Opening Day at Raceway Park

By Jason D Searcy (speedtalk on 1360)

It was cloudy and cool with a few sprinkles on opening day for Raceway Park in Shakopee (MN).

The poor weather did not hurt the Mini-Stock car count, 35 cars entered, making a "B-Feature" necessary.

B-Feature winner:
Eric Mohline

Main Event:
1-50 Jason Heitz (photo below)
2-24 Jack Purcell
3-14 Justin Schelitzche

#97 Paul Griffin hit the wall head-on in corner #2 and may need a new front clip, he seemed OK when exiting the vehicle.

Kidney Bean race:
1-50 Jason Heitz
2-24 Jack Purcell
3-71 Tom Sibila

The Figure 8 divison had two feature events as per normal, the second race lived up to the "Wild and Crazy" billing, numerous drivers used both fenders and bumpers to make a pass.

Feature 1:
1-61 Mark Bronstad (photo above)
2-89 Ricky Martin
3-87 Todd Wilson

Feature 2:
1-33 Rick Martin
2-89 Ricky Martin
3-03 Dennis Barta

The Flag-Pole race (above) was entertaining with cars merging and spinning around the flag pole mounted in a tire on the front stretch.

Feature:
1-87 Todd Wilson (photo below)
2-89 Ricky Martin
3-07 Nate Nemis

The "Thunder V-8" division is a mix of V8 powered cars racing the regular oval, it was agressive and wild on the restarts with 3-wide becoming normal, 20 cars entered this race.

Feature:
1-2 Adam Radiske
2-87 Todd Wilson
3-89 Ricky Martin

The Spectator Drag portion of the show was won by Justin Otterholt (photo below) driving a Pontiac Firebird.

Raceway Park races every Sunday evening at 6pm, get more information at www.goracewaypark.com

*results UNOFFICIAL

Speedtalk is back!

Speedtalk on 1360 radio is back on the air after our long 6 month hiatus.  We will broadcast every Saturday morning from 10-11am on KRWC 1360am radio and www.krwc1360.com   Our 2012 year will be 24 shows from April 21st - Sep 29th.

We are also broadcasting LIVE from the KRWC Wright County Home and Garden show Saturday April 14th from 10-11am, ASA Midwest tour president Tim Olson (photo below) will also be joining us.

Jason D Searcy and Dean Reller are the long-time hosts of this Motorsports show now based out of Buffalo MN.  In 2011 we interviewed 55 different drivers from all forms of Motorsports, we will continue that tradition this year.

Also returning will be our NASCAR expert Jordan Bianchi "the racing geek," in addition to writing for his own website, he is also a contributing writer for www.sbnation.com

Dan Plan editor of the Midwest Racing Connection will once again help us cover local and regional racing all across the Upper Midwest.

We will be doing some live on-location shows this year.  Come see us at the Brainerd International Raceway road course for the NASCAR K&N series race Sat May 26th and for the SCCA Trans-Am race on Sat September 1st.  We will also be live at Iowa Speedway for the INDY CAR race Sat June 23rd and the ASA Midwest tour & NASCAR Truck series weekend on Sat Sep 15th.

Nobody covers the ASA Midwest tour as well as us, we interviewed 14 different ASA Midwest tour SLM drivers in 2011 and did race stories from the MN, Oktoberfest and Iowa Speedway races.

Again this year listen for your chance to win FREE Tickets to Raceway Park in Shakopee and Die-cast cars courtesy of Hideaway Speedway in Isanti.

A big THANK YOU to our great 2012 sponsors, please support these businesses, without them the show would not be possible.

Performance driving school at Brainerd International Raceway .. Rent a race car or bring your own car and drive the awesome road course at BIR, its a thrill you will never forget!  www.birperformance.com


Superior Masonry Products in New Prague MN.  Owner and Super Late Model racer Bret Nordine has more than 20 yrs experience treating people the right way doing Masonry.

Stockholm Motorsports Park in Cokato, the Fastest rental go-karts in MN.  www.stockholmkartingcenter.com

Lou Fegers Racing Equipment in Delano, for all your performance parts and safety products www.loufegersracing.com


Hwy 55 Trailer sales in Buffalo.  They have very affordable car trailers plus service and parts. 
 www.hwy55trailers.com

Moon Motorsports in Monticello.  All things Motorsports!  ATV's, Motorcycles, tons of clothing and helmets and much more.   www.moonmotorsports.com

Big Kidz Racing  Mark Bronstad and Todd Wilson race Figure 8 cars at Raceway Park in Shakopee MN on Sunday nights.   www.bigkidzracing.blogspot.com

Taking the high Rhoads

By Jason D Searcy    www.speedtalkon1360.com

Race cars can be loud, mean and intimidating, but drivers do not need to be any of those things.

Molly Rhoads started racing thirteen years ago while in High School along with her brother AJ and twin sister Megan.  The summer after graduation, she realized how much she loved the sport, everything about it, and wanted to do it for as long as possible.  She raced at the I-94 Raceway tracks in Sauk Centre and Fergus Falls (MN), that is where she won her first race in the Super Stock and Thunder Car divisions.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E4KqLEnSqE (she is #97)

"Racing at I-94 opened my eyes to the real family that is involved with racing,"  said Molly  "everyone that was there, from the other drivers to the employees and even the fans, were literally the best people I had ever met in my life."

Soft spoken Molly Rhoads was a crowd favorite at I-94, as the track announcer I would help arrange driver autograph sessions during intermission.  Because of the incredibly long lines waiting for Molly's signature, we would have to put her on a separate table from the other guys just to even out the crowd.

She was also very popular in the pits with her fellow racers.  "There was many nights that I showed up there without a crew and different drivers and their crew members would help me unload my car and spot for me.  If I ever had any problems there were always hands on deck to help me get fixed back up and ready to race, that is why I always looked forward to going there" said Rhoads.

Molly eventually moved up to the premier Super Late Model division in 2004 competing with some of the best drivers in the Midwest, she became the first female driver to win a Late Model race at Raceway Park in Shakopee (MN).  She was then accepted into the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program two times where she was given instruction and tutoring from some of the top teams in NASCAR. 

"Janet Guthrie and Lyn St James are very inspirational women that I have looked up to throughout my racing career."  Molly also looks up to NASCAR hot-topic Danica Patrick, "she has spent here entire life working toward making her dream of being a professional race car driver come true.  She has paid her dues and has been successful throughout her career." said Rhoads  "She also is using every one of her assets to make the doors open for her and has helped get female racers noticed throughout the world."

Following her love for Racing has not been easy, it has been challenging in this economy to find enough funds to continue updating her cars and motors.  When she had to take some time off from driving Molly worked in the pits as crew chief for Bryan Roach who was driving local Super Late Model races and in the ASA Midwest tour.  Her popularity in the pits was rewarded with the Craftsman "Mechanic of the year" award at Raceway Park in 2009.  Molly has jumped around the last couple years racing at Raceway Park (MN) and Dells Raceway Park (WI).

This year Molly was accepted into Race4Girls.com.  Its a national program that promotes successful female racers and helps them improve their race team.  Molly says "www.race4girls.com is a great idea, Tracey Passantino is devoting her life to helping me and other female racers.  You can donate as little as $5 and ALL of the money (minus the paypal fees) goes to the driver.  It is so easy to show some support and if even a handful of people you know donate $5, it will help me and other successful female drivers a ton."

Molly Rhoads is not the typical race car driver, here in Minnesota or anywhere else, but I think everyone is OK with that.

Molly plans on racing the full 2012 season in a Super Late Model at Elko (MN) Speedway and enter both ASA Midwest tour events in Minnesota.   "Some of the best drivers have come out of Elko Speedway," said Rhoads "I am super excited to race with them every week and gain as much experience as I can."

To get more information on Molly Rhoads racing go to www.rhoadsracing.com or www.race4girls.com

Hutchinson Race Car show

 A great warm up lap for the 2012 racing season for Minnesota race fans as 28 cars and a dozen go-karts were on display at the Hutchinson (MN) Mall.  Tim Heidecker and Derek Schwanz has helped organize the 6th annual Levi Schwanz memorial car show, its a great promotion not only for the racers but also a very large crowd was attracted to the mall businesses.

Here is a sample of the awesome vehicles exhibited on Saturday March 31st.

#81 Matt Speckman (3rd Place)
#56 Billy Johnson
#4 Jim Heiland
#1 Sarah Voss
#25 Dan McCain (2nd Place)
#02 Nick Steinhaus
#19 Brian Bratz
#96 Corey Eyestad
Camaro Dennis Luedke
#74 Clint Hatlestad  (First Place)
#20 Chris Graf (Fan Vote Winner)

Huge R/C Event at Hideaway Speedway

Hideaway Speedway in Isanti (MN) will host a huge QSAC event for R/C cars drawing competitors from all across the nation on Saturday May 5th 2012.  This will be the biggest MN event of its kind in well over a decade.

Hideaway Speedway is a high banked 1/10th mile paved oval perfect for high speed racing with Radio Controlled race cars.  These cars will reach speeds of over 50mph and do live pit stops under green.  The main event will be a 400 lap feature, expect the top cars to pit 4 or 5 times during this event.

Racers from all over the United States will compete for the $2000 purse.  They have already drawn interest from competitors as far away as Florida.

Admission to this race on Saturday May 5th is FREE, many food options will be available as well as games and inflatables for kids.  Racing will begin at about noon with qualifying and practice in the morning.  The famous TQ scale racing museum will also be open along with their store of over 15,000 vintage die-cast race cars.

Here is a video from Hideaway Speedway during the Speedtalk 150 race taken back in 2010.  Jason and Dean from Speedtalk will be announcing this event.

The track is located just a few miles South of Isanti (MN) at 25363 University Ave.

Get more information at

www.hideawayspeedway.com

Or  call  (612) 210-0350 or (763) 267-9161

*NOTE Scott Schramski won this race, Here is a video link to the action and interview  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHpZJaEDxr8&list=UU0-HpFKbreUCFudu07n6_hw&index=1&feature=plcp

Time to start planning

By Dean Reller
www.speedtalkon1360.com

 After watching all the action at Daytona, it’s time to start thinking about the 2012 season, when a race fan can get out and see the action first hand rather than watching it on a 42 inch HD TV.  If only I lived in Florida with the all the action around Speed Weeks and the short track racing on both the local pavement and dirt tracks.  However, the wait up here in the north is a bit longer, but there will be plenty of great racing to see as this year unfolds.

April has traditionally been cold and wet, forcing many tracks to schedule and reschedule their opening night events.  Let’s hope that the mild winter that we had will turn into a mild spring and tracks can open on time this year.  I have compiled a list of races that I would like to see this coming year and I don’t think it covers everything.

Local short track action is always exciting and each track offers a unique experience and always plenty of action.  Friday nights have long time bullring Princeton Speedway on my list as I always enjoy the tight high-banked dirt track. For many years I have had an association with the I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, it’s been a few years since I have been up there, but I have been hearing great things and I need to find a way to get back out there.

 

Saturday nights provide plenty of options as Elko Speedway (photo above) once again will have a great weekly show, with a couple of big races on schedule as well.  The one that I have circled is June 2nd, when the ARCA Racing Series makes its first ever visit to the state of Minnesota.  This series is the one for many of the up and coming drivers and should be a lot of fun to see some of racings future stars.  Ogilvie Raceway is a new track within the last couple of years and surprisingly, I still haven’t made it there yet.  Well, this year I plan on checking out the buzz at the 3/8th’s mile dirt track.

 
Rounding out the weekends are two more fantastic options.  Raceway Park (photo above) in Shakopee, “The Action Attraction” looks to live up to its billing as it caps off weekends with Sunday night racing (the figure eight races are nationally known).  This year another Sunday night track, Granite City Speedway (formally the Golden Spike Speedway) will be reopening and once again will give me another option to catch a great short track show (photo below).

The ASA Midwest Tour opens its season May 5th and 6th at Madison Wisconsin, it’s a bit of a drive, but it would be a fun race to attend.  The spotlight will shine on the series on Tuesday June 12th with a trip to the historic Milwaukee Mile.  Several NASCAR drivers are expected to participate and I’m still trying to figure out how to make this weekday race and road trip work.  Saturday August 18th the tour comes to Elko and returns again on September 22nd.  A stop at Iowa Speedway is thrown in between on September 14th, before the big finale on October 7th in the Octoberfest race at LaCrosse.  I’m a little disappointed that the series won’t be racing at Raceway Park this year, but I am glad that they added the second Elko race.  So, I should be able to catch up with the Midwest Tour at least four times this year.

Over the last couple of years, I have developed a new found interest in road racing and Brainerd International Raceway (photo above) has two huge events that are on my must see list.  The first is May 26th with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series who will be making their first trip to the track.  The other must see is the Trans-Am Series on September 2nd.  The unique thing to remember with these races is that they run rain or shine, I just have to remember to be prepared.

Finally, a couple of road trips are in order this season to “America’s Place To Race”, Iowa Speedway (photo above) in Newton, IA.  It’s really not a bad or long trip and well worth the drive.  The NASCAR Nationwide Series will be there May 20th and August 4th, the Camping World Trucks will be there July 14 and September 15 and the Indy Cars will be there June 23rd.  I know I won’t be to make all of these but at least two or possibly three I plan to attend.

As I sit in my living room, watching racing on TV, I can’t wait until I can see the cars, feel the thunder of the engines and smell (whatever it is to smell), of racecars flying around a track in front of me live and in person.  Watching racing on TV is great, but there is no substitute for actually being there.

2012 NASCAR forcast

Speedtalk on 1360 predictions for the 2012 NASCAR season

Dean Reller says....

Obvious choices would be Jimmie Johnson, well because he’s Jimmie and we know what he can do and Tony Stewart, because we saw what he did and he could very well do it again.  However, someone once said “You have to lose a championship before you can win it” and the driver that fits that bill is Carl Edwards.  Carl knows what he needs to do to win it this time around.  He’s focusing on the Sprint Cup Series and plans to run few, if any Nationwide Series races, putting his full attention to the task at hand, winning the 2012 championship.

Jason Searcy says...

I think the Fords will have an advantage with the FR9 engine in 2012 and with the new fuel injection the larger teams can draw from additional information.  Carl Edwards was incredibly consistent in 2011 with 26 "top 10" finishes but won only one race.  People forget about his Roush-Fenway teammate Matt Kenseth, he had the third most "top 10" finishes last year (20) plus scored 3 wins.  He finished 4th in points even though he had some bad luck in the Chase (thanks to Brian Vickers). 

Matt won the Championship in 2003 and his crew chief Jimmie Fennig won the title with Kurt Busch in 2004.  Plus, he has the fastest pit crew in NASCAR.  Limited sponsorship will not be a problem for the #17 car, Jack Roush showed his support in the off season saying this team will stay intact no matter what.  Smart, fast and consistent will win in 2012 and Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth fits the bill.

Jordan Bianchi "The racing geek" says....

For the last six seasons, I’ve always been an ardent believer that until someone knocked Jimmie Johnson off the championship pedestal, he was unquestionably the favorite entering the season. Now for the first time since the beginning of the 2006 season, we enter a year without Johnson being referred to as the “defending champ.” And while it’s very easy to say the man who won five consecutive titles will return to his winning ways in ‘12, I don’t think that’s the case.

In what I think will be a wide-open title race, I strongly believe when the checkered flag waves at Homestead to closeout the 2012 season, it will be the man who came oh so close a year ago to winning it all, finally seizing the brass ring.

After several near-misses, andwith the speed, smarts and the confidence needed to win, not to mention a greatteam instep with him, everything is lining up for Carl Edwards to win his first Sprint Cup championship.

While I think there is still something to be said about the “Season-After Affect” that has recently plagued the guy who finished second in points the year before, Edwards will prove to be immune from such a disease.

Speedtalk on 1360 radio will return to KRWC am 1360 in April, follow along for the best MN Motorsports news and NASCAR coverage right here on www.speedtalkon1360.com

*Photos courtesy of NASCAR/Getty Images

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