Season Championship

Ladies and Gentleman, it's the Season Finale at NCR! After about an inch of rain this morning, the track looks to be in great condition as a full fleet of cars looks to make their way around the 3/8 dirt track for the last time this season. All classes will be running tonight including WISSOTA Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Mod 4's, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, and Trophy cars. Most of the Championships are already locked in at this point, but yet there's still a few battles to be had.

I don't know if the Trophy cars point's matter...but #2 of Mike Roy/Stacy Pederson has it locked solid. FYI I personally think Stacy is the better driver...or at least the crazier one.

In the street stock, Ryan Pommerer has a solid 20 point lead on James Tandeski. However the 2nd the place battle should be a good one with Rick Schultz only 1 point behind Tandeski. Jim Geringer and Adam Burrows aren't factors to move up, sitting in 4th and 5th respectively.

The Pure Stock division has Paul Colvin sitting comfortably 14 points ahead of Wade Moerke. Again the battle for 2nd place is a good one with Kenny Crane just 1 measly point behind Moerke. Taylor Saari (4th) and Mike Bjorgan (5th) have nothing to gain or lose.

The Mod 4 race is by far the closest battle we have. Rob VanMil sits just 10 points ahead of Aaron Wetterlin and 13 points ahead of Luke Johnson. Key for Rob is to get into the feature in one piece and a top 10 finish should get him a championship. Bryce Bjerken is in 4th place and Cory VanMil is in 5th.

Tyler Peterson is looking to wrap up his 2nd Track Championship of the year in a Midwest Modified. A start in the feature should get him there. He has a 24 point lead on arch nemesis Rich Pavilcek. Casey Arnenson, however, is just 1 point behind Pavy. Rob VanMil has had a solid year sitting in 4th place and Tyler Hall rounds out the top 5.

In the Modifieds you can pretty much crown Cody Skytland. I don't believe he even needs to show up tonight with a 40 point gap between him and 2nd place driver Bryce Borgen. Justin Jones sits 6 points behind the #7b with Austin Arnenson and Jamie Trautner to follow.


Other things you should know about tonight's race.
-They will be selling root beer floats again tonight...and yes...they are amazing!
-Should be specials on pretzels too from what I hear.
-There will be no racing broadcast, but I will be announcing the races as Jim is busy with football coverage.

Blaine Brothers Challenge/ Family Night at NCR

Well tonight marks the final Racing on the Radio broadcast of the 2013 race season at Norman County Raceway, so why not go out in style? Tonight the WISSOTA Blaine Brothers Late Model Challenge is in town and should bring some of the top names too such as Josh Redetzke, Zach Johnson, John Kaanta, Kent Arment, Chad Becker, Pat Doar, Dustin Strand, Brad Seng, Mike Balcaen, and others to the mix. Most of those guys were at NCR a couple weeks ago for an NLRA race and put on one of the best Late Model shows of the year. Kent Arment went on to win in from the 13th starting position. Modifieds, B-mods, Mod 4's, Pure Stocks, and Trophy Cars will also share some of the hot summer action tonight.

Tonight is also "Family Night" at Norman County Raceway. There will be FREE Child Admission with a paid adult admission! Also free glow in the dark necklaces to the first 100 kids. Plus lots of other prizes, meal specials, and games will going on during intermission. Roat Beer floats made with DAD's Root Beer will be served as well. (Somebody please bring me one during intermission!). And NCR will be auctioning off a couple 2-seater rides to benefit Relay for Life.

Also during intermission, we will be announcing the winner of NASCAR trip giveaway. If the winner is present, they will also get 2 season passes to the 2014 race schedule  at NCR.

And as mentioned, this will be the final broadcast of the year. We will not have the season championship because of fall sports beginning on the same day. No worries, I'm quite positive we'll be back again next year. Racing on the Radio Review will still be airing for a couple more weeks. The last episode of that will be on September 7th.

We might get things going a little bit early tonight, probably around 6:40pm for the Hillsboro Napa Prerace Show. Green Flag drops at 7pm. Tune in to 106.5 KRJB and www.krjbradio.com to listen. You can also listen to #RacingontheRadio on the "Tune in" app for your smart phones.

See ya at the track!

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Austin Arnenson as .....The Burger King?

Dustin Strand: Effectively Wild

With a year plagued by rain outs, it’s been difficult for many drivers to get in as many shows as they’d probably like by this point in the season. For those with National Points on the mind, getting in as many shows as possible is crucial. Dustin Strand, the gun slinging Late Model driver out of Grand Forks, has been busy doing just that. Not only does Strand sit on top of the points for the NLRA Late Model series, but he also looks over an entire field of WISSOTA Late Model drivers. No easy task considering some of the drivers he’s ahead of include Curt Gelling, Kent Arment, and Zach Johnson. 

As for any form of racing, consistency and luck have been a key to success early on says Dustin, “We’ve actually had a lot of 2nd’s so we’re trying to better that by one more spot, but we’ve had really good luck so far.” Oddly enough consistency isn’t a word many people would typically associate with the 30 year old. Consistent is word more commonly used to describe fellow veteran drivers such as Brad Seng or Mike Balcaen. Other things that come to mind for Strand are “wild,” “hot shot,” and “how the heck did he just do that?”  Darren Evavold, part owner of River Cities Speedway says, “He’s a real hot shoe! Loves to drive around the top of the race track. He’s fast!”

Even though consistency doesn’t come to mind when describing Dustin Strand, if you look back on his stats there’s no doubt that he has been just that. Since he began racing 11 years ago in a Street Stock, Dustin has won National Championships in the NOPA Streets and WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, 12 track championships spread out over 5 tracks, and over 200 feature wins. But with a driving style that’ll leave you on the edge of your seat just by watching him, I still have a hard time describing him as “consistent.” “Consistent” just seems to slow. So perhaps we’ll give Strand the old baseball description of “Effectively Wild.”

This year Strand has over 20 shows under his belt in a Late Model. So far this season he’s raced everywhere from Emo, Ontario to Alexandria, Minnesota, to Huron, South Dakota. He has been top 10, if not top 5 for almost every single one of them, which is quite extraordinary for only his 2^nd full season in a late model. Look for Stand weekly at River Cities Speedway on a weekly basis and when the NLRA Late Models come back to Norman County Raceway on August 8^th.

 

 

 

Mark Askelson hosts “Racing on the Radio” Thursday nights starting 6:45pm from Norman County Raceway as well as the “Racing on the Radio Review” Saturday mornings at 8:45am. Both can be heard on 106.5 KRJB and krjbradio.com.

Local Dirt Track Prophecies

With Norman County Raceway's school night set for this Thursday, August 1st. I thought I would have some fun with it. In most high school yearbooks, you will find a list "Senior Prophecies," which a list of off beat predictions for the graduating class. So in honor of School Night, I thought I'd make list of Prophecies for some of the local dirt track racers from around the area. I had some help from some fellow media friends and other drivers as well. DISCLAIMER: This is meant to be fun. It is in no way meant to disrespect anyone.

Derek Vesledahl gets a set of "Naked Lady" mudflaps to match the front if his car.

Cody Erickson wins a race cleanly from start to finish, and still gets yelled at for being an asshole driver.

Tom Cummings decides to actually finish a feature race, and wins by default after all the other mod 4's either wreck or pull off.

Brad Seng cuts off Tony Stewart in traffic. All hell breaks loose.

The real reason behind Casey Arnenson's nickname "Deuce" is discovered, which has something to do with a 4th grade ex-lax incident.

Andy Wagner actually fixes his car.

Scott Bintz's secret identity as an alien is discovered while attending a Star Wars convention.

Bog Sagen finally gets a new body on his modified that doesn't look like its from 1992.

Cody Erickson goes to driving school, but is quickly kicked out by his instructor, Jay MacDonald.

Tyler Peterson and Rich Pavlicek get DQ'ed from a dance contest for repeatedly bumping into each other. (submitted by Corey Litton).

Tom Corcoran finally retires....after 84 years of racing.

...and because I felt like I should include myself

I get hired as a stunt double for Rutledge Wood.


Again this is all in full. Feel free to share and comment and submit your own.