Proctor Speedway

PROCTOR SPEEDWAY NAMED 2009 WISSOTA TRACK OF THE YEAR

By Jerry O'Brien

The Proctor Speedway located on the Proctor Minnesota Fairgrounds was

named the 2009 WISSOTA Promoters Association AMSOIL Dirt Track Series

Track Of The Year at the WISSOTA National Banquet held at the Kelly Inn &

Convention Center in St. Cloud, MN.

The annual award is presented by Race Promotion Monthly (RPM) and All The

Dirt! Racing News. RPM sponsors the annual RPM Promoters Workshops held in

Reno, Nevada and Dayton Beach Florida. All the Dirt! Racing News is the official

newspaper of WISSOTA.

Criteria for the award was changed for 2009. In previous years a committee

picked tracks that they thought met their criteria and voted on them. This year each

track who thought they deserved a chance to be Track of the Year was urged to

submit a proposal stating their reasons for being named to the award. A dozen of

the nearly 60 WISSOTA Sanctioned tracks submitted proposals and the committee

whittled them down to the five most deserving organizations in their estimation.

The rest of the promoters in the organization then were invited to vote for their

choice in the final five and it was the Proctor Speedway that garnered the most

votes.

The track is certainly deserving of the honor given the hard work put in by Jerry

"Crash" Carlson, Gus Omundson and the hard working Lakehead Racing

Association Board of Directors and volunteers. Over the last few years they have

transformed the Proctor Speedway into a showplace with the addition of new

Grandstands a paved concourse and new state-of-the art Musco lighting. The

transformation was completed in 2009 with the opening of the new $200,000 plus

concession building seating 50 people. They also use the track for other types of

motorized mayhem other than the weekly racing program recognizing that they are

not exclusively in the racing business, they are in the entertainment business. As a

result of this attitude, events such as the wildly successful school bus and trailer

races, the enduro events as well as the monster truck events brought more fans to

the three eighths oval in these tough economic times.

Congratulations are in order to the 2009 Lakehead Racing Association Board

of Directors, President Crash Carlson, Vice President Kent Lunda, Treasurer Gus

Omundson, Secretary Lisa Walkowiak and Board Members Larry Peterlin, Tim

Lillo, Jamie Thomas, Gordie Halverson and Don Roseen and all the employees

and volunteers that put so much of their time into making the Proctor speedway a

success.