Jamestown Speedway opens 2026 season with packed stands, close racing
Packed grandstands and 117 cars marked Jamestown Speedway’s season opener, where military families were welcomed for Armed Forces Night and the racing stayed clean.
Packed grandstands, 117 cars in the pits and a clean night of racing gave Jamestown Speedway exactly the start Stutsman County race fans wanted on Armed Forces Night at the Stutsman County Fairgrounds.
The season opener ran Saturday, May 23, with racing starting at 7 p.m. and a pre-race meet-and-greet held from 6 to 6:45 p.m. Past and current military members received free grandstand admission with ID, a gesture that fit a night built around hometown turnout as much as competition.
Rain shaped the racing almost as much as the field size. The track took on more than an inch and a half during the week and nearly another inch the night before the event, leaving the 1/4-mile, high-banked clay oval soft and technical, especially through the middle of the turns. That surface created side-by-side racing and plenty of chances to fight for position, while several cautions in each class still ended without any major accidents.
The opener drew 21 Bombers/Hobby Stocks, 27 INEX Legends, 25 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, 16 WISSOTA Street Stocks, 18 IMCA Modifieds and 10 Jr. Slingshots. Cade Gentzkow won the Bombers/Hobby Stocks feature for his first Jamestown Speedway victory, while Jaeger Mahlen took the Jr. Slingshots main event for his first career win at the track.
Other feature winners were Preston Martin in INEX Legends, Brennon Weight in WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Billie Christ in WISSOTA Street Stocks and John Nord in IMCA Modifieds. The night gave the speedway a broad spread of winners across six classes and reinforced why Saturday racing remains one of the county’s most visible summer gatherings.
Jamestown Speedway said the opener was a strong start to a season that runs Saturday nights from May through August and closes with the long-running Stock Car Stampede, which has been held since 1972. The track’s 2026 schedule also includes a May 30 Big Rig Night, a June 6 Don Gumke Racers’ Memorial and a July 10 stop on the Dakota Classic Modified Tour. For a season-opening crowd and a field that still topped 100 cars, the message from opening night was clear: Jamestown’s appetite for racing is still running strong.
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