News and Notes: May 23rd, 2016 Edition

Here's your latest story lines, racing tidbits, and fun information from this last weekend of racing at Norman County Raceway, Red River Valley Speedway, River Cities Speedway, Buffalo River Speedway, and beyond. It's the May 23rd Edition of Racing on the Radio News and Notes.

33 is a Crowd
On Friday night at Red River Valley Speedway, 33 IMCA Modified drivers entered to compete, and all 33 were allowed to race in the main event. No B-Main or LCQ. This is pretty much unheard of, since the standard is typically to allow 24 or 25 to compete. But track owner Jake Bitker does have the philosophy that "if you came here to race, you're going to race." And for the most part it worked out. The start was a bit hectic but there was only a few cautions during the race. Although by the sounds of it the likely hood of RRVS attempting to do that again was slim. Some of the lap traffic was a concern for the drivers. (Note: A couple of drivers were scratched, so I believe only 31 actually started)

Shipley Sets Sail
Former Super Stock driver Dave Shipley picked up his first win in an IMCA Modified on Thursday night at NCR. This is just the start of Shipley's 2nd season in a Modified. He was very consistent and competitive as a rookie and has had several impressive runs this year, including his win. He always puts in solid lap times and works well in traffic.

Billy Two in a Row
Jamestown's Billy Carou now has two wins in a row at Red River Valley Speedway. I like this guy. He's the true definition of a Pure Stock driver. He's a little overweight, rocks a mullet that would make Jaromir Jagr proud, and probably races the entire main event with a big pinch of Grizzly chew in his cheek. He gives you simple and honest answers, and probably doesn't have a Facebook Fan Page. But he's a hell of a wheel man and loves to race.

Billy Carou and a very intimidated trophy presenter.

Silver Lining
Many of the top 410 Sprint Car drivers went for Silver on Saturday night at Badlands Motor Speedway, and in this scenario Silver is a good thing. Badlands paid out over $100,000 in silver bars for their opening night. The big winner was Mark "Dynamite" Dobmeier. Dobmeier started 7th in the main and found himself in victory lane at the track where is he holds the 3rd most wins of any driver in the history of the Speedway. He received 166 silver bars, which is equal to more than $27,000 dollars.

On Tourville
For the last 3 weeks, Keith Tourville from Dairyland, Wisconsin has made the trip to Norman County Raceway. Google Maps says that is a 5 hour and 2 minute trip. He must enjoy the track I assume, and he should because he's won 2 out of the 3 and finished 2nd the race he didn't win. Not sure why he chooses to come to NCR, but I'm glad he does. He races the #111 Wissota Street Stock.

Moving Up

-Brandom Schmidt of Hillsboro has his #219 Pure Stock on rails lately. It's really fun to watch that big machine get thrown around and sliding sideways in a style that is more similar to a Super Stock than a Pure Stock.

-Cody Fuller has made great strides so far in his #07 Sport Mod. He's battling hard, keeping his nose clean, and just all around looking like a top competitor compared to last year, which I believe was his rookie season.

DirtCast'ing
Here's something in the works Racing on the Radio will be teaming up with IMCA TV/Dirt Cast to bring our racing coverage to you in a new way. Along with providing our stream on Network1 Sports like we are currently, it will also be available on the DIRT CAST app. The app is free, the streaming is free. It's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. It will be a much simpler way to access our stream too. I believe we'll be firing a trial of it this week. Stay tuned!

Up Next

-Norman County Raceway  has a regular night of racing ahead. We'll have coverage on 106.5 KRJB.

-Super Stocks are back at Red River Valley Speedway as part of the Fargo Force Cup. $800 to win. I have two Fargo Force cups, but they're not trophies, they're for drinking. Anyways its a 7pm Green Flag drop. Coverage on 106.5 KRJB.

-Pretty big race down in Alexandria this weekend. It's the 12th annual Minnesota Modified Nationals at Viking Speedway. $12,000 to win, $700 to start. It will take place this Saturday and Sunday. Promoter Chris Stepan is the man behind the magic. He's the same guy behind the John Seitz Memorial Race, Viking Fall Classic, Sunshine State, Mod Tour, the Street Stick Little Dream, and more. Expect all the top names from Wissota to take part.

How to Listen/Stream Racing on the Radio

Many of have been asking how to stream/listen to the radio broadcast of the races from Norman County Raceway and Red River Valley Speedway. since we are no longer on Tune In, so I thought I'd tell everyone how it's done. It's pretty simple really.

There are a couple of different routes for streaming you can take that will ultimately lead you to the same place.

1. Go to www.rjbroadcasting.com, click on the "Listen Live," and then click "106.5 KRJB" on the drop down menu. That will bring you to Network 1 sports, who hosts our streaming service. You should see the "Racing on the Radio" event, click on "Listen Live" and then play on the media player. Keep in mind the stream will NOT start until 6:44pm. The play button should turn green when we are active.

2. Go to www.network1sports.com, click on "Stations," click on the state of Minnesota, and then find and click on the KRJB station. Again, you should see the "Racing on the Radio" event from there.

OR....

Here's the link you can bookmark for later....

https://network1sports.com/station/krjb

UPDATE
Want to listen back to the race after it aired? We have that capability also. You will have buy a subscription, however. The cost is $10.95 for a whole year. Click on the archives link on the Network 1 sports website to sign up. All our races, along with all our high school games are archived and are usually available within an hour or so to listen to.

Also....

KRJB is a full powered, 100,000 watt station, which means our signal goes a long way. Below is a map of our coverage map. Note that our signal goes beyond what the map actually shows. To the west our signal can usually be heard all the way in Jamestown. So to get the clearest and best signal, I recommend you listen on your radio dial.

News & Notes - May 18th Edition

Here's your latest New, Notes, and Racing Tidbits from happenings at Norman County Raceway, Red River Valley Speedway, Buffalo River Race Park, and beyond.

Hot Pink

Tyler Hall of Fertile, MN picked up his first win of his IMCA Modified career on Sunday night at Buffalo River Race Park. I believe this is his 3rd full year in a Mod and came close several times last season.

Cold Open

Red River Valley Speedway opened it's doors for the first time since 2012 on Friday. The weather was not on its side, however. Temps were in the 40s and the wind was gusting 20-30 mph, making the center grandstands a popular option. Credit goes to the drivers and fans for braving it out and being a part of history. Some fans even showed up when the gates opened right at 5:30. 67 cars showed up and the track was in phenomenal shape. Overall, it seemed as if the show went off without a hitch.

Red River Valley Speedway Under the Lights during May 6th Test and Tune

Pretty B.A. Week

Aaron Blacklance, driver of the #5BA Wissota Midwest Modified, picked up two wins this past week. Aaron took home the checkers at Norman County Raceway and Devils Lake Speedway. This is only his 2nd year of racing a B-mod after a successful campaign in a Street Stock. Aaron will by the featured guest on this week's Racing on the Radio Review

No Love for Malmlov

There's been a lot of discussion in the announcer booth as to whether or not Dev Malmlov cursed himself by switching to #21. There's no question that he's had one of the fastest cars on the track in the last few races, but late race spin outs have cost him a chance at the win. Personally, I'm not one to believe in curses, but it's hard not to wonder if the bad luck continues, will Dev go back to #91?

Middle School Modifieds

The Wissota Midwest Modifieds have a very young class of drivers that are now competing and competing well. Bryton Foss is just 15 and is becoming much more competitive this summer, He currently sits in 5th place for points at NCR. Noah Metzger is just a junior in high school and a couple of top 5's already. And let's not forget about Joseph Thomas, son of the iconic Corky Thomas, who is barely a teenager. In just his first few races, he's stayed with the pack and has been consistent. Anyone who can do that will be a threat in no time. And there's others too, like Mike Nichols, who is either 15 or 16, Nichols put on a clinic at last year's stacked John Seitz Memorial race. He already has a handful of wins and a top 5 at the Wissota 100 in short career in the Midwest Modifeds. Fun Fact: With the exception of Metzger, all of those drivers started out racing Go-Karts.

Coming up:

Regular weekly series this week at Norman County Raceway and Red River Valley Speedway. Both races can be heard on 106.5 KRJB and rjbroadcasting.com. PreRace Show starts at 6:45pm.

The NOSA Sprints invade Buffalo River Race Park this Sunday night. It'll be the 2nd "tour" race for the NOSA series of the year. Wade Nygaard picked up a win at Devils Lake Speedway this past weekend, his 2nd win so far in 2016. Many local Sprint Car Drivers, Nygaard included, will also be competed in the NOSA supported Badlands Motor Speedway $100,000 Silver Shoot Out this Saturday in South Dakota.

As mentioned prior, this weekend's Racing on the Radio Review will feature Aaron Blacklance. Catch that Saturday at 8:45am on KRJB/KRJM/KKCQ.

News and Notes - May 9th, 2016 Edition

Good day everyone. We're now a couple weeks into the racing season and there's a bunch more tidbits and news, so here's your latest update and observations from #RacingontheRadio.

First Timers
-A couple of drivers picked up their first ever wins on the first race of the season at Norman County Raceway including Reise Stenberg in the Midwest Mods and Luke Johnson in the Sport Mods. For Luke it was his first ever race in a sport mod after moving up from a Mod 4. He was sitting in 2nd all night until Wagner's misfortune put the 8j in the lead on the last lap. Stenberg has at least a couple years experience in a B-mod. He hit his spots perfectly on Thursday night to secure a win.

Not So Hot Potato
Andy "Spud" Wagner wasn't far away from having two impressive races this weekend, but mechanical problems turned it into a pretty rotten weekend. Thursday night he lead 11.5 of 12 laps at NCR before electrical problems shut down his engine. On Sunday, his problems continued in his heat, but he rebounded in his feature going from last to second with half the race remaining. However, the problem he had in his heat reared it's ugly and he began losing power. Wagner would pull off a few laps later.

A numbers game
-Dev Malmov is back again this year, but this time in preferred number #21. He ran the number #91b for the last several seasons, which is the inverse of car owner Jake Bitker's preferred number of #19b. Fun Fact: Dev is a HUGE Dominique Wilkins fan, who wore the #21 for the Atlanta Hawks. Ironically both are often referred to as "the human highlight reel" in their respective sports.

-Dan Dowling is racing an IMCA Hobby Stock with a number #5x, to match the number of NDSU Football National Championships. If he was a UND Hockey fan, his number would now be #8x...just throwing that out there. ;)

Thrice the Bryce
-As if reading the line ups in a poorly lit announcer booth wasn't already hard enough, Bryce Bjerken informed me while conversing with Bryce Borgen that Bryce Bjeke would be returning to race an IMCA Modified this year at Red River Valley Speedway. At least Bjerke will likely choose #9. (Borgen and Bjerken are both #7). But if all three find themselves in a 3-way, 3 wide battle of the Bryce's...the universe as we know might implode.

-Speaking of Bryce (Bjerken), Felton's Finest is off to a hot start in his rookie campaign in an IMCA Modified. In his first night of competition, Bryce finished 4th in his T&E Mod at Norman County Raceway and followed it up with a strong 8th at BRRP.

The track formerly known as the "Fastest Track in the Upper Midwest"
Red River Valley Speedway held a test and tune on Friday, May 6th and it appears to be in good shape. Sounds like there are still a few facility kinks that are being worked out, but many of the drivers had good things to say about the racing surface. 58 cars showed up for the session, which is a pretty solid indicator that the car count should be in the 60s or 70s on an average basis. The season opens at RRVS this Friday and we'll have live racing coverage all season long on 106.5 KRJB!

This is why we can't have nice things, Rob! 
For whatever reason, Rob VanMil can't keep his tin straight for more than 6 minutes. His #4d IMCA Mod is one of my favorite cars this season, and I specifically told Rob not to wreck his tin, which didn't make it out of either one of his heat races this weekend at NCR and BRRP without being yanked off and beat up. On a side note: His 2016 Victory is mad fast and is well on its way to a dozen or so victories this season. He got his first win of the season on Sunday.

Rob VanMil's Sharp looking 2016 Victory