In 2024, Kolton Brauer finished runner-up to his brother Braden Brauer in WISSOTA street stock national points. In 2025, Kolton won the title, and Braden served as his crew chief.
“Braden helped me in more ways than I can count — sharing his intelligence from experiences on and off the track and him just being an extra set of hands there with me wherever I raced,” Kolton, of Eyota, Minnesota, said. “The hardest part of this quest for the championship was driving me, my car, and my trailer full of parts around, making it from track to track and being prepared to win.”
Every week was a journey, racking up 2,000 to 3,000 miles a week. The Brauer brothers started off on Wednesdays at Thunder City Speedway in Canada, a seven-hour drive from Minnesota. From there, nearly another seven hours to KRA Speedway in Minnesota on Thursdays. For Friday through Sunday, the Brauers could pick and choose from several WISSOTA-sanctioned tracks. They did this all with a toter home and a 40-foot gooseneck trailer.
“Braden had me well stocked and well organized for the championship,” Kolton said. “We had every single part we needed in that trailer, including transmissions, driveshafts, rear ends, and suspension parts. But we did not have room for a spare engine.”
Cue foreshadowing.
“We had one spare engine on the floor of our garage in Eyota at all times,” Kolton said. “We blew up an engine on a Friday at Fiesta City Speedway, drove four hours to get home at 2 a.m., slept until six, swapped engines, and drove three hours to Rice Lake Speedway — and we just made the cutoff for last place in the last heat.”
Kolton went on to win the feature that night.
“That was a 24-hour period that was more stressful than fun, but most of the time me and Braden had fun,” Kolton said. “Sharing space, living in a trailer with a car — it wasn’t as bad as you think. It was all worth it in the end.”
Kolton Brauer raced 78 features in 2025, winning 32 times, and earning 65 top-fives and 71 top-10s. He raced the entire year with the same car, incurring no chassis damage. For 2026, Braden intends to go stock car racing. Kolton’s girlfriend, Gracie Edwards, who joined his effort late in the season, will compete in hornets. And Kolton intends to race the Street Stock Tour.
“I will take with me what I learned this season from my brother,” Kolton said. “It is because of him I am the national champion. Next season, I want to race against the best of the best — that will make me a better driver.”
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.
