After lying dormant a season, Junction Motor Speedway will reopen for 2023. Delmar Friesen will return to the helm of the McCool Junction, Nebraska, track.
Friesen closed the track while he underwent treatment for leukemia. With his cancer in remission, he looks forward to running his beloved speedway. (For more on that, read “Junction Motor Speedway: Owner’s Health Cancels 2022”.)
“I’m doing well now,” Friesen, 77, said. “I’m decent, except for being a little short of energy. I’ll be resting up over the winter and will have plenty of energy for the track come spring.”
When Friesen opened the track in 2003, the $2-million-dollar facility was considered a state-of-the-art short track.
“It is hard to run the track without me,” said Friesen. “I can’t hire anyone — help is hard to get. I do all the track prep myself. There is about 18 hours of work with the grader, dirt scraper, and sheepsfoot that only I know how to do.”
Friesen employs 30 people on a race night. He expects that Junction Motor Speedway will host 15 to 18 Saturday-night events in 2023. The track will run six IMCA classes — modifieds, sport mods, stock cars, late models, hobby stocks, and compacts.
“We’ve always had one of the cleanest racetracks in the country,” Friesen said. “We will keep it picked up, as we always have. Restrooms will be clean and there won’t be any litter flying around. The concession stand will be serving the hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and corn dogs that everyone loves.”
The track seats up to 4,000 people. It draws from the Nebraska cities of Albion, Columbus, Lexington, and Lincoln.
“There were lots of people hoping I would come back,” said Friesen. “I have a friend helping me get the track open. It will take some extra help for the first three or four races, but then I can do the whole thing myself. It is not hard work; it just takes time.”
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.
