POSTED JANUARY 4, 2003

PAUL SCOTT AND LUKE NEAR scored 25 lap feature wins to highlight Mottville Madness VI Saturday, January 4,2026 at the Mottville Speedway!
Scott, the 2002 Mottville Speedway Pro Stock season points champion, passed John Labelle on lap 9 and went on to the 8 cylinder feature victory over Labelle and Josh Lancaster. Scott also won the heat and dash.
In the four cylinder division Near won over Derk Sargent, Dennis Zimmerman and Robert Parker. Zimmerman won the dash and Parker took the heat.
Labelle came all the way from Birch Run, Michigan and Near from White Cloud, Michigan!
Temperatures were in the 30's and the track was clear but wet except for the backstretch which was bone dry!
Next up is the 12th Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, February 15,2025 at Dal-Mar Catering Hall in Nappanee,
February Follies II is Sunday, February 23, 2025 with gates opening at 12:30 and racing at 2 pm. The regular season starts on Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2 with gates opening at 5 and racing at 6 for Pro Stocks, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Mini Thunder Cars and Karts!
While the car count was down from 2001 when we last ran Mottville Madness, the crowd was up 25% from the last time! We did have several problems. I had been told that the track was dry but when I arrived I found the backstretch and most of turns 3 and 4 free of snow. However, the front stretch and parts of turns 1 and 2 had a light layer of snow and we awaited Randy Burns and snow plow! A big thank-you to Randy for getting snow off the track!
The other problem was that apparently snow had melted inside the speakers and then refroze and we had no sound to start with and it was after intermission before the sound system returned to close to normal!
George Roulette, the last announcer at the former Chicago Raceway Park, donated 25 two dollar bills to 2nd place in the 4 cylinder feature and we thank him for that!
We had a lot of drivers there without cars including Eric Root, Burns, Robert Sutton, Merle Yoder, John Fitzpatrick, Richard Allbee and Joe Fitzpatrick. Most of them should have their cars ready for February Follies II!
We really sold a lot of banquet tickets this past week! We are now at 60 people for the banquet! Nearing an all time high! Dave Logan purchased 6! Jacob Caines, kart champion, took 5! Others who purchased tickets were the Fitzpatrick clan (5), Paul Scott, Eric Root, Paul Mishler, Fred Garrett, Vic Krontz, Gary Denzel!
We registered a bunch of cars for 2003 and the list can be found elsewhere on this site!
The Sturgis Journal had a photographer there and you should see pics next week in their paper! Also he will return February 23!
Robert Parker told me he got married December 27! Congrats to Robert and his wife!
Talked to Dave Logan this week. He was out of town Saturday but told me he would not trade the experience of racing at Mottville this fall for anything! This comes from a man who has at least a 2 hour drive to Mottville one way!
John Fitzpatrick told me his brother from Claypool may run a MS at Mottville in 2003! That would give us 4 Fitzpatricks at Mottville and all 4 in MS!
Lately we have had a lot of messages on the bulletin board about late models! I really am not sure how this started but I can say without a doubt we will not run late models at Mottville in 2003 and I seriously doubt we will ever run them again! They are just too expensive for our program! We feel we are better off to put our money in Pro Stocks where we can be more competitive on the pay-off. For us to run late models they would need to bring at least 15 adults per car in the stands and past history shows they have never done this.
Also I really find it hard to understand those who want to put negative messages on our bulletin board! I mean if you do not care for the way we do things, there are certainly lots of tracks in our area! Most of them run late models and are rather traditional! We choose not be traditional and we are happy with that! We do have a "game plan" for the years ahead and we are following it and are happy with it!
On the other hand I was really thrilled with all the positive comments I heard at Mottville Madness VI and it looks like an exciting 2003 racing season coming up!
6 weeks until the Awards Banquet, 7 weeks until February Follies II and 8 weeks until the regular season starts! This period of time between Mottville Madness and the Awards Banquet is the worse period of time for me all year! I am ready to race!
Next week I will share some exciting news with you about the 2003 racing season at Mottville Speedway!