25th Anniversary Spirit of 83 Mike Guttormson Memorial Rained out At Chateau Speedway

September 9, 2022

Chateau Speedway (Lansing, MN) 9/9/22 Matthew Grage

Its one of the marquee events every year on the schedule for Chateau Speedway powered by Garlick’s Water. For just the second time in the history of the event it will not be run as Mother Nature took the checkers Friday night. The event did not run in 2018 either with scheduling issues revolving around the change of ownership in the track that year.

It started out simple as the “Mike Guttormson Memorial” 25 years ago marking the loss of one of The Tracks most loyal drivers and Track Champion. Mike passed away at Lansing Memorial Day Weekend in 1997 after winning his final feature race from a heart event. The Memorial was originally on Memorial Day Weekend but has turned into a fall event the past several years. The event, renamed “The Spirit of 83” to include all drivers who had Mike’s passion and Spirit for Chateau Speedway was to run Friday Night. While the name of the night was adjusted to include all those past drivers, the USRA A Mod Feature event itself is still named for him: “The Mike Guttormson Memorial Feature Event.”. Just fourteen drivers have taken one of the main events named for one of the tracks favorite Hall of Fame drivers with 5 former Track Champions accounting for 14 of the 23 wins. Chateau Track Hall of Famer Todd Scharkey picked up 5 of them himself to lead the way in wins in the event.

The Tracks will wrap up its 2022 Season with one final race next Friday Night featuring USRA A Mods, B Mods, and Stock Cars as well as the Chateau Pure Stocks. First green flag set for 7:15.