JACKSON, MN – A day of special honors with the annual induction ceremonies at the Jackson Speedway Hall of Fame was followed up by a great night of racing at the historic venue. As part of the 2014 Jackson County Fair, the racing action served as a perfect ending to the Hall of Fame event, which honored five individuals and a local business for their involvement in racing at the half-mile speedway on the Jackson County Fairgrounds.
Inducted into the Speedway Hall of Fame Saturday afternoon were Bill Smith, the 1986 Track Champion; Ray Smith, Six-cylinder Track Champion in 1978; Gabby Lusk, 1992 Track Champion; Pete Werner, former VFW Racing Director and caramel corn maker; Reiney Staerk, car owner and the Jackson County Pilot newspaper, for its print coverage of racing at the speedway dating back to the first races ever run in 1954.
With racing action sponsored by Erickson’s Trucks and Parts of Jackson and Loosbrock Digging Service, of Lismore, MN, a total of 68 racers turned out for the night’s racing action. The night’s feature wins started in the Minnesota West Technical College Power Sports Technology Minniakota MicroSprints with Tim Ottenbacher of Granville, IA taking the checkered flags and in the Yellowbook Sport Compacts, Megan Lappegard of Estherville, IA took her sixth feature win of the season. Justin Nehring of Storm Lake, IA claimed the Loosbrock Digging Service IMCA Hobby Stocks checkers and in the Bohl’s Small Engine and Marine IMCA Sport Modified feature, for the third consecutive week in a row, the win went to Jason Andrews of Estherville, IA. For the Hometown Motors IMCA Stock Car class, Luke Sathoff of Jackson earned his second feature win of the season and to close out the evening’s features, the Last Deck 360 Winged Sprints checkers went to Casey Heser of Jackson, MN, as he led from flag to flag for his first Feature win of the season at Jackson. Winning the heat races in the Minnesota West Technical College Power Sports Technology Minniakota MicroSprints were Colin Smith and Chad Schettler, while winning the Yellowbook Sport Compact heat was Megan Lappegard.
The Speedway will take the next two Saturday nights off before resuming racing action on Aug. 16 for the Minnesota Corn Growers “Jam the Stands” Night, where grandstand admission is free, courtesy of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association.
