back most of the race.

A multitude of yellows kept the field bunch and didn't allow much in the way of green flag racing the last half of the event. There were five yellows in the last 10 laps, as drivers had a tough time keeping their cars pointed in the correct direction.

The track prep crew didn't have as much “secret sauce” on the track this week and it was drier, slippery and the groove was narrower than last week's presentation. Things came to a head with just two laps left, following yet another yellow. Vogel drove his car very hard into turn three, seemingly way too hard to keep it under control, and clipped Tourville. This sent both cars spinning and triggered yet another slowdown. While Vogel went to the back and Tourville back to the lead, the big loser was Levi Randt. He was running a close third but slammed into the spinning cars and damaged his front end to the point that he could not continue.

Finally the last two laps were completed and Tourville drove away for the win. Joe Martin started eighth, kept his nose clean and raced up to second at the finish with another local driver, Ethan Iiams, coming home third. It was a bit of a tedious race.

The evening started on a bad note for the Streets when a grinding crash early on sent Darek Turner, who pulled all the way from Fargo to race, badly smashed to the pits for the rest of the night.

Eric Martini is on a roll at KRA as he won his second straight Super Stock feature and led all laps in doing so. He started on the outside pole and pulled away by some distance as Zach Schultz and Dexton Koch battled for second. They went at it for a number of laps before Koch took the spot and then he tried to track down Martini.

A spinning driver at the halfway point of the race helped his cause as it bunched up the field and I thought Martini might now be in a bit of trouble. That proved to be totally wrong; instead of Koch putting the heat on, Martini drove away from him and the pack. It was a runaway win for Martini. Koch had his hands ful with Schultz, but did fight him off for second.

While one Randt brother had back luck, the elder of the two, Landyn, had a good night in the Midwest Mods. Ryan Flaten led the opening two laps but that was all it took for Randt to get a good run. He then drove by Flaten for the lead. With lots of green-flag racing, that was all that Randt needed and he pulled away from the pack and won the race by a comfortable margin. Justin Bjorklund made a nice drive forward from the third row and took second ahead of Flaten.

All racing was complete shortly after 10 p.m. which included a makeup feature for the local Pure Stock class. A decent sized crowd sweltered under the low covered roof at KRA.

Friday, July 17

Princeton Speedway went viral this week on the internet after a thief tried to steal one of the track's water trucks during the work week. He was caught on video cameras taking the truck but instead of driving it away, he ended up crashing it into the welcome gate to the fairgrounds. He went off in cuffs and while the fender was bent, promoter Nate Fischer was using that same truck to water the track on Friday night!

I headed to Princeton for the first night of two of the Mod Wars special, with the USMTS as the headliner and Midwest Mods and Mod Fours on hand as support classes.

VandeKamp, the track point leader in the Midwest Modifieds, dominated the 20-driver field in the Midwest Mods, leading from start to finish; he was never seriously challenged. He started in the second row but passed both Ariel Mueller and Brady Larson before the first lap was completed. After that, it was a battle for second among the rest of the field as he was long gone.

Larson and Dustin Nelson maintained second and third for the first half of the race, but Ryan Putnam made a charge after that; he worked his way into second in the final few laps and with a late, two-lap dash to the finish, provided VandeKamp his toughest challenge. However, VandeKamp held on and drove to victory lane. Nelson was third.

Dexton Koch grabbed the lead early in the Super Stock feature and despite several challenges, he held his line and fought off the other drivers as he drove on for the win. Using the high side, he rode off the banking and built up a nice-sized lead early as Dustin Nelson, Dylan Kromschroeder and Shane Sabraski all fought for second. Sabraski got to that spot by the halfway point of the race and it looked like a battle might be brewing but on this night, it was Koch who had the fastest line.

With only a single yellow at the halfway point of the race, Koch kept pushing hard and he pulled away from the field. Sabraski did a very rare fade for him, dropping from second as both Kromschroeder and a late-charging Dylan Nelson got past him.

Holtquist was the third leader in a competitive Mod Four feature that had three different leaders over the 20-lap distance. Andrew Funt led the opening lap before he was passed by Ashton Schwinn for the lead. Holtquist started sixth but quickly moved into contention; as Schwinn rode the cushion on the track, Holtquist was nailed to the inside line. It worked for him as he drove under Schwinn on the seventh lap for what was the winning pass.

The second half of the race was tedious, with multiple yellows for spins that kept bogging down the race. Finally, officials were forced to line the drivers up single file with the hopes of being able to complete the event.

Holtquist kept maintaining the lead, despite all the disruptions. Schwinn did go back to the cushion and made some progress in cutting in on the lead, but Holtquist held on for the win with Dustin’s father, Bob, racing up to third despite having smashed his bumper on one of the ute tires. The last race took some time and the final checkered flags waved just at the 11 p.m. track curfew for the track located inside the city limits.

Sunday, July 19

It was a toasty Sunday night at Proctor Speedway on Sunday, July 19, but it was a decided improvement over the conditions that have prevailed in this part of Minnesota over the last week or so. The air was clear and there was a nice refreshing breeze blowing out of the south to keep things moving. Later it would cool a bit and become probably one of the nicest weather nights I have ever spent at the track.

Race fans—and particularly Late Model fans from this area—were in mourning by Sunday as it has been a very bad week for them. They lost both the 444 at ABC and the Twin 25s at Gondik this week due to poor quality air. It doesn't sound like either race will be rescheduled this year.

Meanwhile, Late Model drivers from the local area will be sidelined from racing for quite a few nights with the future racing calendar for a variety of reasons in the next couple weeks. Talking to Skeeter Estey on Sunday, you could tell the frustration he had with the upcoming layoffs for the Late Models. He also did say that he is very pleased with his new AK Late Model, saying it runs great and that feedback from the chassis builder is excellent.

A couple new Super Stocks joined the field on Sunday with Michael Blevins, Sr. and Devan Zembo making their first runs at Proctor. It's not enough that Blevins has three Midwest Mods to worry about, but now he has added a Super Stock to his fleet. It showed a lot of speed on its opening race night here. He is still just a bit erratic with the car, but when he gets more laps I think he is going to be right up there with the fastest drivers in the class. Sunday he settled for sixth after he was as high as third in the running order with a couple drivers disqualified in the feature for banging after the checkered flag.

Zembo is a name well known in the history of Gondik Law Speedway, but the late-arriving driver was missed by me in the pits so I need to do some checking up further on this.

It was also good to see Fastlane's Chris Bretting back racing with a new car. He looked fast early in the MidMod feature but like quite a few drivers on this night, had trouble finding traction on the dry surface and fell back as the race progressed.

It was a busy night at the track as the featured event was the twice-postponed Hornet Nationals along with a full program in the track's other five classes. It was also Meet the Driver night with the cars on the track before the program started.

Like many other tracks this year, car counts are on the tenuous side. The Modifieds continue to be the struggling class with just a half dozen on hand Sunday, although they continue to put on entertaining races.

The featured event was the Hornet Nationals and a nice group of them were on hand with several drivers from Thunder Bay down to race along with the locals. National point leader Brady Fosso started on the pole for their 20-lap feature but instead of pulling away, he was severely challenged by Aaron Penney, Nick Ruzich and Nakota Larson right from the get-go. They raced in tight formation, although Fosso was maintaining the lead. Following a yellow on lap four, Fosso again took off as the leader but his car was clearly not operating correctly in the first turn with the rear end wanting to come around. He barely made it to the back chute before a rear wheel flew off the car and Fosso went for a ride. Fortunately he did not roll but he ended up in the back chute ditch and was done for the night.

This gave the lead to Penney but just one lap later Larson drove past him to take over the top spot.

Larson then led through the halfway point but Penney picked up the pace and with an impressive move, repassed Larson to take over the top spot. He then kept the field a few car lengths behind him as he drove on to victory.

Larson finished up a close second but could never muster a strong challenge and a last lap scramble ended with Kyle LeDoux racing to third. It was an impressive drive for Penney, as the 14-year-old has been strong all season.

It was a tough night for national point leaders. Not only did Fosso stumble, but Pure Stock leader Jake Smith had worse troubles. On the track and set to start his heat race, he suddenly pulled off the track and rushed to the pit area. He did not race again all night.

This calamity opened the door for Simon Wahlstrom who has been battling with Smith all year, and Wahlstrom then drove on for the feature win. Austin Fencl was the early leader but he simply couldn't keep his car down in the corners and gave the inside line to Wahlstrom, who then drove past him and pulled away. Fencl, who tows here all the way from Bruce, Wisconsin to run, did settle for second with Aaron Bernick third.

The Modified feature ran green to checkers and Brandon Copp led all the way for the win. There was nearly an upset early, though, as Nick Oreskovich made a bold move on the outside lane where nearly no one was running and he got up beside the leader but just couldn't quite clear him. Copp then adjusted slightly, moving up the track just a bit and that forced Nick O. to run in the loose material. That didn't work and he then faded back.

Jody Bellefeuille then took up second and he and Copp were pretty equal, but with the early advantage and no mistakes by Copp, he maintained to get the win. Kennedy Swan's last-lap charge moved her up to third.

There was a new winner in the Super Stocks as Dylan Kromschroeder started in front and stayed there despite heavy pressure from Shawn McFadden to get the win. Kromschroeder had a night off from Granite City Motor Park and made the trip pay with his first win at Proctor. McFadden is the driver to beat in this class here and he moved up from the third row to put the heat on Kromschroeder.

The first 13 laps of this race went green but then it took three tries to get the last two laps done. This gave McFadden several chances to make a late-race pass but Kromschroeder wisely guarded the inside line where McFadden is so good and he held him off for the win. Scott Lawrence had his best run since returning from injury, finishing third from eighth.

Johnny Broking beat Kevin Burdick into turn one on the opening lap of the Late Model feature and then it was game over; he led Burdick all the way for the feature win. They were pretty equal and a couple times Burdick closed slightly but then Johnny put down a couple strong laps and the lead was stretched back out slightly. Harry Hanson started and finished third.

Broking had his chassis builder, Rusty Schlenk from Ohio, on hand for the win as he has been on hand this week, hoping to see several races in our area but was shut down by the smoke like the rest of us.

Some fireworks developed in the Midwest Modified feature, the last event of the night. Fortunately for race winner Paul Ripley, he got to the lead early and away from the action behind him.

Eric Anderson got the jump on Ripley initially, leading the opening lap but Ripley then drove past Anderson one lap later to take the top spot. He then drove on unimpeded for the win.

Behind him, Anderson and Adam Shinn battled hard with several wheel banging incidents between the two of them. A collision on the back chute sent Shinn into the weeds but in a strong “no call,” both were returned to their spots to battle it out once again.

Ultimately, Anderson claimed the spot at the finish with Shinn finishing behind him and Blevins, Sr. next in line.

Even with all the extra activities going on, the final checkered waved shortly after 8 p.m. and I'm not sure they even had to turn the track lights on. Keep on eye on the track's website and Facebook page concerning announcements relative to next Sunday night’s racing.