With a road trip south to the I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri, this past weekend for the first ever Fall Frost I have closed out my 2025 racing season. And, before getting to the year in review, I want to make a few quick comments about this event.
First of all, it was great to return to I-55 as it has been at least six or seven years since I last visited and this remains one of my favorite race tracks. I look at it as a mini-Eldora with high banks and an inside wall where even the Late Models look like they are launching off the cushion of turn two and there is plenty of opportunity to execute the perfect slide job. Kenny Wallace did exactly that to drive by Chris Spalding on lap seven and then hold off the challenges of Timmy Hill to win the twenty-five lap Modified feature. Unfortunately this race also featured six cautions and with the wind picking up and the temperature dropping from the front that was sweeping through, we were thankful that the Late Model feature was next on the program.
Aaron Marrant would lead the first fourteen circuits before Mike Harrison powered by and while he would drive away to take the $5,000 win in the forty lap headliner, the racing for position behind him made our trip well worth it as drivers used the entire surface and made big runs, and big recoveries along the way. Michael Kloos and Kentucky's Tripp Gerald would join Harrison on the podium while Daryn Klein took fourth and Jose Parga came from thirteenth to finish fifth.
Hot laps were scheduled to start at five o'clock and it was now 10:45 so we headed for the gates and a near four hour drive home. As I age I definitely find myself less appreciative of sitting in the cold, even at a race in November, and while I hope to hit a few Speedweek events in 2026 it will have to be on a comfortable weather night. The other thing that I notice about myself is that I have less and less patience for having to wait through a lot of other races to watch the classes that I came to see. Yes, I knew what I was getting into here with nine divisions on the card and I truly appreciate that the Modifieds and Late Models were the second and third features in the running order. I would have liked to have stayed for the B-Mod feature as well, but five hours and forty-five minutes into this one, that was no longer an option. As a polite suggestion for this show in 2026, having had a practice night on Thursday and a full program for all but the Late Models on Friday, there should have been no need to run hot laps for the six divisions that would be drawing for their starting spots. With the time that it takes to get on and off the track here at I-55 that would have easily saved a half hour or more.
Still it was fun trip and one that I would consider again in 2026. Usually the Turkey Bowl at the Springfield Raceway is my season finale, but with a personal commitment this Saturday I encourage you to make the trip this week to fill my seat!
Our 2025 racing season actually started at Springfield for the Back In Time MLRA Reunion weekend on February 28th and March 1st and the trip to Pevely on November 8th made it an even fifty race nights at twenty-three different tracks in five states. Leading the way for the second year in a row would be my "home track" of 34 Raceway in West Burlington where I was able to kick back and sit in the stands on three of the eight nights that I visited this season. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy grabbing the mic at 34 and I continued my streak of now forty-three years of doing at least one night of announcing at the high=banked oval in southeast Iowa. The Knoxville Raceway is next in line with six events topped off by young Ryan Timms dominating for fifty laps to be the first weekly racer there to win the Knoxville Nationals since Doug Wolfgang.
I do love my Sunday night trips up to the Benton County Speedway in Vinton and the first of those five trips this years was definitely a wild one! I spent three nights each at two tracks that I want to give a special mention to. The Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, is a hidden gem that you must check out some time. The facility itself is quite rustic, a throwback to days gone by when many county fairgrounds had a race track while the surface itself consistently offers up some of the best action around with the track prep of Mike Van Genderen.
I also made three fun-filled trips to the Dirt at the Downs promotion where Rick and Corey Dripps along with the staff at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, covered the quarter-mile pavement and presented five nights of racing over a four week stretch in September and October. Rick actually called me back in early January to let me in on the secret and I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical as to how the temporary track would race. Add Corey to my list of track prep wizards though as they made adjustments from the first practice on through the final event and the racing in my three visits was spectacular! Being there to announce the sprint Invaders show on the second weekend was a rare treat and I encourage you to read my report from the Late Model show on the third weekend even if it is just to see what Corey said during the drivers' meeting in regard to social media. Obviously with the success of this promotion, one has to wonder now if it might be considered again in the near future?
Two nights each were spent at the Quincy Raceway, where new track owner Jeff DeLonjay added a wall around the speedway a move that was well received by the Sprint Invader drivers, Springfield, Oskaloosa, and Davenport where I was able to the third generation of one of my favorite racing families score his first career feature win. The 60th Anniversary celebration of racing at the Independence Motor Speedway was my second night at the facility in 2025 and, sadly, little did I know that it would be my final time to interview Greg Kastli. The track's Hall of Fame night was my other visit and it was a special night to celebrate many of my good friends who were already members and that were being inducted on this night.
The Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is another one of my favorite destinations, but I was only able to get there twice in 2025. Hopefully that number will increase in 2026 as new promoters Darin and Debi Weisinger are taking the track back to Friday nights with an IMCA sanction. The Bloomfield Speedway was a "two night" track for me this year as well with one of them being a fantastic Sprint Invaders show in August while my visit in September found me helping out my good friend Sue McDaniel with scoring duties come feature time. That is something that I haven't done since the early 80s!
One night was spent at each of the following facilities; Tipton, Stuart, Double X, West Liberty, Columbus Junction, Farley, Boone, Spencer and Pevely. Each year I have the goal of attending at least one night of pavement racing and at seeing a race that I have never been to before. I accomplished both of those goals in late June by going to Michigan's oldest race track, the Whittemore Speedway. And in September I made my first visit ever to the 1-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, for a qualifying night of the WISSOTA 100. With these two added to the list I am now at 223 tracks in twenty-five states and with a potential retirement from the day job on the horizon I will look to adding more to those numbers in 2026.
Coming up soon here on the Back Stretch we will have the final state points for Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Texas and we will then pool all fourteen states that we track together for our 2025 Best of the Midwest standings. And, for the second and final time, I have tracked the dirt tracks across the entire lower forty-eight so the I can give you the Back Stretch National Points champions in five different classes. Also, before the year ends, we will have the updated Cumulative All Iowa Points standings in all nine divisions, so plenty of off-season content to comb though here. Finally, we encourage you to bookmark the Special Events Calendar at Positively Racing as we will continue to populate the 2026 season as schedules are released.
Thank for visiting the Back Stretch, have a safe and happy Holiday season!
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