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Brady Larson and Nick Koehler were a potent front row for the MidMod feature, with Larson leading the opening two laps before Koehler drove past him to take over the top spot. However, Koehler could not pull away from the pack as Larson, Dave Baxter and Joey Jensen all hung close.

Larson then took himself out of the race by slamming the wall hard in turn four, which triggered a yellow.

Through the halfway point of the race, Koehler continued to lead but Baxter and Jensen continued to press him. Baxter was especially strong working the inside line and on lap 17, he drove under Koehler for the lead.

A late yellow set up a three-lap dash to the finish with Koehler pushing hard on the outside, trying to drive back around Baxter. Baxter was very fast off the corners, however, and put a little distance on him. He then drove on for the win, his biggest one in quite some time; he is another driver whose racing is limited because of work commitments. A last-corner pass ended with Jensen edging out Koehler for second, and Shadow Kitchner quietly moved up from the fifth row to claim fourth ahead of Alex Myers in his first successful outing.

One advantage of a split program is that with less races to run each night, in most cases the programs get done early and the curfew isn’t a factor. That was the case this weekend; both nights the racing was completed before 10 p.m., giving folks the chance to dance it up on Friday and either head home early or visit the pits on Saturday.

It proved to be a good final weekend for the Red Cedar Speedway folks and it is always good for them to conclude the season with a solid Punky. The crowds were good both nights, with a near full house on Saturday. Fans saw entertaining racing and some unpredictable finishes. And to leave the crowd with a last-lap pass for the win in the Late Models was a great way to conclude 2026.

Sunday, September 27

Bad luck in the weather department for the folks at Granite City Motor Park was good news for yours truly, as well as travelers in the racing ranks. The Saturday night finale for the Piston Cup was rained out and rescheduled for Sunday, so that’s where I and others headed for action to close out the weekend.

I am so glad that some tracks offer rain dates for their special events. Hopefully it works for them just as much as it worked for us.

It really benefitted some of those teams who made the effort to pull back to Granite City after racing elsewhere over the weekend. Four of the six WISSOTA-sanctioned features were won by drivers who would not have been there if the show had been completed as planned on Saturday night.

That must frost some of the drivers who hung around in the mud for an extra 24 hours to race, only to get beat by someone who motored in on Sunday afternoon.

Among the drivers who showed up at Granite City on Sunday included Kaden Woodie, who came back from Jamestown; Levi Randt, Shane Sabraski and Jody Bellefeuille, who came back from Thunder Bay; Tony Konold and Brett Moffenbier, who were completely skunked at Casino; and Kennedy Swan, who drove west after running Red Cedar over the weekend.

The track was actually a bit on the dry side for Sunday racing. The sun had returned, which helped dry it out, and I’m sure they pounded it hard with the racing on Friday night. That was probably a big factor in having the ability to race on Sunday.

The only down side was that the infield was a sea of mud and not navigable by race cars, for sure. They adjusted by having the race cars leave the track where they normally would have entered and vice versa for their exit.

However, when drivers slowed with mechanical issues or flat tires, they didn’t have a place to go because they couldn’t get into the infield. This resulted in more yellow flags than normal, the vast majority of which were caused by drivers who had to park on the track. In balance, though, it was a fair trade to be able to see racing.

I had not seen Ryan Satter much this summer but he was on hand for the weekend, driving his own Super Stock on Sunday. He ran Kegan Steuve’s Street Stock on Friday night. I did not know that he is now doing repairs on race cars and building some as a side job. He is working on three Street Stocks presently. He still has his Stock Car but just hasn’t had the time to race it, having run only about 13 times all year. He hopes to hit as many shows as possible now during the fall specials season, especially those in his neck of the woods.

I also spent a moment with Twin Ports Hornet hotshoe Nathan Penney. In asking, I found out that they plan to race Hornets for one more year; Penney is only 15. After that, he may move up to a Super Stock or to another class. They are concerned about the future health of the Hornet class though. There were short fields at most Tundra tracks this summer, and recently news broke that Gondik Law Speedway is going to only run them in a limited number of shows. Instead, Street Stocks will take their place at GLS.

Dean Larson has started running a Midwest Mod along with his Mod Four. I hoped to ask him about that big change but never could find him in the pits, so that will remain an unanswered question for the time being. Perhaps he just wants to double his chances of doing a fence climb after a feature win.

As memorable as anything else that happened all day, many will remember that we survived the attack by the no-see-ums that invaded the speedway just at race time. I can’t remember the last time I was so miserable in my life, at least until the sun set and they disappeared.

For those who don’t know, no-see-ums (scientific name Ceratopogides) are tiny black bugs. Only the females bite as they seek our blood to produce young. And man, they are annoying and painful! I was swatting and slapping and fending and ducking as they were driving me nuts. From my vantage point in the top row of the bleachers, I could see that literally everyone else in the stands was doing the same thing! It was brutal. We did survive but like myself, I imagine there are lots of people scratching the hard and itchy bites today as they go about their business.

What a weekend it turned out to be for Shane Sabraski. He won the Modified feature both days in Thunder Bay, earned one win and a second with the Midwest Mod, and “slumped” to just a second and a fifth with the Super Stock. He was also just one heat race win away from scoring a clean sweep of the weekend, which would have netted him an extra $20,000 (Canadian).

He then drove down to GCMP to race Sunday and ended up with a triple win, taking the Mod, Super and Midwest Mod feature wins. It was reported that at the end of the night on Sunday he had taken over the national point lead in the Mods but I couldn’t confirm that before deadline time on Monday.

And as fast as Sabraski has been of late, it doesn’t hurt when you are racing against good competition to be just a bit lucky as well. He started on the front row for both Mod wins in Canada, and for two of his wins on Sunday. We all know how important track position is and with these specials, which have so many good cars, if you don’t start right up front, winning becomes a monumental task.

I believe in the Modified class on Sunday we saw the first inklings of a new rising star in the Modified ranks in Teddy Kottschade. Earlier on Sunday, he won his first-ever heat race since starting in the Modifieds after moving up from the kart ranks. He also led the first 10 laps of the Modified feature, getting the jump on Travis Saurer and then holding off Sabraski until Sabraski made the pass on lap 11. He did fade just a bit toward the end, but still got a top five finish and showed he belongs in the Modifieds. His improvement has been notable in the few shows I have seen him race this year.

Seventh-starter Eric Lamm also had an impressive performance. He hugged the inside line and made it work for runner-up honors.

In the Super Stocks, Sabraski was chased by Dexton Koch for 20 laps. They are so equal that whoever starts in front is likely going to win.

In the Midwest Mods, Chance Kodet — who got his first-ever feature win on Friday night — led the opening lap. Sabraski, who started right behind him, got the lead after the first lap. Again it was a case of two fast drivers chasing each other; in this case, Jake Smith tried to track down Sabraski. They were pretty much equal and Smith had to settle for second. Veteran Ron Saurer, venturing out a bit more this year, finished third. This race ran nonstop from green to checkered.

This race had an interesting start as Moffenbier had an engine fire on the front chute as the drivers were lining up. While it was quickly put out, his race was done before the green even dropped.

Cody Kummer must be kicking himself in the posterior today after he slipped up once and Levi Randt used the opportunity to best him in the Street Stock feature.

Kummer battled with Kyle Howland to begin the feature before finally taking the lead on lap three. After that, he was challenged by Randt and Eric Riley, who exchanged second on several occasions, as they raced hard for that position. This race was plagued by caution flags, with seven slowdowns in 25 laps. Randt and Riley kept changing up their restart position, each trying both high and inside on the green to get past Kummer. But Kummer did a good job of covering the bottom line and the track at this point was low side dominant.

Following the last yellow on lap 21, Randt was the one putting the heat on as he changed up his line, diamonding off the corner and getting a great run down the chutes.

But for some reason, on lap 24, Kummer failed to cover the low side off turn two and Randt, with another big run, was able to slip inside Kummer down the back chute, make a clean pass, and pull away off the final corner to take the win. That proved to be a $200 mistake.

Jim Gullikson started in the rear after a heat race problem, went to the back after another issue early in the feature, and still drove back up to third at the end.

Some very fast racing was shown in the Hornet feature, which rounded out the evening. McKenna Folstad led the first three laps of the nonstop main but was passed by Adam VanDerostyne, who seemed to be in control of the race.

However, Christian Kast was very fast and he used the second lane to move up and then drive by VanDerostyne, taking the lead on lap eight. He then drove on, uncontested, for the win. Here, as at many tracks this year, the Hornet field was small and limited to a single heat.

Overall, 96 drivers signed in to race on Sunday, plus another 18 in the Crown Vics. The Modified field was the largest of all.

Tonight’s show was a draw/redraw show, and I’m hoping that all special events move to a passing point manner of qualifying. I’m told that with their huge fields at Jamestown, this year for the first time they went to passing points to line up the mains. Now, if we could talk ABC into doing the same, it was be a big step in the correct direction.

Thanks to James Trantina and his staff for an entertaining season. I visited the track a number of times this year. This was their final event of the 2026 racing season.