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Wednesday, July 1

A special Wednesday night show was held at Grand Rapids Speedway July 1 in a kickoff to the holiday weekend. The Itasca County Clash offered both WISSOTA Late Models and Traditional Sprint as the top divisions and there were also full programs for the Midwest Mods, Pure Stocks and Hornets.

I'm not sure just how much of a special event “The Clash” was, since I believe the pay was for a regular night. More than anything else, it was a schedule change to a Wednesday night race. It helped them avoid a conflict with some special holiday events that were set to be raced on Thursday.

Wednesday was perhaps the nicest night of the entire racing season by the time the first green flag dropped at 6:50 p.m. They were a little late in starting on Wednesday, as the track prep crew really gave the track a big bath and the lower groove was still so wet the race cars carrying the American Flag for the National Anthem couldn’t stay up on the banking.

Track officials then picked up the pace nicely and it turned out to be the normal early finish to the program.

The heavy track did play a part in the heat race action; with the track so speedy, everyone was fast. It allowed different faces up front for the start of some of the mains.

The car counts were quite satisfactory across the board. There were a number of different faces in the pits racing on Wednesday; perhaps the different night of racing and the start of a holiday week might have changed work schedules for some drivers, freeing them up to race on Wednesday.

Landyn Randt won his first Midwest Mod feature race at the track in 2026; he led all laps to get the win. The team was split up on this night, with Mom heading the delegation that raced here in Rapids while Dad took Levi up across the border to Thunder City to race.

After a heavy track for the heats, more track prep before the mains plus the weather conditions played a part in the track drying out. It became quite a different animal for the mains and there were more than a few drivers who had trouble adjusting to the change, thus creating a cluster of yellow flags.

Randt went from the second row into the lead on the opening lap, a move he must have thanked his lucky stars for. Right after he evacuated the area where he was racing from, a grinding crash eliminated Nick Seitz, Eric Anderson and Darrin Lawler and triggered the first of multiple yellows.

The drivers were never able to get more than a lap or two at a time after this, and after the sixth slowdown, track officials mercifully waved the checkered to relieve our suffering. Only 13 racing laps were completed before the time limit struck. They even tried single-file restarts at one point, a rare thing indeed these days, but that didn't help avoid more yellow flags.

Behind Randt, Dylan Miller, Justin Jones, Michael Blevins, Sr. and Sam Blevins completed the top five.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Late Models then pulled onto the track and ran off 20 laps of nonstop action. The first few laps featured a great battle between Jeff Massingill and Zach Wohlers. Wohlers used the top side to get a good run off the end of the track shaded in pine trees, while Massingill was nailed to the bottom all the way around. That proved to be the line to use Wednesday, as the outside lane gave up on Wohlers, who rode it to the bitter end. Wohlers slipped back badly in the field in the late going because of that.

I believe it was the first win of the year for Massingill, who saw Harry Hanson close in on him at the end but he ran out of laps to make a serious challenge. Kevin Burdick, Billy Kendall and Kyle Peterlin completed the top five.

Ryker Larson led from start to finish to win the Hornet feature race. There was plenty of competition for Larson but he maintained his line and drove a wise race to get the win.

Late in the going, the leaders came up on a slower car that has been slow and erratic this season. The driver decided to race with the leaders as they were being lapped; Larson was able to avoid the wild dive made by the slower car by inches, but runner-up Nick Ruzich took a hard hit right in the driver’s door. Fortunately his car wasn’t damaged and he was able to race on for second.

Jake and Mason Smith had a good battle during their heat race and they resumed things for the main event. Mason led the opening lap before Jake drove by for the lead. Jake then led the rest of the race, taking the win ahead of Austin Carlson, who raced up to second but couldn't catch the leader. Mason Smith settled for third.

The final checkers waved at 9:30 p.m. The crowd was good sized, although not as large to these untrained eyes as the one last week.

The speedway is now off until July 11, which is a Saturday night when they host the Fastlane Super Stock Series plus other classes. Check the speedway website for details.

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