The Sikkenga family — father, Nate (pictured in the N0S), and sons 20-year-old Tyler (pictured in the 745), and 16-year-old Jason — race cars like they’ve done this their whole life. However, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that dirt racing came across their radar.
“A buddy who does welding for us had a strange- and interesting-looking car sitting in his yard,” Nate, of Gillette, Wyoming, said. “He said it had a blown motor. I thought it looked cool. I’d never been to a dirt track. I knew the Gillette Thunder Speedway was next door to the motocross track my boys raced at.”
Nate bought the car for $2,000, put an engine in it and went to the track to race in the WISSOTA mod four class.
“I fought the car all year last year,” said Nate. “I got bits and pieces of info on how to do this or that — I was told to get this or buy that. Since I was having a good time, I bought another car.”
Nate’s sons were once nationally ranked BMX competitors, and later moved on to motocross. When Nate bought his new car, he prodded his kids to try four wheels.
“Just like anything a father suggests, it was like pulling teeth to get them to try driving a mod four,” Nate said. “I dared them each to try just one race. They did so I would stop pestering them, and they fell in love with it.”
Nate bought a third car and now all three compete in the class among four tracks — Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, South Dakota; Casper Speedway in Wyoming; Gillette Thunder Speedway; and Sheridan Speedway in Wyoming.
“It’s fun racing with the boys,” said Nate. “I give them a little extra room, I admit. If I’m racing someone else, I’ll weasel right up through.”
Surprisingly, no Sikkenga dominates over the other.
“We have fun, and there is always a three-way competition between us,” Tyler said. “On one night Jason could whoop us, and on another night we can’t catch Dad.”
Tyler is in contention for the WISSOTA mod four national rookie of the year.
Nate won the track championship at Sheridan Speedway, with Tyler finishing runner-up.
All three have visited victory lane — Nate with eight wins, Tyler with three, and Jason with two.
“This type of racing is more fun and less stressful than motocross,” said Tyler.
The Sikkenga family is now all in on mod four racing. They plan to head to the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 at I-94 Sure Step Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Both Nate and Tyler have qualified for the event’s Race of Champions.
“We had planned a vacation in Greece at the end of the season,” Nate said. “Now, its Greece or the WISSOTA 100. I canceled the trip to Greece.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
