UPDATED: Jamestown Speedway preparing for 2023 Stock Car Stampede

Sep. 22—JAMESTOWN — The 2023 Jamestown Speedway season is almost over and the last remaining event that will be held is the 52nd annual Jamestown Stock Car Stampede.

"Stampede weekend is our favorite weekend of the season," Jamestown Speedway promoter Tim Baldwin said. "Our biggest expectation is hoping people come out and have a good time. The Stampede is more about the camaraderie and relationships and fellowships and such that you have out here than it is about the racing. The racing is a part of it obviously but it's more about coming out and having a good time and hanging out and seeing some good racing."

Due to the weather, the date of the races has continued to change as they were supposed to take place on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 22-23, before being moved to just Sept. 22. The final change has seen the races moved to Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6-7. As the races have moved, Baldwin said they will be resuming normal off track programming.

"That's why it's always a moving target whenever we've got weather this weekend as far as what to do," Baldwin said. "For a while there on Wednesday night and early in the day on Thursday, there was a real good window on Friday evening so we came up with a game plan on how we could make it work as a one day, adjusting ticket prices and entry fees for the drivers to make it fair for everybody. Then, still feeling pretty optimistic about that, kind of wish Thursday would've unfolded a bit dryer than it did."

Baldwin said the work that goes into putting on the Stampede is significantly more than a normal weekend and they have a lot more help for the last event.

"So, just the organization part of it, all of the logistics, there's a lot to coordinate this weekend," Baldwin said. "We normally have a hundred or so campers and probably two to three thousand people at the Fairgrounds. We do the vendor show on Saturday morning and the breakfast on Saturday morning. We try to coordinate with other things going on in the community as much as possible, work with Wilhelms (Wilhelm Chevrolet GMC) on their car show and try to send people down there and they try to send people up here for the races."

As of Sept. 20, Baldwin said there were between 100 and 150 people signed up to participate in the races. Baldwin said people can sign up and back out if the weather forces the races to be postponed or they can sign up after this weekend if the races are postponed to race on the rescheduled dates.

Baldwin said the drivers are all trying to get their name on the back of the T-shirt that lists all of the winners. One of those drivers is Jaren Wibstad who is trying to make the final heat for the first time in his career. In order to get the win, Wibstad said he needs to drive with his heart leading the way.

Last year, Wibstad finished sixth in the second B feature.

"Honestly my performance last year, I didn't have the luck at all," Wibstad said. "The heat races weren't quite as racy last year and luck wasn't on my side, maybe I wasn't all there as a driver either."

Wibstad said he is hoping to make the final feature and try his luck at winning the whole thing once he gets to that point.

In the final points standings this year, Wibstad won the Wissota Midwest Mods class by a comfortable margin of 169 points and ending with 952 points.

"It's a good feeling," Wibstad said. "It's cool, especially on my home track. Hopefully, I can get a cool jacket out of the deal."

While he is ultra-focused on the track, Wibstad said he enjoys seeing more friends and family than usual at the Stampede.

"When I'm out racing I try to picture it, 'it's just another race.' It's another race night," Wibstad said. "I always look forward to the Stampede, it's always a fun time with friends and family, cooking out and just getting to see everyone. ... So you see a few extra of your friends that you normally don't see on a typical night. I look forward to it, it's a good time."

Out of the seven classes that raced at the Jamestown Speedway this year, four were won by Jamestown drivers. Baldwin said he is expecting big things from multiple drivers including Wibstad, Lucas Rodin and Preston Martin.

Baldwin has been working at the track for the last 19 years which means that he has seen a lot of Stampedes.

"It's gradually grown over 50 years, it hasn't happened in a hurry. It's been very slow. ... I remember back in the day when we first got 200 race cars here or 220 and we thought that was a lot. Now, we're up to, I think our record is 320 some. We have the expectation now of having that — 300 cars. The traditions are something that gets built on over time. The camping is one thing that's been around for a while."