Self Wins Second Straight at BIR

For the second year in a row, Michael Self found himself in the lead in the late stages of the race and once again he came out on top in the NAPA Know-How 125 for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at Brainerd International Raceway.  Andrew Ranger established the Track Record in Qualifying to with a lap of 96.330 MPH to claim the Coors Light Pole Award. 

Brainerd International Raceway

Preview:  NASCAR K&N Pro Series West

The  NAPA Know-How 125 is coming up on Saturday May 25^th at Brainerd International Raceway.  The 50 lap race (125 miles) will be run on BIR’s 13 turn Competition Road Course.  Practice is slated from 9:45 to 11 AM, with Qualifying scheduled for 1:45 and the Race set to start at 4:40 PM.

Speed Talk’s Dean Reller will be there with a LIVE update during this week’s show and will be providing updates throughout the day on the web, facebook and Twitter.  Here’s a list of drivers to watch.

Returning Drivers

#24 Michael Self (Golden Gate Meat/Bay Bio Diesel/RCR Chevrolet)

            The Park City, UT driver scored his first career win in last year’s inaugural race at Brainerd.  Self would go on to record 2 more wins in 2012.  Self started racing in karts on road courses, so turning left and right is natural for this Richard Childress developmental driver.

#26 Greg Pursley (GPM/Star Nursery/Real Water Ford)

Spring Dirt Weekend at Elko Speedway

By Jason D. Searcy

The weather shortened the amount of spring dirt racing to just one weekend, but it was an action packed two day event at Elko Speedway.  A near capacity crowd was thrilled by the awesome speed of the World of Outlaws sprint cars on Friday night.

32 Sprint cars raced and Sam Hafertepe set a fast time in qualifying at 12.507.  #83 Tim Kaeding worked his way from his 13th starting position to win the $10,000  main event, passing Kerry Madsen right up by the wall for the victory.  "Live or die on the high side, that is my motto," said Kaeding.  The race was shortened because of a brief rain shower that forced officials to end the race at lap 34 of a scheduled 40.  Local Minnesota driver #7 Craig Dollansky finished 3rd after leading many laps.

Raceway Park Season Opener 2013

Sunday May 5th marked the "beginning of the end" of the final season racing at 1 Checkered Flag Blvd in Shakopee MN.

Recovery Technology Solutions has proposed a 20 Million dollar asphalt recycling to be built on the 10 acre site that is the 50+ year home of Raceway Park. 

Raceway Park owner John Hellendrung has vowed to keep the 2013 race season intact as scheduled.  www.goracewaypark.com

#61 Mark Bronstad won the first Figure-8 feature.  The second feature honors went to #33 Rick Martin

Dirt or Asphalt? Elko Speedway has both.

 By Jason D Searcy

Recently Elko Speedway named me, along with Pete Hackett, as the announcers for this upcoming season.  This excites me on many levels including the fact that Elko is one of the very few tracks in America that deliver both asphalt and dirt races at the same exact location, and has since 2010.  Bristol Motor Speedway experimented with it about a decade ago with mixed success and Berlin (MI) Raceway ran a dirt race last October and will try again this autumn.

I have come to learn that a lot goes into switching the race surface back and forth.  Here is a thumb nail sketch of this labor intensive process:

Hutchinson Race Car show 2013

18 race cars and lots of race fans attended the Levi Schwanz memorial Race Car show on Saturday March 23rd at the Hutchinson (MN) Mall.

Levi (photo above) was a big race fan and the son of organizer Derik Schwanz.  He died as a child with heart problems at the age of six back in 2007, the car show is in memory of him. 

Here are some photo's of cars on display:

Local MN racer competes at Daytona

Adam Royle from Farmington (MN) will be racing at Daytona International Speedway as part of the UNOH battle at the beach Monday Feb 18th.

SPEED TV and the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will broadcast the feature races on Monday, Feb. 18 and Tuesday, Feb. 19 from “The World Center of Racing,” beginning at 6 p.m. Central time each night. The MRN broadcast will also be streamed live at www.motorracingnetwork.com and carried by SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

Many benefits to Motorsports sponsorship

By Jason Dale Searcy

Just by clicking on this link you should feel good about yourself.  As a matter of fact, you now can call auto racing "your sport" even if you don't race.  Just by following along you are the most important part of "our sport," the fan.

It's a proven fact that race fans are second to only hunting dogs when it comes to loyalty, and dogs don't spend any money so, I move race fans up to number one in my book. 

If you have ever considered putting your name on a race car or sponsoring Motorsports in any way, think of this

Eilen named 2012 MN Asphalt driver of the year

By Jason D Searcy

In June of 2010 after a bad wreck at Hawkeye Downs it was suggested to Jonathan Eilen that he might want to consider giving up racing cars and do something different, like basketball.  A perfectly reasonable thought considering he was lying in a hospital bed with a broken L3 vertebra in his lower back and four broken ribs.

Eilen did not give up on his chosen sport, as a matter of fact, that suggestion made him more determined than ever to push forward, do the physical therapy and come back better than ever.

Jonathan Eilen from Hampton (MN) has been named the Speed Talk on 1360 2012 Minnesota Asphalt driver of the year.  He is the first MN driver to win the ASA Midwest tour Championship since Dan Fredrickson won in 2008.  Eilen scored a win and seven "top 5" finishes during the 12 race Super Late Model touring schedule.