Bounty Hunter & Grinder win at Metrodome

John Seasock (photo with Jason above) driving Grinder wins the racing portion of the Monter Jam event at the Metrodome on Saturday January 21st.  His truck was on display at Advance Auto Parts in Buffalo on Friday afternoon before the show.

The Freestyle winner was Daren Migues driving Bounty Hunter, he scored a 23 edging out Iron Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle both with a score of 21.  The Bounty Hunter truck (photo below) did a show at Elko Speedway last summer during the Minnesota Millitary Charity event.

For full results go here http://www.monsterjam.com/Results/2012/01/21/Minneapolis,_MN/

Chad Walen awarded 2011 MN Asphalt Driver of the year

January 1 2012

By Jason D Searcy (www.speedtalkon1360.com)

Chad Walen from Prior Lake (MN) is the 2011 Speedtalk MN asphalt driver of the year.

Chad had an incredible season racing at Raceway Park in Shakopee (MN), winning the Super Late Model Points Championship after finishing second the previous two years.  He was 8 points behind defending Champion Adam Royle with three weeks remaining in the season but ended up winning the title by 11 points.

Chad scored six wins on the season at Raceway Park but said the reason for success was limiting the bad nights, "We didn't have any mistakes this year, not one DNF."

Chad was a crew member when his uncle Mel was a Champion at Raceway Park back in 1993-1995.  Walen racing might be known as a throw-back team because they draw heavily on past experience.  "We went back to what we knew back then, and the same stuff works today," said Chad.  He went from crew member to behind the wheel in 2001 driving a Modified, then moved to the Late Model division in 2005 with his father as the car owner.

Raceway park is a tight 1/4 mile track with the fast groove on the bottom but you still will see plenty of two-wide racing.  "The only way you are going to win is to figure out that second groove, it's where you've got to pass people" said Walen.  The racing is not the only reason why Chad likes Raceway Park, "its a great family atmosphere" he said "the other competitors are really good, we get along and they help each other out."

Even though Walen racing spent most of their time racing in Shakopee, they also won a race in September at Elko (MN) Speedway and travelled to La Crosse (WI) to compete in the Oktoberfest races.  They also enjoyed travelling to Charlotte (NC) for the annual NASCAR Member track National awards banquet in December.

Chad mentioned that the plans are to come back and try win another championship at Raceway Park on Sundays and hit a few more shows on Saturday nights in 2012.

"Speedtalk on 1360" is a weekly MN motorsports radio show based out of Buffalo (MN) on KRWC 1360am.

Past reciepients of this award are:
2004 Dan Fredrickson
2009 Adam Royle  http://racefansradio.blogspot.com/2009/12/2009-speedtalk-mn-driver-of-year.html
2010 Brent Kane http://racefansradio.blogspot.com/2011/01/2010-mn-asphalt-driver-of-year.html
2011 Chad Walen

2011 Speedtalk Stats

Speedtalk on 1360 wants to thank race fans for another great year celebrating our favorite sport.  2011 marked the 20th year of covering Motorsports for both Jason Searcy and Dean Reller, the last three years on KRWC radio in Buffalo.

Here are some year end stats from 2011:

*Number of radio shows-27
Live on-site shows at Iowa Speedway, Brainerd International Raceway, Classics by the Lake car show and Wright County Home show.

*Number of Sponsors-5
Performance Driving School at BIR, Lou Fegers Racing, Stockholm Motorsports Park, Raceway Park, Hideaway Speedway.

*Number of drivers interviewed-55
ASA Midwest tour-14
NASCAR Nationwide-10
SCCA Trans-Am-5
Mazda MX5-5
ASA Sportsman-5
Local drivers, Drag Racers, Sprint car drivers, an ARCA owner, Track Announcers, Monster Truck drivers, Motorcycle racers and Promotors.

*Top referral web-sites:
Google
20/20 Racing message board
Facebook
KRWC
Bing
Yahoo
Racing On-line
KFAN Rubechat message board

We also want to thank Jordan Bianchi from www.theracinggeek.com
 and Dan Plan from www.theracingconnection.com
 for their great weekly contributions to the show.

We are currently planning and looking for sponsors for our 2012 season.  If you have a business that wants to support Motorsports and target a loyal audience for as little as $50 per week, please contact us!  speedtalkon1360@gmail.com

2011

Youth Dominate Monster Jam at Metrodome

By Jason D Searcy www.speedtalkon1360.com


Move over Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction, a couple young kids showed they are more than capable of knocking off the elder statesmen of Monster Jam at the Metrodome.

First time winner 21 yr old Morgan Kane driving Monster Magic shocked the Metrodome crowd with a win in the racing portion of the show.  He beat El Madador and then took advantage of a mistake by Lindsey Weenk driving Lucas Oil Crusader, who bicycled up onto Avenger in the Semi-Finals (photo above).  Then a big upset in the finals as he beat Ryan Anderson in Son UVA Digger by inches.  Morgan Kane and Ryan Anderson have been friends since childhood and now seem to be ready to take their game to the next level.

Grave Digger (photo above) and Maximum Destruction (photo below) both bowed out early in the racing portion.  The Max D truck missed the final ramp, got the 5 second penalty and lost in the second round.

The FreeStyle portion was once again a struggle for the veteran drivers. Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction broke the truck early in the run but still ripped up the course scoring a 26. Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger also broke early but couldnt get anything going, he scored only 19 pts. The Anderson kids did put on a great show though, Adam in Grave Digger Legend finished with a 29 and Ryan won with a score of 30! Here is a youtube video of that run.

One year ago the first Metrodome Monster Jam show had a smaller crowd due to a snowstorm, and the second show was cancelled due to the dome roof collapsing.  This year the crowd was much better with the entire lower section sold out and over half of the upper level full.  Monster Jam will return to the Metrodome in Minneapolis MN on January 21st 2012.  Then we will see if the Icons of the sport will retake their crowns.

Here are the UNOFFICIAL results from Freestyle, December 10 2011.
1-Son UVA Digger 30
2-Grave Digger Legend 29
3-El Toro Loco   26
4-Max D   26
5-Stone Crusher 24
6-Lucas Oil Crusader 23
7-Grinder  23
8-Avenger  21
9-Madador  20
10-King Krunch  20
11-Grave Digger  19
12-Superman  18
13-Monster Magic 18
14-Brutis   17
15-Iron Man  15
16-Monster Mutt  7

Official results http://www.monsterjam.com/Results/2011/12/10/Minneapolis,_MN/

Snowball Derby 2012

The biggest Super Late Model race in the nation takes place in Pensacola Florida.  The 44th Snowball Derby saw Bubba Pollard take the fast time in qualifying with a 16.290, breaking a 31 year old track record at 5 flags Speedway.

Starting Lineup Noteables:

6th-Jeff Choquette- ASA Midwest tour winner at Iowa Speedway 2011
7th-Landon Cassill-NASCAR driver from Iowa
8th-Augie Grill current "snowflake" winner, 2 time Derby winner
9th-Chase Elliott- Son of Bill Elliott, 2010 Snowball derby winner
11th- Kennis Prunty (best looking car winner) from Knowles Wisconsin
13th-Johanna Long- defending snowball winner
17th-David Ragan NASCAR winner at Daytona
20th-Erik Darnell former NASCAR Truck series ROY from Wisconsin
22nd-Mike Garvey from Michigan, many time ASA winner
33rd-Ross Kenseth ASA Midwest tour ROY from Wisconsin
37th-Steve Wallace, son of Rusty Wallace, NASCAR Nationwide series driver

*RACE DAY UPDATES:
Jeff Choquette has lead most of the race, Johanna Long crashes and hits wall to bring out a caution at lap 100 of 300.  Erik Darnell is out with a bad tranny, David Ragan also in the pits with mechanical problems.  Bubba Pollard and Chase Elliott fighting for the lead at lap 123 as Dennis Prunty brings out the caution.  Steve Wallace is out of the race at lap 130. 

The leaders Pollard, Choquette, Grill & Elliott all have contact in turn 4 as they were going for the lead on lap 145.

Lap 200 Casey Smith is the leader, Ross Kenseth is in 13th place.  With 50 laps to go, Chase Elliott is the leader followed by Van Dorn, Smith, Hamner and Cassill.

Red Flag with 5 laps to go, Derrick Thorn rolled and Josh Hamner crashed.  Ross Kenseth fought his way up to 3rd place just behind DJ Vanderley and leader Chase Elliott.

Bill Elliott's son Chase Elliott wins, just edging DJ Vanderley.  Matt Kenseth's son Ross Kenseth (photo below) finishes third after fighting back from a lap down, Landon Cassill fourth and Heath Heinman round out the top 5.