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

Final radio show of 2011

Saturday afternoon will wrap up an awesome third year of Speedtalk on 1360 radio on KRWC.
Our final show of 2011 will be broadcast after the Golden Gophers football game vs Michigan on Saturday Oct 1st, our show will go at approx 3:30 or 4pm.

In 2011 we interviewed 55 different race car drivers from all forms of Motorsports including: a Monster Truck driver, 10 different NASCAR Nationwide series drivers, 5 Trans-Am drivers, an NHRA Champion, 13 ASA Midwest tour drivers and the current Daytona 500 champion.  If you are wondering how we got so many drivers on the show, see photo below!

We were lucky to have two great weekly guests too, Dan Plan with his knowledge covering local racing and Jordan Bianchi is the best NASCAR columnist in the country.

This year Jason got to meet his hero, the Monster Jam announcer Scott Douglas (photo below).

We broadcast LIVE from the SCCA Trans-Am series race at Brainerd International Raceway and Two NASCAR Nationwide series races at Iowa Speedway.  Dean found a sign with some good advice for Speedtalk fans (photo below).

It was truely a great year, thank you race fans for supporting Speedtalk radio in 2011.

A big thanks to our sponsors: Gary at Performance driving school at Brainerd International Raceway, Sara, Mike and Barb at Lou Fegers Racing Equipment in Delano, Ted at Stockholm Motorsports park in Cokato and the whole gang at Raceway Park in Shakopee.  Please support these businesses and tell them that you hear their ad on Speedtalk and for helping promote motorsports on mainstream media.

Listen to our final show Saturday Oct 1st at approx 4pm on KRWC radio 1360am or www.krwc1360.com

Remember we will continue to cover MN Motorsports all winter long on our web-site, please keep checking back www.speedtalkon1360.com