Sports
Beckedahl, Schill, area youth the latest winners at Thunder Mountain
Matthew Semisch
06/24/2014
Nobody in attendance at Bottineau’s Thunder Mountain Speedway on Sunday was too surprised to see Steve Beckedahl and Lance Schill come up victorious in the afternoon’s two feature races.
What was rarer about the fifth set of races this season at TMS, though, was that the adults weren’t the only winners. Indeed, kids in attendance got something big out of the event, too.
Sunday’s event was labeled as this season’s Kids’ Night at the race track. Tweed Country Ag served as the event’s title sponsor.
Between the sport stock and Wissota Midwest modifier trophy dashes and the two feature races, children in attendance were invited to hop into their favorite drivers’ cars for a few slow laps around the quarter-mile track.
“I really like letting the kids get out there on the cars and let them see what it is we do,” said Steve Beckedahl of Landa. Beckedahl won the night’s sport stock feature race, his second such victory in as many attempts at TMS.
“The kids really enjoy getting out there with us on the track, and so do we as drivers, and really just having that sense of a big family is what this sport’s all about.”
Lance Schill of Langdon picked up his third Wissota Midwest modifier feature race victory at TMS on Sunday. Before the two feature races, though, his two-year-old son Dentyn joined him inside Schill’s open-wheel car for a few laps.
“My little guy got to go out there and drive around the track with me, and he just thought it was the greatest,” Schill said while holding Dentyn, who turns three in September.
“We enjoy having the kids out there with us when we do the kids’ nights, and it’s even better for me having my own son out there.”
The next event set to take place at TMS is scheduled for Sunday, July 13. Auto Value will serve as the title sponsor of that event, which is slated to begin at 4 p.m.
Local race fans will only have to wait another week for the next event after that. Racing is also set to take place at TMS on Sunday, July 20, again starting at 4 p.m.