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The drivers on hand put on a great A-main, which featured Eric Riley and Kyle Dykhoff battle it out until the very end. I counted four official lead changes, with Riley taking the initial lead from the pole before Dykhoff passed him one lap later. Riley got him back just three laps later and led until the last couple of laps.

They were side by side for much of the time with Levi Randt and Jeff Ekdahl also in the mix. Dykhoff was able to make the winning pass with just a pair of laps left, then held off one more final change from Riley to get the win. Ekdahl finished third while Randt spun late after pushing hard for the lead and then pulled off.

The Super Stocks shocked everyone with the number of drivers who showed up for the night's racing. Krog seemed especially happy to have them racing on Friday, but most expectations were for a couple of heats. When 21 of them appeared, everyone was more than happy. And for once, Al Cleveland was racing at the track close to home and not hours away.

Krog kept laying down broad hints the class may make more appearances yet this year and might even be a part of the regular program in 2027, given the fact that Trantina’s other two tracks run the class weekly. I'm sure that Viking would like to see the class raced again regularly, as that would help their efforts to keep the class strong at their track.

The only problem I see is finding space where the Supers could fit in the I-94 program. They are already racing five WISSOTA classes each week, plus the Gen X—and all produce good numbers. I believe a seven-class weekly show is just too much, so the question would be, if they add the Supers, how would that work?

The Super Stock feature was highlighted by a popular win from Ryan Satter, a driver who has long raced at I-94 but kind of disappeared from the local scene when the Supers went away. He found other classes to race that don't appear locally.

Satter led all the way but had to fight off some challenges from William Lund and then Sabraski. One might consider it a good night's work to keep Sabraski behind you, but that is what Satter was able to do. Sabraski tried both high and low and while he could get close, he was never able to get by Satter, who kept his car nailed to the low groove. He did have to deal with a tight in the corners and really had to “horse” the car around the turns en route to the win.

Among the drivers on hand in this class were Doug Koski, who drove over from The Range, plus Dan Nissalke from Winona and Wyatt Schweigert from Huron.

The Late Models only had a 10-car field tonight, probably the lowest of the year. Several were racing at other special events going on this weekend in North Dakota and Wisconsin, which also took away a few drivers who turned into spectators this weekend.

Still, the feature race was a good one and quite frankly, had a shocking finish that left many with their mouths open at what they had seen.

In the first couple of laps, Mass and Travis Saurer has swapped the lead back on forth before Saurer claimed it for good. He then pulled away in what became a nonstop main event. Sabraski started eighth and had a slow start as he got stuck in traffic while waiting for his inner line to open up. However, once things cleaned out, he quickly began to pick up the pace and was clearly the fastest driver on the track, as he picked up position after position and reeled in Saurer.

Saurer was running a higher line on the track, which seemed to be going away, and Sabraski caught him with just a single lap to go. Saurer made a pass on the bottom that looked like the winning pass. However, as the two leaders came down the back chute on the final tour, there was a slower car running on the inside line. As that lapped driver came out of the corner off the bottom, Sabraski had to hesitate while Saurer, who was below that car on the track, drove past and retook the lead. Sabraski tried a last corner run to reclaim the top spot, but Saurer had enough lead to drive on for the win, a stunning development that just shows that anything can happen.

Most of us in the crowd has already rung up another win on the chart for Sabraski, and we were quite shocked by the last-lap developments.

The open wheel cars put on two excellent back-to-back feature races that presented tons of passing, great side-by-side racing and enough drama to satisfy our “soap opera” mentalities.

With a 39-car Midwest Mod field that nearly broke the track record set just a few short weeks ago, it required five heat races and a pair of B features to set the 24-driver starting field. I-94 and Thunder City are likely the only tracks capable of generating these kind of numbers.

This race was a dandy. There were four different leaders and wild last-lap action back to back before the issue was resolved. And likely, there will still be some feeling that the issue was not been resolved.

Garrett Paull took the early lead but was passed one lap later by Blake Adams. Adams then led for several laps before Tyler Bitzan, who was extremely fast on the bottom, drove under Adams to take over the lead. Adams then lapsed back a few car lengths, where he had to battle with Landyn Randt for second.

Some great slide job action then took place with those two, swapping positions on at least three straight laps as corner two became the place to watch to see big action. Adams continued to work the high side while Randt moved in on Bitzan while working lower on the track. Meanwhile, they were swapping positions on nearly every corner in what was a very intense race.

As Randt nosed into the lead ahead of Bitzan, Adams seemed to pick up the pace as he worked the high side. As the three came to the line with just a lap to go, Adams edged past into the lead up against the concrete. Randt replied by running very deep into corner one and running Adams up to the wall where he had to lift. However, with Randt now in the middle lane, Adams somehow got a great run off turn two and down the back chute dove to the inside, either to slide Randt up to the wall on that end or squeeze past him.

Unfortunately, just as Adams committed to the inside with a full head of steam, Randt dropped to the inside to block at just the same second. Adams couldn't get slowed in time and clipped the rear bumper of Randt, sending him spinning.

Adams was sent to the rear and instead pulled off, but Randt was still not out of the woods as he still had Bitzan to deal with. During that single lap dash to the finish, Bitzan got a great run off turn two and would have likely made the winning pass, but Randt slammed the door at the last second and Bitzan was cut off, settling for second to Randt's win.

While this great battle in front was going on, almost unnoticed were great runs by Nate Reinke from 19th to fifth, and Brennan Weight from 24th to sixth.

Still, after such a intense race, the finish kind of took the air out of things.

The Modified feature was not quite as good, but still a very good race. With 32 drivers on hand in this class, this weekend of increased money more than met the expectations of everyone.

The first half of this race was also very good before Landon Atkinson took over control and then kind of drove off from the field. Early on, Blake Adams found himself locked in his second straight, really intense race. Good thing he's young, as someone a bit older might not have been able to stand the strain of racing wheel to wheel for laps on end with little chance to rest or take a breath.

Adams and Atkinson swapped the lead back and forth four times in the early going before the inside line seemed to pick up and Atkinson then drove away from the field.

Atkinson built up a nice sized lead by the end as he won for the second straight Friday here at I-94. Bryce Sward had a strong run also. He drove under Adams for second and then maintained that position for the rest of the race. Adams and Brady Gerdes had a prolonged battle for third through the second half of the race, with Adams holding on.

Fourteen Hornets were on hand and Jeff Rohner dominated the field, as he has been doing with regularity of late. This race turned into a smash fest of sorts, with half the field left smoldering in the infield at the checkered. Particularly hard was the collision when second place driver Christian Kast dropped fluid on the track following restart as the field stormed into turns one. Many cars hit the liquid and then followed Kast into pounding the wall, which eliminated four drivers just that quick.

Will Lange was second with Adam Throener following him across the line.

The only down side to the night was the late hour of completion. The final checkers waved at 11:40 p.m., making for a long night of racing. With as many drivers as they had though, I'm not sure how they could have done much better. Track prep was only done once and it was needed.

By the way, while the track was black by the end, it seemed to race well right to the conclusion, with drivers using multiple lanes and certainly not being pinned either to the bottom or to the wall.

It was a good show and entertaining with a very strong field of drivers across the board. The only down side was that I pulled into my driveway at 4:08 a.m. I think I might be getting to old to do this s***!

Saturday, August 1

It hardly seems possible but we are now entering the month of August, the last full month of weekly racing for the 2026 racing season. I'm not ready for this yet and each year the summer seems to fly by faster. It is what it is, however, so let's enjoy that last full month of summer.

On Saturday night, I made my first visit of 2026 up bumpy highway 63 to Ashland, Wisconsin and ABC Raceway. Weather, racing schedules and other oddball parts of life had kept me from making a visit earlier this year, so it was my first visit, even though it is only about 90 minutes from home.

Saturday night featured a full show for all four WISSOTA classes that race at the track, and the highlight was the Double 20 for Mid Mods, presented by one of ABC's best sponsors, Northern Clearing Inc. The Midwest Mods ran two, 20-lap feature races and each feature paid $1,000 to win. There was also a $500 bonus if a single driver swept both features.

Throwing in a couple gimmicks, just for fun, the Midwest Mods qualified through time trials and the “choose cone” was used for their events. The other classes operated as normal.

The only puzzling thing to me was that after qualifying, the top four drivers in time trials in each heat race were inverted for those heats. That seems like a punishment for the fastest drivers, since the results of the heats lined up the first feature. And, since the results of the heats were straight up for the first feature, the results of the heats were pretty darn important. To have to start fourth in your heat after out-qualifying the other drivers in that heat seemed counterproductive. I'm assuming the invert was done to make the heats more competitive and to try and stimulate more passing.

Later, the three heats were won from the front row, second row and from the third row, so the intent ended up producing lukewarm results.

The second 20-lap feature was lined up based on a redraw by the first feature winner, with a minimum of a four invert based on the first feature results and a maximum of an eight car invert. First feature winner Joey Jensen drew the eight, thus giving him some work to do in the second feature.

It was also a full show for the Modifieds, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks, all WISSOTA sanctioned, plus the local Six Cylinder division.

I was shocked when I found out ABC announcer and track historian Nick Gima was absent on Saturday and Chris Beeksma was filling in for him. I can never remember Nick missing a race at ABC and I will have to find out when was the last time he was AWOL. Shoot, half the fun of going to ABC is to give Nick some grief!

Beeksma did a nice job filling in after suffering through some early night mic issues, the things that always flare up when the experts are out of town.

I did a few fill-ins over the years at a couple tracks and I know how hard it can be to fill in for a legend, especially when folks can be so critical.

I was told that club president and race director Eric Erickson even missed a race last weekend, another shocker for me.

On hand for the first time to race in 2026 was Pure Stock legend Zene Anderson. Zene may be the oldest driver in WISSOTA; I was told by his motor builder Tim Lillo that Zene is 86 years old. He has been bothered by a bad knee and recently had surgery on it, so Saturday night was a test session to see how he felt. As it turned out, he did fine. Early on in hot laps he was smoking badly and oiled down the racing surface but the issue — I’m guessing maybe a leaking transmission — was cured and he finished both his heat and the feature race and did not finish last.

Also, in the Pure Stocks, D'nae Rose made her return to racing, having done her exercises and strengthened up her elbow injury. She ended up dropping out of the Pure Stock feature with some steering issues, or so it appeared.

The car count was down some, as it has been for much of the year here. ABC and Ashland County sort of sits on their own little island, a considerable distance away from other tracks. They long have been able to produce their own field of drivers and did not have to depend on a lot of travelers to make up the racing field. This year things have changed some and they, like many other tracks, just don't have the same field of drivers to pick from as that group has shrunk, which again is like most other tracks.

On this night, they had 51 drivers in the four WISSOTA classes with only enough on hand to run a single Super Stock heat and just enough for two Modified heats. Even the Midwest Mods, with a nice payoff and two features, couldn't fill a full field.

Early in the racing season and when ABC is off, Rice Lake Speedway relies on drivers from ABC to visit Rice Lake to help beef up the car count. Saturday night the tables were turned, as 25 percent of the drivers on hand were RLS regulars and Mike Anderson, George Richards and David Baxter all took home first-place prize money south with them.

It was interesting to watch the track change over the course of the night, starting out with everyone racing right on the bottom, then changing to a top-side dominant track by the first Midwest Mod feature. It then gradually widened out so multiple lanes were good at the same time. The last race of the night, the second Midwest Mod feature, had the best track of the night. Though it would have been nice to start the show out with that track, as we all know, having a perfect dirt track for a whole show in just about impossible.

Jensen dominated the first MidMod feature and led all 20 laps. He loved the cushion and starting on the outside, he motored away from the pack and rode the top side comfortably to take the win. Three yellows slowed the action, but they were all for minor spins.

Baxter moved into second early as he and David Simpson raced hard for that spot. On the final restart, I believe Baxter was wronged by the “Choose Cone” when one of the drivers in front of him played some games on selecting a lane. Baxter didn't have room to react and he ended up losing a whole row for the restart, which he couldn't recover from over the last two laps. Simpson then finished second with Marcus Dunbar third.

During the second feature Shadow Kitchner used that same outside pole to grab the early lead, as the outside row was the place to be all night. However, Baxter was fast on the inside line and on lap eight he passed Kitchner to take over the lead.

There was only one yellow flag after and the final 10 laps went green. Baxter pulled away for the win, while Kitchner held on for second, recovering after he jumped the cushion mid race to beat Paul Ripley for that spot. Jensen found the going tough with about the top eight drivers all very well matched; he was only able to move up to sixth at the finish.

Richards led from start to finish to win the Pure Stock feature. When the inside line is good, Richards is tough to beat. He was pressured by Austin Fencl early, before Mark Barta took over the spot. Barta was unable to track down Richards, however. The top three finishers were all visitors from the south, with track point leader Shane Basina having to settle for sixth.

Speaking of fast, Matt Deragon was fast in the Super Stocks on Saturday. He started in that magic outside pole and raced away from the field, building up a full straightaway over the pack. Point leader Shawn McFadden, who had a flat tire in his heat race, had to be thankful the pack wasn't any bigger than it was. He had to wind his way through then to get up to second.

Once in that position, he tried to track down Deragon but was way too far behind to do that and had to settle for second.

It was both celebration and frustration in the Modified feature. For Mike Anderson, who has had his struggles from time to time this year, it was a night to celebrate. He had his car working well and while most were pounding the cushion in the Mod feature, he found speed on the inside line. He drove past Lance Schilling on lap 16 to win the feature race.

For Schilling, it was exactly the opposite. Seemingly getting his new car to work after a period of adjustment, he was riding the cushion and took the lead after driving around Andrew Inman on the opening lap and was just four laps from winning perhaps what might have been his first main in the Mods at ABC.

However, turn two proved to be his “Waterloo” as he jumped the cushion and Anderson drove under him for the lead and win. Even worse, as Schilling drove hard to try and regain that top spot, he impacted the wall hard both in turns two and four, with the second hit enough to end his night, ending with a fist pump of his roof in frustration as the wrecker picked him up.

Nick O made a late-race pass past Brandon Copp to take second, with Cole Spacek and Inman completing the top five.

There were not a lot of yellows and the show ran off smoothly with the final checkered flag waving just before 10 p.m.

Sunday, August 2

The three-night Modified Mini Series concluded on Sunday, August 2 at Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. Along with the Modified special, all of their weekly WISSOTA classes were in action in addition to the Crown Vics.

It seemed like everyone wanted to get back to racing on Sunday night, a fact likely buoyed by the fact several of the other east central Minnesota tracks did not race this weekend. Ninety-seven drivers signed in to race in the WISSOTA classes.

The Modified series, put together in the last couple weeks or so by James Trantina III, certainly worked out well for the three race tracks he owns. Car counts were strong, with more than 30 Modified drivers on hand each night.

If you come to race in this area, especially for a special event, you better have your “A game” or you’re going to be left behind. The quality of the field on Sunday, as it was all weekend, was extremely powerful. I can’t imagine any field stronger except for when the 100 is held in September.

A good example is series point champion Justin Froemming, who typically races at I-94 and Viking Speedway. He told me his race on Saturday at Brainerd was the first time he ever raced there. On Sunday here at Granite, it was the first time he raced this track in about 10 years. With all the changes over the last few years, it likely raced like a totally different track. He did quite well, however, winning at Brainerd and then making an excellent drive up to second here at GCMP.

Froemming lost the majority of the 2025 season while out on the road crewing for Dan Ebert. But, that certainly doesn't seem to have hurt him. Who knows, maybe he learned some things that are now applicable to the Modified program as well. In any event, worked the inside line on Sunday when most of the drivers were pounding the outside wall. As they say, you have to be able to pass where others aren't running if you are going to be successful.

Most drivers got through the weekend relatively clean but the No. 24 of Brandon Dolman was looking like a war zone, as an aborted start on Saturday night tore up much of the body on the car. The team had to borrow a door from Cole Boston on Sunday, as they didn't have a straight door to put on the car. It made it slightly confusing with a different number on each side but at least they were able to race.

This weekend marked the second of the summer Mt. Carmel, Illinois driver Will Krup was on hand in the area. Sunday he guest drove one of Dusty Bitzan's cars and was shaking down one of their Elite chassis. The last time Krup was on hand, he drove a second Sabraski car.

With the big field of Modifieds, they appropriately qualified using passing points. The other classes ran their normal draw/redraw show. The Mods needed four heats and a B feature to set their 24-car field for their 30-lap main and some good drivers were left in the pits when that race started.

The Modified feature was a hard-fought contest with many battles for position going on. And along with that, while the racing was very hard, there were not a lot of cautions to slow things down. The final half of the race ran off nonstop to the checkers.

Running perhaps his best race of the year to date, Dave Cain started on the pole and led all 30 laps to take the win. And despite the quality of the field, no one ever really got close enough to challenge him for the lead. Sabraski was able to use the inside line for awhile to get up to second but then after that, he was forced to move back to the top as he couldn't catch Cain using the inside line.

Froemming moved to third by the halfway point of the race and after a good battle near the end, was able to drive under Sabraski and take over second, which he then held to the finish.

There was plenty of good racing up front but it was hard to take my eyes off the battle for fifth to about ninth place. There were an incredible number of slide jobs that took place, with daring moves that somehow were accomplished without sending anyone out of the ballpark.

The battle for fifth was especially wild, during which Blake Adams and Joe Chisholm threw enough sliders to qualify for the baseball hall of fame! Adams won out in that battle, while Travis Saurer maintained fourth for much of the event.

Even with all the wild racing, only three drivers failed to finish.

Perhaps the most dominant performance of the night was turned in by Dexton Koch, as he blew away the Super Stock field. He let Dylan Kromschroeder lead the first lap before blowing by him on the cushion. Once he was locked in, he drove away from the pack in impressive fashion. It helped the race ran nonstop, but there were only seven drivers on the lead lap when the checkered flag flew. Runner-up Sabraski was a full straightaway behind Koch at the finish. Kromschroeder held on for third over a fast-closing Dylan Nelson.

There were three different leaders in the first six laps of the Mod Four feature, but once Dustin Holtquist got rolling, it was pretty much over. Rowan Tramm led the first four laps before he was passed by Connor Bruss, who was back in the #00T car.

However, he couldn't hold off Holtquist who came blasting past him on the outside and once in the lead, pulled away from the pack. Tramm did a nice job, fighting his way back up to second during the later part of the race, with Chad Erlandson doing much the same thing to finish third.

It was a two driver race in the Midwest Mods, as the top two drivers in national points chased each other. Point leader Blake Adams scored the win, getting to the front first and then maintaining his speed. Landyn Randt couldn't produce a challenge Sunday, and settled for second. Devin Fouquette tore off most of the right side of his car on the frontstretch wall but he kept going and finished up third.

The track was freshly grooved and “juiced up” for the Street Stocks and Jim Gullikson used the outside of the front row to storm into the early lead. He then drove away from the pack, leading wire to wire to get the win.

Jeff Ekdahl moved into second but simply couldn't produce a challenge to Gullikson, who smoothly moved away from the field. It looked like this race was also going nonstop until a two-car collision during the final lap eliminated Levi Randt and Layla Chaplin, who were both running in the top five. This elevated Bradeyn Fleck and Lucas Boyce into the top five behind Kaden Woodie.

Nathan Penney pulled all the way from South Range, Wisconsin to win the Hornet feature. With no racing in their area this weekend, Penney was looking for some national points and he found them at Granite City, taking the lead on lap eight from Scott Erickson. He then held off a stiff counter challenge from Erickson to get the win. Zander Zuehlsdorff was third.

Due to necessary track prep and the many-race program, it was well after 10:30 p.m. before the final checkers waved and that is a tough sell for some folks. I did note that many bailed after the Modified feature, which was toward the middle of the running order for feature races. It appeared some folks made a conscious decision on just how long they can stay before they must hit the road.

I was surprised to see Trantina was up and around following his bad crash. I expected him to be at home on the couch recovering, but there he was, crossing the track under his own power. He is braced up and harnessed up but is moving under his own power, which was a welcome sight to see.