Max Reaves wins ARCA at ELKO

 

15 year old Joe Gibbs driver #18 Max Reaves won for the first time in the ARCA Menards National series at Elko Speedway during the Shore Lunch 250.

Max Reaves took the lead during the final segment of the race by passing Lavar Scott and he ended up winning by 3.786 seconds.

Brenden "butter bean" Queen #28 was the fast qualifier and finished in second place, it was obvious he had many fans in the Elko Speedway stands.

The weather was unseasonably hot with temperatures in the mid 90's and high humidity.  Numerous cars and some drivers had trouble completing the race due to the heat.

16 year old Ty Fredrickson from Webster MN made his ARCA debut at ELKO and finished a very strong 4th place.  He gave away 200 kids shirts to fans in attendance. 

Here is a video of Elko Speedway announcers Jason and Dean recapping the Shore Lunch 250 at Elko Speedway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0tCE97Jrlk

 

The on-track driver autograph session was a big success and the crowd was large considering the unusually hot weather.

24 cars entered the race, the largest field in over a decade at Elko Speedway.  Drivers from 19 different states raced at ELKO for the Shore Lunch 250, 13 of them were rookies.

Here is the full race replay from announcers Jason Searcy and Dean Reller as heard on the track Public address speakers.  Post-race interviews also included.

https://soundcloud.com/speedtalkon1360/arca2025-elko-race-call 

Click here for full field results ARCA Shore Lunch 250 2025

Speed Talk Show #2 of 2025

 Speed Talk hosts and Elko Speedway announcers Jason Searcy and Dean Reller talk about the change of ownership at Elko Speedway as well as the Opening Night news and notes.

Speed Talk episode #2 of 2025

2024 ARCA race at Elko Speedway

 William Sawalich wins an epic race in the ARCA Menards series at Elko Speedway, he won an exciting 3 way battle for the top spot.  The margin of victory was 0.011 seconds, the second closest race in ARCA History.  

Jason and Dean did a new episode of Speed Talk discussing this race and adding some insider info, also included local racing at ELKO and IndyCar racing at Iowa Speedway.

Here is the audio of the Race Call of the last 6 laps of this exciting race done by Jason and Dean https://soundcloud.com/speedtalkon1360/arca2024finish

Here is the Speed Talk show on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5wZRIzLamU

Here is the audio only version of the Speed Talk show https://soundcloud.com/speedtalkon1360/speed-talk-3-2024

William Sawalich Interview on KRWC

 

16 year old Eden Prairie MN ARCA series driver William Sawalich did a 20 min interview on KRWC with Jason Searcy from Speed Talk on 1360 Radio.

Here is a link to that interview Sawalich Interview HERE

William Sawalich finished 2nd place in the 2023 Elko Speedway ARCA Menards 250 race, he was the star of the show and the crowd favorite.

Jason also did a feature article on William Sawalich and his MN racing roots in the Midwest Racing Connection starting on Page 6 Sawalich Article MRC

Here is the article on William Sawalich that appeared in the Midwest Racing Connection July edition on pages 7 & 8.  July Sawalich article

ELKO 2022 Interviews

 By Jason D Searcy

We did not have a radio show in 2022 but Speed Talk on 1360 continued with interviews from Elko Speedway (MN) drivers.  Here is the list with photos and links.

Now 9 time ELKO Champion #72 Jacob Goede he is now tied with Donny Reuvers and just 1 behind Jeff Martin for the most Premier Divison Championships in track history.  Click Here for interview

Now 6 time ELKO Thunder Car Champion #3 Conrad Jorgenson, he has won a Championship in the 90's, 2000's, 2010's and now the 2020's.  This is a fun interview where he reveals his 2023 plans Conrad Jorgenson interview

Former Thunder Car Champion and crowd favorite #32 Jeremy Wolff got his first Late Model win in a long time, here is his interview Click here for Wolff interview

Legendary Late Model driver #52 Chad Walen finished 2nd in the points in 2022, Here is his interview where he talks racing and his other love, restoring classic cars.

Chad Walen interview link

We also started a new series called "6 questions" where we interview top drivers and ask them some racing questions and other questions that have nothing to do with racing.  The answers proved to be very interesting!

Two time Thunder Car Champion and Rookie Late Model driver #37 Bryce Blohm Click HERE for the Blohm interview 

7 time Elko Speedway Power Stock winner in 2022 #08 Mike Stoer did a very entertaining interview and Photo! 

 

Click Here for Stoer interview

Former ELKO Legends division Champion #13 Tim Brockhouse is an interesting Character and he was in a great mood when doing this 6 questions interview 

Brockhouse Interview link

Long time Power Stock driver #66 Joe Prusak announced his retirement after the 2022 season and after over 200 wins in his career.

Joe Prusak Interview link

Former Power Stock Champion, current Thunder Car driver and crowd favorite Taylor Goldman known as "Roller Girl" did a great 6 questions interview.

Taylor Goldman interview link

We also interviewed ELKO superfan Konnor Koski

Konnor interview link

Jacob Goede also did a very well recieved "6 questions" interview

Jacob Goede Interview

We also posted many Jason Searcy race calls from numerous races at Elko Speedway in 2022.  Click on this link to listen to some of the race calls.  Audio of 2022 ELKO Race Calls

Jimmie Jorgenson 1st win

Mike Stoer 5th win of 2022

Tristan Swanson win

Jesse Fischer 6th win

Mark Anderson Jr win

Jacob Goede 7th Behrens memorial race win

Jacob Goede interview after the Behrens memorial win

Mark Anderson Jr vs Danny Mann race call

Tom Doten 2nd win of 2022

Jeremy Wolff 1st ELKO LM win race call

Tyler Ledbetter 1st win race call

Matt Wiebusch win race call

Danny Mann 6th win of 2022

Jesse Fischer vs Nick Oxborough great race

Baiden Heskett 3rd win of 2022

Mark Anderson Jr Bando win

Danny Mann 5th win of 2022

Owin Giles 3rd win of 2022

Julie Jorgenson first win of 2022

Colin Stocker clean sweep

Hunter Paine 1st LM win

Dillon Sellner clean sweep

Danny Mann 4th win

Ayrton Brockhouse 1st Legends win

Leighton Rose 2nd Bando win

Tim Brockhouse win #241

Tom Doten Power Stock win

Brent Kane 2nd win of 2022

Matt Frye win

Jake Ryan win race call

Jon Lemke 2nd win of 2022

Dusty Mann 1st Late Model win

Here are some photos from an exciting 2022 season that included Sammy Smith #18 winning the ARCA event, 4 years earlier he won 4 races at ELKO in a Legends Car.  A first career Late Model win for #10 Dusty Mann, numerous wins from 12 year old Ayrton Brockhouse in the Legends division, #7 Jacob Tiegen winning a national title in the INEX division and #36 Ty Fredrickson racing at ELKO for the first time.  Elko hosted its first annual Monster Truck Mania event and 7K racing won the Jeremy Johnson memorial "Tire Guy" Sportsmanship award.

Heim wins ARCA at Elko Speedway

July 10, 2021- Elko, MN

By Jason D Searcy

*Corey Heim and Charles Krall

Excitement has never been lacking at Elko (MN) Speedway, the smallest racetrack on the ARCA Menards series always seems to pack the biggest punch when it comes to exciting finishes and 2021 was no exception.

*Ty Gibbs

NASCAR owner Joe Gibbs was in attendance to watch his grandson #18 Ty Gibbs from Huntersville (NC) dominate a majority of the Menards 250, Ty Gibbs won the General Tire Pole award and he led 236 of the 250 laps.  Corey Heim #20 from Marietta (GA) snuck past Gibbs for a few laps after an early restart on lap 53 but then the two cars had a little contact on lap 62 and Gibbs took back the lead on lap 65.  Heim was not happy with the contact and he had the opportunity for payback late in the race.  

It looked like Gibbs was going to win the Menards 250 by a sizeable margain until #66 Ron Vandermeir Jr spun on lap 243, setting up a restart with just a handful of laps remaining.  Corey Heim lined in the second row directly behind Gibbs and when the green flag was displayed Heim bumped Gibbs and sent him up the track and leaving the door open for Heim to take the lead and then hold back both the #17 of Taylor Gray and #15 of Jesse Love as the cars went three-wide coming out of turn number two.  Heim then shot to the front and ended up winning by 0.593 seconds a couple laps later.  Jesse Love from Redwood City (GA) finished second, crowd favorite #25 Gracie Trotter from Denver (NC) was third and Ty Gibbs finished a disappointing fourth, Taylor Gray from Denver (NC) rounded out the top five finishers.

Here is the Race Call of that exciting finish ARCA 2021 ELKO finish

*Top Jesse Love Bottom Gracie Trotter

Nick Sanchez #2 from Miami (FL) was sixth, Daniel Dye #21 from Deland (FL) seventh, #10 Willie Mullins from Fredricksburg (VA) finished last car on the lead lap in 8th pleasing his many Minnesota relatives that were in attendance.  Richard Petty's grandson #46 Thad Moffitt from Trinity (NC) spun early in the race but raced hard to finish 9th and #30 Adam Lemke from Holister (CA) was 10th of the 17 cars in attendance.  The race had 7 caution periods and took 1 hour and 20 minutes.

*Willie Mullins at driver autograph session 

The Local NASCAR divisions at Elko Speedway also raced one feature event each for the ARCA crowd in attendance.  The Late Models sponsored by The Car Lot in New Prague had an impressive field of 26 cars start the 40 lap feature event.  

Chris Marek #3 and Andrew Schultz #29 went side by side to start the race, Marek finally established himself as the leader on lap three.  Four-time Elko Speedway Champion Marek was then challenged by another veteran driver #52 Chad Walen who worked his way up from the sixth starting position to get alongside Marek on lap 10 and then passed him two laps later.  Chad Walen from Prior lake (MN) weaved through lapped traffic and held on to win by 1.565 seconds during this cautionless race and win for the first time this season at ELKO.  Andrew Schultz finished second, #13 Bryan Wrolstad third, Chris Marek was fourth and #21 Adam Bendzick was fifth.  Owin Giles #6 was 6th, 7-time Champion #72 Jacob Goede started 14th and finished 7th, #8 Billy Mohn 8th, #11 Buddy Kofoid the USAC National Midgets current point leader from Penn Grove (CA) started 23rd and finished 9th and #40 Michael Beamish was 10th.  Fast-qualifier #54 Dylan Moore had mechanical problems and did not finish.  Chad Walen no leads Jacob Goede by 1 point in the Late Model division point standings.

The Genz-Ryan Thunder Car 30 lap feature at ELKO had #75 Keith Paulsrud take the early lead until a caution happened on lap 9 for #25 Eric Campbell who tagged the wall.  After the restart #8 Taylor Goldman fought hard with Paulsrud and took the lead on lap 12, another caution happened on lap 20 when six-time ELKO Champ #3 Conrad Jorgenson had mechanical problems and dropped out.  Dillon Sellner #07 of Randolf (MN) who finished second in qualifying to Jorgenson by 0.001 seconds moved his way up the field from his 10th starting position and challenged Goldman side by side for a few laps and then took the lead just before the white flag flew.  Sellner ended up winning by 0.369 seconds, it was his first win of the season at ELKO.  Taylor Goldman was second, #92 Norm Grabinger finished third, #9 Adam Wiebusch fourth and #14 Tony Holm fifth of the 11 cars competing.  Dillon Sellner is now tied with Conrad Jorgenson for the lead in the season point standings at Elko Speedway.  

The Pepsi Powerstock 30 lap feature event had #19 James Tich take the early lead until #25 Jason Michaud grabbed the top spot with an outside pass coming to lap 2 of 30.  A yellow flag flew slowing the field on lap seven, after the restart on lap 9 #83 Julie Jorgenson (photo above) from Lakeville (MN) drove up from her 6th starting position and took over the lead with an outside pass, Jorgenson then extended her advantage to a full straight away lead.  Fast-qualifier #88 Nick Oxborough, who started 9th, finally made his way up to the front and was close enough to give Jorgenson a couple bumps in the closing laps.  Jorgenson held strong and won by 0.211 seconds at the finish line, it was her first win of the season, Oxborough was second, #62 Tom Doten finished third, #08 Mike Stoer was fourth and #13 Matt Frye fifth of the 13 cars entered.   Oxborough now leads Matt Frye by 29 points in the season point standings at Elko Speedway.

All results and points are unofficial at this time.

Elko Speedway is a NASCAR sanctioned 3/8th mile asphalt oval race track with

stadium seating located 30 minutes South of the Twin Cities in Elko-New Market

MN.  Get More information at ElkoSpeedway.com

 

2018 Speed Talk Wrap up

2018 was a banner 10th year for Speed Talk on 1360 radio on KRWC

We had the honor to interview drivers from many different forms of racing including:

ARCA at ELKO! and Iowa Speedway
Gus Dean
Christian Eckes
Riley Herbst
Sheldon Creed
Natalie Decker
Chandler Smith
Zane Smith
Chase Purdy
Harrison Burton
Willie Mullins

IndyCar at Iowa Speedway
Wil Power
Zach Veach

NASCAR Xfinity and Trucks at Iowa Speedway
Ryan Truex
Jusin Haley
Austin Cindric
Kaz Grala
Ty Majeski
Brandon Jones
Riley Herbst
Jesse Little
Johnny Sauter

Elko Speedway weekly racers
Jacob Goede
Dave Reed
Robby Carter
Jeremy Wolff
Jon Lemke
Julie Jorgenson
Sammy Smith
Bryce Blohm
Brody Willett
Norm Grabinger
Taylor Goldman
Nick Oxborough
Bryan Wrolstad
Michael Stoer
Brent Kane
Baiden Heskett
Paul Hamilton
Eric Campbell
Joe Prusak

Bandit Big Rig Series
Mark Noble

Flat Track Motorcycle
Bryan Smith
Bronson Bauman

ERX
Tim Dehann

Road Racing
Matt Peterson

Local Dirt Tracks and WISSOTA 100
Jon Lewerer
Dexton Koch
Eric Martini
Jeremy Nelson
Dustin Holtquist
Dave Mass
Adam Prieve
Shane Howell

MOST LISTENED TO INTERVIEWS of 2018:
Dean's Soundcloud
1- Jon Lewerer interview Listen HERE
2- ELKO Recap 8/11 (Goede, Wrolstad, Sammy Smith) Listen HERE
3- Mark Noble interview Listen HERE

Jason's Soundcloud
1- Michael Haggar win Race Call Listen HERE
2- Julie Jorgenson win Race Call Listen HERE
3- Owin Giles win Race Call Listen HERE
4- Taylor Goldman interview Listen HERE
5- Michael Stoer interview Listen HERE

We were also honored to talk to Carson Gramm from WISSOTA and legendary dirt track announcer Ron Krog multiple times this year, plus Doug Selle, Skip Pollack and Adam Brachle too.  It was fun to see Dean Reller make his TV debut as the pit reporter on the Speed Sport coverage of the WISSOTA 100 (the Kottschade boys were excited) and Jason got his 10 seconds of fame on the MavTV coverage of the ELKO ARCA race.

You can listen to podcasts of Jason's interviews and Race calls HERE

You can listen to Deans interviews and FULL SHOW podcasts HERE

Our final wrap-up show of 2018 here available on a podcast HERE

Our full podcast listings of 2018 are HERE

We also want to thank Jordan Bianchi and Dan Plan for contributing their insights to the show weekly also Shane Carlson for helping out numerous times in 2018.

Please Support our sponsors, they make this show possible.

Performance Driving School at BIR
ELKO Speedway
Cotten's NAPA
Lou Fegers Racing Equipment Delano
Highway 55 Trailer Sales Buffalo
STB Screen Printing and Embroidery

Our MOST CLICKED stories of 2018 were:
1- Local Drivers steal the show at Monster Jam  HERE
2- Willie Mullins small team success in ARCA  HERE
3- Speed Talk returns for 10th year
4- Gus Dean wins ARCA at ELKO HERE
5- Allgaier wins Xfinity at Iowa HERE

6- Creed wins ARCA at Iowa HERE
7- Jorgenson is 2017 Driver of Year HERE
8- Hinchcliffe wins Indycar at Iowa HERE

We had 22,840 unique page views this year and went over 270,000 for the past 10 years.

Thank you for listening... hope to see you again in Spring of 2019 for our 11th year on KRWC
Jason and Dean

Photo credit: Tom Venturini (Jason and Pete)
Photo credit: 7K racing (Dean on TV)
Photo credit  Dean Reller (Becky Monster Jam and Iowa Speedway burnout)

Gus Dean with emotional ARCA win at ELKO

Gus Dean #32 from Bluffton (SC) scored an emotional win for owner Kevin Cywinski and Win-Tron racing on Saturday night during the ARCA racing series presented by Menards Sioux Chief PowerPex250 presented by CW Metals and MatrixCare at Elko Speedway.

His crew chief Jamie Jones made a daring call to not pit for tires on lap 60 of the 250 lap race when almost all the other cars on the lead lap did so, the only other car not to pit was the #77 of Joe Graf Jr.

Gus Dean had the lead after that first caution period and led the race for 9 laps but then the strategy almost backfired as there was a long green flag run after that caution, Gus Dean went a lap down on older tires and then actually spun on the track on lap 160 putting him two laps down.  Dean then pitted for tires with the rest of the teams, but the difference was that his team had an extra set of tires as a result of not pitting on that first caution.  Dean did a great job of racing hard and being in position for the free pass.  Numerous cautions mid-race made it possible for him to get back on the lead lap and with those extra tires in the pits he had the advantage the last race run.

Here is the audio recap of the race with interviews included ARCA Recap

Sixteen year old Chandler Smith #20 was dominant for a large portion of the race and at one time had a half lap lead, he led 160 of the 250 laps in total.  Chase Purdy #8 and Chandler Smith  had a great battle for the lead after multiple restarts, after one of the restarts Smith spun, he went to the tail of the field and the car never seemed to be the same, he finished 6th.

Chase Purdy #8 had the lead for 31 laps and looked to be on the way to his first career win until disaster struck with less than 10 laps remaining in the race, in dramatic fashion his car erupted into flames and the race was red flagged.

Here is the Race Call of that event by Elko Speedway announcers Jason Searcy and Dean Reller.  Chase Purdy fire Race Call

After a lengthy cleanup the final few laps of the race was very exciting and the large crowd rose to it's feet in unison.  Here was the race call with Jason and Dean.  Final Laps of 2018 ARCA race at ELKO


Gus Dean #32 was the winner, the margin of victory was .857, this was his first win for Win-Tron racing.
Here is our interview with an excited Gus Dean Winner interview at ELKO

The only other car on the same tire strategy as Gus Dean was the #77 car driven by Joe Graf Jr who drove a Bando car at Elko Speedway ten years ago when lived in Medina (MN) up until the age of 11, then the family moved to New Jersey.   Graf Jr drove a great race but was disappointed to finish in 3rd place after getting moved up the track by Gus Dean on the final restart.

The second place finisher was #15 Christian Eckes from Middletown (NY), he also finished second in this race at Elko Speedway in 2017.  Earlier in the evening Eckes earned his first career General Pole fast time award.    Here is his post race interview Christian Eckes interview

Local favorite #25 Natalie Decker drove a very smart race, she stayed on the lead lap and was aggressive late and moved up to finish a tie for her career best of 5th place.  Here is our post race interview with her Natalie Decker Interview

Point leader #28 Sheldon Creed had a tough night and finished 15th, second in points #41 Zane Smith started up front but faded back quickly, he finished a disappointing 12th.  Joe Gibbs developmental driver #18 Riley Herbst was in contention all night and finished 4th after starting the race last due to a part failure in qualifying, here is our post race interview with him Riley Herbst ELKO interview

Final Results:

1- #32 Gus Dean
2- #15 Christian Eckes
3- #77 Joe Graf Jr
4- #18 Riley Herbst
5- #25 Natalie Decker
6- #20 Chandler Smith
7- #27 Travis Braden
8- #78 Blaine Perkins
9- #55 Eddie Fatscher
10- #2 Robert Bruce
11- #34 Mike Basham
12- #41 Zane Smith
13- #3 Willie Mullins
14- #8 Chase Purdy
15- #28 Sheldon Creed
16- #11 Dick Dohney
17- #48 Brad Smith
18- #10 Darrell Basham

The time of the race was 1hr 29min.

Former Viking player and current Vikings radio Color Commentator Pete Bercich is a big motorsports fan and was in attendance at the race.  MavTV broadcast the race LIVE.

Listen to Speed Talk on 1360 radio Saturday 10-11am for a full recap of this event.  Listen on the free Tunein app by searching KRWC or KRWC1360.com


*Jason Searcy and Tom Venturini photos