Losing can sting, as Dustin Holtquist can attest to. He won the WISSOTA mod four national title in 2022. Then in 2023 and 2024 he lost by one point. This year, he reclaimed the championship.
“I should have raced harder,” Holtquist, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, said. “Both years I was right there, just needed one point. One more race both years would have done it.”
This year he found that “one more race” in late September — 800 miles away in Wyoming, at Sheridan Speedway. There he battled head to head with his nearest championship competitor, Dean Larson.
“Dean and I were tied before going to Sheridan,” Holtquist said. “When we found out Dean was going Sheridan Speedway, we had to go. We had to beat him to seal the deal.”
Holtquist did just that, winning the feature both nights, with Larson coming up second.
The car that led him to the title? A home-built chassis.
“My investment is about $5,000, including the engine,” Holtquist said. “Mod fours are on the rise. There are more than 90 cars in the area, and things are going to get even more affordable next season when they allow the plentiful Ford 2.5 liter Duratec engine, which you can pull out of a junk car for $400 to $500 and go right out onto the track and be competitive.”
In total, Dustin Holtquist won 17 features. He intends to defend his hard-fought WISSSOTA mod four national championship next year.
“We won’t let up next year,” Holtquist said. “It will be a year of testing, though — we will have the new Duratec. Gearing will be different. Rpm will be lower, so we will have to play with that to get some more speed. We’ll chase the big checks, and hope to go out and win those specials.”
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.
