Little racetrack on the prairie RC drivers from across the country have come to new track
preparation included tearing down a shed, developing the land, and putting up a grandstand. By summer, the track was hosting weekly races for If you’ve made the trip north on Highway 218 at any area racers. Justin is hoping the track will draw bigger time in the past few months, you’ve surely noticed that and better events in the summer of 2022 as he is looka new speedway has popped up. ing to add concessions, retail and eating booths. But this isn’t your typical speedway, it’s built for “It’s been a slow moving process. It’s more work than remote control cars and is a welcome addition for RC everyone thinks it is,” Justin said. “Just to get the land drivers all around the Midwest and beyond. to build and to get to the time to build it, it’s been an Southern Minnesota Raceway, which is located right adventure. But we’ve had some good racing out here.” off of 218 as you enter Blooming Prairie from the south, Justin began RC racing at a young age and he said was started by Justin Dokken of Austin and his wife Nathere are a lot of tracks in Northern Minnesota. He has dia. Their four children have all contributed to the track seen people race with a variety of cars, but the more exas well. pensive the RC car, the better it will perform on the track. The track was formerly located at Clarks Grove off InThe Dokken family, from left: Sam, Dru, Nadia and Justin have “Hobby grade RC cars are a good start, but when terstate-35 by a gas station and it sat there for six years, brought radio control action to Blooming Prairie. they break, you want to upgrade to better cars,” Justin before Dokken moved it to its BP location in the sumsaid. “It’s like going from a Chevy to a Porsche. You mer of 2021. The new location will offer indoor racing work your way up and it gets a lot more expensive, depending on your budget. I’ve had in the winter, as well as lights for nighttime races. Walmart cars out here before, but they usually don’t make it a lap before they break.” “We’re going after the biggest fish. We’re going after the big events. We didn’t want RC racing has helped bring the Dokken family together, and sometimes they get a to go small, we wanted to go big or go home,” Justin said. “We need a big enough place to host big events for people around the United States to run on and we wanted a profes- little bit caught up in trying to beat each other. Justin often tries to top his oldest son Dru and Nadia gets on the track and joins in the fun as well. sional track that the pros run on.” “It’s something we can all do together and on race day, the competitive spirit really Justin and his family spent a good portion of the spring preparing the track, which was ramps up,” Nadia said. P designed by Bobby Moore, a renowned trackmaster from North Carolina. Some of the By Rocky Hulne
82 | Austin Daily Herald | Progress 2022
