Trans Am returns to BIR

 By Jason D Searcy

The Trans Am road racing series had its "glory days" during a twenty year history of racing at Brainerd International Raceway from 1969-1989. 

The Donnybrooke 3 mile road course at BIR hosted some big purses and big name winners, like Parnelli Jones driving a Mustang for Bud Moore winning $3,300 in the inaugural event in 1969 and Mark Donahue in a AMC Javelin scoring $6,500 for his win in 1971. 

Peter Gregg won $2,560 in a Porsche in 1977 and actor turned road racer Paul Newman won $7,500 racing a Datsun 280ZX Turbo in a 41 car field in 1982.  Irv Hoerr in his Oldsmobile Cutlass edged Dorsey Schroeder in 1989 and won $12,000.

Stock Cars and the NHRA stole the limelight at BIR for the next twenty years until the Trans Am series made its return three years ago.  They now race on the newly paved 2.5 mile 13 turn competition road course.  Only 7 cars raced in that 2010 event with Minnesota born driver Tony Ave driving a Corvette and taking home the top prize of $3,000.  Less money than the winner forty years ago.

The series is building back to what it was with the help of Minnesota businessman, and old school racer Jim Derhaag (in photo above with Dean).  We remember him from his days racing the short tracks of the Midwest, but he also was an accomplished road racer with 151 Trans Am and one NASCAR Winston Cup start on his resume.

Jim's leadership has helped grow the 7 car field in 2010 to 17 cars in 2012.  The addition of the TA2 and TA3 American Muscle cars all racing together with the Trans Am vehicles has made the paddock a much busier place on race day.

This year the Trans Am series was paired with the NASCAR Nationwide series at Mid Ohio and Road America racing in front of huge crowds and turning some heads with these 850 horsepower machines.

Amy Ruman (above photo) won for the third time in her Trans Am career at BIR last year, breaking the streak of four in a row by Tony Ave, she is currently fourth in the point standings.  Defending point champion Simon Gregg, son of Peter Gregg, is now third place in points behind veteran drivers Cliff Ebben from Appleton WI and Doug Peterson from Bonita Springs FL.

This event doesn't get the attention it did back in the "glory days," but it sure seems to be heading in the right direction.  23 cars are on the entry list for the race this weekend.

The driver autograph session is at 12:15pm on Sunday September 1st and the forty lap 100 mile race begins at 4pm.

Speed Talk on 1360 will have full coverage of the race and broadcast interviews from the winners on Saturday September 7th 10-11am on KRWC radio 1360 AM and www.krwc1360.com

The drivers become promoters at Raceway Park

By Dean Reller

It’s common for a race track to have a promotion to get fans to fill the stands.  However, it’s not common for Drivers to become the promoters of such an event.  That’s exactly what’s happening at Raceway Park in Shakopee.  August 4^th will be Pack the Stands Night and it’s rapidly becoming the talk of the town.  It all started when track announcer Kevin Busse suggested if sometime this year the all-time attendance record of approximately 3200 could be broken. That number dates back to June of 1971.  Driver Matt Stanley and members of his family made a few posts on facebook about it and then things began to take off from there.

“Once I saw the posting, I felt like I would get the thing rolling,” said Mark Bronstad, a driver, about how he got involved.  Bronstad (#61) and Adam Radiske, another driver, talked about what they could do.  Radiske created a flyer for the event, which Raceway Park helped out by printing 1,000 copies and he and Bronstad began distributing them.  The use of social media helped make word of the event to grow even more.  “I created a facebook event, so it pops up on everybody’s calendars,” said Radiske.  “As a racing group a lot of our friends seem to be racing people.  So it keeps branching out, getting bigger and better.”  At last count there have been over 3000 people invited, nearly the amount needed to break the attendance record.  “It’s shared by many people on a daily basis,” said Radiske.  “It’s very cool to see the racers and fans just as much involved.”

Beside facebook, Bronstad has made postings on Craig’s List and City Pages hoping to get the word out about the Pack the Stands Night.  Despite the noise of the cars and the action on the track, drivers do notice when the stands are packed and making noise of their own on a race night.  “It’s huge,” said Bronstad with enthusiasm.  “That’s awesome to hear the crowd when you are in the car.”  Bronstad has arranged for the band Singers on Barstools to perform following the races.  This was by no means an easy task as the band regularly performs at McKracken’s on Sunday nights.  Not only did McKracken's allow the band to perform, they rented the Party Deck at the race track for the evening. 

The buzz of getting fans to come out isn’t just limited to Pack the Stands on August 4^th.  “I’m seeing everyone posting on facebook to come to the races, not just for this event, but to any event.  That’s nice to see,” said Bronstad.  What started out as an idea to break a record, has quickly turned into something that isn’t normally seen in the racing business, racers reaching out to the fans directly.  With so many entertainment options for people to choose from, the concept and support of events like Pack the Stands is a lesson for others to learn from.

 A Dukes Jump has been added to the regular race program along with a on-track and through the pits bus ride for kids, racing begins at 6pm Sunday night.  Get more information at www.goracewaypark.com and listen for complete coverage of this event on Speed Talk on 1360 radio, Saturday morning 10-11am on KRWC radio and www.krwc1360.com

*Top photo by Dean Reller
*Bottom photos from Scott Searcy (Cricket prints)

New Inductee to Elko Speedway H.O.F

By Jason D Searcy

Former racer and track owner Bill Oas will be inducted into the Elko Speedway Hall of Fame on July 20th, 2013.

Bill started racing at Elko Speedway in 1968 in the Sportsmen division, he then raced Late Models from 1970-1976.  A big victory came on Aug 15 1972 when he won a 100 lap event at Elko Speedway, Dick Trickle finished 7th in that race.  He also held the track record for many years with a time of 15.29 seconds, a record later broken by Mark Martin.

ARCA vs World of Outlaws at Elko Speedway

By Jason D Searcy

Two major, but very different, racing series came to our neck of the woods recently.  Seeing those cars on the same track lead me to a question that race fans have wondered about for many years.

How would the speed of the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars compare with the ARCA cars at the same facility?  That unique hypothetical question was answered this Spring at Elko Speedway.

The 900 horsepower and 1400 lb WoO Sprint Cars raced a rain shortened 34 lap event on May 10th.  Fast time in qualifying was set by Sam Hafertepe at 12.507, thats 107.940 mph.  The 3/8 th mile track at Elko Speedway was incredibly smooth and fast with the top groove coming in perfectly by the end of the feature event, the fastest lap time during the race was 13.347 set by Cody Darrah in the Kasey Kahne car.

The heavy 3400 lb and 800 horsepower stock cars in the ARCA series raced a 250 lap event at Elko on June 1st.  Legendary driver Ken Schrader set fast time in qualifying with a 14.449 or 93.432, that is 2 seconds per lap or 15 mph slower than the winged rockets.

Kimmel wins ARCA at Elko Speedway

"This is racing the way it should be," said Frank Kimmel after winning the Akona 250 at Elko Speedway.  "This is such a cool place to race, a lot of fun beating and banging but not all the crashes and wrecks."

Here is the link to the Victory lane video http://arcaracing.com/videos.php?video_id=1965052

Kimmel from Clarksville (IN) finished just 1.358 seconds ahead of Tom Hessert from Cherry Hill (NJ) who started fifth row outside and moved his way to the front of the pack.  "The car was good all night," said Hessert "I thought we were a little better than him at the end but, we just ran out of time."

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