3/22/2023
Fast Lane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series
2023 Super Stock Series Expands
The FastLane Northland Super Stock Series again expands in 2023.
This year marks the ninth year for the Series, set up to recognize the Super Stock Class. Series Spokesman Dennis McCauley and FastLane Motorsports & Powder coating owner Chris Bretting have been working since early December to again bring the fans and drivers of the Super Stock Class a great mid-summer event for this year. With 2022 behind us we look back to what was an impressive year for the drivers of the Series, as well as looking toward the future!
Coming off a volatile 21’ campaign and going into the 22’ year which saw one of our tracks back out, we scrambled to gain a track to fill that void. Luckily there was a line of tracks in the waiting list to pick up the Friday left vacant! Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie wanted to join forces for their Dave Shackleton Memorial Race. With that the Series would again be poised to run an aggressive 7 race schedule in 10 days at Red Cedar Speedway, Ogilvie Raceway, and Granite City Motor Park the opening weekend. This would be followed up by Grand Rapids Speedway, Gondik Law Speedway, ABC Raceway, and wrapping it all up at Halvor Lines Speedway, or so we thought. Some scheduling difficulties at Grand Rapids left that race to start it all off out of sync a week early, which only started the scheduling difficulties seen in 22’
The Series opened up its schedule Thursday with a solid 38 drivers in attendance in a stand-alone event that the Series kicked out an extra $50 to every driver in attendance for their support. It should be noted that this is the highest attendance the Series has had at Grand Rapids in its four years with the series. The feature found our top five being Kyle Copp, Steve Stuart, Dustin Nelson, Shawn McFadden, and the checkers went to Dylan Nelson. At the time of the series starting nine of the top ten drivers had committed to running the whole series, which set a good start to the year.
After a week off the Series was set to invade Ogilvie Raceway on Saturday which traditionally set our largest car counts but alas Mother Nature decided she was going to play spoiler and with storms in the area the event was postponed early enough in the day to save the drivers travel time. This led to another single night event at Granite City Motor Park and an astonishing 47 cars in attendance which tied their attendance record on their inaugural event back in 2018. Our top five drivers that night were Dustin Nelson, William Lund, Nick Oreskovich, Dexton Koch, and taking the checkers on his first race of the series this year was Shane Sabraski. Teching sent one of our top five finishers to the back of the pack and also cost the series a driver who would have been competing for the Series title.
Getting into the meat of the schedule we had a four-day swing coming up starting at Red Cedar Speedway on a Thursday as part of the Dunn County Fair Races, and the Dave Shackleton Memorial. A lot of planning had gone into this event and the Shackleton Family had high hopes of seeing good numbers of drivers who would compete for the Series record purse for the night. The drivers did not disappoint with a record Series Tying 52 drivers in attendance. When the dust settled after 5 large heat races and two stacked semi-features our top five were Dylan Nelson, Jake Froemke, Tommy Richards, Jesse Redetzke, and checkers that night again went to Shane Sabraski taking home the $2500 First place money.
On Friday night the Series looked to kick off the original “Core Tracks” who have been with the Series since its inception. Gondik Law Speedway was first seeing a respectable 38 drivers taking to the track as the top billing class of the evening. Results of the top five saw Dylan Nelson, DJ Keeler, Dexton Koch, Kyle Copp, and a third win in a row for Shane Sabraski. Sabraski who missed the first night of the Series due to commitments with another Series found himself knocking on the door of a top 5 in the Series after the night.
Saturday night kicked of in Ashland and the Series with 32 cars in attendance. For some reason the ABC Raceway has not seen large car counts as it did in the first couple years of the Series but we have high hopes of turning that around this year. Our top five were Nick Oreskovich, Scott Lawrence, Terran Spacek, Dylan Nelson, and with his 4th win in a row Shane Sabraski. With Nelson still in the lead of the Series points Sabraski edged just a couple points closer.
Our Sunday was spent at the Halvor Lines Speedway under overcast skies with threats of rain everywhere but the staff was hopeful to get the night in. 28 cars showed up and got the first two heat races in before the skies opened up for good washing out the entire night. Luckily for Dylan Nelson who came into the night leading the Series and having an engine expire during the second heat race the night would be thrown out and made up in a couple weeks in conjunction with Ogilvie Raceway.
After a short break we had two races to make up starting at Ogilvie Raceway and 37 drivers who made the rescheduled trip to compete. Top five drivers of the evening were Shawn McFadden, Dustin Nelson, Dexton Koch, Jeremy Nelson, and Shane Sabraski who tightened up the run for Series title with his fifth checkers of the Series.
It all boiled down to the make up race at Halvor Lines Speedway in Proctor to crown a champion with Dylan Nelson fending off the 2020 champion of the Series Sabraski. After the 29 entrants dust cleared the top 5 consisted of some of the usual suspects Shawn McFadden, Shane Sabraski, Dylan Nelson, Dustin Nelson, and Kyle Copp taking the win for the night, but leaving the Series Championship to Dylan Nelson for his first time in three years trying. When asked Nelson credited his Championship to his Family for all of their support and hard work both at the track and away, and an honorable mention to Mother Nature for the rain out two weeks earlier!
The series had a total of 273 entrants of 95 different drivers compete over the seven nights (both new records for the Series) and found 19 drivers who made all the races taking home at least $700 for their efforts, also a record for non-qualifying money. With the help of the great series sponsors we were able to pay out the top 15 in points being Dylan Nelson, Shane Sabraski, Nick Oreskovich, Shawn McFadden, Dustin Nelson, Patrick Beeksma, DJ Keeler, Scott Lawrence, Matt Deragon, Austin Niemeyer, Andrew Mackey, Tucker Quinn, Dexton Koch, Jake Froemke, and Andrew Johnson rounding out the top spots. The series had a payout of over $34,000 last year not including over $2,000 in gift certificates handed out by Bretting for FastLane Motorsports and Powder coating. Adding in the contingency awards a record 69 drivers of the series took home over $40,000 in cash and prizes over the seven nights. In addition to the over $50,000 in purse paid at the track level in a banner year for the Series once again in 2022!
SO, WHAT DOES 2023 HAVE TO OFFER?
The FastLane Northland Super Stock Series is set to embark on its 9th year running and has some exciting news to offer its Drivers and Fans alike! We are proud to say that the Series continues to be the best followed Series by its drivers who consistently show up each event averaging an unheard of 39 cars per event last year! We have now had a total of 1400 entries and 215 different drivers take part in at least one event, and we hope to add a few new ones this year also. With the numerous specials now taking place in July the Series has decided to move a month earlier and set its two weekends in June for 2023. The Series will see another new addition this year bringing Rice Lake Speedway on board to kick it all off Thursday June 8th as part of the communities Aqua Fest. The Series saw a great opportunity with Red Cedar Racing on Friday Night to add a Thursday race to the schedule and the first thought was to bring Rice Lake on board since they traditionally don’t race that Saturday because of the Aqua Fest. Talks with track promoters Dave and Mitch went very smooth and they welcomed the idea with open arms to give it a try. With this new addition it fits smoothly into the Friday night at Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie just right down the road and the Dave Shackleton Memorial Race being run in conjunction with the Series that night. We will then move over to the Minnesota side for Saturday at Ogilvie, and wrap up the first weekend of the Southern Swing with Granite City Motor Park on Sunday June 11th. The Series Northern Swing will start out at Grand Rapids June 15th, Gondik Law Speedway on Friday followed closely by ABC Raceway Saturday, and wrapping it all up hopefully on Sunday June 18th at Halvor Lines Speedway to conclude our most aggressive schedule ever of 8 races in 11 days!
Another new add on for 2023 as eluded to in the previous paragraph is the North/South Swing. Our first weekend being the Southern Swing and the second weekend being the Northern Swing. The Series is working on a small separate payout for these respective weekends for the top 5 drivers in those particular 4 events as another special little bonus for those drivers. Remember drivers this series is all about YOU and what you would like. You drivers are what make this series great! We will again be contacting drivers from all over WISSOTA country to make sure as many of those talented drivers attend as many races as possible to showcase their talents. We hope to drag a few of those Dakota guys over for a few more laps this year. We set some goals again this year and we hope to achieve a few of them, of course we always want more drivers to compete so we are going to try and break that single-track record of 52 drivers again. And lastly, we are in hopes of trying to make sure that the drivers who support this series bring home at least $700 again for competing at all of the events not including their individual track purse payouts, whether inside or outside the top 15 in points. Sponsorship for the Series continues to do very well as of press time and we have hopes of meeting our 2022 totals.
DRIVER RACE INFORMATION
The Series will use the old WISSOTA point system awarding drivers points for heat races and feature events. The old point structure was decided upon by Series Statistician John Kimmes based on the relatively small number of races and with the smaller gaps in points it keeps the point chase close and manageable for drivers. The Series will again extend a provisional based on final 2022 points to a driver at each track that does not make the feature, which a driver is only eligible for once. We will again offer each local track a provisional to tag the back of the feature to one driver who competes at that track regularly that does not make the feature. This year the Series will pay out the top 15 spots again. We will again have a very competitive purse payout throughout the field and not just top heavy. We realize that every driver has the same bills to pay and they all should be awarded as much as they can for their efforts. The Series will have win bonuses based on if a driver can win multiple features in the Series. Again, we want to award our drivers who finish outside the top 15 in points but make all eight of the shows and will be awarding a participant bonus. We are actively seeking sponsorship for many contingency prizes such as Hard Charger, Non-Qualifier, Random Drawings, Long Tow, Hard Luck, Gift Certificates and any other prizes to make these Super Stock Drivers and Teams feel appreciated.
The Series will take place June 8th at Rice Lake Speedway June 9th at Red Cedar Speedway, June 10th at Ogilvie Raceway, June 11th at Granite City Speedway, June 15th at Grand Rapids Speedway, June 16th at Gondik Law Speedway, June 17th at ABC Raceway and June 18th at Halvor Lines Speedway. If a postponement occurs the race will take place at that tracks next regular night that the Super Stocks compete that does not conflict with a Series date, or that tracks “Special Event”. The Series would like to recognize all eight of the participating tracks for their support to the Super Stock Class and a special Thank You for working with their competing tracks to allow their regular drivers to compete in the Series. Keep posted by checking out our Facebook page and stay up to date with the Series purse growing each week. If you would like to come on board to help out the Series please contact Spokesman Dennis McCauley at 218-348-9919 and see you at an event near you!
Article Credit: Dennis McCauley
Article Media
