WILLMAR -- Opening night at the Kandiyohi County Fair featured stock car racing in front of a nearly-full grandstand as a season-high 112 cars registered in six classes.
The big attraction was the Modified Special. Twenty-eight cars showed up to compete for the $1,500 first prize.
One of those Modified hopefuls was Dale Mathison of Clearwater. Mathison led the Wissota national points race early this summer, but has faded to fourth, still a good start for a racer new to the class.
"We were the leaders for a while but then our set-up wasn't working anymore," he said. The higher the sun got, the drier the tracks got and his No. 9M J-Car just didn't hook-up as well as early on in the season.
Still, he's won five times this year, though he was still looking for his first checkered flag at the KRA Speedway.
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"Maybe tonight will be it," he cracked. "That would be nice."
Mathison grew up in Morris. He wrestled for the Tigers, graduating in 1986.
He owns a car dealership in Clearwater, also the home of Willmar native and KRA regular Ryan Canon.
Mathison started out in Streeters at Golden Spike, moved to Midwest Mods in for three years starting in 2002 and hopped into his first Modified in 2007.
He also races at Princeton and Alexandria but added he is not a serious contender for the national title.
Besides being a reasonable distance, he keeps coming back to Willmar because of "great people and a great organization. Everyone treats me well here."
Last night he took the early lead in Heat 2 but was overtaken by Joey Jensen of Forest Lake in the red V2 car. Eric Martini of Avon was third in the heat.
In the first heat, Andy Gordon caught and passed Shane Sabraski with one lap to go. Justin Jones took third.
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Andy Miskowic in 27x raced in the fourth heat. The Milaca driver was Rookie of the Year in 2007 after placing second in rookie points in the Street Stock Division his first year of racing in 2006. Miskowic didn't start racing, though he pitted for friends, until just short of his 30th birthday.
Feature results were not available at press time but will appear in Friday's paper.
