The Wagner Speedway racing season was set to open last weekend Saturday, May 4th, but due to weather was postponed to this upcoming Saturday, May 11th.

Wagner is very lucky to have two individuals willing to step up and make the 2024 Wagner Speedway racing season a reality. Lowell Janssen and Brian McGuire wanted to keep the racing tradition alive in Wagner and decided that they would take on the job of running the speedway.

Lowell has a lifetime love of racing and still races in the hobby stock division whenever he can. Lowell’s love of racing comes from watching and being a part of his dad’s racing team. Brian’s relationship with racing is a bit different. Brian enjoys the races and speedway from a spectator and first responder viewpoint. Brian’s first experiences with racing took place at the Jefferson raceway in Jefferson. Brian became interested in racing at ten years old when he would attend the races with his dad. His dad would go as part of the fire department that would be on hand for any emergency situations. Eventually, Brian would help the fire department on the truck during races. This is where Brian’s relationship with the safety aspect of the sport comes from.

The Wagner Speedway will feature five racing classes including hobby stock, stock cars, sport mods, b-buzzers and micro-sprints. Most things at the Wagner Speedway will stay the same. As of right now, the only changes that will be made are to items carried at the concession stand and race nights will be held on Saturdays. Lenny Tucker of Sioux City, who has also announced racing at Park Jefferson, will be announcing the races at the Wagner Speedway.

When asked to describe how he feels about racing in one sentence, Brian said, “I absolutely love it”. There have been many challenges in opening and running the racetrack. Brian sees the biggest challenges being trying to make everyone happy and scheduling, especially since neither Brian nor Lowell are from Wagner. Brian being located in Tyndall and Lowell residing in Yankton. For both Brian and Lowell, the Wagner Speedway is a different and unique racetrack. Brian has only raced one time in his entire life and it happened to be on the Wagner Speedway. Both Brian and Lowell are hopeful that the most rewarding part of running the Wagner Speedway will be seeing the smiles on all of the race fans faces and being able to keep the Wagner Speedway open and able to be enjoyed by many.

Brian hopes to pass his love of racing down to his children. His son, Chase, loves going to the races with his dad. Chase is around the age of six and already wants to be a race driver. He enjoys getting to drive go-karts and is wanting one of his own. Brian is married to his wonderful wife, Kristy. The couple has four young children, two boys and two girls.

Brian has a lot of experience working for a traveling first responder company that would be contracted to travel to different race tracks to be on hand for emergency situations. This experience led Brian to own and operate his own racing rescue company, Full Throttle Race Rescue, which is based out of Tyndall. The company is currently contracted to two nights a week during racing season at the Jefferson race track. Brian also works full time at the Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield.

Brian and Lowell do plan to have several special events at the Wagner Speedway. In August, the Wagner Speedway will host the Tri- State Late Model racing series. An exciting event with a date to be determined will be the Minivan Olympics. The Minivan Olympics will feature three events. The first event will require the participants to eat a hot dog, chug a coke and then do two laps in the minivan in reverse. The second event of the Olympics is the minivan jump. The minivans will jump off a ramp coming off of turn four and see who can jump the farthest. The final event of the Minivan Olympics is called pull the plugs. The oil plugs are pulled on all of the participating minivans and the last vehicle still running in the race wins the event.

The Wagner Speedway is still looking for sponsors for the upcoming racing season. There are billboards available of all sizes, and sponsorships for all things racing at the Wagner Speedway, including the caution flag. To stay up to date on the latest Wagner Speedway information, follow Wagner Speedway 2.0 on Facebook.

Thank you, Lowell and Brian, for taking on the job of running the Wagner Speedway and keeping the racing tradition alive and in Wagner for our residents and surrounding community residents as well.