REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. — After approximately two-and-a-half years of Redwood Speedway sitting idle, a new promotion team has stepped up and signed a three-year contract.
The 2024 season opened on June 9 and a large crowd showed their appreciation of having a local track again.
Velvet and Ricky Dostal are now in charge of the half-mile dirt track at the fairgrounds in Redwood Falls, Minn. after the track did not have an event since mid-2021.
When the track was unable to race at all during 2020 due to the COVID-19 era, coming back in 2021 proved to be difficult. After about five races, the oval was closed.
The half-mile needed someone to step up and bring back racing to the fairgrounds and the Dostal duo made the commitment.
Velvet has experience at other Minnesota tracks, working as the co-promoter at North Central Speedway alongside track owner, Cliff Sasker. She had a similar function at Princeton Speedway when Cliff owned that one also, going from registration and scorekeeping to promoter. Ricky is busy at North Central in the tech role and does track prep at Redwood Falls and North Central.
Both Dostals are busy with other work as Ricky builds race engines and Velvet is the full-time bakery manager and the main cake decorator at Coborn’s in Glencoe.
The fairgrounds did some improvement to the Redwood Falls stands but the 100 loads of clay arrived too late and it will be the fall when the surface gets the new material.
Four IMCA divisions and WISSOTA sanctioned street stocks will be the bread and butter for the weekly shows with an occasional added division. RACEsaver sprints will be appearing on Sunday.
Getting employees for a track idle for two-and-a-half years was not easy. The staff for the June 9 opener were all new at their functions. Redwood Falls employees are excited about the track opening and the opener was a packed house.
Velvet was pleased with the pit side of things for their inaugural race with an average of 3.9 pit passes for each car. North Central is 1.8 to 2.4 for their pit pass average.
Reopening a previously unsuccessful track is a challenge, but Velvet believes she and Ricky can make it work.
“I’ve been nervous but have been crunching the numbers and as long as we are frugal and play our cards right we should be fine,” she said. “Taking a look at the track, need to add some lighting in the pit area and add the clay to the surface.”
One thing for certain, with their jobs along with responsibilities at two Minnesota dirt tracks, Velvet and Ricky Dostal will be very busy with 13 more races at Redwood Speedway for 2024.