Punky Manor Race and Great Fans Highlight the 2007 Season at Red Cedar Speedway

By Mike Holzhueter

What a difference a year makes.

The 35^th year of racing at the Red Cedar Speedway was completed just before 10pm, Saturday September 22^nd, as the checkered flag was waved for the late model feature at the 28^th Annual Punky Manor Challenge of Champions, bringing to a close a successful season at the speedway. A near capacity crowd stood and cheered as UW-Stout alumni Jimmy Mars and A.J. Diemel raced to the line, with Mars taking the win and his fourth Punky title.

At one point in the evening during an epic on-track battle between Knapp’s Craig Thatcher and Corcoran, Minnesota’s Dave Cain, the crowd noise overcame the roar of the engines as the fans witnessed Thatcher fight off Cain to win his record seventh Punky feature and momentarily take the lead in the WISSOTA National point standings. 

Just one year ago, the die hard race fans that remained in town witnessed a weekend of rain showers, only to see the sun come out on Sunday morning, allowing the Red Cedar Racing Association a chance to prepare a race track and run the Punky on a Sunday, in front of a much smaller, but devoted crowd.  This race capped off a tumultuous 2006 season that saw the association sink into debt.  The rain-soaked Punky weekend did nothing to help the financial situation.  The racing took priority though. 

2007 brought an optimistic outlook and also experience that myself and the rest of the RCRA board knew could carry toward a more rewarding year.  Rewarding mainly in personal satisfaction- while some of the board members do receive a small amount of monetary compensation, most of the work associated with the track is volunteered time.

Red Cedar Speedway is very fortunate to have some of the most knowledgeable and loyal race fans, not just in the Midwest, but in the US.  This is not by accident though- racing under the WISSOTA flags (Red Cedar Speedway is a WISSOTA Sanctioned Track)  the speedway has been graced by nationally acclaimed drivers.  John Kaanta, Craig Thatcher, Pat Doar, Jerry Redetzke, Paul Harelstad, Ron Mahder, and Kevin Adams have all won a WISSOTA national championship while racing at the speedway on a weekly basis. 

These fans have watched Jimmy Mars start his racing career as a teenager, and watched him go on to win prominent dirt late model races all over the country.  They have seen Canadian Tom Nesbitt, who is a member of the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame and also a former WISSOTA champion, race at the speedway off and on since 1980.  (The 65 year old raced again at the Punky, as well as some weekly visits this year.).  They were here, standing room only, the first time NASCAR star Ken Schrader raced in his dirt late model at the speedway, and watched him sign autographs until everyone in attendance got a chance to meet him.

These same race fans did something very remarkable in 2007- they helped the RCRA raise over $4000 for charity.  While some in the community only hear the noise on Friday night, the RCRA works to make the speedway a gathering place for the community- a place area residents and race fans can congregate with family and friends on a Friday evening.  WISSOTA rules mandate mufflers on all cars, keeping the decibel level at 95 decibels maximum.  And the self enforced curfew ensures no race starts after 10:30pm., allowing everyone to visit the pits and mingle with their favorite drivers, or just head home at a decent time.

What will another year bring to the speedway?  The next chapter in the long history of the RCRA will likely start next April.