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HARVESTFEST FEATURES ANOTHER WILD ENDING TO THE POINTS BATTLES AT TOMAH SPARTA SPEEDWAY

Despite the many family get-togethers, summer vacations and fun memories created, it feels like the summer lasted only a few weeks. Now all of us return to our hard working nine-to-five jobs to be productive members of the community, and the kids are back in school to learn more and be just like us when they get older. The summer also went by pretty quickly for the sport of auto racing, just like the cars running at top speed on the race track. After the running of a very successful and competitive SpeedFest 2 last weekend, there was still a bit of unfinished business to take care of at Tomah Sparta Speedway. Four of our regular weekly divisions still had their championships to be settled, and there would be drama right to the very last checkered flag of the season once again. The battle for the Hobby Stock title featured a ton of drama during and after the race. Scott Riedner claimed the battle and the last feature win of the season, but a lot of long drawn out drama after the race earned Landon Lockington the war and the track championship.

Andy Raley surged under Landon Lockington to lead the opening laps of the season finale for the Hobby Stocks. Scott Riedner powered past his championship rival to take over second. While Riedner tried to make some sort of dent into Raley's lead, his recent third place run at HobbyFest VI allowed the Fall River veteran to maintain the lead position. Riedner was now beginning to get a series of 'love taps' from Charles Vian, Jr. as they reached the halfway point of the race. As the laps counted down, Riedner knew it was 'go time' as he began to slowly catch up to Raley with Vian, Jr. still on his tail. Riedner was right on Raley's bumper as we reached five laps left in the season. Things were getting very tight and competitive between Raley, Riedner and Vian, Jr. as we neared the finish of the race. Riedner made one last lung at the top spot, and was able to power under Raley coming out of turn two with only two laps left in the 2025 season. Riedner claimed his third checkered flag feature win of the year. Thanks to a couple of post-race disqualifications, Lockington was moved up to second and he sewed up the season points title by a mere two points over Riedner.

Colten Pennel shot past A.J. Finnigan to take the first few laps of the final Hornet feature of the year. Rookie leader Braxtyn Moore moved into second on lap three and began to close the gap Pennel held. The lead twosome may have been pushing their race cars a bit too hard as they broke out twice and found themselves on the edge of being disqualified from the race. Both Pennel and Moore eased things back a bit as they continued their dog fight over the lead position. As both drivers approached the mid-race break, lapped traffic started to play a factor in the race. Pennel was forced wide in turn two and that allowed Moore to dive low and take over first place with 11 laps left to run. Pennel would stick right behind Moore as he wanted to be the next generation of the Pennel family to win at Tomah Sparta. Lee Dechant was having his best race of the season as he was closing up on the leader as we reached the five laps left point. Pennel began to lose sight of Moore as he began to fall into the clutches of Dechant with only a handful of laps left. While Dechant got around Moore on the final lap for second, Moore capped off his rookie season with his second win of the season. A fourth place effort netted Paul Finch his second Hornet title in three years.

Parker Thompson charged past Christopher Neal to take the lead at the start of the Sixers feature finale. Zachary Neal spun out in turn two on lap four to bring out the yellow. Monty Odegard wasted little time off the restart to drive by Thompson to settle into first place. Alivia Moore put a lot of heat on Odegard, and she was able to dive under him to move up to the lead on lap five. Curtis Hellickson, Moore's closest title and Rookie pursuer, shot past Odegard to take over second on lap seven. Both drivers began to pull away from their competition as they put on a hard fought battle with 'all the marbles' on the line. Just past halfway, Hellickson began to slowly make dents into Moore's lead to make their fight for first a bit more entertaining. Just after reaching the ten laps remaining mark, Moore began to slowly edge away from Hellickson. The distance between Moore and Hellickson remained steady as we passed the five laps to go mark. The Moore racing family is in good hands with Alivia as she claimed her fourth feature win of the year. She adds both the season championship and Rookie of the Year crowns to her LaCrosse High School Racing Association points title.

Christopher Neal surged right to the front of the final Hippo feature of the year. Points rival James Gratz was struggling to make his way through the field in the early laps, but Monty Odegard was giving Neal everything he could handle up front. After sorting things out for several laps, Gratz vaulted up to third by lap five and was quickly catching up to Neal and Odegard. Odegard powered around Neal in their side-by-side battle to take over the lead as the crossed flags were displayed. Now the heat was on with Gratz looking for a way under Neal as the fight for the race win and the championship got even more intense. With four laps to go, Neal fought back to settle back into the top spot but Gratz was hot on Neal's trail. The exciting side-by-side battle continued as Gratz surged to the front as the white flag was shown. Odegard was determined to be the spoiler as he dove under everybody in a daring three-wide move to nose ahead at the line to win the feature. Neal took third while Gratz ran fourth, and that gave Neal the championship by a mere three points.

Many of our competitors in the Staff Race work behind the scenes at Tomah Sparta Speedway, but tonight they got a chance to live out their dreams of racing. Hailey Alexander from Cranberry County Towing led the opening laps of the race, and showed the field that she can hold her own on the track. Parking czar Dan Westerman began to quickly reel in Alexander and shot past her to take over the lead position on lap four. Safety member Cory Bue stuck right behind Westerman and drove around him to become the new leader of the pack on lap six. Bue had his hand full with a fast approaching Ryan Kranski, who was working the outside lane very well. Working the outside was too much as Kranski began to fall away from the leaders. Despite a change of race cars, race director Chris Rada patiently made his way through the field before catching and passing Bue for the lead with five laps left. Rada was no match for his competition as he scored bragging rights until the next Staff Race.

Tonight's final Novelty event of the year was the Cone Race. The race vehicles had to balance an orange cone on the roof of their race car for ten laps. After only three laps of racing, just over half the field was out after losing their cones. The remaining cars showed nerves of steel while balancing their cones. Some ran a fast pace down the straights and drove carefully in the turns. Zachary Neal ran at a snail's pace and that was probably the smartest strategy of all. Mike Gratz ran an impressive race to become the "King of the Cone". Despite losing his cone early in the race, Christopher Neal still had enough of a points cushion to capture the Novelty division title.

With the final checkered flag falling, that will bring the 2025 season to a close. Year one is in the books under Tim and Amanda Brockhouse’s ownership of the legendary Tomah Sparta Speedway. The Brockhouses want to give a big ‘thank you’ to the race fans for continuing to support local grassroots short track racing, the drivers and race teams for putting on a very exciting and competitive racing program every Friday night, as well as the staff in the pits and the grandstands for their hard work to make racing run as smoothly as possible on Friday nights.

Now we celebrate the just completed racing season with an updated version of our Awards Party, happening on Saturday, November 8 at Strike Zone and Pizone’s in downtown Tomah. The Brockhouses want to make this a family friendly event with bowling, pizza, and of course the awards and recognition of the drivers. Look for the registration form on the track’s Facebook page and mail it out with your payment by November 1. You can also use the PitPay app or click PitPay Registration on tomahspartapspeedway.com to pay for your tickets.

RESULTS
Victory Fireworks Hobby Stocks
Feature (25 laps): 1. Scott Riedner, 2. Landon Lockington, 3. Charles Vian, Jr, 4. Andy Raley (DQ), 5. Shane Strothman (DQ)
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Landon Lockington, 2. Charles Vian, Jr., 3. Andy Raley, 4. Scott Riedner, 5. Shane Strothman
Qualifying: 1. Shane Strothman 16.989, 2. Scott Riedner 17.041, 3. Charles Vian, Jr. 17.072, 4. Andy Raley 17.179, 5. Landon Lockington 17.397

Hornets
Feature (30 laps): 1. Braxtyn Moore, 2. Lee Dechant, 3. Colten Pennel, 4. Paul Finch, 5. Tristan Finnigan, 6. A.J. Finnigan, 7. Ashtin Quinnell, 8. Jacob Iverson, 9. Jamie Pearson, 10. Ben Thurk, 11. Landon Peterson, 12. Caleb Uksas, 13. Jody Halterman, 14. Glen Bush, Jr.
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Glen Bush, Jr., 2. Caleb Uksas, 3. Ben Thurk, 4. A.J. Finnigan, 5. Colten Pennel, 6. Landon Peterson, 7. Jody Halterman
Heat #2 (8 laps): 1. Braxtyn Moore, 2. Paul Finch, 3. Tristan Finnigan, 4. Jamie Pearson, 5. Lee Dechant, 6. Ashtin Quinnell, 7. Jacob Iverson
Qualifying: 1. Jacob Iverson 17.475, 2. Paul Finch 17.487, 3. Jamie Pearson 17.520, 4. Lee Dechant 17.589, 5. Ashtin Quinnell 17.672, 6. Braxtyn Moore 17.677, 7. Colten Pennel 17.689, 8. A.J. Finnigan 17.783, 9. Glen Bush, Jr. 17.843, 10. Landon Peterson 18.227, 11. Ben Thurk 18.257, 12. Caleb Uksas 18.348, 13. Jody Halterman 19.457, 14. Tristan Finnigan NO TIME (DQ)

Sixers
Feature (30 laps): 1. Alivia Moore, 2. Curtis Hellickson, 3. Mike Gratz, 4. Monty Odegard, 5. Parker Thompson, 6. Christopher Neal, 7. Zachary Neal
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Alivia Moore, 2. Curtis Hellickson, 3. Mike Gratz, 4. Monty Odegard, 5. Christopher Neal, 6. Zachary Neal, 7. Parker Thompson
Qualifying: 1. Mike Gratz 18.023, 2. Alivia Moore 18.045, 3. Curtis Hellickson 18.164, 4. Zachary Neal 18.373, 5. Monty Odegard 18.416, 6. Christopher Neal 18.424, 7. Parker Thompson 18.563

Hippos
Feature (15 laps): 1. Monty Odegard, 2. Mike Gratz, 3. Christopher Neal, 4. James Gratz, 5. Izaak Odegard, 6. Jeremiah Neal
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. James Gratz, 2. Izaak Odegard, 3. Jeremiah Neal, 4. Curtis Hellickson
Heat #2 (8 laps): 1. Mike Gratz, 2. Monty Odegard, 3. Christopher Neal
Qualifying: 1. Kevin Laufenberg 18.917, 2. Monty Odegard 19.018, 3. Mike Gratz 19.079, 4. Christopher Neal 19.179, 5. James Gratz 19.558, 6. Curtis Hellickson 19.931, 7. Jeremiah Neal 20.265, 8. Izaak Odegard 20.370

Staff
Feature (15 laps): 1. Chris Rada, 2. Cory Bue, 3. Ryan Kranski, 4. Mike Davis, 5. Dan Westerman, 6. Hailey Alexander, 7. Matthew Young, 8. Samantha Steers Schott
Qualifying: 1. Chris Rada 19.115, 2. Ryan Kranski 20.011, 3. Mike Davis 20.245, 4. Cory B. 20.406, 5. Dan Westerman 20.608, 6. Matthew Young 21.194, 7. Hailey Alexander 21.675, 8. Samantha Steers Schott 27.508

Novelty
Cone Race (10 laps): 1. Mike Gratz, 2. Christopher Neal, 3. James Gratz, 4. Rick Porter, 5. Braxtyn Moore, 6. Jeremiah Neal, 7. Zachary Neal, 8. Izaak Odegard, 9. Monty Odegard, 10. Charles Vian, Jr., 11. Jacob Iverson

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