HURON In addition to helping kick off the 2024 Wheel Jam Truck Show festivities on the South Dakota State Fairgrounds, Thursdays racing program at Dakota State Fair Speedway will be a special one for promoter Orville Chenoweth and the rest of his staff.
A Dedication Night for past DSFS employees is scheduled, along with a Fan Appreciation Night. Admission in racing program will be just $5.
Ever since I started promoting the races, I was always going to do a fan appreciation night and I figured I better do it now before something happens and I cant do it, Chenoweth said. Were also going to have a program to honor our past employees, who have passed away.
We had some very good sponsors, who have helped on some of it, he said. And we should have a decent car count.
Wheel Jam Wild Race Car Night presented by Dakotaland Federal Credit Union on Thursday will feature the Tri-State Late Model Series, along with the WISSOT street stocks, Midwest modifieds and super stocks. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Some of the drivers who werent here last race will be here this week, because they didnt have their cars done before, Chenoweth said. Lorin Johnson and his sons will have all three of their cars here.
Mike Gross, who is the promoter for the Tri-State Late Model Series, is eager for Thursday nights program, which kicks off a 3-night swing for the series.
Were 1 out of 3 because of rain so far this season. It looks pretty good for a weather forecast, which is good because I have a lot of folks who are excited to race, Gross said. Its pretty exciting what Orville is doing on Thursday night with the dedication for all his employees there and doing a $5 admission for all the fans. Thats pretty good of Orv to do that.
After a $3,000-to-win show on Thursday at the Huron track, the Tri-State late models travel to Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen on Friday, before returning to DSFS on Saturday for Challenge Cup XXII, which pays $5,000 to the winner.
Just to make the show at all three tracks is over $1,200 and to win all three is $11,000 so theres some pretty big money on the line, Gross said.
Were always appreciative of Orv, along with Terry (Voeltz) and Kent (Arment) in Brown County, he said. We look forward to getting there to race. Both have a rich history of late model racing, with good local field of cars. Theres some pretty tough competitiion.
Chad Becker of Aberdeen won the lone event thus far this season for the Tri-State Late Models on May 18 at I-90 Speedway in Hartford, while Chase Alves of Sioux Falls was second. A total of 33 late models were on hand for the season opener.
I think well have a good car count, Gross said. We have a pretty good field of rookies running too.
Chase Alves got second at our first race in Hartford, he said. He had a really good start to the season.
A couple other newcomers to the series are Lee Grosz of Watertown, who was seventh in Hartford, and Nick Schmidt of Florence, who finished 16th during the opening night.
The field will include several drivers, who have competed at DFSS, Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen and Casino Speedway in Watertown for years.
The list includes David Carlson of Huron, Charlie Olsen and Chad Olsen of Hendricks, Minn., Jayson Good of Watertown, Cody Martin of Mitchell, Blair Nothdurft of Renner, Trevor Anderson of Watertown, Chuck Swenson of Watertown, John Winge of Harrisburg and Gary Brown Jr. of Brandon.
Cole Searing of Huron, who is the defending Tri-State Late Model Series champion, has committed to running the WISSOTA Challenge Series this season, but could attend any of the Tri-State events if rain should wash out any of the WISSOTA events.
All three of the WISSOTA classes slated to compete on Thursday visited DSFS during the season opener on May 11.
Andy Rossow of Florence collected his second feature win at the speedway after a hard-fought battle street stock main event. He was challenged for the top spot by Jayden Bogh of Huron, Maria Broksieck of Goodwin and Broc Stout of Winner.
Im looking forward to seeing how things shake out this time around, said Broksieck, who has won at this event for two of the past three seasons.
Jayme Peterson of Highmore also earned his first ever win at DSFS during the May 11 program in the Midwest modified division. He held of Scott Hansen of Garden City for the victory.
Collecting the super stock feature win on May 11 was Trevor Nelson of Warner. He now has a total of four main event wins at the track.
Rounding out the top five in the super stock race were Jeremy North of Huron, Nathan Grehl of Hitchcock, Doug VanLiere of Madison and Bryson North of Huron.
After a trip to Aberdeen on Friday, the Tri-State Late Model Series will return to DSFS for Challenge Cup XXII presented by Olympic Motor Sales at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Searing has won the most recent two Challenge Cup races at the Huron track. Becker won the 2021 event, while Scott Ward of Watertown won in 2015 and Kent Arment of Aberdeen claimed the win in 2012.
Joining the late models for Saturdays program will be the WISSOTA Midwest modifieds.
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