The 800+ horsepower World of Outlaws Late Models will make their first-ever stop at Norman County Raceway in Ada, Minn. on Saturday, June 29th.
Ada, Minnesota, a town of just 1,740 citizens will grow exponentially in size on Saturday, June 29th next summer as the World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series will make its debut at the 106-year-old, three-eighths-mile Norman County Raceway.
The series’ visit marks the first time a nationally recognized traveling racing series will run in Norman County since the IMCA Stock Car Series made its way to northwest Minnesota in the early 1950’s.
Steve Francis, series director for the World of Outlaws, spoke about the speedway during the series schedule release last Friday night saying, “The whole community is behind it and those are events that always seem to be very successful.”
Francis continued saying, “I really like working with promoters that aren’t scared to take a chance. I was always that way my whole career. I wasn’t ever scared to take a chance and sometimes it worked great and sometimes it didn’t but places that you can get that are willing to go out on a limb and do something different, look at something different, look at different ways of doing it… those are the places that we really like being involved with.”
Jake Bitker, longtime manager of Norman County Raceway, spoke to Jim Birkemeyer on KRJB 106.5FM Monday saying, “We spent a lot of time negotiating and then we met with the city, the mayor, the Chief of Police, and they are totally on board to help and have been so supportive already. Then we talked with Don Merkens, the president of the fair board, and he kind of giggled a little bit and said, “in Ada!? This will be a great community event.”
The historic and iconic Norman County Raceway grandstands will be jam-packed with race fans on June 29th for the track’s inaugural World of Outlaws event.
In regard to expanding the speedway to be able to fit the influx of fans that are expected to attend the event, Bitker said, “We have bleachers coming in that actually are the seating that are used at another facility for World of Outlaws Sprint Car events. We’re going to have seating in the center of the race track, we are going to put grandstands on the north side of the (main) grandstand and the south side of the main grandstand, and we’re going to be anywhere from three thousand to thirty-five hundred people.”
Bitker continued by stating how excited he was to have this event take place at Norman County Raceway, saying “I am so excited for this community to see a large event on this scale. We’re talking next level. I can’t even come up with the words how excited I am actually to do this for our community.”
Camping and ticket information will be made available at a future date. IMCA Stock Cars and IMCA RACESaver Sprint Cars have also been added to the program. The event will be the third and final stop on the series’ tour through the area following events at I-94 emr Speedway and River Cities Speedway, but the Norman County event will pay the winner $15,000, the richest winner’s share of the three-race mini-series.