Family fun, and more racing to watch. That’s the theme at North Central Speedway this year.
The green flag drops on the 2012 season Saturday night with racing action starting at 5 p.m. Seven classes will run at the speedway this season with the addition of the Mod Fours to go along with the Hornet, Pure, Street, Midwest Modified, Super Stock, and A-Modified classes.
Family is the key area of focus for promoter KT Torbert and owner Cliff Sasker. There will be weekly games for the kids at intermission, which may include a ring toss, tire race, or other fun activities.
“We want this to be a great family environment where the kids will work hard just to be able to come out to the races on Saturday,” Torbert said.
To help move the program along quicker, and get families home at an earlier hour, racing will begin each night at 5:00 with the Pure Stock and Hornet heat races.
Pit gates will open at 4 p.m. with the grandstand opening at 5 p.m.
Last year, Torbert encouraged local communities to be a host for race night and that will continue this year. Starting with Baxter Night May 6, and going through Pequot Lakes Night on July 28, five local cities will participate in the program. For these nights, fans can pick up free tickets at an area establishment for the race that week.
It all plays in to the idea of having an affordable product for families looking for a fun night out.
“Something you can count on is in an economy where the prices are going up all around us. We refuse to do that and we will maintain our affordable cost,” Torbert said. “We are hoping that families will give us the chance to impress them and their kids, and know that they won’t have to worry about paying a lot of money to be somewhere with the people that matter most.”
There will be lots of exciting entertainment this year with a 15-week points racing season, beginning Saturday, and ending with the season championships Aug. 25.
The season will close with the Mighty Axe Nationals, a tremendously popular event that includes sprint car racing and six classes competing over Labor Day weekend.
This year, Sasker and Torbert are introducing a new event, the Worldwide Wissotafied Event (WWE) over Memorial Day weekend.
“One of the biggest excitements this year is the WWE event,” Torbert said. “We are running it just like the Mighty Axe Nationals. It’s a two-day, two complete shows event with winners receiving leather championship belts. Each class will also race for $1,000 to win one out of the two races.”
The AMA Pro Stars Vintage flat track motorcycle series will also return for a special event June 28.
Torbert is also working to increase awareness of NCS through social media. There is an online store on its website (racencs.net) where tickets and pit passes can be purchased. The store can also be reached through the Facebook page. Fans can also sign up for text message alerts and newsletter signups, which will include weather reports the day of races.
Last, but not least, is the food. The concessions team will introduce a new item, “Hot dog in a mitt,” which Torbert is certain will be a big hit.
It all adds up to a wonderful summer season at the dirt track.
Comments (9)
Add commentNorth Central Speedway?
Always a great time at NCS.
racing
lived in Brainerd from 1971 until 1980 never missed a Friday night or any other time unless I was working to be at the North Central Speedway my husband and I loved it glad to see it is still going on, especially loved the sprints. When we moved to the cities we switched to Shakope raceway, but missed Brainerd a lot, moved to Texas not the same but still attended Boyd Raceway until my husband passed away glad to see the early times I would still go if that was the way here but starting late and getting home really late not an option for me when I live 40 miles from the track. Just glad it is trying to draw the families.
Get well Keith Nelson!
Get well Keith Nelson!
With the split East and West going North on 371...
A special venue to visit and enjoy, in the words of Cars 1 and 2 with Lightning McQueen...
Speed...
Remember, the dirt track training sessions were with Doc Hudson...
Even better now at North Central...
Do early starts mean the track will finally live up to promise?
Years ago this place promised to be family friendly by watching end times of races, but have refused to do so since.
Families living a great distance away even across the river in Baxter can't go to sleep on school nights due to extremely loud--shake your windows loud--races that go on until well after midnight.
Windy....
I agree. The noise on a Saturday is annoying, but on a Sunday is unacceptable. There are ordinances banning people from having vehicles that are too loud, I wonder why these get a free pass to disturb such a large area so late at night. I enjoy watching races, but cannot understand how they think it is ok to run so late when there are so many houses near the track. They make it hard to enjoy a quiet evening at home when they are causing such a ruckus late into the night.
North Central Speedway
I feel absolutely no sympathy for those who complain about the noise of the racetrack. Its been there since about 1962 so its your own stupidity for buying/building a house close by. These are the same people who complain about Camp Ripley and BIR. Unless these places were built after you moved in you have no reason to complain--except about your own stupidity.
Noise
One Wednesday, One Sunday, and Labor Day Monday are on the schedule. I agree with cyclerod. Track has been there longer than everyone complaining.
Unfortunately this response is not a surprise!
I'm not a few blocks away from this track--and neither are most of the people I know of who have complained about the noise from there in the past.
I have not asked for them to go away or even to be quieter--just to restrict their extremely loud events to a reasonable hour on school and work nights.
If Fromafar's statement holds true maybe it won't be much of an issue this year. But in the past years it has been many weekdays with late running races. Used to be almost every thursday when racing started.
They go very loud until well after midnight and on occasion have pushed the one o clock hour.
I don't think it is asking too much to restrict such noise to a more reasonable hour especially on nights when kids have to go to school the next morning and adults have to go to work.
It's so loud it vibrates right through the house there's no closing of your windows to get away from it--and you sure can't open your windows to cool off on a hot night with such noise either.
Some years back a bunch of neighbors got fed up and went to the county. They regularly exceed state noise levels there but had agreed to limit their hours to a more reasonable level. That helped that year but in years since they've gone right back.
This isn't BIR--and it isn't Ripley. Both of them take care to work with neighbors and only ripley very occasionally is noisy at night. And everyone knows about them. The speedway was always an issue but it became a lot worse on the baxter side when they punched through the new highway. No on in Baxter who's suffered with this noise had any idea that it would be a problem until it was too late.
Thanks cyclerod and fromafar for firing me up about this again with your belligerent reponses. I don't think we are asking for much--is ending racing by 11 pm on a school night too much to ask? How is running until 1 am "family friendly"? I will be taking notes on times and noise again and will go to the authorities!