Proctor Speedway Ready for Racing Season

Season opens May 19 with Sunday Night Showdown

PROCTOR, Minn.- Racing fans will soon be taking to the grandstands for another season of high-octane action at Proctor Speedway.

Drivers were ready to take to the dirt track on the first weekend of May, but multiple days of heavy rainfall but those plans on the backburner.

“It’s always up to Mother Nature,” said Mike Donnahue, the president at Proctor Speedway. “That’s the hard part. We can’t fight the weather.”

However, officials at Proctor Speedway are well-accustomed to dire situations at the track. “One time we got to where we couldn’t open the fairground up because of the sewer and water system,” recalled Crash Carlson, the former Speedway President. “I had to rebuild that before we could go racing in the spring. And we’ve done a lot of things here.”

Carlson has been around the local racing season for 70+ years, and he’s done more than enough to keep Proctor Speedway up and running. “Our grandstands got condemned, and I had to tear the grandstand down. I built a grandstand out of Halvor Line trucks and trailers, and we have had the Silver 1000 Race, seating all of 2,000 people, and it was a lot of fun.”

How did he get the nickname “Crash?”

“I hit the grandstand,” says Carlson, who was a racer himself for 25 years. “The motor came in, and the car was on fire. And I was getting out of the car, and I decided I’d rather burn than get run over because I went back into the fire.”

Carlson’s days behind the wheel may be behind him, but he and other retired racers are still active in keeping this sport connected to its roots.

“It’s what we need,” believes Daniel Suomala, the Vice President of the Board at Proctor Speedway. “The older generation tell the younger generation what it’s all about. And we need that to help get the kids here, you know, a new generation of kid racers. All the help we can get to keep everything going.”

21-year-old racer Paul Ripley of Proctor is one of many up-and-coming drivers that have a “healthy addiction” to racing. Just ask him how much he’s spent on his car.

“I don’t know, too much… Too much,” Ripley smiled. “Tens of thousands and thousands of dollars, just to get the car on the track…Then thousands more to make it race ready.”

Ripley also says he works on his car every night. “It’s like having a second job. You go to your regular job, come home, and then every single night is spent on wrenching on the car, making it go faster.”

“You used to be able to go home and build a motor for $400 or $500,” says Donnahue. “Now, they order motors and they’re $27,000-$30,000. And you’ve got to have it to be competitive. It’s a real competitive sport. People put their heart and their soul into it. And it’s great.”

No matter how much racing has changed in the last half-century, two things that have remained the same, with the first being the sport’s emphasis on family.

“It’s great that we have many different families that can come out and work hard for us,” says Donnahue. “A lot of its volunteer. And that’s getting harder and harder (to find) these days.”

The second being the respect each driver has for each other.

“We still get excited when somebody pushes us out into the wall, and we get unfriendly for a week or two, and then we’re right back to being buddies again.” says Carlson.

“If somebody needs some help with something, somebody breaks something, somebody has a major wreck, you see the drivers that were involved in that wreck helping them.” explained Nick Gima, a local announcer for auto racing. “You see other drivers from neighboring pits coming over, you see drivers who have similar cars coming over and helping them. There’s a very good camaraderie amongst the drivers and the family aspect of racing itself. Amongst the fans, amongst the drivers, the teams, second to none. You know, the family part of it is what makes it really, really special.”

With the 2024 racing season getting underway, one of Proctor Speedway’s largest goals is to get more people in the grandstands on race day.

“I hope that people can come out and see us because we put a good show on.” Donnahue says.

“We need more people to come to the races than (the amount of people that currently) come, but we do all right,” said Carlson. “We’re surviving, and it’s a great sport.”