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Sunday, September 8

Racing is winding down in western Minnesota, highlighted by the annual Lac qui Parle County Fair race, held during the final day of “The Little Minnesota State Fair” since 1873. Let me be clear — the fair has been going since 1873, not the races. Nevertheless, the race has been held for many years and is always the wrap-up to the fair.

Five divisions raced on Sunday, with four of them WISSOTA-sanctioned classes. As always, this race provides an interesting mix of drivers for the final regular season race here. The regulars are on hand as might be expected, and there are always a few drivers from far-flung places seeking national points.

The Street Stocks were up first for their 20-lap main event. I have always felt the Street Stocks are the strongest class here on a regular basis, with good fields of drivers and many strong running cars. That seemed to be the case again Sunday.

Levi Randt took the early lead but he had plenty of challenges from Joe Martin, Keith Tourville, Justin Vogel and Zach Flickinger. Vogel was running the high side, like he frequently does, and was making some time using that line. Meanwhile the rest of the field was running lower on the track. Tourville was very quick on the bottom, drove up to second, and then closed on his “little buddy” Randt near the halfway point of the race.

One lap before the halfway signal, Tourville drove under Randt off turn four and took the lead. The rest of the race belonged to him. Randt continued to chase, but he was never able to move back into a challenging position.

After that halfway point, Vogel started to fade just a bit as the top side seemed to give out. Trey Hess, who cracked the top five at the halfway point, continued to charge.

After a lone yellow for a spin with 11 laps completed, the rest of the race ran off nonstop and Tourville was on a cruise as he pulled away for the win. Randt finished second with Hess charging up to third at the finish. There was just the one yellow flag and only one driver failed to see the checkered flag.

Joey Jensen was on hand, on the hunt for points Sunday, and he landed a big one as he flexed his muscle on the rest of the Midwest Mod field. After a seventh-to-first performance in his heat race, he started third in the feature and it took him only one lap to pass Travis Engebretsen for the top spot. After that, the battle was for second.

Jensen built up a big lead during the first half of the feature, but following a pair of lap-14 yellows, he was under pressure from Ryan Flaten for the top spot.

Jensen then picked up the pace and in the last few laps, pulled away to take the win. Behind Flaten it was Engebretsen, Justin Bjorklund and Scott Hansen to complete the top five.

Rick Simpson had never seen Madison Speedway before Sunday and he didn't know where to pit, where to get on the track, etc. However, he did know that when the green flag drops you “gas up” your car and ride the high banks of Madison.

That's exactly what he did after starting on the pole for the Super Stock feature, as he jumped into an early lead ahead of Shawn Fernkes and maintained that lead for the entire contest, winning the feature race during his first-ever visit.

Simpson maintained the lead throughout the nonstop contest and while Fernkes tried is best, he was never successful in cutting into Simpson's advantage. He settled for second with Brayden Hedtke coming forward from sixth to round out the top three.

A good two-car battle between Tony Konold and Tyler Kaeter highlighted the Modified feature and sent everyone home on a good note. They started side by side in the front row and Kaeter held the early lead.

Kaeter was pushing very hard and really hanging his car out in the corners, while Konold drove perhaps a more conservative line. Konold actually slipped back to third as Brian Haben briefly took over second following Nate Heinrich's adventure into the first turn concrete.

Konold regained second and then he gradually started to close in on Kaeter, whose car started to get loose in the corners and was losing time.

On lap nine, Konold drove under a sideways Kaeter and took over the lead; he then began to stretch his advantage as Kaeter got more and more sideways. They raced onto the finish in that running order, with Haben third.

The program produced one of the quickest shows here of the year with the final checkered waving before 9 p.m., much appreciated by those of us who had to drive farther than Lac qui Parle County to get home.

As always, thanks to everyone at Madison for their help and for keeping the tradition of county fair racing going.

Tuesday, September 9

The Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 began its five-night run Tuesday night, September 9 at the Don Shaw-owned I-94 emr Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

This year, an extra bonus for the fans on hand for practice was the second-to-last Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series program, as the series nears crowning its winner on Wednesday night. The finale on Wednesday was also to set the inside row for Saturday’s feature.

Forty-one Late Model drivers signed in to race Tuesday, with a couple more Late Models in the pits chosing to practive and not race. The top eight drivers in series points were on hand and the point battle for the series title is very much in doubt: Shane Sabraski, Dave Mass, Jeff Provinzino and Kevin Eder have all been fighting for the point lead, with Mass making a run as of late to grab back the top spot.

Lucas Oil Late Model Series rookie Dan Ebert returned to WISSOTA racing for the weekend. As the showcase event for WISSOTA, car owner James Trantina III was hoping Ebert could be on hand for this weekend. Using one of the Rocket chassis they started the year with, and with a brand-new Pro Power engine under the hood, Ebert raced his way to a 14th-place finish, finding WISSOTA drivers to be every bit as challenging as racing with the Lucas crowd. Not only is he running a Late Model for the week, but Ebert also broke out the Modified he raced last year for action at the 100.

Trantina also broke out a Late Model for the first time, a new Rocket chassis he debuted for this event.

It was great to see Scot Danzeisen back racing after a number of years away from the sport. Danzeisen, a former top-notch Modified racer, is now racing in the Late Model class. It appeared he was driving the equipment formally used by Shawn Kirwin.

Provinzino had two cars available for him to chose from for Tuesday night's program, opting for the black car for the night.

Sam Mars was a late arrival to the track after the team had truck trouble on their way to Fergus Falls. After arriving too late to race, they watched the feature action from the grandstands and cheered on Eder to his victory. They do plan to race on Wednesday.

Series director Chris Stepan was absent from the speedway on Tuesday, a very rare miss for him. Very serious health issues within his family caused his last-minute absence.

Eder set the pace early, with quick qualifier honors in the first group of five at 16.860 seconds. It turned out to be the quickest lap of the night, as the track slowed by about a second from the first to last group of the night. The track changed quite a bit throughout the course of the night and a couple of track prep sessions also helped to change the groove around as the evening progressed.

Zach Johnson and Travis Saurer lost good finishing positions throughout the course of the night due to deck height issues. Later Cory Tammen lost a mid-pack finish in the feature race when he lost a muffler during the race to trigger one of the two yellow flags.

After the qualifying was done and the provisional starters determined, 25 drivers took the green for the 40-lap feature.

It was a very exciting race with three different leaders and the ultimate pass for the win happening with just three laps left in the race. The whole track was used, with a number of drivers pounding the cushion and several others who made the low groove work, which just added to the interest value of the race.

Lee Grosz is one driver who loves to pound the cushion, perhaps a throw back to his days of racing Sprint Cars. It is almost a given that wherever he is racing, he will either be scraping the outside wall or tettering on the edge of those tracks without walls.

He started on the outside pole and took the early lead, with Tyler Peterson moving into second and showing speed. Both Dave Mass and Eder were on the move too, Mass from the fourth row and Eder right behind him.

Peterson moved to second and challenged Grosz for the lead as the first yellow waved with 11 laps complete for a minor spin. Shawn Meyer ran third, with Joel Bennett and Mass in the top five.

Thee laps later the yellow flew again for the stray muffler on the track, as Mass had gained two spots and Eder showed in the top five for the first time.

One lap after the second yellow, Peterson executed a slide job and took over the lead from Grosz. Mass, who made time along the low groove, opted to move back to the cushion and this opened up the inside line. Eder took full advantage of that, moving to third by the halfway point of the race ahead of Mass and Kevin Burdick, who cracked the top five for the first time.

Peterson hit some lapped traffic that slowed his charge on the top side and slowly but steadily, Eder began to close on Peterson for the lead. Eder showed himself to Peterson and Peterson opted to start running the low line in the corners as Eder closed, but he clearly wasn't comfortable there and moved back to the cushion.

Eder wasn't afraid to move low or high either; he picked up the pace as Peterson lost time off turn two, in particular. Eder dove to the bottom in turn three and the two raced side by side down the front chute, with them banging doors slightly as one went up the track and the other down. There was no damage and it was just a part of a great racing duel; Eder got the edge as they headed to turn one and with Peterson slipping up just a little on the top side, Eder was able to extend his lead.

Eder pulled away slightly during the final two laps and he crossed the line as the winner by 1.027 seconds over Peterson. Grosz, on the final corner, repassed Mass for third when Mass got blocked by traffic. Crapser, after a back-and-forth battle with Burdick, secured fifth on the final lap as well.

It was a highly entertaining race with the last 26 laps going green. Only two drivers failed to finish the race, with four a lap behind. Mass extended his point lead over Sabraski, who finished 16th.

Along with the Late Model show, approximately 150 drivers in the other four classes racing this week practiced.

Wednesday, September 10

The WISSOTA 100 began on a festive note on Wednesday, September 10. It was a beautiful day and the first official day of the 100 brought drivers in from a wide range of states and Canada. It promised to be a great weekend of racing.

Series officials had to pleased with the way things were developing; an outstanding field of drivers signed in to race and the field included 286 drivers. That is very good in these days of shrinking car counts across the board.

Overall, there were 16 more competitors than for the opener last year. Drivers can arrive either on Thursday or Friday and still have just as good of a chance to qualify for the feature race, they just don't have as many opportunities to do so. Last year about two dozen drivers were added to the field on the second and third nights of racing, and there is no reason to believe that won't happen again this year.

Drivers start qualifying for the 100 finales on Wednesday, with the inside row filled with the top eight finishers that accept the opportunity to race on Saturday. There is always a lot of intrigue that surrounds this. All of this adds to the drama of the week, while it puts a lot of pressure on the drivers to produce.

The Structural Building Challenge Series also crowned its champion Wednesday, worth $10,000, while at the same time setting the inside row for their $12,000-to-win feature on Saturday night.

The program got started about a half-hour late due to Late Model qualifying and some extra track prep work. The anthems were then played and the first Street Stock heat took to the track with the first green flag waving at 5:26 p.m. Before fans and racers could even settle in, disaster of the worst possible kind happened. At the conclusion of the first heat race, there was a collision between a track official crossing the track through the turn three exit and a race car completing the last lap of the heat race.

Medical and track officials rushed to the scene along with the ambulance and first responders were seen working over the injured person. A hush went over the crowd, which just seconds before was jovial.

The ambulance left quickly and we were all left to hope and pray there would be a positive outcome. Racing resumed after about a 90-minute delay, but after that, at least to me, what happened on the track seemed very inconsequential to what I had just witnessed. Somehow the rest of the program didn't really matter much to me.

The official word and very sad update came this morning: the track official passed away at the hospital in Fergus Falls last night. WISSOTA later notified the public that it was I-94 employee and WISSOTA board member Scott Engfer who died.

Engfer was a very valued employee of the I-94, and he did much of the track prep for the races. He did just about anything else that needed to be done at the track. As far as I know, he has been working at the track ever since Don Shaw bought the speedway and long before that — both at I-94 and I believe for the Johannecks at their tracks.

While I didn't know him well, I always talked to him every time I was at Fergus. We had many talks over the years and shared waves as he passed me while driving through the pits on the water truck or other equipment. We had plenty of chances over the years to just talk racing in general, and the year when Shaw put on races in Arizona he brought Engfer out with him to help. We got to talk even more on those occasions.

And not only was Engfer highly thought of and essential to the operation of I-94, he was also thought well of by other tracks and officials. Just this last winter he was elected to the WISSOTA board of directors, so his loss will be a huge one not just for I-94 but for WISSOTA Auto Racing in general. His wife Deb also works at the track and she and the family should be kept in our thoughts, as they suffered such a traumatic loss.

A pall was cast over the speedway and will now hang over the rest of this 100. I was all for calling it a night after the accident but I suppose Engfer would have wanted the show to go on and that is what took place.

Another race official and his family are grieving this weekend, too. Challenge Series director Chris Stepan lost his mother on Monday night and missed the Challenge Series race last night. He returned as race director Wednesday.

I don't feel much need or desire to talk about the races themselves because they don't feel very important right now. In brief, Josh Zimpel won the Challenge Series race, fighting off constant challenges from Tyler Peterson to get the win. I believe Dave Mass was the winner of the overall Challenge Series and he will receive his awards and the big check during Saturday night opening ceremonies; it was too late tonight to do it proper justice Wednesday, and frankly, more appropriate to do it then.

As for the five feature races, Kolton Brauer won the Street Stock feature, edging out a last-lap attempt at a pass by Kyle Dykhoff. This race had a lot of irresponsible driving, with several front-runners in the event taken out by poor judgement and driving behavior.

Matt Schow took the lead from Mario Berger in the Midwest Modified feature and survived constant pressure from Joey Jensen to get the win. Blake Adams had a nice drive from 13th to third. There were no yellows and only one driver did not finish.

Dylan Nelson led from start to finish to win the Super Stock feature. He was chased the entire distance by Shane Sabraski, who just couldn't catch him.

With the last two feature races going nonstop, Travis Saurer led the first five laps of the Modified feature before he was passed by Ryan Gierke, who then drove on for the win. Landon Atkinson made a late move to take second from Saurer.

At this point, I do not know which drivers opted to take their finishing spots and put themselves in the 100 and which drivers will race again on Thursday.

Racing will be carried on by officials with heavy hearts, knowing how much Scott and Deb meant and mean to the I-94 family and the working officials from WISSOTA.

Thursday, September 11

A lot of sad looking faces and heavy hearts were prominent in the pit area before the races on Thursday, September 11, for the third night of the WISSOTA 100. People continued trying to process the last few days of tragedy for so many in WISSOTA.

Particularly hard hit were the working staff at I-94, who had known Scott Engfer for years. Don Shaw is one tough guy but you could see it was weighing heavily on him. I suspect after the hubbub of this weekend is over and he has time to sit down and reflect, there will be some tough times ahead for him. He told me everyone who works on the track and does track prep — which Scott led at I-94 — is really hurting. He said his best cure for them at present is to keep them busy and focused on the track, so their minds don't start wandering. Scott lived for I-94 Speedway, along with his wife Deb, who Shaw said could run the track by herself if needed. She knows that much about the inner working of the track and what needs to be done.

Scott and Deb did racing, and that's all that they did. They didn't fish or vacation, they just did racing and they virtually lived at the track all summer. Scott had previously worked for the Johanneck family before Shaw bought the track, and before that at I-94 Sauk Centre. He also worked at Grove Creek Speedway before that, so he had spent the better part of his life working at race tracks and was Shaw's righthand man since he took over the track.

I heard some very interesting and revealing stories about Scott from some of the staff, which helped me understand what a nice and generous man he was even more, and how much he cared for racing.

As for Carol Proulx, Chris Stepan’s mother, she went with Chris to so many races over the years, helping out in the T-shirt trailer and wherever else she was needed. She always had good things to say about everyone and was just a nice and pleasant lady. Her presence at tracks throughout the country will be missed very much.

There is the old saying that the show much go on, but that is trite and doesn't begin to cover the heartache that many are feeling this week in Fergus.

With that being said, the show did indeed go on, just as Scott and Carol would have wanted, I’m told.

Jason Schoeneman did a very fine job leading off the program, as he made some remarks about both folks and made sure we remembered it was also 9/11 and honored those who passed on that terrible day. I remember just exactly where I was when I first heard what was going on that day, what about you?

It feels like the days of drivers racing in more than one division is at an all-time high this year. For instance, by my rough calculations, there are 11 drivers here this week racing in more than one class. This list is led by Shane Sabraski, which is a common occurrence for him. He is joined this weekend by James Trantina III, who debuted his Late Model here. There are also nine other drivers racing in two classes including Zach Benson, Blake Adams, Kolby Kiehl, Lucas Rodin, Mike Stearns, Travis Saurer, Dan Ebert, Tyler Peterson and Johnny Broking. There are also several more drivers racing this weekend that normally race multiple cars, but chose to focus on just one this week.

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