7/25/2023
Wissota Late Model Challenge Series
WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series Mid-Season Series Report Card
The silver anniversary of the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series has hit the mid-point of the 20-race schedule and has produced 5 different winners to date, with 5-time champion Pat Doar leading the point standings heading into the second half of the schedule by 60 markers over 2-time champ Jake Redetzke. Sam Mars, Jeff Massingill and John Kaanta round out the top five in the current series point standings, while the remainder of the top ten include Ryan Mikkelson, Darrell Nelson, Kyle Peterlin, Josh Zimpel and Dustin Sorensen.
Thus far into the 25th anniversary season, a total of 98 WISSOTA Late Model competitors have attempted to qualify for at least one series event. Nine events, at eight different tracks have been completed, while four events have been lost to weather, with three of them being rescheduled in August. The July event at Halvor Lines Speedway will not be made up.
Top Ten Drivers Report:
Pat Doar – With four wins plus eight top ten finishes in nine starts, Doar has amassed a 60-point lead over the field. Doar has series win at every remaining track on the tour’s schedule, making him the frontrunner to claim his sixth series title.
Jake Redetzke – The series most recent winner at ABC, Redetzke, who also has eight top ten finishes in his nine series starts, only sits 60 points back because of the fact he didn’t go directly to the tech area at KRA after a top five run and was disqualified from the event. Had that not happened, he would be in a much tighter fight with Doar at the top of the standings heading into the second half of the season.
Sam Mars – Sam has finished inside the top ten in seven of the nine series races so far in 2023 and has a pair of 13th and 14th place finishes at the 2 series stops at Ogilvie as his only 2 non-top ten finishes so far on tour. His podium (3rd place) finish at KRA is the brightest spot so far for the young Wisconsin racer, who looks to make some noise in the second half of the season.
Jeff Massingill – With six top ten finishes, and most notably a solid runner up in Hibbing, after leading early, Jeffrey has had a but a 23rd place at Ogilvie and a pair of 14th place finishes at KRA and during the second Ogilvie stop have hampered his progress in the points so far. His speed at Hibbing has him looking solid heading into the second half.
John Kaanta – Although the 6-time champion has set fast time on several occasions (and set a new KRA Speedway Track Record), we're sure he would prefer his feature finishes be a bit better so far over the first half of the series. With three top ten finishes in his nine starts, he’s struggled a bit, but he did finish in the top five at Fiesta City, although he ended up light on the scales and was disqualified, and was sixth at ABC after leading early, so he has definitely showed speed and is looking to put together a solid second half of the season to stay inside the top five in the points.
Ryan Mikkelson – After a bit of a slow start, posting finishes of 23rd and 19th during the season’s first two events, Ryan ran 4th at KRA to kick off the western swing on the right foot. After several top ten runs mid-season, he was the fast qualifier in his group in Hibbing and then backed that up as the overall fast qualifier at ABC, turning that into his first podium run of the season, posting a third-place finish in the night’s feature event. He’s got some momentum headed into the second half.
Darrell Nelson – Darrell started off the season red hot, with finishes of 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 4th in the series first 6 events before disaster struck and he broke an engine in hot laps at Ogilvie on the opening night of the five-night Northern Storm week, which forced him to sit out the remainder of that program and the event in Hibbing the night after. He may be seventh in the current standings, but he will be a force during the second half as he has victories at every track left on the schedule before the season-ending WISSOTA 100 in September.
Kyle Peterlin – Kyle and his team skipped the event at Casino back in June and were considering dropping off the tour after tenth, eleventh and twenty-third place finishes during the Western Minnesota swing, but an impressive win at Hibbing has the team’s morale boosted back up and has Kyle looking to take a swing at a top five spot in the series points as the second half of the season rolls around.
Josh Zimpel – After running 13th in the series opener at I-94 back in May, Josh nearly won during his second series start, settling for second at Ogilvie the following night. He then nearly won again, running second at Madison, while also posting finishes of 6th and 8th in series action. If he is able to put a string of solid runs together, he should be able to climb the ladder and contend for a top five finish in the final point standings at season’s end.
Dustin Sorensen – Dustin has entered five series events thus far in 2023 and has posted finishes inside the top ten in all five starts, including leading early at Ogilvie to kickstart the Northern Storm week. His 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 10th place runs have him inside the top ten in the current point standings heading into the second half of the season, where he should be able to post several more top ten runs to solidify his spot inside the top ten.
Other notable drivers include Tyler Peterson, who raced to back-to-back victories at Madison and Casino in mid-June, during his only two series starts thus far and Bryce Sward, who topped the season opener at I-94 in impressive fashion as well before running 16th, 8th, 8th and 11th in his next four series starts.
The series has nine events left on the 2023 schedule:
Sunday, August 6th – Gondik Law Speedway (Superior, WI)
Friday, August 11th – Red Cedar Speedway (Menomonie, WI)
Saturday, August 12th – Rice Lake Speedway (Rice Lake, WI)
Saturday, August 28th – Ogilvie Raceway (Ogilvie, MN)
Sunday, August 29th – Granite City Motor Park (Sauk Rapids, MN)
Thursday, September 1st – Halvor Lines Speedway (Proctor, MN)
Friday, September 2nd – Grand Rapids Speedway (Grand Rapids, MN)
Saturday, September 3rd – Hibbing Raceway (Hibbing, MN)
Sunday, September 4th – Hibbing Raceway (Hibbing, MN)
Wednesday, September 14th – I-94 Speedway (Fergus Falls, MN)
The series enters a big month of August with 5 events before wrapping up the season in September with another five races on the schedule, culminating with the series champion being crowned on the opening night of the 2023 Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 on September 14th.
Submitted By: Camryn Sullivan