Stateline Speedway calls upon ICAR for repeat performance

Nathan Fleury woke up last Sunday morning, fresh off a season-opening victory in the ICAR Late Model Series 50-lap main event, never expecting to be preparing his race car for a quick turnaround to run Saturday night.

Neither did Joe Doellefeld, owner and operator of Stateline Speedway.

Doellefeld had planned to host the ASA Northwest Late Model Tour’s sophomore season opener at his facility this weekend. Instead, ICAR will take the place of the tour as Doellefeld canceled the infant series and on short notice was able to schedule another ICAR event.

Both men could not be happier with the unexpected turn of events.

“Due to the lack of the ability (for the Northwest Tour) to provide a commitment of cars, (Stateline) canceled the event planned for this weekend,” Doellefeld said. “(ICAR) had an event rained out two weeks ago here, so I thought of them and felt I would try to get (ICAR) an extra race with us.”

Fleury is happy that Stateline’s leadership believes in ICAR enough to call upon his group to headline Mother’s Day weekend.

“It’s a big compliment to be doing this for Joe,” he said. “He puts on an excellent show there and it’s always been really good to go out and compete at his racetrack.”

Extending an invitation to ICAR for an additional headlining event shows the strength of local late model racing, Doellefeld added.

“The health of late model racing is real good,” he said. “The local shows across the region are doing good with their car counts, but I’d say that some of the traveling shows do cost a bit more to run. We’ve had good car counts with the INSSA class here and in the past with the ARCA (West Late Model Challenge Series) show. They (ICAR) are really doing well, but it does take both parties, the track and the racers, to work together to be successful.”

Directors of the ASA Northwest Tour do have an option to re-schedule Stateline Speedway if they can add to their field of cars, according to Doellefeld.