When it comes to racing, Dave Simpson loves to have a good adventure. That spirit carried him to a WISSOTA Midwest modified national championship.
For example, the prospects of rain left Simpson, of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, chasing tracks deeper and deeper in the U.S.
“Grand Rapids Speedway rained out on Thursday, Gondik Law Speedway looked like it would rain out on Friday,” Simpson said. “It was four-and-a-half hours to Fiesta City Speedway, so we headed that way on Friday. That looked like a rainout, so we decided that Miller Central Speedway was only another four more hours, so let’s go. We went there without ever seeing the place, unloaded, and won. Then we asked the local racers where we could race on Saturday. They said [Dakota] State Fair Speedway. We hauled there not knowing what to expect and we won again.
“That is where we realized we were 14 hours from home. The closest Sunday track was Buffalo River Speedway. We headed there in the morning, another four hours up the road. We finished third.”
Another example came at Mosquito Speedway in Nolalu, Ontario. Both the modified and Midwest modified classes at full fields, but that didn’t deter Simpson. He won both features.
“I decided to race my modified in both divisions — no changes except putting a spoiler on for the modified division,” said Simpson. “After winning the Midwest modified feature, I started in the modified feature, spun on the first turn and got a left-front flat. I continued to race and drove the entire feature with the flat — by the end of the race, the control arm was hanging off the left front. There were cars beside me at the finish, and I didn’t win by much.”
In total, Dave Simpson won 27 Midwest modified features, two track championships (Grand Rapids Speedway and Thunder City Speedway), and a WISSOTA national title. However, one of most memorable nights may have come when he didn’t win.
“My father-in-law [Kevin Monteith] beat me one time this season, at Thunder City Speedway,” Simpson said. “Second is never good enough for [my wife,] Justine, but that night she felt a little different. It was great for both of us to see her dad beat me.”
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.
